Mat Newman

Michael Ballhaus. The man who helped give Scorsese his second wind in the 80s and 90s. Goodfellas, Age of Innocence, Dracula, Departed, Gangs of New York - Ballhaus is one of the all-time greats.

Hi Kirk, I'd love to hear more about recording synch sound with garage band. How'd you set that up? What kind of mic did you use? Was the sound merely acceptable, or actually decent? And surely you can get it down to under 10 minutes!!! :P Mat

For what it's worth, I'd recommend using a spot meter for starting out. I'm a film editor who didn't know anything about light / shutter speeds / f-stops and ASAs. I borrowed a digital sekonic lightmeter from a DP. I pointed the sekonic, it told me what f-stop to use, I did what it said. I didn't learn anything about light, except this: the sekonic is always right. The same DP then give me his old Pentax Spotmeter V, and after three hours I actually had a clue what all these different values meant and how they were interrelated. The Pentax has a manual series of dials whose relative values (asa/shutter speed/f-stop, etc) visibly interact when you change the value on any one of them. You don't just get a reading; you discover the reading as you click the wheel into place. It is a subtle and crucial distinction. The whole business of reading light became intuitive. The pentax system demystified a lot of the mathematics for me very quickly. They keep their value, too; they're old but still sell on ebay for an average of £200.

:blink: That's a lot of notches! Good info, I'll try it and see what happens (cutting the filter notch, that is). Also, I found this link - seems like a very comprehensive list. http://www.super8camera.com/cameras.html

That's good to know, thanks. And I didn't know that about the beam splitter either... I'm fishing around now for a light meter. Are there any cameras which do read 500 ASA accurately?

Can anyone say definitively if the Nizo Professional automatically reads the correct ASA on Kodak's 200 and 500T stocks? I'm shooting some tests using the automatic light meter and some second guessing, so I'm about to find out anyway -- but if anyone out there knows for sure, I'd like to know. Because if the camera doesn't read the correct ASA, then what does it think it's reading? Mat

Well, I bought the Nizo with a UWIII, and it's a beaut. Pics on 64T look great, developed here in Berlin. Wide angle is a barnstormer. Couldn't be happier with the choice. Thanks for the tips and advice...

Another good aspect - thanks for that. I've seen an Nizo Pro in the dealers here in Germany, and am going to go with it; just seems like a decent compact all-rounder. :D

Thanks for the different tips; it's interesting to see how different cameras are very good for different specific things - it seems, as ever, that there is no one universally great camera! For the price I have to pay for a mint Nizo Pro with extras like a wide angle, I'm looking at a canon 1014xls as an alternative with similar spec - although the design of the thing seems awful. Nizo looks like it might be easier to handle, and it's certainly easier on the eye ;) . The Bauer 715 looks great, but I'm just starting, don't want to start pulling them apart and modifying yet...

Hello out there. I would like to know if anyone has an opinion about two particular cameras: The Nizo Professional, and the Canon 1014AZ. I understand they are both good cameras, but am nonetheless curious to know if any film makers have experience of both, and what their respective merits are .i.e. if either one boasts a better lens, or more useful/practical features. I have no experience of shooting super 8 (this will be my first jump into 8mm film waters), and therefore am a little in the dark as to what I should look out for. For example, I was told that a Bauer 715XLS was fantastic, only to discover that it doesn't accept modern 8mm film stocks and needs to be tweaked. Thanks, Matthew