Gerard Furber

It's got to be the Sankyo CME 1100 for me as it has so many features which are almost unique in the world of Super 8. 1. It's one of the few Super 8 cameras where you can actually make sure your meter isn't "off" and can adjust it back if it is. Plus being able to adjust it means you can shoot literally any stock on auto. 2. On default it reads 40, 160, 400 tungsten with 25, 100 and 250 daylight (on auto- puts filter out and shoots at correct daylight speed with daylight films) so can do 500T and the Pro8 250D stocks (and the motor is robust enough to pull them through!!!) 3. Auto fades in/out and you can vary the speed of the fade. 4. Rangefinder focussing system which is activated by a separate trigger, leaving the viewfinder clear. 5. Astonishing range of f: stops- 32 to 1.8. 6. Massive 10x optical zoom lens (6.5 - 65mm) 7. Special 54fps button separate from the 18/24/36 dial 8. Made of metal and built like a tank but very quiet motor 9. Despite being a 70's camera, doesn't have any wierd lightmeter batteries. It's a pity they're so rare and hard to find. Not really your carry-everywhere camera (I still prefer the Quarz for that), but definitely one for a big project. Very under-rated as they're great but never get a mention anywhere.

The Bauers DON'T have a filter pin. The filter is entirely operated by the switch and the cartridge will not over-ride that, so you don't have to cut filter notches into the 200T and 500T carts to use the built in filter. You can also use the filter with Tri-X to boost the contrast slightly. Plus X isn't bad in these cameras either, despite the underexposure. If using Velvia or Ektachrome 100D in daylight, just remember to flip the switch to tungsten, as the cartridge will not do this for you due to the lack of filter pin. Ektachrome 100D will require manual exposure and Ektachrome 64T will need either manual exposure or pull/push processing to 40T or 160T. The camera reads it at 40T but you can re-notch it to 160T should you so wish.

For those in the UK I can recommend The Widescreen Centre telecine in London. Nice bright colours, and at £15 per roll the price isn't bad (for the UK!) for scene by scene colour corrected transfer. There's also Todd-AO in London whom I haven't tried, as they're expensive £40 for neg processing and telecine or £50 for stock, process and telecine.

There's another solution- re-notch the cart to 160T (doesn't have to be 100% accurate in a 40/160 camera, as long as it misses the upper notch sensor) THEN Have the film push processed. Some labs will do this for free (e.g. Nanolab in Australia) It will give extra grain but also saturation and the extra speed will be a boon underwater. If you want to retain finer grain, you can just not re-notch, shoot at 40T and ask the lab to pull process it as 40T.

Just work out what your camera reads the carts as, then send them somewhere like nanolab that will push or pull accordingly for no extra cost. I think yours will read it at 160T so push. Will be grainer and more saturated.

Was on a shoot at the weekend. First shot using 200T bought at Widescreen a week ago. 24fps, pulled trigger- nothing happened. Took the cart out, gave it a tap, put it back in- it ran perfectly for the rest of the shoot. Tapped all the other carts and had no problems.

For something really personal in addition to the shoot which has been promised: Get some Sankyo EM-20XL cameras (cheap, lightweight, focus-free, low-light, fully automatic and idiot-proof) from the early 1980s, load them with either Tri X (black and white) or Kodak Vision 200T (colour neg) and give them to as many people as you can, with instructions to shoot shots of no more than 5 to 10 seconds apiece throughout the event. You'll be glad you did.

My experience with Kahlfilm has been generally positive, with fast and good quality processing and clearly in-date stock, though the secrecy regarding what the stocks actually are is something of an annoyance. From a bit of net detective work, it would appear that Kahl UT18 is Agfa RSXII 50 reversal film, and that the black and white films correspond exactly to the presently available 16mm and 35mm ORWO stocks from Filmotec GmbH. http://www.filmotec.de/English_Site/Products/products.html

Good news! I have just read on another site that Cinevia, the Velvia offering from GK Film in Germany, is coming back soon! According to the website, it's coming this summer (so must be within a matter of weeks or a couple of months at most if it's accurate!) www.cinevia.eu

Good news! I have just read on another site that Cinevia, the Velvia offering from GK Film in Germany, is coming back soon! According to the website, it's coming this summer (so must be within a matter of weeks or a couple of months at most if it's accurate!) www.cinevia.eu

I've just checked their website by going through the motions of placing an order. When it comes to the shipping options, it states that the cost may include handling charges levied by Pro8 and therefore may not be USPS advertised rates! There's the answer! They're charging you $40 for handling the order as well as making a profit on the film, processing etc! Unbelievable! Someone ought to send them an e-mail pointing out the fact that such high processing is probably detrimental to their business because they must be losing many sales due to this. That said, if people are paying it then maybe their action is good business sense- just I won't be one of their customers!

I too am in the UK and would like to try a roll of this, so am willing to contribute the cost of one roll plus share of the shipping to a bulk buy to save on the extortionate costs. $30 US is about £15 which is only a pound or two over what you'd pay for a Kodak cart over the counter in a specialist shop without processing, so even when paying for processing again at a local European lab, it's still not bad as long as we can get that postage cost down. Has anyone asked them if they would consider just sending by USPS for $20 as Spectra offer to do?

Wittner Cinetec offer a few of the Pro8mm Fuji stocks and their postage to the UK is reasonable compared to the Pro8mm rate from the US. It might be worth waiting for Wittner to stock it if you aren't going any time soon.

Anyone know if there's a discount in the UK and if so what the prices/qualifications are?

I have used this stock once in a 40/160 only camera. What I did was: 1. Check the auto exposure reading for 160 (which the camera read the film cartridge at) 2. Close the lens by 2 stops. This gave a great result in an XL camera in very poor lighting conditions. I believe the 500T film reads light at a sensitivity similar to the human eye. Unlike reversal film, negative film has a high under/over exposure latitude. When it gets printed/telecine'd the transfer people will set their equipment to give the most even results possible. I am told you could even use it on auto at 160 and you would still get something acceptable, but I haven't tried this. Perhaps someone could confirm/ dis-confirm?