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Questions about shooting on Super 8


Max Thomas Schmitz

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I am shooting on Super 8 using a Beaulieu 1008 XL (I know its not totally ideal for manual shooting but its what I have). I have Vision 3 500T stock, but while researching I saw that the camera only accepts stock from 25-400 ASA.

 

I have two questions. One of them is more generally about Super 8 and the other two are more trouble shooting for the 1008 XL specifically. Thanks for any and all help.

 

Question 1:

Will the camera not be able to recognize the stock since it is over the limit, or will it for example just rate it at 400 ASA and I should adjust my f-stop accordingly (calculating whatever difference between 400 and 500 ASA)?

 

Question 2:

Also, it has a strange system to manually adjust exposure. You are supposed to have it on auto and look at different elements in the scene which will change the f-stop automatically based on how bright each element is. From what I understand, once you have reached an f-stop you like, you switch the camera to manual mode and the f-stop should be locked in place. However, on my camera, when I turn to manual mode, instead of holding on the f-stop value the camera shows a red box, which usually correlates to underexposure. My question is: Can I assume that even though the red box is shown, that the f-stop I locked on is what the camera is set to? Or should I just get slower stock and just shoot auto to avoid potential issues?

 

Question 3:

Finally, since it hasn't been used in a while, the eyepiece is slightly out of focus and makes it hard to determine what or what is not in focus. I've tried adjusting using a dial on the side but it doesn't seem to do much. The camera's condition seems to be otherwise relatively good, can I trust the lens markings instead of my eye and just measure out each shot.

 

Sorry, this is such a specific troubleshooting question. I'm on a pretty tight deadline so I need to figure out how to make this work. And yes, I should probably just get a different super 8 camera but I have to use this one for this project due to time constraints.

 

Here are some images to show what is going on.

https://imgur.com/a/XhfR2Be

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Get another camera, they are cheap enough or rent a good one. I have shot that very stock on a all sorts of cameras and get great results. This was a Sankyo 255 LXL. ten bucks at a yard sale. This is a Beaulieu 4008 MkIV @ 60fps. All 500T with the 85 removed, no filtration and often full auto metering in camera. The stock has such latitude, it is nearly fool proof.

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