Elmo Super104 question

Forum covering all aspects of small gauge cinematography! This is the main discussion forum.

Moderator: Andreas Wideroe

Post Reply
Filmosity
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 12:37 am
Contact:

Elmo Super104 question

Post by Filmosity »

So a few months ago, I shot some K40 on my Elmo Super 104. I shot exterior, days and sunset, without the 85B filter in (because k40 is daylight balanced, negating the need for the filter...correct?). I shot 18fps on autoexposure.

Unfortunately, the footage (two rolls worth) came out horribly overexposed. The contrast was relatively nonexistant, and everything was way too bright. Aside from the obvious cartridge problems, could this have occurred because of the eyepiece? My eyepiece does not have an eyecup, so my eye socket does not rest against the viewfinder, thus allowing light into the finder. Would this cause a problem on this camera? Or should I look for other problems?

I'm going to shoot some more film soon, and I'll update you on my progress.

Also, how does the process of the prepaid mailers work exactly? I just put the cartriges in the mailers and drop the whole thing in the mailbox, or what?

thanks,

Cavs
User avatar
sunrise
Senior member
Posts: 1584
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2003 12:03 am
Location: denmark
Contact:

Post by sunrise »

K-40 is tungsten balanced, which might explain the light blue tint I expect your film has.

Try transfering your footage to digital and correct the colour balance on a computer.

michael
ccortez
Senior member
Posts: 2220
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2004 3:07 am
Location: Austin, Texas
Contact:

Re: Elmo Super104 question

Post by ccortez »

Filmosity wrote:So a few months ago, I shot some K40 on my Elmo Super 104. I shot exterior, days and sunset, without the 85B filter in (because k40 is daylight balanced, negating the need for the filter...correct?). I shot 18fps on autoexposure.

Unfortunately, the footage (two rolls worth) came out horribly overexposed. The contrast was relatively nonexistant, and everything was way too bright. Aside from the obvious cartridge problems, could this have occurred because of the eyepiece? My eyepiece does not have an eyecup, so my eye socket does not rest against the viewfinder, thus allowing light into the finder. Would this cause a problem on this camera? Or should I look for other problems?

I'm going to shoot some more film soon, and I'll update you on my progress.

Also, how does the process of the prepaid mailers work exactly? I just put the cartriges in the mailers and drop the whole thing in the mailbox, or what?

thanks,

Cavs
An eyepiece makes a difference, probably could make a big difference. When I first got my nizo 801 it didn't have an eyecup. I shot a cart of tri-x with it before i put one on -- everything was overexposed. Problem went away when I put an eyecup on.
Filmosity
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 12:37 am
Contact:

Post by Filmosity »

sunrise wrote:K-40 is tungsten balanced, which might explain the light blue tint I expect your film has.
According to this page:

http://www.filmshooting.com/filming/page4.php

k40 is daylight balanced.

There actually is no blue tint. In fact, has a lot of yellow in some of the wedding stuff (mainly because the church was yellow brick and the bridesmaids were wearing yellow with sunflowers).
User avatar
sunrise
Senior member
Posts: 1584
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2003 12:03 am
Location: denmark
Contact:

Post by sunrise »

LOL! Do not trust this site!

Use the info from K itself: http://www.kodak.com/US/plugins/acrobat ... ti0840.pdf

Or you could read what's printed on the little yellow cardboard box that the cartridge came in...

michael
Filmosity
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 12:37 am
Contact:

Post by Filmosity »

sunrise wrote:LOL! Do not trust this site!

Use the info from K itself: http://www.kodak.com/US/plugins/acrobat ... ti0840.pdf

Or you could read what's printed on the little yellow cardboard box that the cartridge came in...

michael
Doh! I stand corrected. Well, either way, I must have had the proper filter setting, because the colors were correct...the image was just way overexposed.
BolexPlusX
Posts: 423
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2002 3:00 pm
Location: Long Island, New York
Contact:

Post by BolexPlusX »

Do you get some indication that your autoexposure system is reacting to the ambient light? This is usually a needle on a light meter swinging up and down in reaction to brighter and dimmer lighting.

It sounds like the system was unreactive and you were shooting with the aperture wide open.

Meter battery dead maybe?
Angus
Senior member
Posts: 3888
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2003 11:22 am
Contact:

Post by Angus »

I doubt the eyepiece makes much difference unless you had bright sunlight beaming down on the rear of the camera.

The super 104 is rather similar to my super 110, though less high end. If it is an older model the exposure meter will take a separate battery, in addition to the AA's for the motor. Can you confirm either that it uses the AA's for the exposure and motor, or that you have obtained and fitted the correct battery for the exposure system?

As Bolexplusx says, did you see the needle swinging in the viewfinder to indicate that the exposure system was funcitoning?

K40 is definately tungsten balanced, says so on the box. You can manually disable the filter but if you say you had no blue cast on your film then this isn't likely to be the case. However over-exposure caused by removing the filter would produce low contrast and a much too bright image.
Post Reply