GH2 + 16mm Tri-X B&W reversal trick

Hunter Hampton

Hunter Hampton

Carbonite Member
I love the look of 16mm tri-x and today I stumbled on a way to get an amazingly realistic grainy 16mm tri-x look strait in camera on the GH2 (for video!).

Pulled strait from the .mts files, no grading, no adjustments, just strait of of camera video grabs:

tri-x2.jpg


tri-x3.jpg


tri-x1.jpg




Pretty cool huh? Its like an entirely new look for a digital camera!

Here is how to do it:

1. Shoot with EX telephoto crop on (makes your active imaging area more along the size of 16mm- exaggerates the grain and lengthens your dof)

2. Set up your camera to dynamic Black and white mode +2 contrast, - 2 sharpness, noise reduction -2

3. Set your iso to at least iso800 (I used iso1000 in those video grabs up top)

4. Enjoy your Grainy 16mm tri-x look strait in camera!


I dont think any other digital camera comes close to replicating the look of 16mm tri-x, the way the noise even moves when you play the video looks like film grain. Awesome!
 
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Shooting in color looks a little strange because what looks like grain in black and white, its noise in color. You can just pay me in high fives.
 
but that BW look will work only on crop mode ? this will get claustrophobic after a few minutes :)
 
Yes, thats why you use wide lenses (wide c-mount or 16mm lenses?). It doesnt have any grain outside of EX mode, too clean and too shallow dof to look like 16mm. Give it a try!
 
Great work, Hunter, those frame grabs look totally vintage. I'm looking forward to trying this trick on the G2's telecropping mode as well. Since it has the GF1's sensor, the G2's noise grain may be interesting to compare to the GH2's.
 
Oh I just used the 20mm pancake. What I meant was you can use lots of wide c-mount lenses made for 16mm cameras (like bolex). Tons on ebay.
 
The irony - I used to shoot Tri-X for years and played with ways to get rid of the grain.
I use to experiment with flashing the negs during developing and odd processes
like using really cold solutions.

That really does look like Tri-X - I do have some old C-mount lenses.
Cannot wait to experiment.
Thanks for the settings.
 
yea i guessed those are the options. but i went deep into this a while ago and realized that even if you go 6mm wide (which is about 30mm FOV on crop), if you visualize the FOV in crop mode (let's say- 5D FOV vs 2/3hd on the view calculator), you'll never feel wide enough. try looking into it.
 
This is indeed awesome, Hunter. Thanks for the settings! I can see a bunch of specialized uses for this. Can't wait to try this with the 7-14.
 
Sorry roei z, I dont have anything wider than a 14mm. Im more of a longer lens guy anyway. But if you need something super super wide for EX crop mode, it may be worth checking that lens out (or screw on a wideangle adapter to a different c-mount lens)
 
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