Mark Dunn

Sound quality from stripe was always pretty mediocre. Loose sync from cassette or CD is quite possible- work out your own startup procedure; I use start-marks and countdowns, that sort of thing.

But please, just CUT THE FILM. It's not that delicate, just do it with care. Editing on a computer isn't what Super-8 is about. Cut, splice and project.

If the variable shutter were moving you'd get exposure pulsing.

I don't think you've got a lot of jitter at all, but it's difficult to tell with so much camera movement. I'd echo the advice to use a tripod. Don't move the camera about so much- they used to call it 'hosepiping'.

You definitely need to nail the focus problem- around 1min. 20sec, the fellow in the blue jacket is in focus. You then pull focus and he goes out. So what you're seeing as 'in focus' isn't, especially at the long end where focus is more critical anyway.

The 85 filter only absorbs 2/3 of a stop. The 80A filter to convert daylight film to tungsten loses you 2 stops. So it's much better to shoot tungsten film outdoors with a filter than vice versa. You get to use a slower film.

The old Kodachrome 25D would have gone to 6 ISO in tungsten light- very inconvenient.

'The Riddle of the Sands' is a corking thriller, too.

Sounds like your image is badly out of focus, the lens is very dirty, or an element is dislodged

Presumably you're aware that sound cartridges were discontinued about ten years ago, so you can just ignore the sound spec. Google is your friend, as usual.

The feed spool shouldn't be driven. There should just be enough friction on it to stop the film dropping off the spool when pulled by the top sprocket. Be careful with WD40- make sure it can't end up on the film.

It's black and white. It'll be fine.

It's old VNF left over from when I did high-speed cine for the military. High-speed kit is all double-perf. Single-perf would tear at 200mph.

But there hasn't been a double sprocket in an ordinary 16mm. camera for decades, so I'm told. The K3 has a single row of teeth and will take single-perf just fine.

Remember, you can't remake a cement splice without losing two frames. They're also quite difficult to make, and they're really intended for A/B roll neg cutting. A tape splicer is much preferable. The CIR is the best- they appear on eBay from time to time from about GBP50. The tape costs next to nothing- under a penny a splice.

If you've already got your Moviskop, fine, otherwise you might want to try a pic-sync like this http://www.acmade.co.uk/Compeditor.html (No need to buy new; I paid GBP1 for mine). You'd need a table, spools and winders as well.

You might even find a Steenbeck if you have the space, but you can't really fine cut on one. They're great for viewing and sound though. Again, mine was GBP75. Projectors i can't help with, but you can get a lot of wear and tear on the film.

Good luck.

It's not there yet, they have to process the film, ha ha.

And you don't have to load that fast, I was just trying to keep the file size down.

You've got the spool the wrong way round. The film should come of the bottom of the spool, to the right.

Hope that helps.

Terry, Super-8 cameras don't have sprocket drive. The film is advanced only by the claw.

If there weren't an interlock to close the shutter, animation would be impossible.

Not understanding something doesn't stop it from working; I've just taken the front off my little GAF and I can see a cam operated by the start button. It's not too difficult to see this cam stopping the shutter from rotating, and swinging out of the way when pushed to allow it to rotate. I imagine the drive stops just before the cam operates, to stop the shutter from being driven into it.

It may work in this way, it may not; but I can at least work it out. I'd love to know the real explanation.

I agree. It's very difficult to get completely clear film through over-exposure. I once tried a fade to white by opening up the aperture, but there was still shadow detail, and that would have been at least 4 or 5 stops over. That said, a stuck shutter would only add about a stop of over-exposure anyway.

Terry, I'm sorry but Super-8 cameras are supposed to stop with the shutter closed. So are some 16mm. cameras like the Bolex. They have an interlock for that purpose and if they didn't single-frame photography would be impossible.

When someone posts here they really do need accurate information.

There's no arguing with someone with such, er, novel ideas about everything from optics to photochemistry.

IIRC fast films don't suffer more from light loss. If anything, being of inherently lower contrast they have greater latitude.

I maintain that the beamsplitter in most super-8 cameras is in the form of a prism with partial reflection off the 45 degree surface. Anyway, even with your viewfinder mirror, most of the light has to pass through the glass- why doesn't that affect the colour, if a prism does?

A quick Google suggests that this model has manual override so you'll be fine with a separate meter, or a grey-card reading with the appropriate correction.

The point is that at 18fps the shutter speed is around 1/30 second, so you can't get a small enough aperture to expose correctly in sunlight. You'd need about f/45. So you need a few stops of ND on the lens, then you can open up the appropriate amount.

Sorry Terry, but the light loss has nothing to do with the ISO. I don't see why the partially-silvered mirror in a prism finder shouldn't transmit all colours equally

And your Sankyo must be unique in having a mirror shutter. All the rest have a prism, like most super-8 cameras. Unless you're confusing partially-silvered with spinning or guillotine.

A stop and a half seems a lot to lose.

The difference between 150 and 160deg. is 16/15, or a factor of 1.066, rather less than a sixth of a stop.

The latitude of reversal is NOTHING LIKE 3 stops! More like 1/3. Are you confusing latitude with dynamic range, because colour neg won't respond well to 3 stops under or over, either.

What's the correct stop? It's what your meter says.

You need to know if the camera will read the ISO correctly- there's a list on wikipedia. Otherwise, look at the ISO switches on the camera- they correspond to the ISO notch on the cartridge. There will be a series of feelers. If there's only one, forget it because it's for switching between 40 and 160 ISO. If there are a few of them you may be in luck. Wikipedia tells you about that as well.

An incident meter is more useful but of course that's just what the camera meter isn't. You can 'cheat' by taking a reflected reading off a grey card. Or, if the light is too low to read that way, read off a white card and add 2 stops.

(If some of these terms are unfamiliar, you do need to do some basic background reading.

IIRC, the 16S isn't supposed to stop with the shutter closed, nor is the variable speed motor marked. You run it and set the speed with the tachometer. So you can't really blame it for not doing things it's not meant to do.

Negative film is masked so that dye deficiencies are not amplified in the print. A reversal film can't be masked- what would you do with the colour due to the mask?

Perhaps you'd like to have a look at chapter 10 of 'Advanced Photography' by Michael Langford.

Using tungsten film in daylight seemed to suit the film industry for decades before the days of daylight- balanced HMIs.

When you're photographing outdoors in shade, the light comes from the sky, not from 100 feet away. It's blue regardless of the cloud cover. Rayleigh scattering has nothing to do with water vapour.

You're quite right about 64T, I hadn't appreciated it was 3200K type B. Which means of course that the Super-8 85A camera filter will not correct sufficiently, because it was meant to correct type A film like K40, which IS (or was) 3400K. You'd need an extra 81A.

But I have to disagree about the 85A filter. It is the same as an 85. The designation seems to be interchangeable. Hoya don't engrave the 'A' on their filters, but others do.

The 85B corrects to 3200K.

Yes, Negative Film will provide more accurate colour than Positive Reversal Film because the Negative is masked to correct for unwanted absorptions of Green & Blue Light by the Cyan and Magenta Dyes.

The orange mask is to correct for deficiencies in the PRINT stock. Reversal film is intended for projection so it doesn't need one.

The 85A filter is orange (Kodak say 'Amber'). It's not pink. Shooting 3400K- balanced film uncorrected in daylight is not a good idea unless for a cheap speciall effect- I did it once. The 85A mired shift is 110, so the colour will only be right if the colour temperature is 9100K which is too blue for all but the bluest sky.

Anyone following that advice is going to be very disappointed. This is a professional forum and people need accurate info.

The 85A preferentially absorbs blue so it's going to have a tonal effect similar to that of a red filter. But Tri-X is panchromatic, so apart from darkening the blues I'd say yes, you could go with 2/3.