Roger Haney

I recommend using a cement splicer.(It won’t work on Fuji polyester, but that film is no longer in production).

Well, the Elmo GS 1200 was offered in a xenon lamp version. Even the incandescent version had one of the brightest lamps. However, I have heard that Elmo projectors can have issues with scratching Film if not very carefully maintained. There seems to be a scratching issue with the top feed sprocket and pad assembly, which can be modified with updated parts. The very best projector would be a Fumeo xenon lamp model, but they are quite expensive and probably at least as rare as the Elmo GS 1200 Xenon. All Super8mm films can be cement spliced, except for Fuji polyester stock. A dual8mm projector will never be bright enough for a large venue.

I took a look at the Avrova. Did they take some sort of battery pack? The battery compartment didn’t look like it took any batteries I’m familiar with.

Well, the DS8 cameras I see consistently showing up on eBay are Zenit Quarz’s and Canon’s. I’ve read posts from FB group members that the Russian cameras can produce very good results.

Well, there was one optical sound camera made by Fujica, for educators. The ZS400. I only know of one in existence. If you can get VD sound on film; an optical sound Super8mm projector should play it back. I’ve run 35mm VD sound and it worked just fine.

Grain is determined by the asa of the film stock. 50D has the least amount of grain; while 500 has the most. Reversal film stocks also tend to be grainier. Image steadiness is most affected by film speed. Films shot at high speed for slow motion will be the steadiest..

Well, there is no longer any film being manufactured with mag-stripe. The adhering process was too environmentally hazardous and was banned in the early 90’s. There are expired Super8mm stocks for sale on eBay. You can get pretty good results with Ektachrome, but stay away from Kodachrome because it can only be processed as B/W. Remember to open the iris one f-stop for every decade of expiration. The alternative is to shoot new color reversal film and have it mag-striped after processing. You may be able to have two stripes put on it for stereo recording with certain stereo projectors.(Elmo GS1200, etc.) Alberto Vangelisti does it in his lab; in Italy; and it’s amazingly cheap; but you want to send a lot of footage for best value. His email is Moviemagnetic@gmail.com.

I’ve seen some rods on eBay with a wedge designed specifically for Beaulieu’s.

Oh yeah. That’s it. The moderator is Adrian Cousins. I have learned a ton from these guys.

I would join the FB group: “Home Movie Processing”. The moderator and others are international experts at this. They process color, B/W, negative, reversal, cross process and alternative processing in natural home ingredients. I myself have developed B/W negative in Caffenol: Ground coffee and vitamin C powder. They can answer all your questions.

Well, there is no B/W on spools for reloading. Pro8mm just started selling Super8mm Ektachrome 100D and Vision3 50D on 200 foot daylight spools. It is about $150 for the 50D and $175 for the Ektachrome.

Very interesting and informative article. It looks as though you can buy these stocks in the U.S. through “The Film Photography Project.” I shoot D8mm; full width; in my modified Bolex Ultrapan8mm widescreen camera.

Have you considered Doublesuper8mm? Pro8mm has been getting bulk orders from Kodak. The Bolex, Canon and some other cameras are really well made and seem to be selling for around $600-$700. The advantage in buying/processing 100 foot rolls is you get 200 feet of Super8mm film for much, much less than you would four Super8mm carts. These cameras also have real metal film pressure plates and some have c mount lens brackets. Some of the Russian cameras can be quite good and can be purchased very cheaply.

So, you like experimentation? Have I got the camera for you!!! Have you ever heard of Ultra-pan8? The format uses the entire width of Reg8mm film to shoot a widescreen image that is around 2.8-1. That’s right: Wider than CinemaScope. The UP8 camera is a hybrid between a Bolex Reg8mm reflex and a Bolex 16mm reflex. It has a Reg8mm frame pulldown; but a 16mm image width. Canadian Nick Kovats initiated the format. Canadian Jean-Louis Seguin(The Bolex master) does the conversions. You can find him via his Facebook page. I have camera #5 and my friend; a Hollywood animator; just sent in his camera to have it converted. He borrowed mine and he loves the format so much; he had one made too. The image can be scanned and edited or projected. There’s a chap in England who modifies Specto projectors to show the film. I have one of those too. Examples of Nick Kovats shoots can be found online and on You Tube. My favorite is: “My memories of her a missing.” Something to consider.

Well, a neutral density filter is useful when you think you have too much light and don’t want to overexpose the film. 50D has at least 2 f-stops of exposure latitude either way; but you may need a bright, sunny day for proper exposure with this stock. Reversal films; such as Ektachrome, Plus-X or Tr-X have less exposure latitude. Usually around 1/2 an f-stop. A ND filter could be really useful here; but you could also shoot in slow motion to get a faster shutter speed. Another reason to use ND filters is to open the aperture wider for shallow depth of field. There are varying degrees of ND filters that would need varying aperture settings.

Well, he needs spools with round holes; so the solution is to buy them on eBay. Lots of em.

Also there are daylight spools; with round spindle holes; on eBay.

I just looked at a Bolex H-8 online and they do have round camera spindles. A friend of mine borrowed my Bolex UltraPan 8 Camera; so I can't look at it. The daylight spool that I shot that 2x8mm Cinechrome does have square holes.

Well, I have a specially modified Bolex that shoots a 2.8-1 image on 2x8mm film; it's not split and I show it on a specially modified 2.8-1 16mm projector. I get my unsplit 2x8mm film back from the lab on the original daylight spool; which is a 100 foot 2x8mm daylight spool. It does have square spindle holes in the spool. I don't know why yours has round spindles/holes.

There is a 25ft regular8mm spool on eBay for $7.95. I really don’t think there is a difference between 100 foot 16mm and regular8mm daylight spools. I shot regular 8mm reversal and did not have it split; had it returned on a 16mm spool and was able to project it on a 16mm projector. I’m thinking they’re the same spool.

It’s called a “100 foot 16mm daylight spool”. I just checked and there’s some on eBay.

I would like to offer an alternative. The Fujica ZC1000. It is considered by some to be the best 8mm camera ever made, but it shoots Super8mm film in a different cartridge called Single8mm. It has transport speeds from 9-72fps, a variable shutter, a fantastic C-mount zoom lens and it's one of the the few cameras that can film in reverse for the the entire cartridge(Super 8 carts can't do that for more than 10 feet. Color film, Fuji and soon; Ektchrome, and Kodak Tri-X; are available from Retro8mm(Retro enterprises) in Japan. Film has to be processed by them because of the cartridge.(These films can be shown in any Super8mm projector)The price of these cameras has really come down in price due to better availability of film stocks. You can get one on eBay; in decent shape; for $250-$300 now. This format is very popular in Europe.

Well, since the shutter speed changes with the transport speed; this may cause issues with exposure. The shutter speed is roughly twice the transport speed. If the camera has an auto iris; there may be a lag until it corrects the aperture for the proper exposure. Going from 24fps(1/48th-sec) to 18fps(1/36thsec) May briefly cause under exposure. Going from 24fps to 36fps(1/72nd-sec) May briefly cause over exposure. If your camera has a manual only iris; I wouldnt try this with reversal film because it doesnt have the exposure latitude. Negative film stocks are more forgiving with over and under exposure. If it were me; I would get an intevelometer application and do it in post.

The Elmo st-180E (and one other, I think) has a speed control under the cover; in the rear; for fine tuning 18fps and 24fps. You can project on a small screen and do a telecine with a video camera that records at 24p. A friend of mine has been running a very successful film transfer business; for many years; and he uses this method with this projector and a Sony camera. He just fine tunes the speed adjustment until the frame rate locks in.

Generally, grey cards are used for metering and white balance is only for video and digital photography. Have you ever seen the single color frame of the lady on film leader? Ever wonder why she is in there? She was a reference for colorists to color time film properly. Everybody does color correction in digital post these days(which is why it takes so long to edit video.)