Kodachrome 40 at night

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super8fireman
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Kodachrome 40 at night

Post by super8fireman »

I have just acquired a Canon 310XL and was wondering, since it has an extremely fast lens, could I make movies at night? I want to include some footage of fireworks and don't know if I should expose with the filter in place or out.( The camera did not come with a manual) Also, should I open up the backlight control to let in more light? Any suggestions are welcome.Thanks. Mark
jaxshooter
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Re: Kodachrome 40 at night

Post by jaxshooter »

I have just acquired a Canon 310XL and was wondering, since it has an extremely fast lens, could I make movies at night? I want to include some footage of fireworks and don't know if I should expose with the filter in place or out.( The camera did not come with a manual) Also, should I open up the backlight control to let in more light? Any suggestions are welcome.Thanks. Mark
You could make movies at night,provided you are shooting a higher speed stock,such as Ektachrome 7240(which will be discontinued soon so get some,shoot it and process it before the year's end),or Tri X black and white or perhaps some of the negative stocks like T 100 or T 500.
Shoot with the filter OUT.The filter cuts down your light a bit and will give everything an orange glow.It's for shooting in a daylight type (either daylight,cold flourescents,HMI's or any "cold" or bluish light source).
I wouldn't mess with the backlight button as that's really for just what the name implies.Does the camera have manual over ride on the iris?Just maybe wide open,stopped down slightly might do for fireworks.
jean
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Post by jean »

A backlight control? Mine has nothing like that.. but since it would be shot wide open anyway, the backlight control would be ineffective anyway.

Concerning faster filmstock, the canon only sets 40 and 160 ISO, one of the drawbacks of autoeverything. Filming fireworks with Tri-X would defeat the purpose, I guess - but if you get one of the last ektachromes (160 ISO, isn't it?) It would be perfect.

There is a french manual here in the site's manuals section.
have fun!
Ed
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Post by Ed »

i made a post about this not too long ago. heres the link.

http://www.8mm.filmshooting.com/scripts ... ght=#46195

Im making a film in about a month and i plan to shoot most of it with K40 and alot will be at night. I think itl work out fine as long as its lit very well. an if it isnt...then i guess itl just really look like night. things like fireworks should be fine because the light of them is so bright already.
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BK
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Post by BK »

You shouldn't have any problems at all with K40 shooting in low light such as streets at night with your Canon, and fireworks turns out fine even with my Fujica ZXM 500 with it's F1.2 five times zoom lens, loaded with 25 asa film for example, it is not as fast as the Canon 310XL's with K40.
When shooting in low light it is best to leave the filter out just for the extra light reaching the film.

Bill
Alex

Post by Alex »

The Filter will add extra warm tones, but you are probably better off with a crisper, realer blue edge to your footage rather than too much orange and loss of 2/3 of a stop.

The biggest issue in shooting at night (outdoors I assume?) is whether you have to supply all the lighting or if you will be supplementing existing light. If you are supplying all the light you probably won't have enough light and as a result very little separation from the background. You'll probably not have much in the way of backlight for the actors hair and shoulders. As a result, you will find your actors blending in too the background far more than you probably desired.

If you have existing light already at the location you will be using it makes shooting K-40 simpler on some levels. However, be careful you don't get colored lights spilling onto your actors faces, unless that is what you want.

Or is your shoot strictly about fireworks? I would definitely take the filter out for nightime Kodachrome 40.
super8fireman
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K-40 at night results

Post by super8fireman »

I just got my roll back from Dwayne's of the fireworks show at night taken with a Canon 310XL and everything was properly exposed! Ididn't even have to open up the backlight control. Kudos to Dwayne's again!
Alex

Post by Alex »

With or without the 85 filter?
super8fireman
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K-40 at night

Post by super8fireman »

I had the filter in place. Didn't realize that I may have needed the extra light by displacing it, but it didn't matter. It turned out great with no color shift of any kind.
Alex

Post by Alex »

That's odd, I would have thought that the blue end of the color spectrum would have been somewhat lost.
super8fireman
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K-40 at night

Post by super8fireman »

All of the colors showed up true. It amazed me also that the meter was showing that not enough light was there and it still took.
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