Super-8 movie camera guide
Super 8 movie cameras were introduced in the late 1960s by Kodak. They were designed to be smaller and more portable than traditional movie cameras and became extremely popular with amateur filmmakers and hobbyists.
Super 8 movies have a distinct look and feel that is difficult to replicate with digital cameras and is a great retro vibe.
Super 8 film comes in a cartridge which makes is really easy to load in the camera, and the length of the film is 50 feet which can make a movie of 3 minutes and 12 seconds.
We are lucky in that Kodak still makes a range of Super 8 film cartridges, and these can be processed at many labs around the world. We use a local lab in Sydney that processes the film and creates a digital scan of the movie so that it can be edited on a computer or uploaded to YouTube.
While Super 8 movie cameras share a lot of characteristics with still film cameras, they also have a number of features that are specific to movie making and these are explained below.
Frame Rate
A movie camera makes the movie by taking multiple pictures per second of the subject. The number of pictures per second is known as the frame rate, and the standard for Super 8 is 18 frames per second. Some cameras can also take at higher frame rates, which will give a smother looking movie, but will consume film faster and so make the movie shorter.
Film Type
You may have noticed that indoor lighting is a slightly different colour than daylight from the sun. This difference in colour shows up very clearly when using Super 8 (or regular camera) film. As a result, manufacturers make two types of film - Daylight and Tungsten. These are colour balanced so that Daylight film looks natural in outdoor scenes, while Tungsten film looks natural when used for indoor scenes.
So, if you are planning to film a movie all indoors or all outdoors, you would use the appropriate film type.
If you use the wrong combination then the following will happen.
- If you use a Daylight film indoors, the colour will look very warm and slightly orange.
- If you use a Tungsten film outdoors, the colour will look very cold and slightly blue
Now you may ask - what if I want to shoot both indoors and outdoors using the same film. Luckily there is a solution to that - the 85B filter (see below).
85A filter
In order to cope with both indoor and daylight lighting types, most Super 8 cameras have a special orange coloured filter built-in which can switched on or off. This orange filter when used with Tungsten film will correct the colour of daylight so that outdoor scenes can be shot with Tungsten film.
As a result, many film makers use Tungsten film all of the time.
Many Super 8 cameras have switch or other means of turning this filter on or off, so you can select depending on whether you are shooting indoors or out.
If your camera does not have an 85A filter, then you buy a screw-in filter to place on the front of the lens.
Note that it is possible to use a different filter to use film the other way (i.e to use Daylight film indoors), however it is a darker filter than the 85B and so it effects exposure more so is used less often.
Film Speed
As with regular film cameras, Super 8 movie film can have different sensitivity known as the film ‘ASA’ or ‘ISO’. The higher the ASA, the more sensitive the film (and more suitable for low lighting conditions). Note that higher ASA also means a more grainy appearance to the film.
Super 8 film cartridges have some special notches on them which will tell the camera what ASA film is being used, and the camera will adjust the light reaching the film accordingly.
Note that not all cameras can cope with all ASA values, so it is worth checking what your camera is capable of before buying film.
Some commonly available film types are:
- 500T (500 ASA, Tungsten colour balance)
- 200T (200 ASA, Tungsten colour balance)
- 250D (250 ASA, Daylight colour balance)
- 50D (50 ASA, Daylight colour balance)
Film Counter
This tells you how much film is remaining. Unlike regular film cameras which tell you how many shots you have taken, Super 8 film counters normally tell you how much feet of film (out of 50) you have used.
Light meter and exposure control
Super 8 cameras always have automatic exposure control built in, so they automatically adjust to the lighting conditions while you are shooting. They do this by changing the aperture of the lens, which is how much light the lens letting through to the film.
Sound
Originally Super-8 movie cameras had no sound. In later years some film manufacturers added a thin magnetic strip to the edge of the film, and some manufacturers added sound capabilities and a microphone to their movie cameras. Unfortunately Super-8 film with soundtrack is no longer made, but naturally the cameras with sound capabilities can be used just like any regular Super-8 camera.
However, many of the sound-capable cameras also have connections for external sound devices, so you can use a separate recorder plugged into the camera to record the soundtrack. Some even have some clever syncing functions which ensure that the soundtrack and video are perfectly in sync, although these do depend on the type of recording equipment used.