Canon Cine Super 8mm Camera
- Thread starter RedSpectrumPictures
- Start date
Curtis Mack
Active member
Let the camera set exposure, then lock it with the AE lock, if available. The viewfinder has a translucent mirror in the light path, which soaks up a full stop of light, so an external meter will be wrong.
If you are shooting just for fun and plan to project the original, you can use 18FPS, saving film and 1/4 stop of light. For serious work, default to 24FPS.
Zoom in on the subject and set focus with the split image in the center of the viewfinder, then zoom out to the composition you plan to use. You cannot change focus during the shot with any hope of getting it right. The format provides more depth of field than others - the normal lens is about a 6mm.
If you are shooting negative film, you have up to 2 stops of positive latitude, so you have more room than normal in bright sunlight or other high-contrast scenes. Reversal film has very limited DR - the lighting should be soft. Very mildly underexposed footage can be salvaged. Any other exposure error ruins the shot.
Avoid panning the camera. If you must pan, make it very slow or very fast.
Assuming you plan to edit in your NLE, line up a vendor who can both process and transfer to video. Back in the day, I edited Super 8 sound film with a Bolex splicer and Minette viewer with audio head, crude by today's standards, but editing the camera original is a tactile and spiritual experience that no other medium provides.
If you are shooting just for fun and plan to project the original, you can use 18FPS, saving film and 1/4 stop of light. For serious work, default to 24FPS.
Zoom in on the subject and set focus with the split image in the center of the viewfinder, then zoom out to the composition you plan to use. You cannot change focus during the shot with any hope of getting it right. The format provides more depth of field than others - the normal lens is about a 6mm.
If you are shooting negative film, you have up to 2 stops of positive latitude, so you have more room than normal in bright sunlight or other high-contrast scenes. Reversal film has very limited DR - the lighting should be soft. Very mildly underexposed footage can be salvaged. Any other exposure error ruins the shot.
Avoid panning the camera. If you must pan, make it very slow or very fast.
Assuming you plan to edit in your NLE, line up a vendor who can both process and transfer to video. Back in the day, I edited Super 8 sound film with a Bolex splicer and Minette viewer with audio head, crude by today's standards, but editing the camera original is a tactile and spiritual experience that no other medium provides.
Michael Carter
Veteran
Start your 8mm trip at pro8mm.com. Awesome resource. If you don't have a projector, you can buy film from them, shoot it, and send it back with a hard drive. They'll scan it (Pro Res or other codecs) and you'll have real-film scans to work with. About $100 a roll as I recall. They have stuff like 5-roll discount film/process/scan packages (great for a music video, right?) and if you sign up for emails, frequent specials. They also do repairs (I really want 16x9 frame lines in my Nikon's finder... really...)
Google up a manual if you don't have one. If the camera has variable frame rates (my Nikon can overcrank significantly for slowmo), you'll need to adjust exposure correspondingly.
Find a battery for the camera's meter and test it - simple as framing up a shot, and then taking a shot of the same frame with a DSLR set to the same speed and shutter angle/aperture. See if the meter's reasonably close. Run a test roll and see whatcha get - keep in mind super 8 is a TINY frame - even a great loupe won't show you much.
Google up a manual if you don't have one. If the camera has variable frame rates (my Nikon can overcrank significantly for slowmo), you'll need to adjust exposure correspondingly.
Find a battery for the camera's meter and test it - simple as framing up a shot, and then taking a shot of the same frame with a DSLR set to the same speed and shutter angle/aperture. See if the meter's reasonably close. Run a test roll and see whatcha get - keep in mind super 8 is a TINY frame - even a great loupe won't show you much.