I've not used super-8 for many years. But I still remember doing splices with cement on the interframe black lines.
About exposure. If you don't own a meter, you likely do own a SLR or point and shoot camera. THose cameras will have meters. Set the ISO on the still camera to match the film speed and set the shutters to match the shutter speed on the super-8 camera. The SLR will then select an f-stop. Transfer that to the movie camera.
I used to use my older film based 35mm SLR as a light meter for my meter-less medium format cameras. Works Well enough until I finally got a a couple real light meters. I still use the meters for critical work or with studio lights. But SLRs (or a P&S that allows manual settings) make good enough meters
You can get away with using automatic setting on a still camera but it looks bad on movie film because you do NOT want those seting changing while you are doing a shot. I just have to lock down the exposure and focus and can't leave them on auto while the film is moving.
You don't need a dark room. They make changing bags. This is a black zipper bag with two sleves where you can get your arms and hands into the bag. Your hands and the film are in darkness but you work in a room with the lights on. The bags are good for transfering film to processing reels. Then the reels are loaded into a daylight tank and then the tank is removed from the bag and all farther work continues in light. The tank has a lightt trap so you can pour chemical in and out in the well let kitchen.
One advantage of super-8 now is that the cameras are so cheap, almost free. You can use them in a location where you would not risk a $1,000 HD camera. I know someone who threw a few 8mm cameras off a tall building to record the view while falling. He set them to a high speed to set a slow motion effect. He said most of the film survived. Wrap the camera in duct tape. Same with use near water. Some really old film camera use a wind-up motor and dont even have batteries. These will work in the rain, surf and so on. places you'd never take an expensive video camera. I've seen 8mm camera sell for $10. And a camera that sold new in the 70's for $1,500 sell for $100 at a local camera swapmeet.
Even 16mm equipment sells for way cheap now. Not cheap enough to trow off a building but very affordable.
Thanks for the suggestions, I am still very much a film novice. I am using Super 8 for a documentary I am doing at my school. A lot of the film I am getting from the archives is Super 8, and I wanted to re-create the look of the modern campus with Super 8 film.
I am shooting with Ektachrome 64T, which of course requires me to have a lot of light.
I do have a Canon Digital Rebel but it does not have ISO 64 which is a small pain, because I cannot use that to meter. I did some quick calculations, at 18fps I will have a shutter speed of 43.2, and at 24fps 57.6.
Thanks for telling me about not allowing the camera to change f-stop automatically. I never do this when I am shooting digital, but as you can see I am still playing with film.
In your experience is Vision 2 or Vision 3 worth the investment?
I am having the film developed in Canada, and my school has a Super 8 projector which I will setup in a dark room with a either a Panasonic DVX 100 with Synchro Scan or with a Sony HDV camera to do transfers.
Let me know your thoughts.
The film that inspired me to do this is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sN6njx5Pj9U
I got a high quality transfer from the original and it looks amazing.
