old cameras & film documentary 1970's

Annika Berglund · January 1, 2011

I've been working as a photographer for a couple of years and I'm all new to this with motion film, I've been meaning to get in to it for a long time to start making musicvideos and I've spent countless hours reading and googling around to find info about what I want to know without any satisfying results. I really hope you can guide me!

What I like is that film-look that you can find in old documentarys from the 70s and early 80s. I would like some guidance in what cameras I should invest in and maybe some pointers to what film I might be looking for.

Here are some helpful links to my inspiration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDYB8-Omp9o

Any help I would greatly appreciate!

Thanks

Ryan Silva · January 1, 2011

What I like is that film-look that you can find in old documentarys from the 70s and early 80s. I would like some guidance in what cameras I should invest in and maybe some pointers to what film I might be looking for.

Here are some helpful links to my inspiration:

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=uDYB8-Omp9o

Any help I would greatly appreciate!

Thanks

Invest in lenses, not camera bodies. Spend a couple/few hundred on a Bolex and then significantly more on a decent set of prime lenses. I know a lot of students whose mothers and fathers bought them Arriflexes and the cheap glass, and a lot of my footage looks significantly better. That's coming from a student perspective, though. Best of luck in your shooting.

David Mullen ASC · January 1, 2011

The 1970's were a time of transition in 16mm docs from Ektachrome reversal stocks to color negative -- it happened earlier in Europe than in the U.S. Around that time, 100 ASA color negative came out and was faster than the popular 25 ASA low-contrast ECO reversal stock at the time, so people wanted to use it... but the traditional problem with 16mm negative was dust, so 16mm labs had to get a lot cleaner to reduce the problem. On negative stock, dust is white, whereas on reversal stock, dust is black and considered less distracting.

There were some higher-speed Ektachrome reversal stocks used back then for low-light conditions, though the gamma was for direct projection, not copying as the ECO stock was.

Robert Houllahan · January 2, 2011

There were some higher-speed Ektachrome reversal stocks used back then for low-light conditions, though the gamma was for direct projection, not copying as the ECO stock was.

A friend of mine shot this in the early 80's and I transferred it a year or so ago, the low light scenes were shot on 400asa VNF which I thought looked surprisingly good, and they had no color fade issues that I could see in TK. This stock also transferred very well I thought.

http://www.listentolondon.net/

-Rob-

Jonathan Bowerbank · January 2, 2011

Kodak's Ektachrome 100D Super8 stock still has that old school 70's look to it. You can find Super8 cameras pretty cheap to play with and see if it's what you're going for :)