Questions from a newbie

[panzerknacker]

For a while I had in my closet a Canon 514XL, I'd like to start using this camera in place of my Digital 8, partly because I like the "look" of the images and nobody else seems to shoot on film for everyday things.

My question is.... I'd like to shoot in Color, what in your opion is the best film for outdoor color shots? and also what is the best B/W for the same.

I work for a TV production company, but we don't have any telecines would projecting the film at 18 fps onto a screen and recording in onto tape be a good idea? (I'll be recording onto Digi Beta and then converting it to use in final cut pro, then out to a Video CD or DVD) The camera has a variable shutter so I can eliminate most of the flicker, but not all of it. would spending the extra $$ to have it professional transferred be a better solution?

I'm not making a movie, just recording "home movies"

Thanks

Jim

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[Ronson]

Lots of folks here seem to really like the Kodachrome K40 color film. A 50' cart can be had for about $10 from Kodak, or a little less than that from certain distributors (not trying to keep it a secret or anything... I just don't know the names of 'em... there's a recent thread on this board that talks about the best places to buy K40 film... have a look around, or use the search engine and the keyword "K40" or "K-40" to do a search of the last few days or so).

For b/w shooting, if you've got a good light source (er, like the sun), you might try the Plus-X reversal film, also available for about $10 from Kodak (but again, this came up on a recent post, which I naturally can't recall the specifics of, so have a look around). The grain is very fine... I like the results.

In a pinch, I literally did what you're describing: projected old home S8 movies on a screen and shot the image with a VX1000 camera (my brother needed a quick copy of old family movies), which I then bumped to BetaSP for Avid editing. I was suprised at how decent it looked, though I wouldn't want to do a narrative short this way.

If you're just archiving old home movies, I don't think it's the worst thing you could do...

Good luck!

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[Matt Pacini]

You just can't beat Kodachrome 40.
It's the sharpest Super 8 film stock, with the finest grain by far, the richest, most saturated colors, and also the cheapest S8 film stock to boot!

For transferring your film stock, look at the past couple months postings on this website, under the headings of WORKPRINTER.
Roger Evans, (MovieStuff on this board) has built a series of awesome machines to do just this:
cheap, but excellent quality systems you can buy and use at home to transfer your own footage.

P.S. I suggest shooting at 24fps, NOT 18fps.
18fps flickers quite a bit.
All professional film work is shot at 24fps (except for FX like slow-mo, etc.)

Matt Pacini

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