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Underwater super8 (Canon 514XL-S)


Luuk Schröder

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Hello,

I am curious if anyone has experience with filming super8 underwater?

At the moment I am trying to find a way to film with my Canon 514XL-S in wet environments / fully submerged. I know that for many contemporary cameras plastic casings are available that waterproof the camera and are able to cover the lens without much distortion. Has there ever been something like this available for the Canon 8mm cameras? Or for 8mm cameras in general?
Or perhaps someone on this forum has managed to DIY something together...?

Best regards,
Luuk

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2 hours ago, Luuk Schröder said:

I am curious if anyone has experience with filming super8 underwater?

I've shot quite a bit of film underwater, and honestly it's really not worth it. Especially with super 8, you really won't get much of an image without a serious lighting setup because even with 500T, it's really dark at any serious depth. Unless you're in a well lit pool at 10ft or less, there just isn't enough light. Even modern digital cameras struggle without lights, most of the time due to the compression not being able to handle the ever changing imagery. With film it's a whole other problem and it's not easy. With larger formats like 35mm, you can push the stock a stop or two and again if you're shallow with 500T, you can get away with it. But with super 8, you're already dealing with such a small image, you have nowhere to go. This is why super 8 wasn't very popular with underwater cinematography and 16mm was pretty much what everyone used, even the amateurs. 

It does sound like fun tho, good luck to finding a housing. I'm sure they pop up on Ebay all the time. 

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Yes I can imagine the image quality might not be great, but in this case it is going to be an experimental film where the underwater shots are part of something else... difficult to explain. No idea if it is going to work, but happy to try!

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