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Film camera halp

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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
So I'm going to be going to Sasquatch Festival in WA this summer, and I thought it would be cool as hell to buy some sort of super 8mm camera to bring along and film us taking dancing, lying on the grass, doing bong rips, etc. not to post on FB but just to have for our own personal enjoyment to remember the awesome times.


my question is, does anybody have any super 8 recommendations? I want to get that really old, vintage film look without having ridiculously bad quality. how does it work, do you send the film in somewhere and they send it back on a CD? I've been looking on ebay but i'm very overwhelmed seeing as I literally know nothing about super 8

i want something that will look about like this:

Mar 29 2011 12:43AM
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kevinsteen
Posts: 161 - Karma: 780
Ok here we go, first off... man I'm jealous your going to Sasquatch. I wish I would have gotten tickets before it sold out. If you know anyone with an extra one please let me know.

So I went through the Super 8 process a few years back, I bought a camera, a few rolls of film, and had it processed and telecined to mini dv. The footage was amazing and it was really fun to shoot, just super expensive.

As far as camera's, I bought a NIZO because I had heard from multiple sources they are the best for the price. I got the NIZO 701 Professional and it was like $250 on ebay. Make sure the glass is clean, motor works well, and light meter is working properly. Most Super 8's have auto exposure with the light meter so if that is broken or malfunctioning all of your footage will be under or over exposed. There are super 8 cams on Ebay for like $15 but if your going to be spending hundreds of dollars on film don't skimp on the camera, buy a NIZO or at least a properly functioning cam.

As far as film, I used Kodachrome 64T, it WAS the best super 8 film and had great colors, but as of December 30, 2010 there are no more labs in the US that will develop it. So you are either gonna have to shoot Ektachrome 100D Super 8 50ft or a black and white alternative. The 50ft rolls are about $10 and run for 3 mins at 24fps, anything like 60fps will cut that time in half.

As far as developing and telecining, use http://www.dwaynesphoto.com/ down in Kansas. They are the best and are super helpful on the phone. The more rolls you develop at once the cheaper they get. I would recommend calling them on the phone and working out your order that way. It is $12 a roll of film to get it developed and around $8 per roll to have the film transferred to a quicktime file on a DVD. They are super friendly and do everything in house so it's really convenient.

So to wrap things up... It is about $10 a minute to shoot super 8 and the footage and the quality is hit or miss. It is really fun to shoot and I would do it while you can because people that develop super 8 are closing left and right. The retro film look is amazing and so is the whole process of waiting weeks to see what you get back. I shot 3 rolls and would love to do more in the future. I hope this helps.

0:55-1:35 was my first roll, from a few years back.


Mar 29 2011 3:27AM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
awesome, thanks a ton man. you answered all my questions.

i will def let you know if any extra passes surface. i'm stoked to be going as well; i waited last year and had to go on a wild goose chase the day before sasquatch and only managed to get a sunday ticket off craigslist and had to wait like 2 hours in the parking lot for the dude to show up. but it was an amazing time so i bought tickets the night the lineup dropped this year. if you manage to get tickets you should definitely let me know, it would be dope to kick it there.

to be honest i did not realize that this would be such an expensive endeavor. but it seems like it will still be worth it; a super 8 edit from sasquatch weekend should be awesome.

thanks for the info on the film, cam, and processor, that's all perfect. i'd almost like the quality of my footage to be a little worse than how your stuff looked (i feel like the footy in the edit i posted looks a little shittier than what you posted), would i accomplish this with a different film stock, different glass, or a different camera?
Mar 29 2011 3:52AM
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kevinsteen
Posts: 161 - Karma: 780
A lower grade camera would probably give you a less defined image like that, or they may have telecined it themselves with a projector at home. Just make sure you get a cheaper camera that works if you go that route.
Mar 29 2011 4:04AM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
why are the colors so warm in the edit i posted? would that be mainly because he probably used a different stock than you, or is it just because it looked like most of that was at golden hour?
Mar 29 2011 4:11AM
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kevinsteen
Posts: 161 - Karma: 780
He probably used the same or similar stock to what I used, but I was in the shadows most of the time. I'm sure warmer sunlight would definitely give ya a different color temperature. Also there's always grading once the footage is digitized...
Mar 29 2011 4:31AM
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WillStart
Posts: 3955 - Karma: 3,192
yea how well does grading work with footage like that?

also, is super 8mm footage 4:3 or 16:9? because the footage in the edit i posted was 16:9, but then yours isn't. can it be telecined to HD?
Mar 29 2011 4:33AM
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eheath
Posts: 61603 - Karma: 123,085
Reading this making me wanna buy a nizo and a few rolls on ebay right now haha found a couple Nizo 156 XL on ebay for under 200 bucks...
Mar 29 2011 4:39AM
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kevinsteen
Posts: 161 - Karma: 780
Super 8 is 4:3 and I believe they transfer it to 720x480. I bet that they had it transferred in 4:3 then uprezzed theirs to 16:9 which is why the quality is a lot more grainy. But super 8 is native 4:3 so anything that is 16:9 is a cropped 4:3 image. Grading is similar to digital with super 8, just too much can really affect the image quality.
Mar 29 2011 5:20AM
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blatt
Posts: 5584 - Karma: 3,097
Wish I was going to sasquatch... too bad I don't $300 to throw down on a festival pass.
Mar 29 2011 11:01AM
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Blurst
Posts: 13577 - Karma: 10,169
That edit was amazing. You rock so much!
Mar 31 2011 10:14AM
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