Nico

What confuses me is that manual reads: "The Bolex 350 Macro Compact is designed for Super 8 film in 50ft cartridges, with sensitivities of 25 or 100 ASA (15 or 21 DIN) daylight or 40 or 160 ASA (17 or 23 DIN) artificial light. " So why is it underexposing when I disable the filter for daylight shooting? I feel I definitely need to shoot a roll and try different things to be sure now...

@Reinhard: It did come with the pin @Bill: Hahahaha thank you Bill!! What a coincidence! I love the camera. And you are right, for all inteded purposes if it underexposes by 1/2 its not the end of the world. OK, so I put the film cartridge and checked the aperture levels on the screen. It seems to detect the film perfectly fine. When I compare the readings on my DSLR set at 100 ASA and 1/18 sec it gives me the same values, however that is without the pin. With the pin (for daylight shooting which is what I want) it gives me an aperture more or less 2 points smaller. Ideally, what I will do if I have enough time and I'm able to find someone who will develop it quickly enough, is to test shoot the film. I plan to shoot one roll trying different things. I think the most logical thing to try is to use the pin and the overexposure button.

Oh, sorry guys. The guy who sold me the camera told me that it is actually the other way round. Here is his email: Hi Nicolas, The diaphragm hold button is indeed the EE lock, which freezes the aperture at the current exposure. The Bolex 350 is set to recognise 40D/60T so compensate with 100D and maybe hold the lock on the sky, as in bright/snowy conditions it is very easy to overexpose with 100D. Though that can be a nice effect in itself. Also be sure to TAP THE CARTRIDGE before insertion (they jam) and be sure to insert the filter key, as 100D is balanced for daylight so you need to disengage the internal 85 filter. Ideally, in such snowy conditions you would take a cheap spot meter with you and set the aperture as you shoot but it could well prove quite tricky to do that. I would just try to carefully gauge the exposure by looking through the viewfinder and adjust each shot accordingly. Just remember your 100D stock is faster than what the camera automatically exposes for, so you need to slightly close the aperture for the correct results. If this all proves to be a little too complicated (will you be running & gunning handheld or taking static shots?) then maybe just permanently compensate the exposure on the camera and then point out to the processing lab technician that it is possibly all overexposed. The flaw with that, is by shooting in snow you might get a white glowing screen and slightly blurred details. It all depends on just how bright it is. I do hope you get great results! Best wishes Esta

Hi, I am new to the forum! I recently bought a tested and fully working Bolex 350 Macro compact. I am new to super 8. The thing is I am planning an adventure with a friend: we are going to go up a volcano in the Andes. My idea is to document the ascent with the camera so I got some Kodak Ektachrome 100D. Apparently this model doesn't detect this type of film automatically. From what I've been reading so far it looks like (since the camera is post 1970) it will shoot as if the film was 160 ISO so this is going to underexpose my film by about 1/2 stop. My question is, is this bearable? I suppose so but also since I will have ice and snow in the background most part of the ascent, perhaps I should use the overexposure (1 stop) all of the time. Also, should I do anything else? Put any filters, use the diaphragm lock, etc? I guess I can also shoot at 9 fps which would expose the film more, right? I would hate if the film wasn't properly exposed. Also, apparently its a possibility that the camera detects 40 iso instead and overexposes by 1 1/4. But this seems unlikely. Please give me your views and if anyone of you has experience with this camera or one that is similar I would be much obliged if you shared it with me. Thank you very much!!!