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JC Penney Sankyo Super8 4 to 1


Greg Barnes

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Hello everyone, I just found a JC Penney branded Sankyo super 8 camera.  The side of it says super8 4 to 1 Sankyo and JCPenney.  It was $20 and is being shipped to me from someone on a mutual Facebook group. I am looking for information about it. Does anyone know what Sankyo model it would be to look up a manual? I also see that it shows to use daylight film ASA 25-100 and Type A film ASA 40-160. I know these are vintage numbers. Does anyone know what ASA of modern film it would be able to use. This is my first super 8 camera. It is special because my dad is retired from JC Penney so these things always catch my attention. He was there when they sold all of these things that they no longer have. Thank you for anyone who can help me. I couldn’t figure out how to upload photos in the post so I added a link to an album on Flickr with them. https://www.flickr.com/gp/186757707@N07/5Bd3q87t6V

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When J.C. Penny had a camera department is AGES ago!   One of the most often rebranded SANKYO Super 8mm cameras from that era would be the SANKYO CM-300 and CM-400 and yours is very likely the CM-400 since it has a 4:1 zoom ratio and cosmetically/physically resembles the J.C. Penny branded camera you have.   The camera's film speed settings are cartridge based, and on the older more common KODACHROME 40A and EKTACHROME 160A or G films.   So yours should accept quite easily the following films:

TRI-X 7266 ISO 200 but rated at ISO 160, so slight over exposure not a big issue.

VISION 50D which setting the camera to Tungsten to remove the onboard color conversion #85 Filter, will be rated at ISO 40, some slight over exposure which is perfect for Color Negative.

VISION 200T, which can be used in Daylight using the onboard #85 Filter and it'll be rated at ISO 100, again some slight over exposure, and in Artificial Light minus the Daylight Color Conversion Filter at ISO 160, also some slight over exposure which is fine for negative films.

EKTACHROME 100D without use of the built in Color Conversion Filter, thus setting the camera to the Tungsten Setting [but please note......most of the better Super 8mm cameras have a notch finger detector which if the cartridge does NOT have the Filter Notch...the onboard filter will be pushed out of the way to the Tungsten or Without Filter setting....and usually also cues the Light Meter to adjust accordingly.  This can be confirmed via the Aperture Display on the side of the camera in it's own window].  EK100D will be exposure automatically at ISO 160 which would underexpose it buy a half a stop or close to it.  However, many have found this works okay.......but for dead accurate setting, you'd have to set the camera manually and open the aperture up a little bit more than what automatic determines.  How well the camera exposes your film would require a test of course....but using an external light meter and factoring in any exposure/shutter/viewfinder light loss variations [refer to the instruction manual for setting manual exposure which usually lets you know if you need to fine tune exposure due to the viewfinder system]

Other films can also be used, via Manual Exposure......however....even in Automatic in low light situations, many have discovered that using VISION 500T still works okay in most but the brightest lit subject scenes.  Even if over exposed, the Color Negative films are more forgiving and will still yield detail that can be compensated for when transferring to Digital Media etc.

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Martin,

the reason I bought it is because my dad retired from JC Penney. He actually worked in the camera department when he first started with them. So I always find JC Penney rebranded items especially cool. Thank you for the information!

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