a quick post on 500T

[Angus]

Got my first two rolls of 500T super 8 back from Andec.

first things first, the camera negative was returned spliced with something like 20 feet of blank film in front of it, which is an excellent idea to protect the neg, and in a metal can (on a regular reel).

The print was on a similar reel, with a good length of blank film as leader, and contained in a nice cardboard box. Both neg and print were labelled in English with my name on them.

The subject matter was as follows. about 10 feet of an evening party, shot outside with a small amount of material shot inside under good lighting. I am frankly amazed that there's anything at all outside as it was almost pitch black. The images are there, the people recognisable and the grain not too bad - about 1.5 times the old Ektachrome 160. oddly the better exposed footage shot indoors under fluorescent lighting and over exposed is more grainy, but obviously more satisfyingly bright and clear.

Most of the rest of the film is fireworks from Nov 5th last year. The results are little short of stunning. I've shot fireworks before on K40, and what you get is a pleasing black background with the fireworks lighting it up. Looks good and I've always been satisfied with it.

With 500T, one can see the garden, the summer house next to where they were let off and the smoke. I even shot some scenes lit totally by vintage oil lamp and a small amount of detail is visible. All with the unmisakable film look of course. For shots of rockets in the sky the increase in ASA compared to K40 shows off more range of colours and brightness of the rockets.

Yes, grain is there but with the subject matter you can't really tell too much. However the well lit scenes really were poor, with the grain a distraction. Don't use 500T if you have a decent amount of light...use 200T instead or reversal film!!

FInally I attempted to film the moon but it appears totally washed out. Maybe that's the print, I haven't examined the neg yet.

All in all impressive, but definately a film to use in extreme conditions such as fireworks, rock concerts, dimly lit sports arenas and suchlike. Once again, as with my early 200T, the processing and print provided by Andec is superb - though not cheap.

If you've got some money to spend, I really recommend having a go with Andec's print service. It's the only option we have for high speed filming these days (unless you've got some older Ektachrome stashed away).

I shall try to post some clips later in the week.

[T-Scan]

It's an amazing film for it's speed.. If your working with it in post, you can crush out the grain of the background and enhance the highlights with incredible shadow detail.

[Angus]

Well I was really just experimenting...apart from the fireworks I doubt anyone else will see any of the footage and they came out fine.

[studiocarter]

I'd pushed a roll of 125 R8mm a stop once and it did great. What would 500T do pushed a stop and then printed from a neg with huge latitude???
Especially if one shot with a XL at 8fps?

[Angus]

I'd pushed a roll of 125 R8mm a stop once and it did great. What would 500T do pushed a stop and then printed from a neg with huge latitude???
Especially if one shot with a XL at 8fps?

Well...the grain on the 500T seems worse than the old Ektachrome 160, which was known for grain! Pictures are perfectly watchable but I'd say it is really suited only to unusual lighting conditions as mentioned above.

Pushing it to 100ASA really would result in huge grain. Sure, you'd get an image but I wonder if it would be worthwhile. As far as super 8 goes, with present film technology 500T processed as 500ASA really is the maximum. You can push tri-x to 800 ASA (B&W obviously) and get smaller grain size than 500T at 500ASA.

[mattias]

you mean 1000asa, right? while i haven't tried it they say it doesn't get noticably grainier, but that's in 16 and 35mm of course.

/matt

[Angus]

I'm only guessing grain size would increase if 500T were pushed to 1000ASA...going on what happens when other films are pushed.

[Daniel]

vision2 7218 500T in super-8 format rated at ISO 1000 doesn't present a high increase of granulation, compared to its nominal response at ISO 500, from previous experience. (pushed one stop at Megacolor laboratoy).

Look forward to see it at ISO 1500 (with pristine optics)

DHI

[Angus]

May be worth trying then, though frankly one can film by candle light with it as it is....and I wasn't even using an XL camera.

I mean...pitch black except for the light from two 150+ year old oil lamps...and 500T can pick that up!

put that in your camcorder and smoke it!

[mathis]

All pics shot with 500T, printed to positive by Andec and scanned with my DIY setup off the wall with a paper sheet.
Lighting is by not more than one or two candles (except for the obvious one with lots of candles).
First two not color corrected.

[T-Scan]

I pushed it to 800 in S8 once under dim stage lights. It did just fine getting my subjects to show up... but with such a dark setting, increased grain wasn't really an issue, all highlights and shadows.

A lot of the grain could be eliminated in the above pics by darkening the background, and have excellent grain and sharpness on the subjects.

[freddiesykes]

mathis, is that an octopus?

[John_Pytlak]

Remember, although the Kodak VISION2 Color Negative Films look very good at their rated exposure index, a bit of overexposure can be used to "tighten up the grain". Color negative films use the larger grain emulsions to capture the shadow detail in the "toe" of the film's sensitivity curve. Increasing exposure moves the scene detail "up the curve" onto the finer grained mid and slow speed emulsions.

Expose the 7218 500T at EI-250 or even EI-125, and get less grain.

Try 7217 200T at EI-100 or even EI-40, and the grain will be very fine.

[Actor]

Try 7217 200T at EI-100 or even EI-40, and the grain will be very fine.

200T exposed as EI-40 :?: I just gotta try that :!: :twisted:

[Actor]

Increasing exposure moves the scene detail "up the curve" onto the finer grained mid and slow speed emulsions.

Try 7217 200T at EI-100 or even EI-40, and the grain will be very fine.

:?:

Do you need to tell the lab that you exposed the film as ASA 100? I.e., if I expose the 7217 as EI-50, should I ask the lab to pull it 2 stops in order to get the desired effect, very fine grain?