Provia 400 for Super 8?

Post by **richard p. t.** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 2:02 am

S8 Booster wrote:shot a few carts of PRO8 custom made P400.

So you shot some Provia 400 in super 8? How well did it transport in the cartridge?

Post by **filmamigo** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:01 am

I think a daylight balanced 400 ASA would be very useful. Available light shooting isn't always under the blazing noon-day sun.

In fact, just today I shot some stills in a restaurant with big windows, predominantly daylight, and I was getting 1/30 sec. exposures at f3.5 on daylight balanced 400 ASA film. Seems like a roll of Super 8 Provia 400 would have been perfect...

A fast daylight-balanced reversal stock would be of great use when shooting weddings -- chapels are often underlit only with daylight, posed photography is often outdoors in the shade, and receptions can be indoors or out and often happen in twilight. Similar conditions might call for it's use in music videos, documentary, or available-light drama. It could be complementary to have a fast daylight stock to go with our fast negative stocks.

400 ASA daylight stock would also be usable with an 80A (CTB) filter -- a 2 stop loss to 100 ASA isn't bad.

Post by **S8 Booster** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:39 am

richard p. t. wrote: So you shot some Provia 400 in super 8? How well did it transport in the cartridge?

not quite good. i tend to belive it was due to lack of lube and high tension film base material. would be ok with post image stabilisation if transfered though.

shoot

Post by **Angus** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:34 pm

Honestly...I've done a lot of daylight shooting in super 8 and to be honest I'd not have any use for a film rated at 400ASA.

I find 100D is sometimes off the scale in conditions that I encounter everyday, and 500T (which equates to 320 under daylight) is practically impossible to shoot with in daylight even at f32...

Post by **S8 Booster** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:38 pm

sort of true but my cam goes to f45 and never peaked out with the F400 and there are polarizers n ND filters avail so its sensitivity should be easy to control.

shoot

Post by **Patrick** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:06 pm

"A fast daylight-balanced reversal stock would be of great use when shooting weddings -- chapels are often underlit only with daylight, posed photography is often outdoors in the shade, and receptions can be indoors or out and often happen in twilight."

Kodak make a 500asa daylight negative stock available in 16mm and 35mm which would be ideal for situations like these...that is if negative shooting is your thing.

Post by **MIKI-814** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 5:11 pm

S8 Booster wrote:sort of true but my cam goes to f45 and never peaked out with the F400 and there are polarizers n ND filters avail so its sensitivity should be easy to control.

shoot

f45 wow!

Anyway, I agree with Angus. If you are thinking of using ND filters, then I do not understand why to shot on 400ASA, unless you are looking for a big grain looking.

Post by **filmamigo** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 6:49 pm

Grain isn't an issue for projects where you are embracing that look -- like weddings where Super 8 was chosen for an aesthetic reason.

Having a high-speed reversal stock is appealing because it's cheaper to process, can be processed in many more labs, and can be nicely transferred by any facility with a WorkPrinter. Negative is much more expensive/demanding on those fronts.

How high a speed you need is debatable, and can depend on factors like your camera. If your favourite camera is a Canon 310XL, then you may not want or need this film. But when you need the exposure lattitude, in a setting where you can't control the light, it's handy to have.

NDs are a simple solution that let you keep shooting with a single roll of film, and remove the NDs as the light changes during the day. I recently read an article in American Cinematographer where the DoP on Apocalypto mentioned that he prefers to shoot Vision2 500T all the time, and simply add or subtract ND on the lens as the conditions require. He likes the look of the film, and can deal with the speed simply.

Post by **Angus** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:40 pm

Even using a non-XL camera with a max aperture of f1.8 I still see no circumstances where I'd want a daylight film faster than 100ASA in super 8.

In my experience...if there's enough light to actually see comfortably...then 100D will capture it nicely...

Post by **filmamigo** » Tue Mar 27, 2007 3:41 pm

Angus wrote:Even using a non-XL camera with a max aperture of f1.8 I still see no circumstances where I'd want a daylight film faster than 100ASA in super 8.

In my experience...if there's enough light to actually see comfortably...then 100D will capture it nicely...

Frankly, I'd be happy with any daylight balanced reversal stock of reasonable speed. 100D right from Kodak would be great

Post by **Angus** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 7:23 pm

Just thought I'd say that over easter I was filming in R8 with Fomapan 100. The conditions varied from filming indoors (with natural light from windows) where I was getting exposures of f5.6 to outdoors in sunlight where f22 was over-exposing the film.

So I really don't see where a 400ASA daylight stock would come in useful.

The absolute ideal would be 100D for daylight....and a fast tungsten reversal stock (100~200ASA)...in addition to the neg stocks and B&W.