Shooting A Roll Of Kodak Vision3 500T On Super 8
A film frame on Kodak Vision3 500T - Shot on April 27 2025
It’s 2025. The world is changing every day. If the industry is slow, it’s time to experiment. That’s what I did. If you are closely following on social media, lots of people are still shooting on 35mm film rolls and 120mm film rolls. There is a ton of stores that have that here in Vancouver. You know what they don’t have that much of? Super 8 film. The authentic classic home video.
The first time I shot a roll of Super 8 film was in 2022, when I was only able to get it from Moment, a camera store based in Seattle, so it cost me around $50 in USD exchange rate (including shipping). At the time, I experimented with Kodak Vision3 50D with my friends, which lasted only three months, but making videos during the day with great sunlight created a sense of a memory you can watch over time.
Jump to now. 2025 is more expensive, and people are still shooting on film and experimenting with random cameras. Celine Song just shot a classy rom-com on 35mm film called Materialists, Danny Boyle had Anthony Dod Mantle attach an iPhone 15 Pro Max with cinema lenses for 28 Years Later, and Christopher Nolan is going to shoot his entire epic, The Odyssey, on IMAX 70mm film—the first entirely shot IMAX film. You don’t see a lot of creators shooting on Super 8 nowadays. Now it’s just filmmakers, mostly, or hipsters shooting their projects on film.
I managed to get my hands on a Kodak Vision3 500T film stock. A camera store called Beau Photo now supplies Super 8 Film, but it’s always sold out. I guess Vancouver just got more hipster than ever. This is probably one of my favourite film stocks I’ve shot yet. The balance of warmth between inside and outside shots makes it easier to colour grade, but it also makes everything feel like a homemade movie. You feel like you created a memory in its true form. It’s different than shooting on digital because with digital, you can take the whole process and make it retro and fake the look, but shooting on film, everything is there. As a photographer, it made me think about the shots I want to get—compared to me shooting 1,000 shots a day, I now limit each shot I take to only 100 (For event and wedding photographers, I don’t recommend this because that’s a service, not an art form). We. Film gives you a closer vision. There’s a lot of patience and consideration because there’s no delete button and no pause button. You have to think of everything and can’t rewind the film, but it makes you be more creative visually of what you want out of a shot.
Yes, film is much harder than digital—probably because the old-school film cameras don’t have an SD card, just piles of canisters that last for 3 minutes, and you have a limited amount of time to get the shot. But the visuals, the feeling, the scratches on a film roll—it’s such a vibe.
I, 100 percent, recommend everyone to shoot on film. It lets you appreciate the art you are making. Below you can look at a few frames from my Super 8 Camera.
Recently, I made a spec ad using the 500T Film I shot and blended it with Sony FX30 Footage. You can take a look at the footage below.