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Super-8 total costs in 2018


Samuel Berger

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This is an excellent point. In that vein, would anyone care to speculate on what the return of Ektachrome in S8 might mean to overall costs? Meaning, does another available emulsion translate to lower prices?

 

Depends on your workflow and scanner...if you use a film chain scanner (Moviestuff) then reversal is probably easier but if you use something like a Lasergraphics then it doesn't really make much difference I would think since the software doesn't care that much. In that case it's simply a different look.

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Ektachrome will cost more than Vision negative stocks...it always has. I like to project it in 16mm and I like the look in general when scanned but I probably would stick with Vision stocks in Super 8 and 35mm...although it would be fun to test a 35mm motion picture Ektachrome 100' reel on my Eyemo.

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Ektachrome will cost more than Vision negative stocks...it always has. I like to project it in 16mm and I like the look in general when scanned but I probably would stick with Vision stocks in Super 8 and 35mm...although it would be fun to test a 35mm motion picture Ektachrome 100' reel on my Eyemo.

 

That's good to know. I would also like to watch a 35mm Ektachrome print of a classic film. Maybe Holy Grail?

 

If I had the budget for 35mm, I'd definitely shoot with Ektachrome. From what I've seen (in stills at least) the colours are quite cool and soft.

Edited by Timothy Fransky
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That's good to know. I would also like to watch a 35mm Ektachrome print of a classic film. Maybe Holy Grail?

As it's reversal you couldn't strike a positive print on it from neg. So it's not something you're going to see.

Edited by Mark Dunn
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Well down in Australia we do not have a lot of the volume benefits offered by many labs, but the businesses down here offer very competitive pricing. A quick research:

50ft Super8 costs: around $130

100ft 16mm costs: around $195

 

Bear in mind, postage costs feature 3 times with each transaction. Even then, Super8 remains a pretty viable and attractive alternative to 16mm. And if shot and scanned well, can look so sweet.

 

And: maintenance costs, super8: $0, 16mm? Exponential to what you can afford,

Edited by Gareth Blackstock
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Gday,

 

Try the links on this page.

http://www.mishkin.yolasite.com/australian-16mm.php

 

The businesses servicing super8 and 16mm are continually expanding, and neglab re opened in Sydney for 16mm and 35mm production work.

 

There are also labs in south east Asia and India that process a lot of film too. They are just an email away.

 

Sadly new Zealand has no labs left.

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If you send Super 8 negative to Nanolab, does the scanning price include colour grading? I'm guessing it must, as grading doesn't seem to be mentioned on the site, and it's always necessary. I've sent 16mm 50D to Neglab and got it scanned by Memorylab. I'm thinking in future I will shoot on Ektachrome and just get that scanned, though will probably cost more, but at least I have the option to project the film.

 

I would really like to do some 35mm shooting too at some stage, as I have a camera. I think I need to get Bruce in Victoria to change the lens mount though as it appears to be a Panavision lens mount!

Edited by Jon O'Brien
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Yes, if you mean the Ektachrome, I'd think that would still be necessary. But I don't know.

 

No. Lab these days send back scans as flat. Meant for grading yourself. You CAN pay extra for the lab to grade it or save some money and grade it yourself. That's what I do. Color negative, black and white, color reversal... anything will come back low contrast. Granted B&W and color reversal will just need a little tweak of the contrast and you'll be set whereas color negative takes a little bit more work.

 

WHICH I will say is the cause of the current trend in new Super 8 shooters posting ungraded footage. They don't realize it NEEDS to be graded and think that's the final product. But alas, there's not much education on it so people get back their film, edit it some and then post the flat scans. It's sad because Vision3 film looks incredible graded. People don't realize that the color film they're shooting on is LITERALLY what major motion pictures is shot on and it doesn't look like that.... ugh.

Edited by Nick Collingwood
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if i may give my 5ç to this post?

 

maybe you could beat your frustration with starting your own development? i fully agree...N8 and S8 development nowaydays are ridiculous.

so what i did, i purchased a LOMO UDP-1 Tank on ebay. and chemicals i have from http://www.fotoimpex.com/

 

you need a developer, a stopper, a fixer and a wetting agent. the chemistry is ridicolous cheap. and it makes some real fun. if you need help, just pm me.

 

randy

 

PS: i also just ordered some ECN2 chemistry for kodak vision 3 film!!

Edited by Randy J Tomlinson
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if i may give my 5ç to this post?

 

maybe you could beat your frustration with starting your own development? i fully agree...N8 and S8 development nowaydays are ridiculous.

so what i did, i purchased a LOMO UDP-1 Tank on ebay. and chemicals i have from http://www.fotoimpex.com/

 

you need a developer, a stopper, a fixer and a wetting agent. the chemistry is ridicolous cheap. and it makes some real fun. if you need help, just pm me.

 

randy

 

PS: i also just ordered some ECN2 chemistry for kodak vision 3 film!!

 

And what is the minimum quantity of ECN-2?

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The last time I tried to figure out how to work the free version of Davinci Resolve, in re-grading an already-graded (by the lab, which I paid extra for) 16mm reel, I spent many, many hours trying to figure it out, and didn't manage to figure out hardly a thing. It could be my problem was that the computer was too slow, or maybe the footage had already been graded and there's not much you can do with it once its done.

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The last time I tried to figure out how to work the free version of Davinci Resolve, in re-grading an already-graded (by the lab, which I paid extra for) 16mm reel, I spent many, many hours trying to figure it out, and didn't manage to figure out hardly a thing. It could be my problem was that the computer was too slow, or maybe the footage had already been graded and there's not much you can do with it once its done.

 

It may be that the grade you got from the lab clipped and crushed the high and low ends respectively, in which case you can't recover anything from those extreme ends. But you should be able to do other stuff.

 

Resolve is an insanely powerful application, but any grading using a mouse and keyboard is going to be much harder than with a control surface, and it's a recipe for frustration - inexpensive surfaces like the Tangent Ripple will make the process a million times better. Another common set of issues first-timers have is not using scopes or using your computer monitor to make grading decisions. I mean, with proper scopes you can do a lot of stuff, like basic color balancing, without even having to look at the picture. But if you're making decisions based on what you see on your computer monitor rather than a decent grading monitor connected via SDI to the computer, you're asking for trouble.

 

The free version of Resolve, by the way, is identical to the paid versions, with just a few limitations. It works in exactly the same way though.

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No. Lab these days send back scans as flat. Meant for grading yourself. You CAN pay extra for the lab to grade it or save some money and grade it yourself. That's what I do. Color negative, black and white, color reversal... anything will come back low contrast. Granted B&W and color reversal will just need a little tweak of the contrast and you'll be set whereas color negative takes a little bit more work.

 

WHICH I will say is the cause of the current trend in new Super 8 shooters posting ungraded footage. They don't realize it NEEDS to be graded and think that's the final product. But alas, there's not much education on it so people get back their film, edit it some and then post the flat scans. It's sad because Vision3 film looks incredible graded. People don't realize that the color film they're shooting on is LITERALLY what major motion pictures is shot on and it doesn't look like that.... ugh.

What do you suggest for easy to use grading software for PC?

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