Tahiti on Super 8 - Shot on Kodak Vision3 50D film with an Elmo 1012S-XL

Early this summer, I went to Tahiti to shoot a Shark Week show for Discovery. Since we would be living in tight quarters on a Catamaran as we travelled around the French Polynesian islands, I couldn’t bring much with me. But I did keep enough space in my backpack for my Elmo 1012S-XL Super 8 camera and 2 cartridges of Vision3 8mm film, to shoot with on my brief moments of downtime during the job.
I've never shot Super 8 film before, and had recently taken a chance on this purchase of an untested and “as is” camera for about $140. When I got it, and put the six AA batteries in, it fired up and spun the mechanism with a trigger pull. Still, with the cost of 8mm film and the developing and scanning process, I was nervous to load it up and shoot. At best, if it didn’t work, I would be out a few hundred bucks. At worst, I would lose the the recorded moments of what would certainly be a incredible and memorable trip.
That’s why I only took 2 reels of film.
Of course, as soon as I saw the scans, I was thrilled to see that everything worked perfectly, and in fact, better than I expected. I wish I’d taken more film! The color and clarity of Kodak 50D is exceptional with extremely minimal grain for the size of the film - which is smaller than you probably think and close in size to a 1/3” digital sensor, like what you would find in old DV cameras and camcorders.
The Elmo 1012S worked just as it was designed, with excellent and accurate auto-exposure and a working exposed film counter so I could keep track of how much film I'd gone through on a reel. The 10x zoom lens is sharp and rendered images beautifully, and really it's only failures were due to operator error when I couldn’t find focus. I did find it difficult to hold the camera steady at the long end of the lens, so that’s a skill I certainly need to work on. That’s probably an issue with all 8mm cameras without some kind of shoulder brace for a third point of contact for stability. Or a tripod, better yet.
Being in French Polynesia and sailing the islands around Tahiti was an incredible experience. The people, the ocean, the tropical atolls, and all the seafood we could catch and eat is a hard thing to leave when the time is over. I was lucky, too, to see so much incredible ocean shark life - tigers, black tips, silver tips. We even caught a healthy glimpse of a manta ray swimming with our little skiff one evening toward the end of the trip. But of course, my film had long been shot out. Well, there’s always a reason to go back…
Thanks for watching these two short reels of film. I’ve put it up uncut as I shot it, with only a one-light grade from the log scan of the negatives. The show is shot was called “Sharks in Paradise” with Kinga Phillips and Tristan Guttridge, and if you missed it during Shark Week, you can watch it anytime on the Discovery+ streaming network.

[@patrickbeaton6697]

absolutely loved it Brian, like goin' on a vacation back in the day...👏🍻

[@BrianCWeed]

I know, it really takes you there, doesn’t it

[@acecreates]

I just loved this, Brian!! It felt like a holiday video should!

[@HAFhotandfluffy]

ORTHUR! I HAVE A PLAN!

[@XingjianWang08]

Gotta love this. I have one that I bought it in Japan. But I don't know why the film I shot is quite weird, the footage seems to be a light blue.

[@noscaasifilmstudios]

What was the film stock? You probably have off white balance. Fortunately, it can be fixed in post.

[@AIsgoodsIa]

What song is this ?

[@BrianCWeed]

Easy Now by Melanie Bell

[@TheGhostzinhu]

Hey bro. I need to use your video for my personal project and I want your permission to use it. I will credit and share your work. I can do this? (Sorry, my english is bad).

[@BrianCWeed]

Yeah, man - that's ok. Send me a link when you're done!

[@TheGhostzinhu]

Ok, but i speak Portuguese, i'll put legends for you

[@nevillebobeck4279]

𝔭𝔯𝔬𝔪𝔬𝔰𝔪 🙃

[@craigstutzky3939]

It really is beautiful! And it was just like a vacation film from back in the day....when home movies were all in camera edits! And I love the slightly animated feeling that 18 fps gives you. Have you been back to Easter Island since the Expedition Unknown episode? Seen any bright lights in the sky lately?!! 😃.

[@BrianCWeed]

Yeah, it’s almost a dream-like quality. I’m digging the look a lot

[@lo_batt]

the shots of the shark under the water were so good

[@regalwalnut]

I appreciate the full frame scan with sprocket hole registration! 🙂 Was this shot a 18fps? Who did you have scan it and at what fps? I only ask because the footage is beautiful but SLIGHTLY jerkier than I expect; I am confident you have a steady camera hand considering your occupation!

[@BrianCWeed]

Thanks man! Yeah, I’m a sprocket hole fan myself. But to each their own! This was shot at 18fps, but interpolated to 24fps ProRes in the scanning process. That might account from some of the jerkiness, but the Elmo has a 10x zoom and some of those shots are at the very end of the range. The Elmo lens is 7.5mm - 75mm, and with the 6.19x crop factor of Super 8, that makes the long end more than 450mm equivalent! Definitely hard to handhold that in a steady way!

[@BrianCWeed]

Oh, and the scan was done by Nick Coyle at The Negative Space

[@jonathanhotopf1823]

Super 8 is better than I remembered. Great conversion to video here.

[@BrianCWeed]

The Vision3 50D is an fantastic low-grain film for Super 8! The scan was done by Nick Coyle at The Negative Space. Also, I shouldn’t overlook the lens of the Elmo, which is really exceptional. A lot of Super 8 cameras didn’t have lenses that could fully resolve the film.

[@EM-ve9bh]

@@BrianCWeed Coyle is also using one of the best film scanners ever made lol

[@BrianCWeed]

@@EM-ve9bh that probably has a little something to do with it, too!

[@EM-ve9bh]

@@BrianCWeed For sure. The coolest part to me is how good super 8 can look now with modern film stocks and modern scanners.

[@DesertPhxStudio]

It all looks great. You should try Ektachrome next time.

[@TesserSpace]

Beautiful!

[@BrianCWeed]

Thank you!

[@brainmt]

beautiful!

[@duratorque]

Good work. Good results from super 8.