Super 8 Stories

[cameraguy]

Will try this post again after since I could not post it yesterday.

Ok, fresh story from Friday. I'm in a part of Connecticut I don't go to much and I pass this antique store. Looks like its been there for many years. As I often will do I walk in and asked the guy if he's got any Super 8 cameras. After a 5 second pause I said you know an old movie camera that uses film. He then said you know I think I do and he walks around and pulls out an old Bell & Howell wind up. I'm like no thanks, then he said then only other thing I have is this video camera and he wips out a Canon 1014 electronic. My mouth instantly fills with saliva and the vains are bulging in my neck when I ask him how much. "30 bucks", "I'll take it".
It's near mint and everything works, even had the manual and rubber hood. Only flaw is the focus rings black rubber grip was taken off, which doesn't affect anything. Man I like Super 8 [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Alex]

Thanks for breaking through Cameraguy.

We are currently operating at impulse power only.

In the meantime, an ionic storm brought on by dastardly Klingons has rendered the transporter beam useless, over a hundred topic posts remain on life-support (hopefully) while I wait for Godot, er for warp speed and the arrival of these missing posts.

Cool story by the way.

I'm glad you didn't grind the guy any lower. If we grind people to low on the cameras, the next time they find one, they may just chuck it because the previous buyer told them how it wasn't worth anything to try and get it at the lowest possible cost.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 31, 2002 07:28 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[siltec]

Lucky B....
The transporter has scattered my original login to wherever - when - I found an old one, that I had forgotten about still worked - strange old world - maybe there is a movie in it - "I was swallowed by a Message Board" [img]graemlins/film.gif[/img]

[BolexPlusx]

The One That Got away,
About 10 years ago, I was in this camera store and mentioned to the clerk that I was in super 8. He said, "Really, my friend wants to sell his camera". A few days later he showed up with this camera that had enough knobs and dials on it to be in the space program. I remember it being a Yashica (Not Sure). He said it was $80, I started to sweat spending that much on something used and basically wussed out.

A couple of months later my friend dumped my only camera into the river on a canoe trip and ended my filming days until I got on the internet about two years ago and answered the question: "What ever happened to Super 8?".

I'm not sure to this day if that Camera in the Store would have died in the first reel or never, but sometimes I think that beauty and I could have made some great films together!

[Alex]

So you did buy the camera, but before you shot with it, it got dropped into the river on a canoe trip???

Now, what river was this? (kidding)

Some Yashica's had a pretty good dissolve unit built into them. I suppose the camera that fell into the river is also dissolved by now.

Did you see your friend drop it, did you hear the sound of the camera hitting the water. Did the river belch as it swallowed the camera?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 31, 2002 08:01 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[BolexPlusx]

It was the Peconic River, on the east end of Long Island. We managed to fish it out, and I've recently dissasembled it to clean the optics, but I doubt I'll ever get it to the point of being trustworthy. No, I never bought the $80 wonder, the soggy one is a Minolta XL-601. (Kept the friend anyway, cameras I can always get!)

Another Story:
I had intended all along to get back into filming so when I saw a camera for $5.00 in a church rummage sale, I casually bought it and set it aside for another day. I didn't think of it too much before I decided to seriously pursue S8 again. So I looked for the camera not even remembering what it was and when I found it I read "Bolex"! It is a Bolex 150 Super. It is ancient, overly simple and weighs a ton, Yet it is rugged and takes beautiful, sharp images. It's limitations have since forced me to buy other cameras (I didn't resist too much...)to fill in the gaps, but if I'm going outdoors to shoot a nature film, it's my first choice.

Blessed Easter Everyone!

[Alex]

Wow, you fished the camera out of the water!

I thought you originally meant you wondered what would have happened had the camera you did buy for $80.00 had not been dropped into the river.

Since you actually did not buy that camera in the camera store, did you consider going back into the store and buying it after the other camera went into the water?

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ March 31, 2002 08:02 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[cameraguy]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Alex:
Cool story by the way.

I'm glad you didn't grind the guy any lower. If we grind people to low on the cameras, the next time they find one, they may just chuck it because the previous buyer told them how it wasn't worth anything to try and get it at the lowest possible cost.

</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

I wasn't about to give the guy a hard time for a $30 1014 electronic. I didn't even bother to try it out with batteries at the store. Only thing I did (after I said I'll take it) was to look at the battery compartment which was mint. I've had some real good finds in the past but this one tops the list.

Already shot a test roll! [img]graemlins/film.gif[/img]

[8th Man]

I plan on hitting some garage sales this summer and I know I'll run across a few S8 cams here and there, however the real trick is to find one in clean working order.Most folks having a yard sale probably don't think these cameras are worth all that much. I searched a lot of pawn shops last Christmas and found absolutely nothing in Super 8. Buyers at those shops think they're worth less than a VHS video camera from 1983. That's OK by me. It leaves a better chance at running across somthing interesting myself.

[cameraguy]

Garage sales offer some good possibities out there. I have passed a ton of lesser Super 8 cameras (mostly Kodak/GAF/B&H) at tage sales and flea markets. I have aquired some decent stuff too including a Canon 310xl, 514xl-s, elmo k-100 projector among other stuff. Even got 19 old pk59 mailers along with a B&H projector for $5. Still milking those mailers to this day.

I am probably the only one who goes out with 6 AA and 2 px625 button batteries in my pockets. Also beware that at outdoor flea markets the cameras often times are baking in the hot summer sun weekend after weekend. I have even found a couple to be too hot to pick up which can't be good for the camera. I remember someone posting awhile back about getting a Beaulieu 5008 for $50 at a flea market. Some good rewards out there.

I'll likely be going to the Stormville, NY flea market at least twice this year if anyone wants to hook up for a chat. It's held the first weekend of every month.