Martin MacDonald

Thanks all. Makes sense... Yup!!

Hello all, I was shooting a music video last weekend in super 8, using E64T. It was shot in a room that had no natural light - the only light there came from work lamps (very tight budget here!) and the fitted lights in the room. The place was aglow - we almost needed sun glasses just to be there, but still we struggled to get a decent exposure reading in the camera. The film came back today and looks great, so obviously it was a correct reading. But i started wondering - and i am pretty much a novice, i've only been into super for about a year and shot as much as i can afford which isn't much - is there some hidden reason behind having a tungsten balanced film that is so slow? To me it doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense, but because it exists i guess there is a reason. Meanwhile the daylight equivalent is faster... Confused and curious... Cheers Martin

I have had problems with seized cogs in two Canons (not the 1014, but they seem to be somewhat similar). If you take off the casing, press the trigger and see if you can move the series of cogs coming from the main motor with your finger. If it's just a little stiff, with the help of a finger the motor might start to turn it for a few seconds. Don't grease the cogs as they can become gummed up, but maybe some cleaning is necessary?

Hi, Slightly odd thing i'm trying to do here, although really i suppose it's no different to shooting a front-projection background, except that there would be no foreground. So i suppose the root of my problem is 0 experience with rear or front projection. My camera died during a shoot on the weekend, and for various reasons we couldn't postpone the shoot and wait for a repair. It was also unfortunate that the only backup camera we had was a fairly cheap Canon camcorder. So call me nuts (yes i could just do all this in final cut), but i'd really like to get this digital footage onto super 8 film so that i can splice it with the stuff we shot before the breakdown. I know it could be hard to match the look, but happily the scene that was shot before the camera breakdown is part of the story that requires a different look to the rest anyway. So i'm thinking of projecting the digital footage and shooting it off the wall with my s8 cam. Of course now i'm concerned about flicker and a number of other things - it could be tricky or impossible to sync my old camera to the projector. Or perhaps it doesn't matter too much? Does anyone have any experience/thoughts/spontaneous ideas about: - best size of the projected image? From experimenting with DIY telecine a smaller projected image seems best for clarity. In reverse, my thinking is that if the projected video image isn't too large i might overcome a little of the resolution problem from the cheap cam. - shoot in a darkened room/lit room? - if darkened, will i have problems exposing the film correctly? i will be using Ektachrome 64. - and of course, the flicker issue My apologies for the rambling nature of this question. I feel a bit mad even wanting to go to these lengths, but it's partly out of curiosity, too. Many thanks for any advice on this. Cheers Martin

Hi Mike, I'm not sure about the Canon 514, but i have two 518's (a previous model i believe) and they are superb. Easy to disassemble and troubleshoot too - i recently repaired one that died during a shoot, and got another 'dead on arrival' from ebay running nicely. The 518 reads 64t notch fine, but i have heard the the 514 doesn't and will underexpose it so needs manual aperture adjustment. I can't help with the telecine because i haven't yet had anything transferred. However standard 8 film - yes it is still available for purchase and there are places that will process it. Nanolab.com.au here in AU sells it, though i'm not certain whether they process it or not. Hope my 2c helps in some way.. Cheers

That's great news! Thanks so much for the replies. -Martin

Hi folks, A friend of mine recently gave me an unopened roll of Kodachrome 40. On the side it has stamped "Process by 03/1999". Wondering if anyone can tell me what happens to this stock 10 years after expiration? Is it worth even trying to use it? I stuck it straight in the fridge (though I have my doubts that's where it lived for the past decade). I'm pretty new to super 8 and from what i've read, Kodachrome seems like an era i unfortunately missed out on so i'm ultra keen to try ... something on it. I've noticed a few people suggesting overexposing it a little to combat age, but this film may fall more in the category of "ancient". Cheers

I always wondered about how they get rid of the director yelling things during a take :P Thanks all for the great answers here. I do live in Australia, so yes the 24fps makes sense PAL wise, although what I'm going to shoot will not likely make it further than YouTube, which from memory converts to NTSC frame rate anyway, does it not?

Hi, To begin with, I'm very new to S8 - i have only recently shot my first can of film on a Canon 518 SV and am awaiting it's return to see if it worked! My question here is regarding frame rate. I've seen a few comments floating around the net saying that if you want to sync to audio, go with 24fps. Can anyone explain why that would be? To me, a higher frame rate would imply a smoother picture, but I don't understand the connection this has to audio. Luckily for my first project i am not syncing to audio - it's effectively a silent short with a song stuck over the top that has only very abstract relation to the visual content. AND, i'm not after a high quality image, in fact the more flicker and graininess the better. Is there any reason for me to shoot at 24fps in this case, or is that just wasting film? I really appreciate any advice or opinions on this. The more research i do the more excited i am about really sinking my teeth into filming on S8. Thanks, Martin