Aaton A-Minima film stock question.

W

watson

Well-known member
Okay so i plan on shooting a roll of film with the Aaton A-Minima this weekend. I have a few questions that maybe someone could help me out with. First, everything i'm shooting is going to be outdoors, or at least light by daylight. I'm goign to be shooting a mixture of 24 fps and 48 fps. Looking at what film stock is available ( http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products/negative/aminima.jhtml?id=0.1.4.4.12&lc=en ) it seems the KODAK VISION 250D - 5246 / 7246 would be the best bet. Do you think the 250 would be too high of an ASA to shoot during a bright and sunny day or should i be alright? I'm mostly shooting city landscapes. The footage that is shot for this project is goign to be transfer and i will not be making a film print from it. Is there anything else anyone can tell me from their experience with this camera that i should keep me mind? Thanks for any help.

andrew
 
A-Minima is a pretty slick camera, yet it occasionally looses the loop. You can hear it if it does, usually. Also, loading the camera is entirely backwards from Arriflex and takes some getting used to.

My credentials? I interned for a cinematographer who had an A-Minima.

If anything weird happens during your shoot, the guy to talk to is Nathan Milford at Abel Cinetech, NYC. He also hangs out on the Cinematography.com "16mm" forums...

Also, if I didn't say so before, I really liked the "Identity" film you posted on here a while back...
 
watson said:
I'm goign to be shooting a mixture of 24 fps and 48 fps.
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Maybe stating the obvious, but the camera requires 12V power to shoot above 32Fps. This means either a rechargeable clip-on battery (instead of disposable batteries) or a wall wart power supply. It's probably configured for overcranking without a wall wart, but I would still check to be certain what you are getting. Hope this helps...
 
watson said:
Do you think the 250 would be too high of an ASA to shoot during a bright and sunny day or should i be alright?
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Yes, for a bright and sunny day, 250 will probably be too fast. You should have at least a two-stop ND filter on hand with you if you're going to be using 250D on a sunny day.
 
Thanks guys for the replies. yes i will have a rechargable 12v so i should be able to shoot at 48 fps no problem. This is kinda of a test shoot. I'm shooting city scape stuff on saturday then i have a music video shoot on sunday so i figure i finish the roll with some slowmo stuff there.

I'm still debating about about film stock. The music video is going to be in large loft space well light by day light ( i also have some kino flows and an arri lighitng kit too). I figure the 250 would be good for this. I'm just afraid since i'll be losing a stop since i'm shooting faster speeds that the 50 asa might not fast enought, esp if its cloudy out. I do believe i'll have ND 3,6,9 filters on hand.

Like i said this is all kinda a test. I'll be shooting a few projects this fall with the camera so i'm just trying to test it out and see what it can do. I'm really looking forward to shooting with it. Seems like an awesome camera.
 
If you have enough light, shoot 50D, everytime I have used it people are sure that it is 35mm. There is just no grain and it looks amazing.
 
52/7246 is a good stock...But you will need to throw 3-4 stops of nd or nd-pola combo to get your t-stop down into the 2.8-4-5.6 split range. Which is usually the sweet spot for most lenses. Something to consider when your shooting 16mm. This will allow you to shoot at the t-stop where the lenses perform their best.
52/7245 is my daytime stock of choice because of the low grain. However the 46 250D seems to saturate the colors more. Which is another factor to consider...It all depends on the look you want.
 
I was forced to shoot some scenes with snow on 250D, I had to use ND.9 AND ND.6, and then you are starting to put alot of glass in front of your expensive lenses.
Do you have a possibility to go to the location with your lightmeter; or a similar place? That would give you an idea
 
Also be make sure the mag is properly attached as it can look as it´s on, and it´s not. You have to push hard and make sure it "clicks".
It´s great camera, just used it for the first time a month ago, shooting a commercial (50D) and was very happy with it.
But remember, it´s the lens you put in front that gives you the image. So make sure to get decent glass
 
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