Sharpie test with color negative film?

[Joshua Holz]

When shooting reversal you can make a small mark on the film to see if the camera is advancing it. (If you don't see the mark you know the roll is advancing.) Can you do the same with color negative film, like Vision3 200T? Or would exposing the cartridge to light harm it?

[Tyler Purcell]

It doesn't matter, film is film.

[Michael Lehnert]

...and the point of the Kodak Instamatic cartridge and Super 8 as a format is very much that you don't have to worry about film being exposed while handling it, at any stage. I occassionally see novices swapping cartridges in changing bags, or taping up the cartridges' sides, hell, even the camera cartridge compartments despite their rubber seals not having been compromised with age. Much ado about nothing, in my experience.

[Nick Collingwood]

I occassionally see novices swapping cartridges in changing bags

haha That's hilarious. One of the joys of Super 8 for me is being able to quickly swap cartridges depending on the lighting or feeling without worrying about the film being exposed. Plus I always enjoy having a few light leaks in the roll for editing purposes because they look nice.

 

Josh - if you remove the cart after filming some (whether test or actual use) you'll only lose around 8 frames of Super 8 and you'll have some light leaks of a few frames on the start and end of those lost frames.

[Mark Dunn]

The only time you need the changing bag is if you're backwinding for in-camera dissolves or multiple exposures which would be spoiled by the flash frames.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Mark Dunn

[Chris Burke]

I wish that cameras could remember where in a reel I left off when I change carts mid shoot. The counter resets making it necessary to take note of how much film was used in that cartridge. Just bought a bunch of the 03 and 19 off the website, couldn't have been easier.