16mm Magnetic Sound?

[Ernie Zahn]

Yeah, so what's the deal? Was this a short lived idea by Kodak? Are there magnetc sound projectors out there?Or cameras for that matter? I found a roll ofmagnetic sound 16mm film here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...me=STRK:MEWA:IT

[John Pytlak RIP]

Yeah, so what's the deal? Was this a short lived idea by Kodak? Are there magnetc sound projectors out there?Or cameras for that matter? I found a roll ofmagnetic sound 16mm film here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...me=STRK:MEWA:IT

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Magnetic striped camera films had their heyday when reversal films were used for newsgathering. Pre-striped print films were also available from Kodak. Unfortunately, electronic newsgathering displaced film from that market during the 1970's. (Sadly, newsfilm has often survived the years better than the U-Matic tapes of that era).

 

Cinerama, 35mm CinemaScope, and 5-perf 70mm prints also started out with magnetic sound. Dolby Stereo (optical) and DTS have supplanted the need for mag prints.

 

Magnetic striping uses solvents that faced increasing environmental regulation, requiring significant capital investment to recover and recycle the solvent vapors. It was not cost-effective to continue magnetic striping operations for the smaller volumes of film.

[Ernie Zahn]

Interesting, thanks for the info.

[GeorgeSelinsky]

I think that it's a shame that for 16mm they didn't do more prints with mag sound. I know the optical track is more convenient and I believe cheaper, but the sound quality on it is just dreadful. Even Super 8 mag sound sounded better than 16mm optical.

 

- G.

[Christian Appelt]

Magnetic sound on 16mm prints (they have become an endangered species these days) can sound fantastic, much better than 16mm optical. I ran some 1975-1977 documentaries on 16mm mag last week, and the sound (transferred from Nagra pilot tone quarter-inch tape without additional mixing/editing) was full and, although mono, strikingly realistic, just like some remastered vintage music recording done with a single mike.

 

There are some labs that still do the striping for Super 8 and 16mm, with 16mm a balance track is recommended to ensure even winding on the reel.

[Jack Honeycutt]

Yeah, so what's the deal? Was this a short lived idea by Kodak? Are there magnetc sound projectors out there?Or cameras for that matter? I found a roll ofmagnetic sound 16mm film here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...me=STRK:MEWA:IT

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I have a old 16mm Auricon Cinevoice & a Auricon kit for mag sound. The camea has optical sound in it now.

 

Have you bid on this? If not, I want to. But don't want to bid against you. Let me know. Yea, I know it is old film.....

 

jack in Portland Oregon

[Marty Hamrick]

Magnetic striped camera films had their heyday when reversal films were used for newsgathering. Pre-striped print films were also available from Kodak. Unfortunately, electronic newsgathering displaced film from that market during the 1970's. (Sadly, newsfilm has often survived the years better than the U-Matic tapes of that era).

 

 

And sadly even many of the Betacam tapes of the late 80's..I've used original black and white reversal from the 50's ,transfered and it looks as good as it did then.Then I've gone and pulled a Beta tape from 1989 and have it not even hold a sync in the deck.

Marty

[John Pytlak RIP]

A word of advice:

 

If you transfer your film to a video format for convenience of editing or distribution, keep the original film! Stored properly, it will likely outlast the video format.

 

Today, I just heard that Quantegy (the successor to Ampex, the inventor of video recording) went out of business:

 

http://www.oanow.com/servlet/Satellite?c=M...=!frontpage

 

When Ampex introduced video recording in 1956, Variety headlined "Film is Dead". Well, film has certainly outlived most videotape formats.