Super 8

[Ben johns]

Don’t know if this is the right forum but I was just given a chinon 672 classic by a grandparent. I’ve put batteries in for the motor and it works but I don’t have anything for the light meter. It has a manual mode but I see nothing that looks like an aperture dial. Also is 24frames the same as 1/24th? I don’t know how to work out the exposure from a light meter

 

[Nomad Z]

From what I can find out, there is an aperture indication in the viewfinder, and it seems that exposure control can be auto or manual, but it's not clear how exposure is adjusted manually. The lens is f/1.7 wide open.

Frame rate doesn't equate to the reciprocal for shutter speed - a cine camera does stuff between exposures. Basically, it has to advance the film to the next frame, and then hold it still while the shutter opens and closes, so some of the cycle time is used up with the film advance stuff. The shutter is usually a spinning disc, and the shutter opening is expressed in degrees - for example, a 180° shutter is open for 180° of the 360° disc, or half of the disc's rotation in this case. For a given frame rate, the shutter spins at a given speed, with the result that the shutter speed varies with frame rate. For 24fps, a 180° shutter would be open for half the time, or 1/48th of a second.

More on rotary shutters here...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotary_disc_shutter

 

[RaglanSurf]

So your camera has a shutter angle of 220 degrees which gives an equivalent shutter speed of 1/39 at 24 fps.

More info here https://super8arena.com/shutter_speed.php

If you want it to run on Auto rather than Manual you'll have to source a PX-14 2,7v mercury battery equivalent, don't know whether you can run it on manual without the mercury battery in place but I would have thought so.

Buying Super 8 film is fairly easy online in the UK but it's not cheap, the most cost effective place I've found for supply, dev and tele-cine (scanning) is Gauge Film https://www.gaugefilm.co.uk/
I've used them a couple of times over recent years and found them good to deal with.

@gazmorton2000 Also shoots Super 8 occasionally so you may be able to pick his brains re suppliers, dev'ing etc.
You can see some of his work here https://vimeo.com/user17980686 IMHO perfect examples of the art of the 3 minute Super 8 movie.

 

[Deleted member 21335]

Thanks for the tag. yeah, I do only shoot it occasionally unfortunately.

but thank you for the links and the kind words.

 

[Ben johns]

So your camera has a shutter angle of 220 degrees which gives an equivalent shutter speed of 1/39 at 24 fps.

More info here https://super8arena.com/shutter_speed.php

If you want it to run on Auto rather than Manual you'll have to source a PX-14 2,7v mercury battery equivalent, don't know whether you can run it on manual without the mercury battery in place but I would have thought so.

Buying Super 8 film is fairly easy online in the UK but it's not cheap, the most cost effective place I've found for supply, dev and tele-cine (scanning) is Gauge Film https://www.gaugefilm.co.uk/
I've used them a couple of times over recent years and found them good to deal with.

@gazmorton2000 Also shoots Super 8 occasionally so you may be able to pick his brains re suppliers, dev'ing etc.
You can see some of his work here https://vimeo.com/user17980686 IMHO perfect examples of the art of the 3 minute Super 8 movie.

Thanks for the info! You can use it on manual without a battery, I’ve looked through the viewfinder and the aperture dial moves as I adjust it so I’m assuming it’s working ok. I think I’ll have to use it on manual even with a battery. The iso’s that the camera recognises don’t seem that common. One problem is that the inbuilt 85b filter seems to be engaged all the time. The button to turn it on and off doesn’t seem to work, that or I’m doing something wrong, I’ll have a better look