Canon Auto Zoom 518 SV

In 1971 Canon was running two amateur cine lines at once, Kodak's Super 8 and Fuji's Single-8, and the 518 SV is the clearest evidence of it. Canon describes a Single-8 518 SV and a Super 8 Auto Zoom 518 SV as developed at the same time, though they reached the shops months apart — the Single-8 one in November 1970, this one in March 1971. They share a name and a 9.5 to 47.5mm f/1.8 lens but not a film path. They are different cameras. The Single-8 one does its fades with the shutter and has electric rewind; this one fades on the aperture and has no power rewind. Check which one a listing means. This is the Super 8 one, marketed March 1971 at 45,000 yen. Canon's own account credits it with Servo EE automatic exposure, a new optical system, drop-in loading, a firm fixed grip and a manual aperture that closes fully for fades. The grip was not new to the line: Canon says a fixed grip was first added on the 1967 Auto Zoom 518. What makes it quietly important now is the battery. The 1967 Auto Zoom 518 and the original 814 both need two mercury cells for the meter, and those have not been made for decades. The 518 SV runs everything — drive, zoom and meter — off four AA cells. It was a convenience in 1971. It is the difference between a working camera and a project in 2026. There is one detail on this camera that is worth knowing simply because it is good: the slit on top of the camera that cancels the orange filter was made for a movie light. Canon's manual says that fitting the bracket of a Kodak Instamatic Movie Light or a Bell & Howell Movie Lite #43461 into it cancels the filter automatically. For any other light bar or floodlight, you push the supplied filter cancellation key into the same slit. The key is a loose accessory, a stand-in for a lamp that is not there.

A first serious Super 8 camera, with no battery project standing between you and the first cartridge. Sync-speed work. It has 24 frames a second, which the 310XL and 514XL do not. Manual exposure as a routine tool rather than a hidden override. The same aperture ring switches between automatic and manual, and on manual you set the f/stop against a scale you can see in the finder. Fades, done on the aperture. Canon's manual gives the technique: a tripod, one to one and a half seconds for a fast-changing scene, two to three for a slower one, and a neutral density filter over the lens in very bright light so there is a larger gap between working aperture and fully closed. A wide film speed ladder — seven steps up to ISO 400 tungsten, against the three positions of the 310XL and 514XL. Where it falls short: no macro, and minimum focus 1.2 metres without the optional close-up lenses. No variable shutter, so no dissolves. Five-times zoom at f/1.8, two thirds of a stop slower than the 814 and the same two thirds behind the f/1.4 XL bodies — only the f/1.0 310XL is further ahead, by about one and two-thirds stops. A 160 degree shutter, against the 220 degrees of Canon's later 814XL-S and 1014XL-S, so it is at a disadvantage indoors. Single frames need a cable release. And slow motion needs a stop more light, so indoors it runs out of aperture sooner.

Four fresh AA cells in the grip. They run the motor, the zoom and the meter together; there is no separate meter cell. Then look at the cell contacts and at the connection that carries power from the grip into the body. We found no repair guide for this exact model, but one for Canon's 814 of the period names that grip-to-body contact as a common place for oxidation. A light film of it can be cleaned off at home.

Check whether it is there. It was a loose accessory, so it is easily lost. It is not fatal — super8wiki describes a replacement cut from plastic in the shape of a Greek P, about 1.8 cm high and 2 cm long — and it is not a fault of the camera. It should be reflected in what you paid, and nothing more.

It runs at about thirty-six frames a second, not five times normal. Expect roughly double. It needs a stop more light at that speed; Canon's manual tells you to open one stop when shooting on manual. Canon's metering range includes slow motion, which suggests the automatic meter allows for it, but it will run out of aperture sooner indoors. A camera that gives you a mild effect is working; the dramatic version needs a different camera.

Run it at 18, at 24 and in slow motion. The note should change cleanly at each, and it must stop the moment you let go of the trigger. One that runs on after the trigger, or that will not change note, is genuinely wrong — see What goes wrong.

This camera reads seven film speeds, from 25 to 400 tungsten and 16 to 250 daylight, where the 310XL and the 514XL read three. So if the exposure is out across a whole roll and the film was one it can read, the film speed setting is an unlikely cause, and the meter itself becomes the suspect. Check it against a handheld meter set to the same film speed and frame rate before spending anything.

Set it to A for automatic, then pull it up and turn it counter-clockwise for manual, and watch the needle and the f/stop scale in the finder. Canon's manual describes exactly this movement: it is deliberate, not a jam.

Watch the pulldown claw through the open door while the camera runs. It should move regularly, not hesitantly. And the cartridge drive wheel in the chamber should turn smoothly.

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.

With a 518 SV the film spends its whole life inside the cartridge, which brings its own pressure plate and keeps out most light on its own. So crumbling foam round the door is not the crisis it would be on a spool-loading camera. A full service does renew it, and that is sensible. Sticky rubber at the eyepiece is the other age-related mess you may find.

The four AA cells live in the fixed grip, so the first suspects are the cell contacts and the connection that carries current into the body. A published repair guide for the Canon 814 of the same era says oxidation is common where grip meets body. A light film of oxide can be cleaned off at home. Corrosion or a broken wire inside the grip means opening it — technician.

A sourcing problem rather than a repair, and a piece of shaped plastic solves it. A filter that will not move at all is different: that is a strip-down.

Old grease stiffens. The cure is to clean it out of the gear train and apply fresh, on a bench. Do not reach for oil: one published Canon Super 8 repair guide notes that gears meeting only other gears need no lubricant, and warns against automotive products.

The zoom still works by hand with the manual zooming lever, so the camera stays usable. The fault is somewhere in the power zoom drive, and that is technician work.

The take-up drive in the camera is the suspect. Putting it right means opening the camera — technician.

Assume some drift on a camera nobody has serviced. For a sense of scale, Pro8mm tested eight used Canon 1014s and found their exposure off by an average of two stops — a later model, but from the same maker. Recalibration is bench work, but this camera gives you a genuine alternative: put the ring on manual and use a handheld meter. What you will not have is a battery-voltage problem. Canon specifies the same four AA cells for the drive and the meter, and there is no button cell anywhere in the camera, so ordinary modern AAs are what it was built to use.

Cleaning inside means dismantling the lens, and a published Canon Super 8 repair guide warns that alcohol-based cleaners risk removing the coatings. Fungus that has etched the glass cannot be cleaned away. And a zoom that is reassembled without being collimated may not hold focus across its range. Technician. A note on how much of this is documented for this exact body: less than we would like. We found no published repair guide for the 518 SV itself. What is above draws on published repair material for other Canon Super 8 cameras of the period and on the camera's own manual and specification, and we have said so where it applies.