What is the best Super 8 Camera available?

Post by **Alex_W** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 1:23 pm

The best features of my beaulieu 4008ZMII are the Schneider lens, the manual ASA and aperture, and last but not least the guillotine shutter, delivering 1/87s exposure at 24fps, instead of the 1/48s with a 180 degree spinning disk shutter, or even longer with an XL shutter.
In the end i would say the differences between the better super 8 cameras are negligible. If you want sharpness and control and like to spend money, go for the beaulieu. If you want ergonomics and reliability, go for the other ones.

As far as the 9008 goes, i think any 'normal' super 8 filmer would be completely insane to buy one.

Post by **taki** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 7:13 pm

I'ce been shooting some tests with my camera's to see which produces the sharpest image. I tried ...
Nizo 6080
Beaulieu 5008
Quartz 18xS-2
Eumig nautica
Bauer mini
Sankyo EM 40XL
So far the Beaulieu looks much sharper then the rest, except that with the lens open its so hard to focus that most of it was blurry. The Quartz with that cheap looking Meteor lens was great and the Nautica was a big nice surprise. They are all about the same except for the Beaulieu when it is in focus.
I wonder how a Liecina special would compare, I read it had a special shutter??

Post by **Dipshooter** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 4:29 am

How about Leicina Special? It has the best lenses ever made to Super 8. If you can find one, it's a great camera.

Post by **Rick Palidwor** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:23 am

I don't think you should worry about which one is the "best", and some issues are obviously subjective. Buy what is available at a price you can afford. And the bottom line is: it's not the gear, it's what you do with it.

Having said all that, I give strong votes to the Nikon R10 or R8 (though, contrary to what Steve H says, I have known a few to die). I have a Canon 814XLS which is a great camera and it has not let me down over 100's of rolls.

There are some really undervalued cameras that produce great images: most of the Chinon's for example.

Rick

Post by **audadvnc** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:46 am

I have a Nikon R8 that gets pretty soft when wide open; I suspect a collimation problem. Does anyone know of a place that can collimate a Nikon back to spec?

Post by **Rick Palidwor** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:56 am

audadvnc wrote:I have a Nikon R8 that gets pretty soft when wide open; I suspect a collimation problem. Does anyone know of a place that can collimate a Nikon back to spec?

Most (perhaps all) cameras get soft when wide open, Canons in particular. I recently tested a bunch of cameras for the local film co-op and stopping down to f2 every one of them got noticeably sharper. Stop down to 2.8 and they get sharper still. I always avoid shooting wide open, regardless of which camera I am using.

Rick

Post by **francis** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:01 am

do what you can to get a camera with interchangable lenses. that can make the diff between soft images and sharp ones. hence why id go beaulieu first (you can still get bits for them) and then the leicina (much harder to get bits for them). the beaulieu seems to have more lens interchangability options compared to the leicina.

Post by **freddiesykes** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:09 am

A Leicina Special was sold for US $1,193.00 on eBay today.

Post by **audadvnc** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 6:22 am

Yikes! You can buy a CP-16 for that kind of money.

Post by **Dipshooter** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 3:09 pm

francis wrote:the beaulieu seems to have more lens interchangability options compared to the leicina.

yeah but the lenses for the Leicina are miles ahead of the Beaulieu or any other super 8 camera. They are the only interchangeable lenses really made for Super 8 format.

Post by **S8 Booster** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:02 pm

What is the best Super 8 Camera available?

depends on how good filmmaker you are or want to be.

most important is the cams ability to read film speeds including manual exposure control. guess you are a semi video guy (film to video) which means you dont really need any sophisticated camera?

s/hoot

Post by **S8 Booster** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:11 pm

Dipshooter wrote:
francis wrote:the beaulieu seems to have more lens interchangability options compared to the leicina.
yeah but the lenses for the Leicina are miles ahead of the Beaulieu or any other super 8 camera. They are the only interchangeable lenses really made for Super 8 format.

many lenses are similar and on equal conditions the beaulieu will easily blow the leicina away. that is a technolgy based fact. check you references.

s/hoot.

Post by **super8man** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 5:24 pm

With the question being of which is the best AVAILABLE, I daresay the Leicina Special is not available generally speaking...You are far more likely to find a Beualieu 4008...though I would go with a much underated 3008/5008 cam instead given the choice.

Otherwise, the R10 also has limited availability. The Canon 814XLS combines many of the strengths of super 8 into one package with very nice imaging capabilities and is generally more common than the R8/R10.

Now that we've cleared those ranks, I would suggest a decent Bauer model (like the 6-51mm Schneider lens varieties) or the very nice 7-56mm Schneider lensed cameras.

Lastly, keep your eyes peeled for a Ziess GS8 or MS8 with only the SONNAR glass...again, rather rare these days but superb images that will make you wonder what all the fuss is over anything Angenieux.

Best of luck.

$1200 for a super 8? Huh. You would be better to shoot 16mm and forget all these degrees of graininess comparisons.

Read my website.

Post by **freddiesykes** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 7:13 pm

Those Beaulieu cameras are always expensive on eBay (from what I've seen) but they are probably worth it. This is a little off topic, but what do you guys think is a good mid-range camera ($100-$300) with decent optics and functions? I was looking at those 4008s but most of them hit minimum $300+ for their final bid. I was also looking at Nizo and Bauer or another Canon to compliment my 814 xl-s.

Post by **Evan Kubota** » Wed Nov 30, 2005 8:51 pm

Nikon R10... they don't come up that often but you should be able to get one for $200-250. IMO spending more than $500-600 for an S8 camera is very excessive considering the limitations and potentially short future lifespan of the format.