A Great Digital "Super8" Camera - The Lumix FZ47

My beloved FZ47 rides again. This time it came with us on a weekend trip to Astoria, OR.

This camera is an excellent contender for achieving a Super 8mm aesthetic. The sensor is almost the exact same width as a frame of Super 8 film. The camera only captures 29.97 which works well in a 15fps sequence. The CCD offers global shutter as well as a long, fixed Leica lens. The camera can even capture 640x380 for a true 4:3 experience. It works well with a pistol grip and the tiny electronic viewfinder is not unlike that on some Super 8mm cameras.

I think it might be the most “fun” camera that I own. Highly recommended.

Tiffen Soft FX Filters

These days, it seems like a lot of people are using Black Pro Mist filters. If I’m honest, I’ve never been into the look. It makes my eyes work harder to focus, rather than allowing my brain to accept that the world in the video I am watching is a little softer and a little more mysterious. I realize that that is a highly subjective statement.

But that’s not say that filters don’t add something. I’ve been some research and liked what I was seeing from Tiffen Soft FX filters, so I purchased a set of three (Soft FX1, FX2, and FX3) and put them on trusty Nikkor primes and set up a moody scene to see what I would get.

Rather than using higher strength filters with higher focal lengths, I was surprised to find that I really liked Soft FX2 best at all three focal lengths. Soft FX1 is barely noticeable, and Soft FX3 is a little too dreamy, but Soft FX2 is just the right balance of sharpness, mystery, and a little additional halation around the point source without being overwhelming. At least to my eye.

It’s hard to view in this gallery view. You may have better luck opening each image in a new tab and clicking between them.

My first roll of motion picture film

My first roll of motion picture film ever, shot two months ago during our visit to the Painted Hills. This is something I’ve wanted to do since I was twelve but it always seemed out of reach. No longer!

This shoot was spontaneous and unplanned. We’d camped nearby so that we could catch sunrise over the Painted Hills. Joanna wanted coffee, so I decided to grab my new, untested camera not knowing if it would even deliver an image. Since the sun was rising so quickly, I relied on the 40+ y/o auto-exposure and it (amazingly) worked like a charm. 2.5 minutes of film sure does go by quickly! I enjoyed the experience and the unique look that this process delivers.

Elmo Super 110R with Kodak Vision3 50D
Processed by CineLab
Scanned in 2K HDR by Gamma Ray Digital

How affordable is shooting film in 2021?

I have been enjoying still photography on film a lot lately, but I’ve never shot motion picture film. Now that cameras can be had for relatively little money, I wanted to get a sense of the true costs of development and scanning, and how the formats compare based on cost.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. It is just to get a sense of what is available, and how much it costs. I picked a baseline Kodak stock that every dealer should have. There are also quite a few different businesses that can develop motion picture film, undoubtedly offering variations in quality, service, promotions, and bulk rates.

With that in mind, here’s how I broke it down:

SUPER-8

Kodak Vision3 50D Color Negative Film, 50ft (2:46 of “recording” time at 24fps)

  • B&H: $31.95/cart + shipping

  • Adorama: $35.94/cart + shipping

  • FilmPhotographyStore.com: $32.99/cart + shipping

  • NW Film Center: $29/cart (local, pick up only)

  • Pro8mm: $76.26/cart + (package deal; includes processing and 2K scan; free shipping with Amazon Prime)

Processing & 2K Scan

  • Cinelab: $45 + shipping

  • NW Film Center: $52 (1080 only; local pickup only)

  • Yale Film and Video: $125 + shipping

  • FilmPhotographyStore.com: $55.00 + shipping

  • Pro8mm: $76.26 + shipping (package deal; includes film and one-way development shipping)

Most affordable: NW Film Center (local, so no shipping charges) = $81/cart with no shipping ($29.28/minute)

If you’re not local to Portland, then buying Pro8mm’s 50’ S8 cart from Amazon seems like the lowest price: $76.26 + return shipping. If we guess $8 for return shipping, then that’s $84.26 ($30.46/minute).

16MM/SUPER-16

Kodak Vision3 50D Color Negative Film, 100ft (2:45 of “recording” time at 24fps)

  • B&H: $49.95 (free shipping)

  • Adorama: $52.95 (free shipping)

  • FilmPhotographyStore.com: $53.99 + shipping

  • NW Film Center: $45 (local, pick up only)

  • Pro8mm: $125 + shipping (package deal; includes film and one-way development shipping)

Processing & 2K Scan

  • Cinelab: $65 + shipping (1080P; 2K Log is $115)

  • NW Film Center: $53 (1080 only; local pickup only)

  • Yale Film and Video: $125 + shipping

  • FilmPhotographyStore.com: $80.00 + shipping

  • Pro8mm: $125 + shipping (package deal; includes film and one-way development shipping)

Most affordable: Again, the NW Film Center (local, no shipping charges) = $98/roll with no shipping ($35.64/minute). EDIT: I’ve since learned that NW Film Center is sending film off to CineLab and Spectra, probably to help people take advantage of batch discounts.

If you’re not local to Portland, then buying film from B&H and developing at Cinelab comes to $114.95 + shipping. If shipping is $16, then the total cost would be $130.95 ($75.60/minute). For 3-4 dollars more, Pro8mm offers a 2K Log scan, which in my opinion would be the better deal.

Feel free to check my math, and let me know if there are any other resources that i should be thinking about here.

The big surprise for me is that at their lowest prices, developing and scanning 16mm film is only about 20% more expensive than Super8. It’s really not that much of a difference for the increase in resolution of 16mm. You can always order a 4K scan of your Super8 film to close the gap a little but once you factor in a 4K scan, 16mm actually costs quite a bit less.

There is another format that I learned about that can bring bigger cost savings: Double Super 8mm. With a format that stacks S8 exposures on 16mm film, you can get down to a little under $20/minute if you take advantage of Pro8mm’s package deal (apparently we have them to thank for pushing Kodak to bring this older format back). But this pricing only happens with their 100’ film package, and most of the DS8 cameras available shoot only 33’ of film. The ones that do shoot 100’ of film are quite pricey and would probably only make sense for dedicated super 8 filmmakers who shoot enough film to recoup these upfront costs.

Upscaling video with Artificial Intelligence

This is the first time I've upscaled an entire project to 4K with Topaz AI and I chose some pretty artifact-laden footage to use it on, from my 2011 Lumix FZ47 bridge camera. I was happy with the results about 90% of the time. The remaining 10% looked pretty plasticky so I overlaid the original footage and brought the opacity down until it looked more natural (even though it meant reintroducing some artifacts).

Here are some stills to give a better look at what the software is actually doing:

Original footage on left, upres on the right.

Original footage on left, upres on the right.

Original file with the shadows boosted to unrealistic levels.

Original file with the shadows boosted to unrealistic levels.

Same shot, processed through Topaz, with the same unrealistic shadow boost.

Same shot, processed through Topaz, with the same unrealistic shadow boost.

It’s hard not to be impressed with these results. It’s not perfect, but the algorithms are being improved all the time. This really feels like a glimpse into the future of video editing; when algorithms render resolution mostly irrelevant.