Ektachrome 100D Colors Look Great!

[Shanec8mm]

I just received a roll of Super 8 Ektachrome 100D back from Dwayne's, and the colors are fantastic!!! None of the over saturation others are complaining about. The skin tones looks natural as well. The footage near the pool looks great! The water is very blue and natural looking. 100D seems to look best in sunny to some what sunny conditions. I project my movies and really I am quite pleased.
Now I do have one problem with Super 8 and that is the cartridge. I shot 2 rolls last week while on vacation at the beach and both carts jammed. My Minolta was having a lot of problems and I could here what sounded like the cartridge making weird noises. I have never had a problem quite this bad before. I was quite bad to say the least. I am now at a cross road deciding whether or not to shoot more Super 8 or pull out my Bolex P1 and go back to standard 8??? I starting to lean toward the Bolex at this point. Unless some one can talk me out of it Ha Ha!

[Muckymuck]

I can second that.

Whilst the latitude of Ektachrome 100D seems somewhat better than older stocks (Kodachrome et al), nevertheless the skin tones depend on very careful exposure.

Having had unsatisfactory results overall with this film using the auto exposure on my Quarz, I have been exposing Ektachrome 100D manually, unfiltered, and have been delighted with the latest results.

A slight (up to 2/3 stop) underexposure will give you extreme saturation and contrast in bright conditions without making the film look "dark" and underexposed, but will make people look sunburnt - even "correct" exposure leaves people an un-natural shade of red- (whatever their original shade!) , whilst a 1/3 - 1/2 stop approx overexposure will give much more natural skin tones in bright light.

[Shanec8mm]

I can second that.

Whilst the latitude of Ektachrome 100D seems somewhat better than older stocks (Kodachrome et al), nevertheless the skin tones depend on very careful exposure.

Having had unsatisfactory results overall with this film using the auto exposure on my Quarz, I have been exposing Ektachrome 100D manually, unfiltered, and have been delighted with the latest results.

A slight (up to 2/3 stop) underexposure will give you extreme saturation and contrast in bright conditions without making the film look "dark" and underexposed, but will make people look sunburnt - even "correct" exposure leaves people an un-natural shade of red- (whatever their original shade!) , whilst a 1/3 - 1/2 stop approx overexposure will give much more natural skin tones in bright light.

I agree the slight overexposure of at least a 1/2 stop gives a more natural skin tone. I manually exposed my last film, mentioned here, and the colors are fantastic. I took the auto exposure reading from the camera and then slightly overexposed it by a 1/2 of a stop and that is how I got the more natural colors. The effort of doing this certainly seems to have paid off. I have never seen such vibrant colors in Super 8mm until now!! I would say 100D handles slight overexposure quite well, much better than I thought it would in a higher ASA speed film.
I have also come to the conclusion that most shots filmed in the shade are not the most satisfying. Not the worst I have seen but not the best either. As I also mentioned earlier the shots I did at the pool are just awesome! Even my girlfriend couldn't believe how rich the blues and reds were, yet not over-saturated. The grain is also comparable to Kodachrome, very low. I also found the sharpness of my film was very nice. Kodak made a smart choice by introducing 100D in Super 8. Now if I could only figure out why both carts I shot last week jammed quite badly. I had them in an air conditioned house and maybe I didn't give them enough time to warm-up, not sure?

[Shanec8mm]

I must also add something that is of importance that I completely forgot about in my last post. When I shot the film at the pool I was using a neutral density filter that reduces the light by 2 fstops. In one of the scenes, at the pool, the camera gave me a f22, I increased the exposure to 1/3 of a stop past f16 and the results were good! The highlights and colors were not blown out as one might expect. Now I don't know if this was because I was using a neutral density and that helped from over exposing too much? Any fstop past that might have been too much I would think. So my conclusion has been, if I am correct here, overexposing the film by even 1 fstop should still give great results.

[mauka]

Now I do have one problem with Super 8 and that is the cartridge. I shot 2 rolls last week while on vacation at the beach and both carts jammed.

Did you tap the carts before shooting? Super 8, even with all it's problems is still better than standard 8mm.

[Shanec8mm]

Now I do have one problem with Super 8 and that is the cartridge. I shot 2 rolls last week while on vacation at the beach and both carts jammed.

Did you tap the carts before shooting? Super 8, even with all it's problems is still better than standard 8mm.

Yes, I turned the center spindle a full turn but I think I did it too much??? Maybe this was part of the problem?

[Shanec8mm]

Would it be a good idea not to turn the spindle, and maybe just tap the cart a few times? This is what I use to do until I read that turning the center spindle was a good idea, along with tapping the cart. It would seem to me that doing both would defeat the purpose?????

[mauka]

I have always just tapped and shaked a bit the carts, never any problems. Once I forgot to do that and that has been the only time any cart has jammed (it was ektachrome 64t).

[marc]

Super 8, even with all it's problems is still better than standard 8mm.

If having a larger frame size is what makes it better, then that, in my opinion, is not a testament to it's superiority. In every other way, except convenience, R8 is superior. Prime lenses, steady images, unlimited rewind, multiple running speeds, etc. makes regular 8 superior.

[peaceman]

I would not turn the spindle/core manually ever. I am not sure where I read it, but I think its Kodak saying you should not. Smooth transport of FIlm in this silly cartridge only works when the film is moved by the registration pin AND the spindle. Wrong torque or speed on either easily causes jams.

[Shanec8mm]

Thanks for all the responses. It sounds like turning the spindle is not a good thing, I will refrain from doing so. I will use the bang and tap method instead. It seems these little cartridges are quite sensitive. I will also give Super 8 another chance. I might still try a roll of regular 8 in my Bolex P1. The fade in and fade outs are cool and I miss the ability to do so. My Minolta Super 8 cam does not have this feature, which is OK. I was able to locate the remote cord on Ebay for the Minolta so this might be fun to use and another reason to keep the camera and Super 8 rolling. I like the larger frame size with Super 8, which is a big plus.

[Jean Poirier]

I shot with a Nizo S2 in auto mode and filter out on a sunny and lightly overcast day and the results were excellent. It is good not having to compensate for exposure when filming on the run. Jean

[Angus]

I usually give a super 8 cart a quick shake after removing the packaging, and solidly insert it into the camera. I then run the motor for about two seconds (with a hand over the lens) to make sure the film is running.

This seems to have worked for 24 years. I have had one serious case of jitter, which was with a K40 cart during the year when jitter was everywhere.

100D....I shall be getting my first Kodak 100D carts back soon having shot some over last month. As previously mentiond I've shot Wittner packaged 100D in the past, its very good stuff and welcome addition to the super 8 portfolio but it certainly can exhibit oversaturated colours. I've not tried over-exposing, I am reluctant to over expose reversal film as in the past this was always a big "no"...but the E6 films have greater latitude than any Kodachrome.

I can see a need for ND filters on sunny days, especially with XL cameras. In an ideal world we'd have (in addition to 100D) a low speed colour reversal and a high speed tungsten balanced reversal....but these are not ideal times any more for us amateurs. 100D is a fine product and will hopefully be available in super 8 for many years to come.

[Shanec8mm]

Angus,
I have found that the slight overexposure 2/3 to 1 full f-stop really gives great results. Now I have not tried this without the ND filter, so I don't know how the results would end up looking? My guess is 2/3 overexposure without a ND filter would be OK. The skin tones and everything else within the image looks very natural. Underexposure is not good, and even exposures I have done that were correct or close did not look as good. So personally I say overexposure is a good way to go when shooting 100D. Again a ND filter is also a good idea in bright sunny conditions along with the overexposure mentioned here.

[MIKI-814]

I have found that the slight overexposure 2/3 to 1 full f-stop really gives great results. Now I have not tried this without the ND filter, so I don't know how the results would end up looking? My guess is 2/3 overexposure without a ND filter would be OK.

So you overexpose the film deliberately and at the same time use an ND filter?? I don't see the point...

Having shot many E100D in Regular 8 as well as in Super8 I can assure that this stock looks far far better underexposed a bit that overexposed (as all reversal colour stocks) at least used for projection. Don't know what's the case when the film is to be telecined.