Mark Lewis

I stand corrected here, I used an orange filter. Regardless, either color, or any other for that matter, may not correct astigmatism. Short of checking, I am sure your right about this. This was 20 years ago, when my technical knowledge was somewhat less than it is now. And considerably less now than many of the members here, I' m sure. At any rate, as I recall, I was advised that an orange filter, with certain lenses, and at specific aperture settings, would improve astigmatic qualities while using B&W negative film. I should say that this advise was directed toward the use of 35mm SLR photography. As a lark, I applied this to the R8 as described in my first post. Was I completely misinformed about this? I tried a with/without filter comparison with an SLR before my venture into super8 and did see a difference in image quality with the respective negatives.

Mark, if you would like to have the your R8 serviced contact Bernie at super16inc.com. As of the email I got this morning, they CLA these cameras and provide some other services as well. I'd have to think Will's input would have to carry some weight here. I bought my R8 in 1995 in pristine condition, and it appeared to have been sitting on someone's shelf for many years prior to that, as the accessories were still in their factory wrappings. After about a half dozen cartridges it sat in my camera cabinet until recently. It worked without a hitch back then except that the power zoom began making loud, rough noises very soon after It came my way, which seems to be a common problem with these cameras(lubrication issues?). Hence the CLA inquiry. I'm still on the fence as to whether I'll just use this camera until it's inoperable, as it seems examples do turn up for sale now and then for less than what it would cost for a CLA. Plus, the lens on the R8 is less than a stellar performer when stopped down for low light. Kinda fuzzy. With the aperture at a mid level setting, however, I produced some very nice footage back then with some Plus-X and a yellow filter to correct any possible astigmatism. It was a sunny with clouds day and it was hard to believe Super8 could look much better, Kodachrome notwithstanding.