schmalfilm magazine introduces Kodak Ektachrome 100D in Super-8

[Jurgen Lossau]

 

In our new issue we are introducing the new Kodak Super-8 Ektachrome 100D and we have an interview with Chris Johnson, the new product manager of Kodak for Origination Films, about the changes in the Super 8 portfolio. There are more new films to come - and Kodak cares about the customers in a new way. This is good news for all Super 8 fans. More on http://www.schmalfilm.de and in our new issue - unfortunately in German language only. Unfortunately, meanwhile we are the only professionally made magazine for small format filmmakers in the whole world...

[Jim Carlile]

But there's no more Plus-X !!

 

Tell him, "Nein!" "Nein!"

[Alessandro Machi]

But there's no more Plus-X !!

 

Tell him, "Nein!" "Nein!"

 

The newest Tri-X can pass as a prior version of Plus-X, (which was very acceptable). but with more sensitivity. if you pull the Tri-X one stop, it would probably look just like Plus-X in terms of grain. Even unpulled the grain is much much smaller than earlier versions of Tri-X.

[Alessandro Machi]

Juergen, why not produce a translated version of your magazine for English readers?

[Miguel Loredo]

But there's no more Plus-X !!

 

Tell him, "Nein!" "Nein!"

 

A big big loss!

 

Bad news after all... we already had Ektachrome 100D from other sources, so what's new?

[Jurgen Lossau]

A big big loss!

 

Bad news after all... we already had Ektachrome 100D from other sources, so what's new?

 

New is, for example, the lower price - its like the E64T, that means you may save 10 US $ per cartridge. And new is also the end of the Ektachrome 64T.

[Miguel Loredo]

New is, for example, the lower price - its like the E64T, that means you may save 10 US $ per cartridge. And new is also the end of the Ektachrome 64T.

 

So in resume, for the Super8 filmmaker, from now on there are 2 stocks less to choose from (E64 & Plus-X) and one "not new stock" but cheaper than before...

 

Marketing is the art to make bad things look wonderful.

 

Looking forward to see new stocks in the Super8 range... <_<

[Jurgen Lossau]

Juergen, why not produce a translated version of your magazine for English readers?

 

Hi Alessandro,

nice to hear from you. Indeed, there are new subscribers of schmalfilm magazine on www.filmshooting.com that cannot read German - just for the reason of the scoop we did with the Ektachrome 100D story. But to be honest - to have a fine English translation, we would need more than 300 subscribers - you know how difficult this is...

[Will Montgomery]

Hi Alessandro,

nice to hear from you. Indeed, there are new subscribers of schmalfilm magazine on www.filmshooting.com that cannot read German - just for the reason of the scoop we did with the Ektachrome 100D story. But to be honest - to have a fine English translation, we would need more than 300 subscribers - you know how difficult this is...

Is it because of translation and design costs or printing costs? Have you considered using a service like this?

 

http://magcloud.com/

 

It's only in the U.S. at the moment but they have plans to expand. People can buy individual magazines and they are printed on demand. I've used it in the past and the printing is good; not quite what you did with the english version but totally acceptable. That way you wouldn't have to print a certain amount, people could go and buy whenever you publish.

[Jurgen Lossau]

I was just talking about translation costs for the German issue - no printing and shipping included.

[Jurgen Lossau]

Kodak Manager Chis Johnson presents the new E100D in a video in English language. See first News on www.schmalfilm.de

[Mark Dunn]

Juergen, why not produce a translated version of your magazine for English readers?

German isn't too difficult to follow for an English speaker, I find. But then I have cheated by learning a bit of German. You could give it a try. It's tough to get the hang of sense, but not difficult to get a grasp of it.

I can follow the site with the help of my dictionary.

[Jurgen Lossau]

German isn't too difficult to follow for an English speaker, I find. But then I have cheated by learning a bit of German. You could give it a try. It's tough to get the hang of sense, but not difficult to get a grasp of it.

I can follow the site with the help of my dictionary.

 

So - give the magazine a try too :)

[Chris Burke]

this stock would be great for cross processing, no?

[Alessandro Machi]

So - give the magazine a try too :)

 

I bet you could get "volunteers" to fix up a babelfish correction of your magazine in English. Each person who corrects one article gets that magazine issue for free. That would possibly reduce your conversion costs.

[Michael Lehnert]

I was editing "CineMagica" until 2002 and writing for "Schmalfilm" in the 1990s, and agree with Jürgen that publishing such a magazine in one language at cost is already an achievement. Volunteer efforts all sound great, but they never manifest enough to gain the critical mass to pull the venture through. "Smallformat" failed in print. However, it is obvious that a solid web offering can easily evolve into a per-pay scheme iBook-style magazine over the next years. Those who see devises like the iPad as a means for new business models in publishing and distribution will win. Let's see how "Californian" a conservative German publishing house can be... :)

 

As an ardent "Schmalfilm" reader, I can assure you, Alex, that you will probably get better coverage of the issues and benefits of E-100, camera compatibility and test reel samples on the web for free, on wiki, sites and youtube. "Schmalfilm" isn't the place for in-depth technology coverage targeting the active S8 cinematographer as it once was.

 

The title "Sensation: Kodak launches new Super 8 film" on this new issue is quite something, however: 7285 is available for years in excellent packagings by Wittner, Spectra and even those guys from Burbank... There is no sensation here whatsoever. John Pytlack told me that E-100 would eventually replace E-64 four years ago when I interviewed him for "Super 8 Today".

 

I must also say that in light of the hysteric shouting and rambling, and even anti-Kodak agitations we had when the obsolete K-40 was axed, I find it odd at best that now, "Schmalfilm" gives appearance to be very cosy with "Ze Yello Dshiant" in light of the predictable intro of E-100.

The truly shocking news is that not only E-64 but Plus-X got axed (a film stock phantastically ameliorated just 4 years ago), and that this is either not mentioned or merely a "further down the line" remark, and not at all controversially discussed or put to Kodak reps in interviews in the same aggressive tone as German Filmfreunde did it back in 2005. :huh:

 

To paraphrase Miguel's post from earlier: we loose two stocks and truly gain none, but everyone is lobotomisingly happy about it. The 6th April 2010 was as bad as the K-40 axing day. I look forward to compare the coverage in quality publications like "Schmalfilm" and their editorials then and now... :)

 

-Michael

[Alessandro Machi]

Kodak releasing Ektachrome 100D is huge. The cost should be lower than what it has been in the past, and the quality control should be equal to or better since Kodak uses that football sized autoload machine. (I assume they still are using that autoloader).

 

Time permitting, I am going to do a test with Tri-X pulled one stop to see if it can come close to looking like Plus-X. The rank rooms can do a nice contrast transfer pull with black and white anyways. Pulling Tri-X might be a nice compromise.

 

What I don't like about Kodak's announcement method is they never do ONE FINAL RUN, and announce it ahead of time so people might just buy a ton of the soon to be discontinued film. Maybe Kodak is concerned if people overbuy a final run of PLUS-X they will spend less on other films???

 

I'm glad the film buying process is being simplified, Lord knows it will make it simpler for novices to try film out.

[Jurgen Lossau]

Hi Alex,

 

in the last days there have been many e-mails and private messages concerning subscriptions of schmalfilm for English speaking readers. Some suggested to put short English summaries into each German article. Do you think this would help to get back some former smallformat subscribers?

[Alessandro Machi]

Hi Alex,

 

in the last days there have been many e-mails and private messages concerning subscriptions of schmalfilm for English speaking readers. Some suggested to put short English summaries into each German article. Do you think this would help to get back some former smallformat subscribers?

 

 

What if you went with German on the left, and English on the right? It might expand your advertising options as well.

 

The same article in two languages, each advertiser is paying for either the german or english market, or both at a nice discount.

 

If you just had one english based article in each issue, that too would give the magazine an additional international flavor.

 

It just seems like you are already doing 90% of the work. I'm just an ideas person so I can't guarantee sales for you. Maybe invite Chris Cottrill to write the English article for each edition, or invite Chris to get one of his writers from Super-8 Today to supply the article. Also "On Super-8" would be an excellent source as well. I'm setting up my Alex Logic site to have one article per image, and some of the images are from super-8 productions, so if any of them were of interest, you can use them as articles your magazine.

 

The final hurdle is what exactly would a yearly subscription cost including air mail. I would subscribe assuming it didn't cost 140 bucks.

[retoxproductions]

I think it's a great idea. I miss smallformat magazine and have tried (to no avail) to read the German version. What about making it bilingual? Also, with twitter, you could blast info on subscriptions--I'd be willing to help-- and get 300 in no time!

[Claus Harding]

Since we are throwing ideas around, is is of any help?

 

I shoot Super-8 and I collect some films in 8mm. The collecting side of the market contains people who shoot too.

 

I am wondering if there could be a tie-in in the magazine (on-line or in print) where both sides could benefit as there have been some rumblings from some collectors about trying to get new product out there in terms of collectible films. This would need labs and supplies, so the overlap is there too. Some folks on the 8mm boards know about the magazine already, but I suspect many don't.

 

I know that ideally one shouldn't "dilute" the message of the magazine, but given the realities (both financial and in terms of the condition of the 8mm market on both sides of the hobby) this might be something to help reach as many people as possible who still know about Super-8.

 

Just an idea.

I am Danish; I read German and can still speak it a bit; I live in Washington DC.

Let me know if anyone feels this has some merit.

 

Claus.

Edited June 3, 2010 by Claus Harding

[Will Montgomery]

I think it's a great idea. I miss smallformat magazine and have tried (to no avail) to read the German version. What about making it bilingual? Also, with twitter, you could blast info on subscriptions--I'd be willing to help-- and get 300 in no time!

I've been taking German classes so I can subscribe. I miss it that much.

[Jurgen Lossau]

I've been taking German classes so I can subscribe. I miss it that much.

 

Dear friends,

thank you so much for all your ideas of bringing back the English issue of smallformat. Well, it is a difficult and expensive thing. Maybe a German/English version could be a solution in the future, like the bi-lingual magazines of airlines. But to achieve this we would need a lot of support - by subscribers, advertisers and sponsors.

 

The German schmalfilm magazine is still doing well, has more than 4,000 readers and a lot os advertisers.

 

All ideas are highly appreciated.

 

Juergen

[Paco Sweetman]

Yet again, in my older life I have found another reason to be upset with myself for not being good at languages.

 

I've just gone to the schmalfilm website and it looks brilliant. I would subscribe to it if I could read it in English, but then I'm just one man.

 

I hope you do find a way someday to make it a viable option to print in English.

 

Good luck.

[Tim Halloran]

Hi Alex,

 

in the last days there have been many e-mails and private messages concerning subscriptions of schmalfilm for English speaking readers. Some suggested to put short English summaries into each German article. Do you think this would help to get back some former smallformat subscribers?

 

Jurgen, as a former subscriber to smallformat, I miss it terribly. I will go on record as saying that if you produce a bilingual version of the magazine (side-by-side, sequential, or back-to-back German/English), I will be first in line to re-subscribe. I even like the idea of the short English summaries--if they were substantial enough.

 

You mention airline magazines that publish in dual-language formats--what about the amazing books published by Taschen and others? Most, if not all, of Taschen's books are published with multiple-language texts--English/French/German, I think. I've always found that to be an interesting experience being able to read the English and see the other language translations.

 

As a side note, I was so disappointed by the end of the English smallformat that I did actually consider learning a bit of German, as the other fellow above is doing. Well, you can imagine how far that went. But I did consider it!

 

Good luck and hope to see a new version of the mag!

 

Tim