You sure know your stuff. I see you are from New York. The city? I go about 4 times per year to see plays and visit B & H just to see what's what.

Here is a link where you can find all (or near all) pictures of Super8 cameras

http://www.mondofoto.com/encyclopedia/encyclopedia-index.html

Hi Helen,
Wow, you know a lot about Super 8.
You don't give up on wanting to know what kind
of cams I got, I see.
Well, seeing as I've won up what I need, I
suppose I can share now.
I got three Canon 310XLs. F/1.0, 220 degree shutter, 18 frames per second.
I just got the first one in. Everything seems to work on it, except the automatic zoom. Zooming can be
done manually, but smooth zooms manually are
very difficult, as the control is quite sensitive to
a light touch. The lens has a bit of speckling
(?fungus) and lint, but this doesn't seem to show
if the cam is not pointed near a direct light source.
Fairly quiet. Focus is difficult. Big depth of focus.
Fast-reacting auto iris. Macro focusing at 9".
Backlight correcter. All black, so looks modern.
Low-light indicator.
Not a lot of zoom capability (8mm-25mm). Over at the
Super8 forum, there were people asking the filter
size of the Canon, and some said they thought
it was 46mm, 48mm, or 49mm. I happen to be the proud owner of the Panny DV53 1CCD camcorder. On a far-off chance, I tried my DV53's wide angle converter (Canon 0.7X 43mm) on the 310XL and ... it fit! I also have a telephoto (Canon 1.7X) that will fit, too.
So I got lucky that way. With the wide on there,
I'm able to set the manual focus to 50% and
equal the widest that the cam is able to do
*without* the wide angle converter attached.
The minimum focus distance is said to be 4 feet.
Does anyone have any idea what the use of
the wide will do to the minumum focus distance?
One concern I have is that the film I have is
125 ISO and the cam only has ISO settings
of 40, 160, and 250. I've thought about setting
ISO to 250 and having the Ektachrome 125
reversal push processed one stop. Anyone know
if this will degrade the image much
compared to shooting/processing at 125 ISO?
What changes should I expect with push
processing?

This has been a great thread. I know next to nothing about Super8 and the better cameras currently available. Could someone point me in the right direction for cameras and online resources? Thanks very much.

Anyone know anything about this Russian cam?

http://www.super8filmmaking.com/s8cams.htm

It seems there are only a few S8 cameras in production.

Dave,

Sounds like a nice camera. Great low-light capability with that super-fast lens (who cares if it only goes to 25 mm? - plenty long enough!) and wide shutter.

I've never pushed VNF, but I would suspect that the grain might become excessive. You'll lose shadow detail because pushing has almost no effect on the 'film speed' in the shadows. I'd try the 160 setting - isn't it controlled by the cassette tabs anyway? Is there any over-ride?

Most wide angle converters and all tele converters I've come across are 'afocal' - ie they have no focal length or the focal length is said to be infinite - so they do not affect the focus of the primary lens except in terms of depth of field. Some wide angle converters have negative power (divergent) and these usually need to be used with macro-capable lenses because they create a virtual image close to the front of the lens. These do affect the focus range of the camera.

Best,
Helen

I own twelve super 8 cameras... careful, they're addictive.

A quick glance at Ebay will let you check up on which models are "hot". You can generally count on any of the high end Nizo's going for big bucks, the Canon 1012 almost always goes for more than five hundred. I own the Elmo 612xl and like it a lot. Ditto for my Sankyo em 60's. I own three minoltas... still solid after all these years. I also own a couple of regular eight bolex's. Impressive pieces of clockwork, and yes you can still get and process regular eight film.

Try your local thrift stores. When I lived in San Mateo, I regularly picked up bargains at the local shops. Never paid more than thirty dollars for cameras I have been offered several hundred for. (Ooops my secret is out)
Happy scrounging!

Helen,
Yes, it is controlled by the cassette tabs. There is
no manual override.
So you would suggest I'd be better off going with
the 160 setting (which is what the 125 cassette
will set the ISO at, according to the tabs)? What
is the effect on Ektachrome with minor underexposure?

Dave,
why not use a light meter and set the corret exposure yourself?

Richard

Richard,
How would you suggest I set the exposure?
There is no manual iris control.
This cam also comes in an Auto Focus model,
which uses infrared. With that model, there is
no manual focus option. I inquired about the
AF feature at a Super 8 forum and was told that
black does not emit infrared so the cam cannot focus on anything black. Also, the AF is not
"on the fly" you might say. Rather, the focus
is locked once you start shooting and can't be
changed if your subject moves from the
original position.

Dave,
Are you certain there is no exposure control? Check and see if you at least tdon't have a "EE lock". Thats a very rough way of changing the exposure. The cheaper cameras have a "lock" button on the exposure, so you can aim the camera at an area that has the exposuer you want, press the button and "lock" it there. Handy if you are shooting under variable conditions, and can be used as a rough substitute for setting exposure.

Hey Shawn, you were asking about the "Quartz " aka, the "Kinoflex".......... I have one of these. I got mine on ebay for around US$100 or so, the attraction of these cams is that they are new and they come with some filters and other lens adapters. This camera is built like a tank with a solid metal body. One other unusual thing for a super 8 camera (as opposed to regular 8) is that its a windup i.e. it doesn't use an electric motor. It also lets you set the aperture manually, but as in many other of S8 cameras with manual exposure, its a tiny little dial on the side of the body which doesn't offer very nice handling. The other thing I don't like so much is that the viewfinder isn't very bright and the focusing 'grid' is difficult to use.

I would recommend you just get a second hand camera. I like my Canon 514 and 814. Over on the 8mm.filmshooting site, we recently did a global timelapse project, where we all shot timelapse for one day. For my part, I cobbled together a simple circuit to plug into the 814 so I could just aim the camera and sit back as the camera triggered away happily. I love 8mm for that kinda stuff.

ed

Thanks, Edwin, I probably will go that route. Now to figure out which models are better than others...

Richard,
The only manual control of exposure is a
backlight switch, which increases exposure
by a stop or two.