Minolta XL 400

[superadio]

I have been offered a Minolta XL 400. Has any of you tried that out with the Ektachrome 64? I have found that there are possibilities to adjust the lightmeter on theese cameras, so that the Ektachrome 64 can be used. But just like to listen your upinion first.

[BolexPlusX]

I have two Minolta XL-401s. I went through the meter adjustment on one, successfully exposed 4 carts of 64T with it, and then I was playing around with it and the unadjusted one and found that they metered pretty much identically anyway. To me this means the variability among individual cameras can swallow up that 2/3 stop difference, so it's probably worth shooting a test cartridge before you change anything.

I also played around with a camera that had exposure comp and found the difference between exposing 64T at 40ASA and 40 ASA with a half stop of underexposure really didn't look different.

So, I'd go for it if I were you! 64T looks a lot better than I ever hoped.

[superadio]

Thanks. Thats very good to get your experience on that camera. Particularly I like the, dont know what to call it- it takes single frame pics, and the time between every shoot is adjustable. I have never seen that on Canon, which i normaly use.

[Andreas Wideroe]

I have 2 of these cameras and they're among my favourite Super8 cameras. I haven't tried them with E64T, but you can do fully manual exposures with them so they will work this way.

Great little timelapse camera by the way!

Andreas

[BolexPlusX]

These are really useful cameras: small but with a lot of nice features.

I always use them for travel. I was in a hotel in Moscow awake at about 3:00 AM one night. 9 Hours of jet lag does that to you. Simply because I had nothing better to do I propped my Minolta up in the window and set the timelapse to capture a frame every 30 seconds and I was able to capture the sunrise over the city that way. It's nice to be able to do something like this on the spur of the moment.

My pair are -401s, which is basically the -400 re-skinned in a more modern style. The neat thing is since the case is plain black without any 1970s chrome, the camera looks like it came out of the factory last week. Many Super-8 cameras get noticed and you get the same stupid questions about "Why do you still use that?". With these I can go anywhere and they just think it's a camcorder.

[filmfan]

My first ever super 8 cam was a XL 400. A quality camera indeed. Very clear optics, and the intervalometer/ time lapse was a lot of fun to shoot with. It's good to know they work well with 64 asa film, might make me try it out with as I still have the camera and it still works.

[Static 8]

How about Ektachrome 100D with this camera? Does it read it as 160?
I got the camera few years ago, never used it before but I'm planning to try it the next weekend with 64T and 100D. Just some "short end" cartridges from my fridge.

Thanks!

Mikko

[enzed]

Hi, this is in relation to Mikko's last post on this thread - how did the 100d film work out on the Minolta XL-400. Did you end up doing any special set up with it.
I am looking at getting one as I have seen a nice XL-400 in good condition and would be interested in how it handled the 100d film.
Cheers - Ben

[71er]

I used my Minolta XL401 with 100D recently and got nice results: the colours are very rich, it is a bit on the darker side but you wouldn't call it underexposed. The trick to compensate with the "+" setting (backlight control) does not work as the aperture opens too much and the image gets really overexposed.

[MIKI-814]

As far as I know the Minoltas 400 and 401 expose correctly 100D films, so this is not an issue

[Lunar07]

Not really. These cameras are 40/160 and they work with 160 G Type (the curse of the Super8 notch reading Kodak system, and no thanks to Kodak for creating the G type monstrosity). With 100D this camera removes the filter and reads film at 160.
User should do two things: shoot film as is for the first half of cartridge (the XL feature should help but you'll end up with slight underexposure) and then shoot film for the second half of cartridge with back light button (+ Corr) on. Compare results and see what works best. The + Corr back light button open up aperture by 2/3 of a stop usually, so this should work fine with this camera.

As far as I know the Minoltas 400 and 401 expose correctly 100D films, so this is not an issue

[71er]

Hi Lunar07! I don't know whether it's my camera or do they all do it? My XL401opens the aperture more than two stops when engaging the backlight correction. With this I got strong overexposure.

[Lunar07]

I have not used the Minolta 400XL in ages (read that as in years ) and I do not have it anymore. I traded it long ago for a Eumig Mini servo camera. I based my post on assuming that the back light button opens aperture by 1 stop at MOST like other cameras do.
One thing for certain here: The option of using back light button is out on your camera. More than two stops seems excessive to me and it defeats the purpose of this button. Makes it great for Kodachrome 25D though

Hi Lunar07! I don't know whether it's my camera or do they all do it? My XL401opens the aperture more than two stops when engaging the backlight correction. With this I got strong overexposure.

[Static 8]

Before shooting I had the camera on tripod and compared the light meter readings between 100D and 64T. Looked like it got the 100D as 160.
So I shot with +1 stop back light correction and tungsten settings. And that was the right decision.
I shot outdoors with bright sunlight and in a club with stage lights, both look great.

Mikko