Modern Super 8 Better than Older 35 mm

John Sprung · July 29, 2004

Probably hacking it out of an old, worn-out 16mm camera.

Or you could get a one inch by 32 thread per inch tap and a 31/32" drill, and drill and tap a fresh new C-mount hole in any piece of metal you want. You'd have a much better shot at getting the face of it parallel to the film plane that way. Do it in a good drill press to be sure of getting the hole square to the surface. If you can't find a machine shop supply place locally, try Grainger or Fastenal.

-- J.S.

Filip Plesha · July 29, 2004

Saturation? Did you make a mistake or am I going to learn today a new usage of the word saturation in photography?

Nathan Milford · July 30, 2004

Reading this thread and watching the attempt the justify the development of Super8 as a higher resolution format comperable to older 35mm put a very amusing image in my mind.

Super8 vistavision!

*chuckles*

Alessandro Machi · July 30, 2004

I recently watched some Super-8 (both KODACHROME 40 and VISION200T) blown up to a 35mm print via Digital Intermediate (scanned on a Spirit). It looked very good, but no mistaking it for 35mm or Super-16. Size DOES matter.

I'd like to know more about this. Was this test footage or was it an actual film project? What camera was used to shoot the footage?

I'd like to do a Spirit test to HD with the pin registered Super-8 camera I have, but I was quoted $600.00 to transfer 20 minutes of film.

John Pytlak RIP · July 30, 2004

It was internal Kodak test footage.

John Sprung · July 30, 2004

Super8 vistavision!

*chuckles*

Nah, instead figure out a way to pull down only half a perf per frame, so you could have a wide screen format in the style of Techniscope. Call it OctoScope. ;-)

-- J.S.

Josh Hill · July 30, 2004

Coming soon to a theatre near you: Lawrence of Arabia II -- in Widescreen Super8 3-D! Marvel at the Super8 technology! Widescreen! 3-D! Come see this epic sequel from the smallest negative we could possibly find! SUPER 8! ::bum bum bum:: 35mm will be trembling in its boots--er--cans!

John Pytlak RIP · July 30, 2004

Don't laugh too hard. The most valuable film in the world on a per-foot basis is the Zapruder 8mm film of the JFK assasination. The US National Archive paid the Zapruder estate $16 Million for that one short roll of KODACHROME film. B)

http://www.cnn.com/US/9908/03/zapruder.02/

Nate Downes · July 31, 2004

Super8 vistavision!

*chuckles*

Nah, instead figure out a way to pull down only half a perf per frame, so you could have a wide screen format in the style of Techniscope. Call it OctoScope. ;-)

-- J.S.

If you Super16'ize Super8 you can get widescreen. It's not hard to do, but not all cameras can be recentered+.

Alessandro Machi · July 31, 2004

Can I submit my footage? It won't get much better than pin registered.

Alessandro Machi · July 31, 2004

uh oh, I hear a voice, it's someone from this forum saying, "Oh, you just want something for free".

Actually, I've already invested close to $2,000 dollars on my pin registered super-8 camera and I have nothing to show for it. $600 hundred dollars to transfer 17 minutes worth of super-8 film, when the shot is a lock off and remains constant for all 7 cartridges, seems a bit excessive.

If any post house in LA is interested in getting a Spirit Super-8 gate to compete with the one and only one that already exists in LA, I would be available to do the super-8 film prepping and perhaps once every two weeks the post house could have a super-8 day.

So many times Super-8 seems to run into a brick wall called a monopoly where there is one and only one big time player. I'm specifically talking a Spirit film transfer, not Rank.

Thankfully, after many years, there is some competition among the Super-8 Rank houses, but there is none for the Spirit in the LA area.