Sumix 150M industrial camera tests again.

camera Sumix 150M, c-mount Fujinon TV zoom lens f1.8 17.5-105mm

Working late in the lab again tonight trying to see if my old Sumix 150M industrial camera can be used as a webcam (for an interview request), but it doesn't look like it can be. I bought this off ebay years ago; it's a curious little camera module for scientific/industrial uses. The Sumix 150M can shoot stills or video at up to 1280x1024 size; but only in monochrome. The Sumix camera capture software has lots of controls that you just don't get with consumer oriented gear. 

Also, the camera can take C-mount lenses and I was intrigued by the macro possibilities of the camera using some extension tubes. My goal was to try to capture frame by frame 8mm cine images from the gate of my cine projector, now that I look at it again, I wonder if that might be worth another try...

For all it's specifications though, I don't think it'll work with Skype...

Anyway, below are some test captures I made with the camera back in the day. Mostly macro photos using more and more extension tubes until I got down to the required 5mm or so image size of the 8mm film frames. I gave up with the super 8 capture experiments, but I did end up using this strange camera to shoot all of the stop motion elements for my film TXT ISLAND.

The camera is tethered to the PC by USB, so only able to take pictures of things nearby!
camera Sumix 150M, c-mount 50mm lens with extension tubes.

With a few extension tubes, macro photography becomes possible.

Some desktop clutter, surprisingly sharp.

Using rulers to show scale here.

And in we go until our image is 5mm wide.

An actual super8 frame.

Another actual super8 frame.

Coming Soon ... Microfilm

+++ UPDATE NEW SHORT FILM COMING HERE SOON +++

Over the Christmas/New Year I got some time off from my work at TANDEM. I wanted to make another short film but this time something more 'experimental' and shorter than some of my previous efforts. I'd like to use the macro photography techniques I've been playing around with for a while. The film will feature extreme close-up views of common household objects.

I've been using my Canon 600D DSLR camera coupled with an old Pentax M42 mount 50mm lens and some extension tubes to get very tight close-up shots; most of the action takes place within a field of view around 1 centimetre wide. Getting really close to the subject seems to lend itself well to abstraction and a really wobbly and lively film.

The results are certainly wobbly and lively, so for the soundtrack I'm cutting my picture to sync up with some splendidly retro 1970s era library music I picked up recently.

It looks like this will be a little one minute piece, the working title is Microfilm. Watch this space...