Exposing Super 8 Plus X As Neg/ Metering For Film

[Scott Pickering]

Talking with my ex brother in law, we are wanting to make a 4th film. Most of it will be shot on digital 8K, but select scenes I'd like to shoot some Super 8 Plus X stock I have stashed in the freezer some years ago. Not sure how good that film is, so I'll test it. Camera to be used is an Elmo 612 S-XL which apparently has the sharpest lens in their lineup for the time. It will be shot at 24 fps. The camera apparently has a 220 degree shutter angle.

Since I will be using the camera meter in manual mode, setting the aperture manually, what is the best approach to metering the light for the scene? Im used to shooting film stills, but not motion picture stock (for metering). I do have a Sekonic L-508, but it doesnt have normal use for motion picture stock. I'll ask what ISO I should set it to for Plus X as a neg.

Now second question. With the Plus X (Super 8), its meant for reversal processing. I want to shoot it as a neg. What ISO rating should I set it to for this film, keeping in mind its aged as well? I think the normal reversal EI is 80. Not sure how that converts to ISO?

I have 6 rolls of the Plus X at 2 minutes each, so I want to make sure I get this all right, as once its gone, its gone. Again the film has probably aged a bit, even if frozen some years of its life.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Hi!

At first, you will have to find out whether it’s PlusX 7276 or PlusX 7265.

7276 was Iso 40/17º Tungsten and Iso 50/18º Daylight

7265 was Iso 80/20º Tungsten and Iso 100/21º Daylight.

(No filters used in all four cases.)

Depending on the age and storage, you’ll have to overexpose it a little bit. As a rule of thumb, you might want to start your tests with 1/3rd f-stop per decade when stored in a fridge. When stored in a freezer for less than twenty years, you might even have no loss.

 I have no experience in processing PlusX as negative. For its „big brother“ (TriX), Kodak states: „When processed as a reversal film, the resulting positive can be used for projection or for duplication. If processed as a negative material by conventional methods, the film will yield satisfactory results, although there will be some loss in speed and an increase in granularity.“

Is there a specific reason, why you want to process it as negative?

When manually metering, remember to take the light loss into account that is caused by the camera (semi-transparent beam splitter, accidentally activated Wratten-85-filter, …).

 

Good luck!

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Technical data 7265 (with the EIs for processing as negative):

https://125px.com/docs/motionpicture/kodak/7265-PLUS-X-rev.pdf

Technical data 7276 (with the EIs when processed as negative):

https://125px.com/docs/motionpicture/kodak/7276.pdf

Edited July 29 by Joerg Polzfusz

[Scott Pickering]

I have rolls of the Plus X reversal film, which I want to do as a negative. Thought I mentioned that, but maybe wasn't clear. The film was bought off Ebay during its lifetime, so I can't say how it was stored before me. I'll have to test it first.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Hi!

I don’t know why you are writing this. There have been two different films sold as „PlusX“ for Super8. I have provided the technical data pdfs from Kodak for both films as you didn’t tell which film you‘ve got. Both PDFs contain enough information for correct exposure as negative. But the main question remains: Why do you want to cross-process it at all? You‘ll very likely have some loss of sensitivity due to the age. And then you will have another, much greater loss due to the cross-processing.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Not to mention the increased grain when cross-processed…

[Scott Pickering]

So you're telling me developing it as a reversal, which includes extra steps, than as a negative, will give you a better image? Let's not talk about how a negative allows more control over the image itself, instead of a fixed exposure shot. I fail to understand why doing it as a negative instead of a positive would be worse for image quality.

[Robert Houllahan]

B&W film stocks age very well I used some Plus-X 16mm negative which expired in 1965 on a music video for a friend's band in 2020 and it looked great, I rated it at 12iso and I think it was 40iso on the can.

I would say that in general Plus-X reversal will look lower grain and nicer as Reversal if it is machine processed in a lab like ours.

For a X-Process you would want to shoot a wedge sensi and process it to the gamma and density you want, there can be allot of variables in the look of the stock based on the way it is developed as a negative i.e. time and temp and how dense you want to make it.