Temp Fix for Jittery Carts?

[MovieStuff]

Hi, all...

Okay, I mentioned this a long time ago but it came at the end of a different discussion and kind of got lost down stream. We all know that, for Super 8 to survive, we HAVE to keep buying the cartridges, even if some of them are bad, otherwise Kodak will think that people aren't interested in Super 8 anymore. On the other hand, it seems like half the carts are bad and just waiting to bite is in the butt on a project that is dear to our hearts of some kind.

What to do?

I suggest that when you shoot your magnus opus, you alternate takes between two different cartridges. This means you will have to shoot a tad extra at the end of each take to allow for the flashing that happens when you change film but at least you increase the odds that only ONE cartridge of the two might be bad and you will have at least one usuable take between the two.

Of course, it is quite possible that both carts are bad; luck of the draw for sure. But assuming that there is a problem with half the cartridges out there, this would at least increase the odds in your favor. It will use a little more film, no doubt, but at least we can keep shooting until this bad run of carts plays out.

My two cents....

PS: If you know you will be shooting three takes, then obviously you would want to spread across three different carts. The more the better to put the odds in your favor of having something usable.

Roger

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Roger Evans
MovieStuff http://www.afterimagephoto.tv/moviestuff.html

[This message has been edited by MovieStuff (edited March 12, 2002).]

[cameraguy]

Just to add a different perspective. I have never had a bad cartridge. I bought 15 K40's over a year ago and they were all dated 4/2003 and all have been fine of the 14 I've used. I also used a large batch (don't remeber their date) before that and they were all fine. So it's hard to believe the bad cart percentage is 50/50, unless I am very lucky.

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[chas_ucla]

Roger,
thanks for the good tip. Just our of curiousity, what is the ratio of good-bad carts that you are currently transferring I mean, is it really 50/50?
I'm going to be royally pissed if all the footage I shoot comes out jittery!

Chas

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[MovieStuff]

It seems about 50-50, though on the Tri-X project I transferred, it seemed like almost every roll had some sort of jitter. Of course, there is always the possibility that the camera being used was funky. But other jobs we've transferred also seem to have some of the same issues. Again, we do a registration check by pulling back to reveal the sprocket holes and it is definately a vertical jitter built into the image since the sprocket holes stay rock solid on the screen. You can actually see the framelines swelling and contracting violently. As I say, it doesn't seem to be limited to just a single type of film emmulsion but I suppose camera malfunction could account for the big Tri-X run of bad film. On the other hand, some of the Tri-X rolls seemed okay in some places.

Roger

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Roger Evans
MovieStuff
http://www.afterimagephoto.tv/moviestuff.html

[Scottness]

Just on the ratio question - out of about 200 K40 cartridges for In My Image - we got about 40 that were jittery. I've jsut ordered 10 more too for some reshoots -- fingers crossed....
Scot M

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[mattias]

i shot 15 rolls last year, and 4 of them were bad.

/matt

[tim.callaghan]

How bad is this jitter, does it make the footage virtually useless??

To what extent does this problem extend? is it just Kodak? or are other manufacturers having a laff too?

I've shot about 5 rolls K40 recently and not noticed a problem with any of them, but am I missing it? Is it hugely noticeable??

Lots of questions I know, sorry!

Tim

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[MovieStuff]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tim.callaghan:
How bad is this jitter, does it make the footage virtually useless??
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

There does not appear to be any image smear. The frame is sharp but is simply in the wrong place relative to the sprocket hole. This makes the final image jump up and down violently like an earthquake. More of a vertical "vibration" look and not so much a smear. Side to side registration seems to be unaffected. I will pull some frames from a current transfer and post them so you can see the frame line swelling and contracting. I need to get permission from the client first.

Roger

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Roger Evans
MovieStuff
http://www.afterimagephoto.tv/moviestuff.html

[mattias]

> How bad is this jitter, does it make the footage virtually useless??

it's not that bad actually. locked down wide shots with this problem can be thrown out right away, but if there's any camera movement at all, and especially if it's a closeup, you'll probably be fine. at least that's my experience.

/matt

[S 8 Booster]

Ronson/Roger.

Roger can you put a small sample of S8->digital movie of the heavily jittered footage that you transfered onto the net somewhere.

It will be a good reference for the rest of us that have to make a "shootout" of the remaining stock of the bad batch that we may have.

I got one back today. There were some slight jitter but it you might not notice it if you weren?t aware of it in advance.

Only a couple of frames now and then. For home movies I would accept it.

It was a lot more jitte ron this one than on the old movies that I compared with which seemingly have none.



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Vidar