For those who aren’t aware, film is back. 
Recently I had a chance to test a beta version of the Logmar Super 8mm film camera combined with a c-mount Schneider 6-66mm zoom lens on my Steadicam. The camera & lens is owned by local Toronto film camera fanatic and serious enthusiast Nick Kovats.
I have to start off by saying this is no ordinary super 8mm film camera. What’s very unique about the Logmar camera is its patent pending registration design – which by its very design produces the sharpest and most stable image ever seen before on this format. (None of that jittery footage like dad use to have on all his home movies.)
The camera achieves its precise registration through a threaded and precision Latham loop which is under computer control as per the direct drive sprocket wheel seen in the image below:
Since the motor drive is very accurately controlled by the on-board computer, functions such as timelapse, phase advance, and ramping (changing frame rates while recording) are made possible on the Logmar. This video by Nick Kovats demonstrates ramping on the Logmar Super 8mm camera by using the externally programmable function button:
While the functionality seen in the ramping demo is impressive I hope to see the ability to control ramping over a predefined period of time (speed ramping) become available through a future firmware update – which really shouldn’t be a problem for this extremely capable and innovative camera.
For a viewfinder the Logmar camera features a flip out LCD screen. The image is captured by a small internal CCD camera and from what I understand it picks up the image directly through the lens without any parallax or distortion and does this without using a viewfinder prism so that 100% of the light ends up on the film. When the camera is in operating mode the LCD screen displays information including the selected ASA, current frame rate, audio level, time/date, feet of film used, and an actual frame count! The LCD screen is also used to access a full menu of camera options and settings which is accessed through the side panel navigation buttons.
The camera body has an SD card slot for storing meta data as well as 16-bit 48kHz recorded sound, a USB port for firmware updates and possibly more, and the camera is even Wi-Fi capable! As mentioned earlier, the quick access programmable function button next to the REC button lets you quickly select a different set frame rate without having to go deep into the menu. Likely this can be programmed for other uses as well.
At just under 5lbs equipped with the Schneider zoom, Sony NP-950 battery, and a Kodak super 8mm film cartridge (Vision 3 50d), this camera was easy to fly on my Steadicam Flyer 24LE and thankfully I never threw out the old stock SD monitor that came with it because the Logmar camera provides a composite video output signal usable for monitoring which works regardless of the frame rate the camera is in. 😉
I’m truly looking forward to working with this camera in the near feature and in a few weeks I’ll be sure to update this post with a direct link to the video that we shot during our test. In the meantime enjoy a link to probably the FIRST demo footage shot with the Logmar Super 8mm camera by Friedemann Wachsmuth https://vimeo.com/groups/super8/videos/87243287
For more information on the Logmar super8mm camera visit the official website http://www.logmar.dk
Amazing camera one would love working with this camera, Looking for updates from you about your experience with this great thing.
We hope to shoot more footage and post soon, we had a problem with the roll we had shot for this test and decided not to publish it. It was not fault of the camera, but rather how the film was loaded. I may update the post with some frame grabs soon. Please check back, thank you for stopping by.
I have not heard the name of this type of camera but reading the blog I found that it has nice features. Logmar Super 8 camera is very real and it’s nearly available for those wanting something a more technologically advanced 8mm cam can offer