Lens qual. contest : owner of several S8 cam please post

[Basstruc]

In order to complete my end-school thesis called "Super8 little guide to professional filmmaker" ( around 100pages online here this summer ), I need to do a lens quality classification of S8 cameras. You may have already noticed that two different cameras from the same model might not give the same results ( sometimes very differents ) so I cannot find those, do test, & pretend this is objectif. So I thougt about asking each of us to compare there cameras when owning several cameras. So my questions are :
* What cameras do you own?
* What are the lens on ( when interchangeable or converter ) ?
* & Could you class them from the best to the baddest & why ( sharpness, contrats, color rending ) ?

Feel free to put any cameras in it.
If two lens you own have already been compared by another(s) poster(s) & you thoughts are the same than him (them), please notice it.
Remember that the more I get answer, the most objective the final qualification will be.
Thanks,
Matt
PS : If you not already have, please post as well in the Camera Noise Contest post.

[cameraguy]

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ August 30, 2003 05:32 AM: Message edited by: cameraguy ]</font></font>

---------------------------

Original message reinserted by the moderator to keep the entire topic thread intact.

---------------------------

I spent some time watching over fifteen rolls of film on my Elmo ST-1200 projector. Of course you must always remeber that these cameras are old and un-serviced for many years. Could just be the individual camera involved.


Sankyo CM800: Wide angle shots were clearly distorted or just plain out of focus on the edges while a center circular area was more or less sharp. Very poor lens. In fact nothing on a full 50' was acceptable. hopefully this is just the one I used cause anybody who paid good money back in the day got screwed

Sankyo ES-44XL: Much better than above. Short zoom range made focus easier. Overall very accceptable for home movies though likely not good enough for diehards

Chinon Pacific 12SMR: Excellent! Only shot about 15' with this camera but footage was great. Lens seems very good.

Canon 514 XL-S: Good but not as good as Canons below.

Canon 814 XL-S: Super! Lens is amazing. Very sharp.

Canon 1014 electronic: Very good but not up to 814/1014 X! L-S standards.

Canon DS-8: Very good to excellent but still can't touch the 814/1014 XL-S

Elmo 1012 S-XL: Not what I hoped from a top of the line Elmo. Seemed too soft and not enough detail being rendered. This partly may be the XL shutter not offering a fast enough shutter speed.

Elmo Super 110R: unfortunately my test footage was so badly overexposed I can't fairly judge.

Beaulieu 4008 (Schneider 6-66mm optics): Top notch! Stunning detail for the Super 8 format, along with the 814 XL-S this has given me the best image of any.

Nizo 2056: Average. Again XL shutter really hampers any kind of comparative lens testing since the footage just looks too soft. Could be me since I would rather have a camera with a 150-180 shutter angle and if I needed soft shots I would just use a filter

Canon 518 SV: Sleeper. Very good.

Minolta autopak D10: Very good to excellent.

Nikon R10: Another awesome lens! Really top notch footage depsite the many things I hated about the c! amera (which is why I sold it [img]tongue.gif[/img] )

Kodak M28 (this is based on my Parents footage from the early to mid 70's): Wow! great looking stuff. Sometimes I wonder why I have spent so much on Canons and Beaulieu when my "can't even program a VCR" parents argueably have 'better' footage than me [img]eek.gif[/img]

I also have to other segments that I can't pin down the camera used. Too bad cause I know that I also shot with the Russian "kinoflex", Nizo 561, B&H T50XL, Bauer C2M and Elmo 1000s.

<font color="#7BC618" size="1">[ November 21, 2003 07:33 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[Alex]

I was wondering how you knew which camera shot which footage. But it turns out you are not superhuman and there are a couple of rolls you can't identify.

It would be wise to mention if the camera footage was handheld or tripod mounted.

I like the XL shutters, but they can create more blur in the picture because of longer exposure times.

I agree 100% about the Canon 814-XLS having one of the sharpest lenses. I've suspected for a long time that it was probably a a little bit sharper than the Canon 1014-XLS. (the only other difference between the two cameras is the 1014-XLS does in camera dissolves and has a 10-1 zoom instead of an 8-1 zoom.

[cameraguy]

<font color="#a62a2a"><font size="1">[ August 30, 2003 05:32 AM: Message edited by: cameraguy ]</font></font>

-----------------

Original Message reinserted by the moderator to keep the entire topic thread intact.

----------------

Originally posted by Super-8mm in the DigitalAge:
I was wondering how you knew which camera shot which footage. But it turns out you are not superhuman and there are a couple of rolls you can't identify.

<font size="2" face="verdana, sans-serif">All are marked "test" and I can verify most by memory. I know what cameras were used on each roll, I just don't remember which segment went to each camera.

<font color="#7BC618" size="1">[ November 21, 2003 07:40 PM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>