Lipstick Cameras

My next film takes place on the German autobahn. 2 Porsches drive at 160mph and faster. The film is being shot on super 35 mm 1:2,40. Still I am considering intercutting some video from cameras that are attached on the outside of the cars. Are there any suggestions on how to achieve the best quality with the smallest cameras?

Oliver Bokelberg

>Still I am considering intercutting some video from cameras that are >attached on the outside of the cars.

What video format are you planning to use?

Jeffery Haas
freelance shooter and editor
Dallas

Oliver Bokelberg asks :

>I am considering intercutting some video from cameras that are >attached on the outside of the cars.

Of course vibration is your enemy so good mounting is essential.

I have a couple of Toshiba lip sticks. They make them for Eymo which is the camera NASCAR uses in their racing cars.

I did a little racing film for a Porsche club and one of my best shots was the low angle front POV...kind of like from the Movie Bullitt or Grand Prix.

The camera was literally an inch off the ground and with a 4mm lens, made for some very exciting stuff.

I have a number of suction cup mounting devices, but for the undercarriage I used the little mounting ring that comes with the camera. It's a sleeve actually that slips around the camera and has a foot with a hole in it. I was able to find a screw that was holding part of the undercarriage and simply unscrewed it and screwed my mount on.

It was so low to the ground that pavement and crack patterns on the road coming out you at over 100mph really gave you the element of speed.

The camera's CCU offers video and S-video out. I would probably opt for S-video into a DV or DVCam recorder. However probably the best thing would be to use a DigiBeta recorder which I believe also takes S-video in. That's as close to component as you are going to get.

If film is your preferred option for the mounts, get some 16mm "gun-cameras". They are flat and take a magazine and were originally mounted on military guns and in fighter planes for point of views and target analysing.

Their too big (about the size of two VHS cassettes) to mount under the car but you would be on film and the match would be easier.

Extreme wide angle lens may be hard to achieve as well.

However with that being said, the lipsticks have such wide and almost vibration free mounting capabilities, I think even with the film out, you should get some exciting stuff.

Allen S. Facemire

Allen Facemire writes :

>If film is your preferred option for the mounts, get some 16mm "gun >cameras

How about the tiny new Super-16 Ikonoscop A-Cam? Longer (100-ft) loads, better registration, probably a greater choice of emulsions, and the size/weight is probably not much greater than that of a gun camera.

Takes C-mount lenses.

Dan Drasin
Producer/DP
Marin County, CA

Dan Drasin writes :

>How about the tiny new Super-16 Ikonoscop A-Cam?

Since it's been over 20 years since I've done any film camera mount work, I've never even heard of the Ikonoscop's.

That sounds like a GREAT plan and if somebody has a Super-35mm budget for a project, then the Super 16 mount cameras is probably the ONLY way to go!

Every bloody day I'm learning something every bloody day!

But I'm learning!

Allen S. Facemire
DP/Director
SaltRun Productions,inc.
www.saltrunproductions.com
Atlanta

235 Arri...8mm Nikon?

Nick Hoffman NYDP

Allen Facemire writes:

>Since it's been over 20 years since I've done any film camera mount >work, I've never even heard of the Ikonoscop's.

It's been about that long since I've done any film camera rigging myself. I first heard about the Ikonoskop on CML!

Dan Drasin
Producer/DP
Marin County, CA

Olivier

Check out this progressive scan lipstick camera--may transfer better than 3 chip interlaced versions...

http://www.toshiba.com/taisisd/indmed/ik53V.htm

Best

Byron Shah
DP LA