8mm Forum: Presenting a native ultraPan8 projector.

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Posted by Nicholas Kovats (Member # 2622) on September 22, 2011, 10:30 PM:

A very big thanks to Douglas Palmer in the UK in unearthing an actual native declassified UK Ministry of Defense ultraPan8 projector!

UltraPan8 is a new native ultrawide film format with an aspect ratio of 2.8:1 that happens to be wider than Cinemascope. UP8 utilizes is a hybrid of Bolex H8 + H16 cameras, i.e. http://vimeo.com/27905787

When Douglas first contacted me I could not believe the following plate inscription in his attached photos, i.e "Use 16mm film perforated for 8mm pulldown only". Which begs the question where is the associated UltraPan8 camera? He purchased it at a Min of Defense auction a few years ago thinking it was a regular 16mm projector.

Here are the specs as per Douglas's email, i.e.

"It's a LW Photo Data Analyzer, Model 224A Mk.4. Made in California. It is 240 volts and has old style pre-focus lamp from 300w to 1000w. Speeds 1-12 fps. and 24 fps. 2 inch lens. The light output is cut down a lot by the built-in heat filter so really
should be removed. (It's really used for single frame projection mainly.)"

I will be arranging shipment to Jean-Louis Seguin for some slight modification work. The present gate is slightly too high and somewhat not wide enough. Douglas has also provided the following videos detailing some aspects of this UP8 projector, i.e.

1. 24FPs projected on grid paper to illustrate projector frameline and registration.
http://www.youtube.com/user/filmisfine#p/a/u/2/ZcZUDcGkzKQ

2. The projector exterior.
http://www.youtube.com/user/filmisfine#p/a/u/1/_qC3qvkUYo8

3. Stepped speed mode.
http://www.youtube.com/user/filmisfine#p/a/u/0/lmwEMubTjV4

Check out Douglas's blog at http://filmisfine.co/. He is currently working on or with Ultra16mm cameras.

Posted by Wayne Tuell (Member # 1689) on September 22, 2011, 10:59 PM:

NICE!

Question: Does it actually use special film, or does it use regular 8mm film, just shooting both sides at one time and not slitting it in processing?

Posted by Jean-Marc Toussaint (Member # 270) on September 22, 2011, 11:07 PM:

Nicholas, this is great stuff.
In essence, it feels like the equivalent to Techniscope for 16mm film.

Posted by Nicholas Kovats (Member # 2622) on September 23, 2011, 10:28 AM:

Wayne,

Thanks! UP8 utilizes the full width of 16mm wide Regular 8mm stock with the Regular 8mm pulldown. My lab has strict instructions not to slit my UP8 test films. [Smile]

Jean-Marc,

Exactly. This is in essence 2 perf 16mm Techniscope. Relative to R8 + S8, UP8 represents a significant resolution increase due to the increased imaging area.

Using the dimensions of the UltraPan8 camera aperture, i.e

UP8 = 10.52mm(w) x 3.75mm(v) = 39.45 sq. mm

I then calculated the increase in imaging area relative to the respective R8/S8 SMPTE camera aperture(s):

R8 = 4.80mm(w) x 3.81mm(h) = 18.29 sq.mm -> 117%
S8 = 5.69mm(w) x 4.23mm(h) = 24.07 sq.mm -> 39%

Cheers!

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