Completely new to Super 8.

[Motel]

Awhile I read an old 70's book about animation and it's been in the back of my head ever since. I've finally decided to do something about it... I was kind of pleasantly surprised the Super 8 the book recommended was still in use. I generally love the look and feel of 60s-70s animation and think the new stuff is kind of slick and soulless.

So--I have no camera, no film, no nothing. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. I want to try construction-paper animation first just because it seems the simplest. On the technical side of things, what do I need, where do I get it, and how much will it cost? I'm hoping it'll be fairly cheap...

[JackMartinEF]

Im no expert. You can get what you want from Ebay. It will at least give you an idea of prices. There are cameras on there a cheap as ?10. The projector will set you back a little more, maybe ?40 or ?50.
I dont know enough about cameras to recomend you one (maybe someone else could) but if you are to make animation then your camera must have Single-Frame shooting ability.

Good Luck.

p.s. Do you like Jan Svankmajer? He is one of my favourate animators.

[zhensel]

Find someone with an LCD screen of some sort -- laptop, flat screen, projector, whatever. LCDs don't refresh in the way that CRTs do.

[Motel]

What are CRTs versus LCDs? I didn't even think about projectors. Also, how is sound synched with the film?

To summarize, I need:
Camera that can take individual frames
Projector
Film, obviously

I'll need a tripod I assume?

Like I said, completely new to this. Thanks for the help.

[zhensel]

Um, I was totally wrong when I responded to your post. I think I read construction paper as computer paper... or something. I thought you wanted to get titles or animations from a computer to super 8. Don't worry about the stuff I said because it doesn't help you at all [img]smile.gif[/img]

You're set with the stuff in that list. Lots of consumer level cameras require special attachments to do single frame shooting -- you'll want a way to trigger frame exposures without physically touching the camera. Suffice to say, I bet most of these attachments are hard to come by these days! Look for a camera that can shoot in some sort of single-exposure mode and has a hook-up for a cable release trigger.

A cable release connector is usually a threaded hole on the trigger of the camera -- you screw in this device that lets you initiate the trigger mechanism without knocking about the camera... here's a picture of such a device on a still camera: http://www.biologie.uni-hamburg.de/b...easeLab400.jpg

[megalith6]

Nizo S-800 has auto single frame filming control plus cable-release socket

an amazing piece of gear

picked it up on ebay - can't remember exactly how much for, but i'm still here to tell the tale!

watch ebay

if you discover any good projectors - please post here!

best of luck -

[Motel]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

Okay, this that a good deal? I hope it's not a GREAT deal and somebody here snatches it away from me. But does it have the cable release? I can't tell. Should I get it?

[megalith6]

S-800, that's what i've got - it is a joy to use and not only has single frame + cable release but time-frame settings.

if it's in good working condition this is a camera i would certainly recommend.

[img]graemlins/film.gif[/img]

[megalith6]

check out that dial second from top, though; my one is silver - that's the single frame/time frame control dial

email the seller

[img]graemlins/film.gif[/img]

[Motel]

Crap, I was the second-highest bidder ($252) but I lost out. Any other recommendations? I need this for Christmas and time is beginning to run out.