[MacDV] Re: The quality of 8MM film

[Steven Rogers]

On Wednesday, July 23, 2003, at 01:03 PM, Jim Asherman wrote:

There should be a LOT of stuff on this in the archives

> I project the film onto a suspended piece of white paper.

Paper will probably be too small.  Get a big sheet of foamcore board, 
and spray it matte white if necessary to avoid any glare spots

> Position the camera as close to the projector as possible an still 
> control both.
> White balance can be tricky. Auto is good. Indoor is good. Sometimes 
> the outdoor shots actually look better if you switch to outdoor.
>  Film can be fragile and I have had some bad luck. VideoTape every 
> frame you play.

You can get Kodak presstape splices. Its not great, but it works.  The 
only real danger is tearing sprocket holes when the film becomes 
brittle.

The main trick is getting the camera and projector shutters to 
cooperate. The best solution I found is to put the camera in automatic 
mode and adjust the brightness of the projected image by size to 
indirectly give the camera a shutter speed that minimizes flickering. 
You may have to reset the screen distance for various scenes. A rear 
projection "copy box" can help a lot for scenes that are underexposed, 
but I found it washes out too much for regular use.  If you had neutral 
density filters for the projector, you could accomplish the same thing 
as moving the projector, and probably get better results from the copy 
box.

The quality of 8mm film varies a lot by the camera and lens that shot 
it, but it can be really good - better than VHS.

SR