Super 8 exposure

[Tom Servo]

If this question has been asked numerous times or is just completely idiotic, please answer anyway.

When i shoot films with my Super 8, the light meter on the camera usually says that there is too much/too little light. Is there a way to adjust the amount of light that gets in(ala f-stops on 35mm cameras)? If this helps, it is a Canon 514XL-S Canosound.



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[eddie]

hello Tom

You are talking about the aperature setting.
most super8 cameras have automatic aperature, this sets the aperature for you. But on some you can override this manually (which is the best thing to do)
I dont know your camera, but you should have a dial, or a wheel near the lens somewhere which does this. The cameras Ive got either show you the f stop value through the eyepeice (so you adjust it looking through the viewfinder) or as a meter next to the dial.
I had a sankyo that gave the light reading with a thin needle on one meter, on the same meter another thicker needle showed the aperature. Twiddle a dial and the thicker needle moves, whilst the thinner needle wobbles around on its own depending on where you point the camera.

On my Chinon Dart you look through the viewfinder to see the lightmeter (it appears as a row of numbers - 1 up to 16- and a black needle) (-the actual lightmeter itself is broken so I use a hand held one) and then push a dial which moves the black needle.

Perhaps your camera has something like this?

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[sdchown]

Hello.

I purchased on of those cameras for a tenner and after finding out that it had no manual exposure adjustment, prompty sold it (I got twice what I paid for it - Ahahahaha)

Sad fact of life that if you want to be able to do that kind of stuff on Super8, you will have to buy a more expensive camera (Nizo or Beaulieu would be the best)

Later
Stephen


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Regards
Stephen Chown
Old Ones Productions

[Curtin-Parloe]

Can you not fool it somehow?
I ask because I just acquired a canon 318M.

Paul

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BAD EYE - Coming Soon www.curtin-parloe.co.uk/badeye Curtin Parloe 2001

[Alex]

Perhaps you are too concerned about what the camera is telling you.

Shoot Kodachrome 40 outdoors, and Ektachrome indoors, (or 200T negative) and see the results...maybe the darn camera won't let you down.

Just be careful for excessive backlight situations, and you may want to see if your camera has a "backlight" button that compensates by opening up the exposure one to two f-stops.

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Alex

[steven_craig]

try getting some Natural Density filters (ND) they reduce the light of all colours equally going into the camera. they come in 0.3 (light) 0.6 and 0.9 (darker) etc. etc. - refer to them as a "point three ND".

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a carefull man tries to dodge the bullets, while a happy man takes a walk!

[Alex]

Kodachrome is hard to overexpose outdoors unless the meter is just plain broken and stuck at an F-stop of F-5.6 or 4.0 or 2.8 etc....

Even when just testing a Super-8 camera, make sure you have film in the camera when evaluating the exposure readings, it's possible that the camera is telling you it is overexposing because it doesn't have an ASA reading to grab onto because there is no film in the camera.

If you are shooting Ektachrome outdoors, that also will explain your overexposure setting...Ektachrome at 18fps outdoors especially will lead to an overexposure reading.

If you have your heart set on Ektachrome for outdoors, then definitely use ND filters, at least an ND 6, perhaps even an ND 9.

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Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex (edited March 08, 2002).]

[Picture House Films]

Before going further the chap who mentioned his Canon318m, nice little machine and a very popular choice in it's day. If it's been looked after it will be a good camera to you but don't try to trik the exposure as it is measured through the only lens it's got. You risk putting things in the picture you don't want, trust your camera, if you use it properly it won't let you down. We still have one at PHF. Now the main question: if the camera is an XL model it possibly does have a manual overide, if not again trust your camera. If your machine has manual apeture control then purchase a cartridge of film specially for test purposes. This is a film you must expect to waste, it's all part of the learning process. Try the camera in various lighting conditions and apeture settings and make notes as you go of these, they'll be important when your film comes back from the labs to see what light effects you have captured. If this is your first Super8mm camera it is best to attempt nothing serious at this point. This may scare you but the balance of waste against the cost of super8 will soon have you knowing what not to try. Once you've got it you'll find it is a fantastic format that offers greater flexability in all ways. Don't let the new Digital people put you off, film has at least 50 years yet, that's why Kodak launched the 3 Vision negative stocks on super8. Happy filming.

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[Alex]

I have only shot time-exposure with it, But I LOVE the 200T.

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