What Have I Got?

[Guest]

Howdy,

 

I thought I knew every thing about 8mm and Super 8, but this one has me stumped.

 

I have a batch of old films my mother brought back from the UK. It's 8mm, but there is only a single perf at the bottom of each frame in the middle :blink:

 

Not much on the steel roll to go on it says:

 

Baby Film

Made In France

British Pats & the number.

 

I've also got two 400ft rolls here it says:

 

Made in France

PATHE

9/5

 

Any ideas on what this is called and how I could project or transfer this?

 

R,

[Michael Lehnert]

Hi Richard (you are a rare sight in the S8 forum - tired of shooting Super 35 :D ?).

 

You got your hands on a roll of 9.5mm cine-film invented by Pathé of France in 1922.

 

Primarily an amateur format of less market share parallely on sale with Normal 8, it became nearly defunct with the intro of Super 8 in the mid-1960s.

 

However, there is still a lively 9.5mm community in France around (mirroring in size to the S8 hobbyist community in Germany - both recently radically shrinking since K-40 got slashed by Kodak and too much ill-information reigned in that market during that film stock demise) with custom raw films, and cameras and projectors being available. Beaulieu actually produced two nice models based on the Beaulieu R16-series.

 

If required, I can expand a bit on all that, Richard. If not, then I can at least point you to this Wikipedia entry HERE.

 

Cheers,

 

-Michael

[Michael Lehnert]

Sorry, forgot to post some addresses - according to my scribbled notes (from early 2000s!) on the blank page back of my old Samuelson's, you should best contact for general info...

 

Photoworld, 7a Victoria Street, Craig-y-don, Llandudno LL30 1LQ Wales United Kingdom fon +44-1492 871818; fax +44-1492 875806

 

...and for fresh film stocks, leaders, 400 ft spools, processing and copy/printing (don't expect Rank Cintel quality, though):

 

Cine Dia Laboratories, 55 Avenue Joffre, 93800 Epinay sur Seine, France

fon +33-14841 3625; fax +33-14841 3803

-> The daughter of the boss speaks English.

 

I think US pre-phone dial would still be 011, and then everything that follows the + symbol.

[Guest]

Thank-you for the warm welcome, I grew up on Super 8. Still my favorite format really.

 

Wow you are a wealth of knowledge on this.

 

Are you saying those addresses you gave me can transfer the film to DVD?

 

Thanks

R,

[Antti Näyhä]

You'll be surprised at how many telecine houses can still handle 9.5 mm. You can even get it transferred professionally here in Finland, which is saying something... A quick Google search returned several services in the UK:

 

http://www.aarchive.co.uk/cinetransfer/nin..._sixteen_mm.asp

http://www.tvv.co.uk/cine_to_video.htm

http://www.alivestudios-memories.co.uk/cine.html

 

It's also interesting to note that the negative area of 9.5 mm film is relatively large for an amateur format. At 8.5 x 6.5 mm, it's actually closer to regular 16 mm than Super 8!

[Alessandro Machi]

I've read about this format but I don't recall the name. I think the idea was the film could span from side to side and in essence deliver more than regular 8mm. Maybe it is 9.5mm?

 

I wonder if a rank can transfer it without using the gear mechanism. I think I recall Roger Evans mentioning that he can transfer broken sprocket holes or missing sprocket holes as well. Perhaps there is a transfer system out there for these types of films, however I don't know about them.

[Michael Lehnert]

Cine Dia Laboratories is one of the top 5 lab groups in France by size and quite big by European standards. They are not Eclair or Todd-AO of London, or even Arri, but they offer a full service. Their website is http://www.cinedia.fr/ . I read in a magazine in 2006 that they offer telecine or transfer to most video formats, incl. DVD. The article was an interview with the boss, and he made a cliché Gallic impression of his approach to business ;) .

 

They recently acquired a Shadow and Quantel Pablo to offer a complete DI chain, so if you want, you can go down that route with your 9.5mm family treasures as well (yeah, I know, the world of and arond S8 has moved on as well, like S16 and S35 :) , and I personally like that opportunities for small gauge films over the last years B) ).

 

But as Antti wrote you have lots of choice at your disposal I didn't know about!

 

Theoretically, if you could get your hands on a Beaulieu SK 2002 or SK 2101 or an original Pathe Baby, you could get close to Normal 16 real estate by shooting 9.5mm indeed and go to DI. I would actually be an interesting test to see how that wold look, quality-wise B) .