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Engaging the 85A internal filter on the Canon 318M, and using coloured filters with B/W Reversal Film Stock


Bradley Stearn

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Hi all. I have a couple of questions regarding super 8mm shooting. I've been shooting Super 8 for a few years now, haven't used it much, but have gone through a few rolls of film in my spare time. I've been reading about colour temperatures, and have slightly confused myself.

 

I read somewhere that all Kodak film is tungsten balanced, and that by putting a cartridge of 50D into my super 8 camera for example, is engaging the 85A Warming filter. By putting 500T into my camera it disengages the filter, unless I chose to override it for shooting in daylight with tungsten stock.

 

Is it the other way round? It makes more sense that the filter is only engaged automatically when placing a Tungsten stock in the camera. I'm sure its different for all camera manufacturers, but if anyone has an input for my specific Canon 318m camera that would be great.

 

A separate question. I'm planning to shoot a short film on Kodak Tri-X B/W Reversal stock in the coming months. What coloured filters are recommended for shooting Tri-X in daylight, and interior fluorescent or tungsten environments? Mainly for maintaining contrast levels etc..

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If you shoot Tungsten balanced film outdoors; without an 85a filter; it will come out blue. If you shoot daylight balanced film indoors; it will look orange. B/W film does not need color correction filters; since it has no color to be affected by color temperature. There are filters that you can use to increase the contrast, however.

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You can have a lot of fun with colour filters and B7W film, below is one such website with heaps of samples, look halfway down the page to see how different coloured filter affect the picture taken.

 

http://www.knowhowtransfer.com/photoshop-professional-plugins/vitaminbw-single-triple-tone-bw-converter/follow-up/

 

I think regarding b&w reversal people used to suggest under exposing by a stop, helps with shades, keeps blacks "blacker", and I think it's easier to correct on a computer under exposed compared to over exposed film. I think....

 

Do a search through the forum, there's heaps of more accurate info in here somewhere..

 

cheers, Gareth

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I read somewhere that all Kodak film is tungsten balanced, and that by putting a cartridge of 50D into my super 8 camera for example, is engaging the 85A Warming filter. By putting 500T into my camera it disengages the filter, unless I chose to override it for shooting in daylight with tungsten stock.

 

Is it the other way round? It makes more sense that the filter is only engaged automatically when placing a Tungsten stock in the camera. I'm sure its different for all camera manufacturers, but if anyone has an input for my specific Canon 318m camera that would be great.

 

 

It's the other way round. Stop reading whatever it was!

Back in the day almost all Super-8 stocks were tungsten-balanced, so Super-8 cameras have the 85 filter engaged by default. Assuming the cartridges are of the correct specification, daylight ("D") cartridges push in a pin below the gate which disengages it. Tungsten- balanced ("T") cartridges have a notch instead, so the pin stays where it is and so does the filter.

In this picture, the daylight cart is on the right, tungsten on the left.

https://pro8mm.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/pro8mm-pic-09-0942.jpg?w=300&h=225

I don't know about your camera, but if it doesn't have the pin, you disengage the 85 by engaging the "movie light" switch or putting a key in a slot near the lens.

Look carefully through the lens and you can see the filter, or its reflection, swing away out of the light path when you press the pin.

 

For Tri-X, you'd want the 85 filter disengaged- I don't know if the cartridge does it. It's a third of a stop slower in tungsten light, to allow for the deficiency of blue.

Edited by Mark Dunn
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