8mm Forum: Canon 814 Autozoom First Movie

This is topic Canon 814 Autozoom First Movie - KODAK EKTACHROME 100D in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Juan Carlos Tudose (Member # 3402) on December 01, 2012, 10:16 AM:

Hi everybody, first post here.

My name is Juan Carlos and I love film!

I bought my first Super 8 camera at the tender age of 43 (never too late, huh?) and I shot my first Ektachrome 100D a couple months ago.

The movie is mostly dark and I'd like to find out why with your precious help.

When the reel and the DVD with the movie came back from the lab (Blue Cine Tech, UK) it had a note from the technician that says:

quote:
There appears to be a significant problem with the lightmeter on this camera, whenever it is pointed towards something bright the aperture seems to stop down far too much, making the image really dark. Possibly it is something else, but the metering and aperture seems really far too erratic throughout.

You can view the full movie here:

s8 test

I shot the movie without any ND filter and since it was a very bright sunny day, the exposure needle was always at the left end of the scale (iris almost close), which at the moment made me think it was quite a problem.

Exposure was set to Auto.

In the last part of the movie I was at home with very low artificial light and a blue filter: The result is all black.

The camera manual says to use a ND filter in case of excessive light and use additional light in case of low ambient light.

The camera is in almost mint conditions, with barely visible signs of use, very strange for a 40+ years old camera.

My question is this: Is the lack of use of ND filters the reason why the images are dark?

I'd like to use the camera for wedding films and I have to know if it's the case for buying another camera.

I'll be posting this thread on other forums, so please excuse if you will find it elsewhere.

Thanks for your help!

Regards.

Posted by Joe Taffis (Member # 4) on December 01, 2012, 11:22 AM:

Hi Juan Carlos, Welcome to the Forum. An ND filter may help outdoors in daylight with the Ektachrome film, but manual exposure settings may be needed, and additional light for indoors using the auto setting. There is some nice color saturation on your film.

Posted by Juan Carlos Tudose (Member # 3402) on December 01, 2012, 02:08 PM:

Hi Joe, thanks for the reply!

Do you meak I should get an external light meter, bypass the internal one and close the iris manually?

Wow, that's a lot to do with only two hands... [Wink]

Posted by Graham Ritchie (Member # 559) on December 01, 2012, 02:43 PM:

Hi Juan

I would agree with Joe on auto, it seems to be all over the place. Taking control on manual with an external light meter would be worth trying. The down side with shooting film indoors is that you need plenty of light. Is your Canon 814 the "XL low light" model.

However the colour and everything else does look really good.

Graham.

Posted by Joe Taffis (Member # 4) on December 01, 2012, 05:25 PM:

Seeing your film I think an ND filter is definitely needed for shooting with Ektachrome film in daylight on auto exposure. You also need to consider your shooting angles, like scenes where the foreground is dark and the background is bright. That really messes up the auto exposure control. And like Graham said, indoor shooting with Ektachrome, even though it is "low light" capable, will usually require a lot more light, with no filter, to get nice results.

Posted by Juan Carlos Tudose (Member # 3402) on December 03, 2012, 04:22 PM:

Hi Graham,

Thanks for the reply!

Mine is the plain jane 814.

Since I see a lot of Super 8 wedding filmmakers doing indoor shots with apparently no additional light I always wonder how they do...

Right now I'm looking at a XL model to compensate the poor low light capabilities of my 814.

Will keep you updated...

[Smile]

Juan Carlos Montero Tudose

=======================
One Happy FilmMaker™

T+F -- +39 0381 325 522
M -- +39 339 297 0384
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www.unmatrimoniodafavola.tv
www.tvitaliaweb.tv

--------------------
Juan Carlos Montero Tudose

=======================
One Happy FilmMaker™

T+F -- +39 0381 325 522
M -- +39 339 297 0384
E -- info@tvitaliaweb.tv
Skype -- tvitaliaweb

www.unmatrimoniodafavola.tv
www.tvitaliaweb.tv

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