Inherited an 8mm Camera & Some Film *new details!*

[egdinger]

Dr_Strangelove, regular 8mm cameras, er I guess I should say double 8, which I belive the bolex s1 in question is, use modified (more perf's are added) 16mm film. The film is passed through the camera once, exposing one half of the film, the fliped over and passed through the camera again, exposing the other half. It is slit apart after processing and spliced together to make one 50 ft length.

The casette tape analogy, if that is what is throwing you off, is wrong in so far that there is no casette or cartride holding the film, only the spools.

[Angus]

Its more like reel to reel tape.

[Dr_Strangelove]

Dr_Strangelove, regular 8mm cameras, er I guess I should say double 8, which I belive the bolex s1 in question is, use modified (more perf's are added) 16mm film. The film is passed through the camera once, exposing one half of the film, the fliped over and passed through the camera again, exposing the other half. It is slit apart after processing and spliced together to make one 50 ft length.

The casette tape analogy, if that is what is throwing you off, is wrong in so far that there is no casette or cartride holding the film, only the spools.

Alright, thanks for clarifying that.

[hellesdonfilms]

On the right side of the camera there's the winder (how many times can you wind it w/o hurting it?)

The winder will come to a stop when it is fully wound, just don't force it.

there's a dial that doesn't want to move that reads 40, 18, 12 with the 18 in red.

This i would imagine is the speed dial for 40fps, 18fps & 12 fps. The normal speed to use is 18fps.

There's a dial that does move with a red dot, a solid black half-circle, a halfblack-halfwhite half-circle, and a solid white half-circle (what on earth does this do?)

This is the variable shutter so you can manual close the shutter for things like lap disolves and if there is too much sunlight.

There's also a thing that slides up and down just between the winder and the half-circle thingy that really I have no idea what it does (what does it do?).

If it's like my camera this is the safety lock. In the up position (i'm going from memory so it may be the other way round) the camera will not run when the trigger is pulled. This is to stop you accidentially wasting film.

You'll need a battery for the light meter to work. If you shoot K40 with a filter and you use the INTERNAL lightmeter. Set the ASA to 40 as the metering is done through the lens and it will take the filter into account.

If you use an SEPERATE EXTERNAL lightmeter set it to ASA 25.

My advice would be to play around with the camera before you load any film to make sure you understand all the controls etc.

[NorCalRiviera]

The kodachrome is balenced for tungsten lights, if you use outside under sunlight, you will get odd color casts, unless you use a no.85 filter. If you shoot with the filter rate it at 25, without the filter 40. When you open the film could you take a picture of the end, see what the code printed onto it says.

The odd thing about regular 8mm cams is that you run the 25 feet, open the camera up and flip the film over and run it again, a bit like a casette tape. So you actualy get 50 feet out of it, and 50 ft will get you 3 min 42 seconds of running time at 18 fps according to http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/filmCalculator.html

I don't know for sure, but the thing with the red dot and all the half circles may be some kind of film counter. As for automatic or manual, that really depends on the situation, and if your in camera meter is working right.

Well, I will definitely crank up the ASA to 40. Thanks. And how crazy about flipping the film over! Okay, so that answers my question about how do you rewind the stuff.

I've already started shooting this roll...so I'll have to check that code after I've shot it all. Thanks for the help!

[NorCalRiviera]

Oooh, didn't see there was another page of posts! Thanks everyone!

The dial with 12, 18, and 40 on it makes sense...it's set to 18...or at least 18 is upright.

I've found that the winder does indeed stops on its own. Haven't forced it...she's a happy camera now.

And I'll test that trigger lock thing. I'm hoping to go out and shoot some stuff today being the 4th of July and all.

Thanks again for the tips and I can't wait to get this stuff developed...anyone have one of those machines that'll convert the 8mm over to a digital format so I can get it on my YouTube? I'll pay the shipping.

[NorCalRiviera]

when you go to walmart write "double 8mm movie film K-14 process (dwaynes)" in the special instructions box of the processing envelope.

Rusty

Well, I finished off the reel yesterday and I'm taking it to Wally Mart Monday...we'll see how it turns out.

I really tried to shoot just anything...anything I didn't care about because I really have no idea if it's even going to come out. We'll see how it goes.