Hello All,

No doubt many of us do film our MMR with all kinds of equipment and for all kinds of purposes, from social media or Forum posts to something for youtubers like Martin from Marklin of Sweden, our own home grown Forum youtuber. So its seems worthwhile posting this under photography since we do not have a separate category for video and filming. Of course they overlap, and many (most?) DSLR cameras now have video with audio pick up aux. I have a couple old DSLRs but old now from 2009.

I have wanted to do short films for a years, and the work I have done with MMR has been very limited, most just off my old cell phones, and before that my laptop webcam. The other day a local shop had a used and locked S21 which is supposed to have a great (triple) camera and was about to buy it from him to try and play with taking MMR and Macro shots, but it was sold upon my return visit. This led me to think more about what the best way would be to Macro film something (pre) semi-professional on a limited budget.

So I did do a Forum search and there are worthwhile comments already posted. I don't want to duplicate. However the technology changes so quickly and I thought an up to date discussion would be in order, especially since the primary question is FILM for this thread.

I search with keywords Macro and Film and find some great threads.
If I missed relevant old threads, please let me know I will add them to the list.

Some of the somewhat recent discussions that I found from that search:
https://www.marklin-user...657-Multi-focus-Software
This thread has comments in 2013 and again bumped up with comments in 2018, 2019
My thought on multifocus was that the cell phone with 3 simultaneous built in cameras might just be enough of a solution for some of our purposes. However the technical comments in the linked thread wrt to DoF (Depth of Field) are valuable for various kinds of equipment. That said, there are times we do not want every detail in focus for (film or still) movement and atmosphere.

Older version of the focus stacking discussion from 2012. Beautiful results from examples using CS6, again its still shots.
https://www.marklin-user...re---Focus-Stacking.aspx

A good 2016 discussion here on Macro vs Telephoto with some great examples.
https://www.marklin-user...6506-Macro-vs--Telephoto

Also enjoyed discussion here... and GlennM's discussion of pinhole could be a whole other interesting thread. Would love to see MMR shots in pinhole. Amazingly nostalgic and atmospheric effects... but not suitable for film
https://www.marklin-user.../posts/t18411-Macro-lenz

Thanking you ahead of time!
- Mark

PS Enjoy the following for inspiration!
https://www.pcmag.com/ne...ing-miniature-movie-sets

Nice work Toosmall!

Have you done any video on tiny 'toosmall' scale? I am working in H0 scale, but Z scale must be even more of a challenge to get close-up video without too much blur in movement.

The question to me is really about getting foreground, subject and background to work together adequately with both the subject and background moving with respect to the other along with having a stabilized camera movement. I am thinking of jigs that move on pivots and/or rails for small cameras or cell phones. Slow movements as well as those that can follow the trains.

Have look at the Polaroid Cube.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0rpX2ELPmZ4

That Polaroid Cube+ camera is exactly what I have been looking for. However, I wonder if it is no longer being made. All the recommended Retail suggestions show No Stock and not sure if it will be available again. There are also none available on eBay, just the older Polaroid Cube.

Perhaps it is another victim of the chip shortage, or perhaps being replaced with something else.

If the camera has plenty of resolution, you could shoot a wider angle image and crop it. Often very wide angle lenses are larger and can be difficult to get into tight areas.

This is also a good way to keep verticals vertical. Crop off either top or bottom.