Speed to ASA matching on 8mm Camera

[Doug Wilkinson]

Hello.

I have some 100D regular 8mm film to shoot. The camera I am using has a meter that only allows setting from ASA 10 - 40. Any advice on how to match the setting to the film speed?

Thanks.

Doug

[Dom Jaeger]

If it's an auto-exposure only camera (pretty rare in regular 8) there's not much you can do, but in most reg 8 cameras the meter is just a guide, or you can set the camera to a manual aperture setting, so you don't need to go off the internal meter. Chances are it's a bit off anyway. If you can get hold of a reliable hand-held meter you'll get better exposures.

 

But if you're not familiar with meters or just want to go off the in-built meter for simplicity, you could set the ASA to 25, adjust the lens aperture until the needles line up, see what stop it reads on the iris scale and then close it down by 2 stops (thus compensating for the ASA change - 25 to 50, 50 to 100). I'd check the camera meter first though. If you don't have a hand-held meter to check it against you could compare the camera reading against maybe a digital SLR set to the same ASA/ISO and a shutter speed of 1/30 sec.

 

Or you could even just use the good old sunny 16 rule: on a sunny day, with the ASA set to the inverse of your shutter speed (so at the normal frame rate of 16 or 18 fps where the shutter speed is a little under 1/40 sec, set the ASA to 40), the camera meter should read f/16.

 

If the meter is a bit off, you'll need to adapt the iris compensation method. You might find for example that setting the ASA to 40 and stopping the lens down one stop works best.

[Doug Wilkinson]

Thank-you. Unfortunately, the camera has no aperture control, only a push/pull mechanism from wide angle out to telephoto.

This is the exact camera here:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/109489617/revere-eye-matic-magazine-eight-8mm-1958

 

Again, though, thanks for the tips. Very useful once I get my hands on a more versatile camera.

 

Doug

[Dom Jaeger]

Yeah that one's not much chop, especially if it's a magazine camera - can't get 8mm magazines anymore - you need a spool camera.

 

Something like this is perfect:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Paillard-Bolex-D8LA-Movie-Camera-NEW-Original-Box-/190771830224?pt=US_Vintage_Cameras&hash=item2c6ae31dd0

 

:)