8mm Forum: Which Super 8 Camera?

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Topic: Which Super 8 Camera?

Jan Fett
Junior
Posts: 6
From: States
Registered: Mar 2004

posted March 21, 2004 05:23 PM

Need to purchase a Super 8 Cam and after doing some research, have come up with the following choices...I could use some advice from the experts.

I will be using this camera for short dramatic work, so I need a decent a full manual camera that will be suitable for sound work...quiet is good.

From what I hear, the Nizo 4080 or 6080 are the most silent...I hear their belts can wear and are expensive to replace...how ofter do these belts wear out and can I replace them myself?

The Canon 1014XL-S or 814XL-S I hear are great, but how quiet are these...again, I need a fairly silent camera for my work

Beauliu series 4008, 5008, 6008, etc. I like these cams because of the available ASA settings on this cam for Negative Film Stocks...Can the Nizo or Canon offerings still shoot with the fast ASA negative films from Pro8MM? If so, I would abandon the idea of using a Beauliu, becase I hear they require a lot of maintenance and constant care.

So in summary, a low maintenance, fairly quiet cam able to shoot with fast ASA negative film...Any advice on the above models or another cam all together would be great...thanks.

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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted March 21, 2004 05:51 PM

Couple of points:

1. Check out the availability of batteries. Many cameras used mercury batteries which are now illegal in the US and some require a battery or the lens remains closed at it's min. f/stop.

2. How are you going to shoot sound? Pre-striped film is almost all gone and there hasn't been any negative material with stripe. If you're going to shoot double system and do video transfer for editing and finishing you might consider 16mm (I know herasy) which has more vendors, labs, post production facilities and has crystal cotrolled cameras that can run with time coded audio.

The number of vendors that can supply you with all the necessary parts of working with Super8 negative a few and they set their own prices.

John

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Jan Fett
Junior
Posts: 6
From: States
Registered: Mar 2004

posted March 21, 2004 06:50 PM

Yes, recording double system sound with a mini disk and syncing in post...I looked into 16MM, but I like the fact of a small camera and ease of loading film in cartridge form without the need for a changing bag.

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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted March 21, 2004 10:26 PM

Well then your first consideration will be a camera with a crystal controlled motor. In the olden days we would record a sync pulse from the camera on audio tape and use that to control playback later. For minidisc or DAT you need to have a control on the camera like the 35mm Panavision, Eclair & Arriflex.

I trust your doing this for your own amazement rather than a commercial use. Distributors have kinda funny feelings about Super8 DV and other sub formats.

John

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Mike Peckham
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1461
From: West Sussex, UK.
Registered: Jun 2003

posted March 22, 2004 01:11 AM

I think Pedro supplies a unit for converting the pulse from the flash socket to a pulse that can be laid down on one of the tracks on a mini disc recorder and then later used for sound sincing.

Pedro... are you out there?

Good luck

Mike

--------------------
Auntie Em must have stopped wondering where I am by now...

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