8mm Forum: 8mm exposure

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Topic: 8mm exposure

Adam Gottlob
Junior
Posts: 5
From: ohio
Registered: Apr 2012

posted April 06, 2012 09:30 AM

I am not sure how to describe this, but I notice on 8mm films that if there is a bright area in a dark room (for example) the bright area is often washed out, overexposed with no definition at all. If the aperture was closed to get some definition in the bright areas, then the entire room would be dark.

So it appears to be a sort of high contrast between the bright and dark areas of a scene, an inability for 8mm to discern certain levels of both brightness and darkness. I don't see this as much with 16mm and even less with 35mm, so I assume the effect has to do with the size of the film itself, lens, etc.

Does anyone know what this phenomenon is called, and what the capability of 8mm film is in this area? Are certain types of 8mm film better than others in having both light and dark areas without over or underexposure?

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Michael Wright
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 184
From: Chorley, Lancashire, England
Registered: Dec 2008

posted April 09, 2012 03:19 AM

Hi Adam, what your talking about is the films 'latitude' ie. it's ability to correctly expose scenes with different light levels. All films suffer from this, no film has the kind of latitude that the human eye has. One option is to take light readings of the lightest and the darkest areas and do a compromise exposure between the 2 readings. Another option is just to decide what is important in any particular scene and expose for that. Thank goodness most scenes don't have such extreams. Hope that helps. MIKE

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Alexander Vandeputte
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 243
From: Belgium
Registered: Nov 2009

posted April 09, 2012 04:27 AM

With super 8 most film stock is reversal (i.e. Ektachrome 100D), which has a much smaller latitude then negative stock that can cover a much broader range.

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Adam Gottlob
Junior
Posts: 5
From: ohio
Registered: Apr 2012

posted April 09, 2012 11:57 AM

I was seeing this problem in concert films, probably the most challenging use of 8mm film. Yes, this is Ektachrome (I think 160, but not sure)...this has a more limited "latitude"? Does this get better as the ISO goes up or get worse? Thanks a ton for the help!

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