The model

Canon 1014XL-S

Canon · From May 1979

Canon called it the pinnacle of its 8mm cameras, and put a microprocessor in it six years before it stopped making them.

Format: Super 8
Made by: Canon

What it was

In May 1979 Canon put a one-chip CPU inside a consumer cine camera — the first 8mm movie camera to have one — and gave it the first superimposed viewfinder display, which showed you information only when there was something to tell you. Canon says the chip gave the camera electronic sequence control, and it came with an automatic lap dissolve, a built-in intervalometer, a fade that closes the shutter and then switches the camera off by itself when it is finished. It was listed at 184,500 yen, 40,000 more than the 814XL-S that appeared alongside it. For comparison, Canon's Zoom DS-8 of 1970, a Double Super 8 camera, had been listed at 200,000 yen. Canon's own museum calls it the pinnacle of its 8mm movie cameras. The timing is the story. Canon released this in May 1979. Its last 8mm film cameras, the AF310XL and AF310XL-S, appeared in 1982, production stopped in 1985, and in that same year Canon released what it describes as the world's first integrated 8mm video camcorder. Six years separate Canon's first microprocessor in a film camera from its first 8mm camcorder, and the film line ended in the year the camcorder arrived. Super8wiki calls it highly sought after. The reasons are all in one body: an f/1.4 ten-times zoom, a true 220 degree shutter, full manual with AE lock, slow motion, in-camera fades, a ninety-frame lap dissolve and an intervalometer. The counterweight comes from Super8wiki's entry for the 814XL-S, which calls that camera's lens sharper and lighter and describes the 1014 as nose heavy, with the longer zoom hanging off the front.

What it is good for

Low light. f/1.4 throughout the zoom with a 220 degree shutter, which Canon's manual calls the ultimate in XL filming for dim lighting. Effects that would otherwise be post: an automatic fade that stops the camera when it finishes, and a true lap dissolve that rewinds about ninety frames, picture and sound together. Time-lapse. A built-in intervalometer at one frame every 1, 5, 20 or 60 seconds, plus a remote socket, makes it a capable unattended camera. Slow motion around 36 frames a second on silent cartridges — a speed ramp with nothing done afterwards. Precise exposure: automatic with a seven-position compensation dial, one stop either way, AE lock for pans, full manual, and the aperture shown in the finder. Critical focus, with a split-image rangefinder and a dioptre range of -5 to +3, which matters enormously on a fast lens and a tiny frame. Macro at both ends of the zoom, and double-system sound through the pulse sync output. Where it falls short: 2.1 kilos with batteries, and nose heavy by Super8wiki's account. Fairly noisy, by the same source, which matters most when recording sound. No mechanical fallback on exposure — if the electronics die, manual dies too. Nothing faster than 400 tungsten is on its notch ladder, so 500T is outside its reach. Single-system sound is obsolete. It takes large 72mm filters.

Troubleshooting

END is showing and the film is nowhere near its end

Start here. The 1014XL-S shows END superimposed in the lower right corner of the picture. Canon's manual gives three reasons for it to glow steadily and stop the camera: the cartridge is finished, the film has jammed in the cartridge, or the batteries are too low. Nothing is wrong with the display. If END still comes up on fresh film and six fresh cells, or the camera advances one frame at a time, The Film Wave, which repairs these cameras, puts it down to a worn main drive gear, one of the most common faults it sees on the XL-S models. To bring it out, load a fresh cartridge and fresh cells and let the camera run on film without a break. Ask any seller for a video of exactly that; a camera that has only been tried in short bursts has not really been tested.

It is completely dead

Six AA cells in the folding grip power everything, meter included, or the camera can run from an external 9 V pack. Then flex the grip while it runs: intermittent death as the grip moves points to the junction between grip and body. Surface corrosion on contacts can usually be cleaned off; anything deeper is bench work.

The manual aperture does nothing

A small motor opens and closes the iris on this camera, whichever mode you are in. The manual control is really a request to that motor, so when the motor or the board that drives it fails, manual stops working at the same moment automatic does. Put the camera through each mode in turn, AE lock included, and whichever still moves the blades narrows the fault down.

The filter will not move

To push the switch down and take the filter out, hold the filter switch lock button; it goes back up without one. And check the polarity before calling it stuck: tungsten cartridge with the switch at the sun symbol, filter in; daylight cartridge, filter removed automatically. Load a daylight cartridge and confirm it cancels by itself — that is the proper test.

Every frame came back wrong

This camera reads the full notch range, 16/25 up to 250/400, so unlike the two-pin bodies a notch limit is unlikely to be your explanation unless you were shooting 500-speed stock, which is beyond its ladder. The meter is a silicon cell, not CdS, but that is no promise of accuracy: Pro8mm tested eight used 1014s and found their exposure off by an average of two stops. A quick comparison with a handheld meter shows how far out yours is before anyone is paid to look.

The out-of-focus highlights are pentagonal

Five-blade iris. That is the diaphragm, not damage.

The zoom is slow or noisy

Time it. Canon gives the power zoom about 5 seconds across its range at H and about 9 at L; much slower than that is a service matter. Super8wiki calls the camera fairly noisy, so judge steadiness rather than volume.

The fade and the lap dissolve

Run a fade and watch the shutter close and the camera stop itself in roughly five seconds at 18 frames a second. Then the lap dissolve, which should rewind about ninety frames. Test both before you rely on them.

What goes wrong, and what fixes it

Before you blame the camera

Tired batteries, a cartridge that will not run and a meter that cannot read the film's speed can all look like a broken Super 8 camera. How to rule each one out is written once, for every model, in Super 8: before you blame the camera. What follows is specific to this one.

The main drive gear — the fault this model is known for

The camera shows END in the viewfinder permanently, or advances one frame at a time, on fresh film and fresh batteries. The main internal drive gear has degraded. Note what the fault actually is: END is the camera's own warning working as designed. The transport has stopped and the camera is telling you so. Do not chase a display fault, and once fresh film and fresh batteries have not cleared it, do not keep buying more. The shop that replaces the part reckons on it lasting about forty years, and every 1014XL-S is past that birthday. Unless there is paperwork showing the gear has been done, budget for it. A long, unbroken run on film is the test. The cure is to take the camera fully apart and fit a new gear, bundled at The Film Wave with a clean, frame-rate calibration and, where needed, board cleaning. It is a large repair, it takes months, and the shop that does it warns that internal parts are fragile and do-it-yourself often leads to more damage.

The manual override is not a mechanical bypass

The iris is driven by its own motor under servo control, so manual is a powered manual, not a mechanical linkage — it commands the same servo as the automatic exposure. Nothing on the lens lets you set the blades by hand. When that motor or the circuit feeding it gives out, both modes go at once. Unlike a mechanical-iris camera, you cannot reliably shoot your way around an exposure fault here.

Light seals, in proportion

The cartridge does most of the light-proofing on Super 8. It is largely light-tight and carries its own pressure plate, so the camera body matters less here than on a 35mm camera, and fogged film can have other causes — the cartridge, how it was kept, or processing. That is not the same as saying the foam can be ignored. It perishes, and The Film Wave's service for the 1014XL-S and 814XL-S lists light seal replacement. If the door foam is crumbling or sticky, have it replaced along with the drive gear rather than as a separate job.

Corroded grip contacts

The six cells sit in the folding grip and the power has to cross a junction between grip and body. Surface corrosion cleans off at home. Deeper corrosion means removing the grip, and care: Super8wiki's disassembly guide for this camera says to take the batteries out before anything else, because a short can burn out its micro-controlled circuits.

Motor and zoom faults

A zoom that crawls or stalls, or a drive motor that labours, belongs on the bench. If the camera is going in for the gear anyway, have them looked at in the same visit.

Exposure drift

The meter is a silicon cell, not CdS, yet Pro8mm found eight used 1014s off by an average of two stops, and it recalibrates the exposure on the cameras it rebuilds. The servo motor and its board can also cause wrong exposure. Bench work. The compensation dial reaches only one stop either way, so a larger error means manual exposure with a handheld meter until the camera is recalibrated.

Every one of these we list has been through the checks on this page first, and what we found is written on the listing.

Written once and kept up to date. It applies to every example of this model, not only to the one in the photograph. The facts were last checked on 23 September 2026, against the maker’s own published figures where they exist; where sources disagree, the page says so.

More like this: Super 8 cameras, or every model we have written up.

Specification

Lens — Canon Zoom C-8 6.5–65mm f/1.4, 17 elements in 13 groups, Spectra coating Zoom — 10x, power at two speeds (about 5 and 9 seconds) and manual Frame rates — silent cartridge 1, 9, 18, 24 fps plus slow motion about 36 fps. Sound cartridge 18 and 24 fps with sound, 1 and 9 fps silent only Shutter — two selectable openings, 150 and 220 degrees Fades — automatic, by closing the variable shutter from 220 to 0 degrees, with the camera stopping itself Lap dissolve — picture and sound together, with automatic rewind of about 90 frames Exposure — TTL servo AE with a silicon photocell, five-blade iris, AE lock, seven-step compensation and full manual override Metering range — ISO 400 at f/1.4 to ISO 25 at f/45 Film speeds — seven notch positions. Tungsten 25 to 400, daylight 16 to 250, set by the cartridge Viewfinder — single-lens reflex with split-image rangefinder, built-in eyecup and eyepiece shutter, END warning superimposed on the image, dioptre -5 to +3 Focus — manual, 1.2 m to infinity Macro — wide 250 mm, telephoto 720 mm, both from the film plane Interval timer — built in, one frame every 1, 5, 20 or 60 seconds Self-timer — built in, 10 seconds' delay then 10 or 20 seconds' filming Filter — built-in colour conversion A, cancelled automatically by a daylight cartridge Filter thread — 72 mm Sound — Canosound. Magnetic recording on Super 8 sound film, which is no longer made, plus double-system pulse sync through an 8-pin DIN socket Power — six AA cells, or an external 9 V pack. About 7 sound or 10 silent cartridges per set Weight — 1,990 g body, 2,100 g with batteries Dimensions — 59.5 x 113.5 x 264 mm Marketed — May 1979, 184,500 yen

Here now

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