Single-8

[Jacob Waltman]

Awhile back I inquired as to the current state of double super 8, and now thought I would basically try doing the same for single-8. It seems you can still get cartridges from a few places, but do many people still use it? Advantages/disadvantages? Any experiences with it worth sharing? Thanks...

[K Borowski]

Sorry, it appears to have been discontinued in 2007, although there is supposedly some respooled Velvia and B&W stock available only in Japan.

 

http://www.retrothing.com/2006/04/fujifilm_to_dis.html

[Edward Koehler]

Sorry, it appears to have been discontinued in 2007, although there is supposedly some respooled Velvia and B&W stock available only in Japan.

 

http://www.retrothing.com/2006/04/fujifilm_to_dis.html

 

That is incorrect, Karl. Fuji R25N will be produced until March 2012, RT200n until May 2012. They had announced the discontinuation for 2007 but continued production because of petitions from users. A few Cinevia stocks appear to still be available, supplied GK Film GMBH. There is also a B/W stock called RetroX availble from Tak at Retro Enterprises in Japan.

 

http://onsuper8.blogspot.com/2009/06/rip-single-8-by-2012.html

 

http://single8film.com/buyr25n.html

 

http://film.club.ne.jp/english/eng_single8_film2003.htm

 

http://www.super8.nl/english/e_film_new_fuji.htm

[K Borowski]

http://www.retrothing.com/2007/01/fuji_single8_mo.html

 

Looks like they continued processing, in Japan only. They are using up old stock; they won't coat any more film. The link you give says "OUT OF STOCK BATTERIES ONLY WHIILE SUPPLIES LAST." Not that you care about Jacob's question; you just want to be right. Maybe he can hop on a plane, fly to Japan, and buy the film there before catching the redeye back.

 

http://www.single8film.com/buyr25n.html

 

http://www.single8film.com/buyprocessing.html

 

 

Most importantly, the same website you posted, has this to say about processing:

 

 

Quote: Are the Fuji pre-paid Single-8 mailers still valid?

 

No. Fuji no longer processes Single-8 film in the U.S. or Europe and any mailers sent to Fuji for processing will be returned. Note: see our latest news page for a possible, but unconfirmed exception.

 

single8film.com/faq.html

 

 

If you have a personal problem with me, fine. But I do not expect you to follow me from thread to thread patronizing me. And you can go back to calling me Borowski or ignoring me. You don't know me, and you obviously don't know how to converse civilly with those who don't share your fantastic viewpoint on 8mm film gauges.

[Carl Looper]

If you have a personal problem with me, fine. But I do not expect you to follow me from thread to thread patronizing me. And you can go back to calling me Borowski or ignoring me. You don't know me, and you obviously don't know how to converse civilly with those who don't share your fantastic viewpoint on 8mm film gauges.

Hmmmm ... doesn't like being called 'Karl'. We have his achilles heel.

 

And Karl is such a civil person himself. Consider this gem:

 

Not that you care about Jacob's question; you just want to be right.

 

Well gosh - what a sin - wanting to be right? God forbid that right information should get into anyone's hands.

 

Carl - the stalker.

[Andries Molenaar]

 

single8film.com/faq.html

 

 

 

Single8film.com has itself been out off business for years. The guy is into soulsearching now and simply forgets his website. But didn't forget to take the money from the shopping-cart-paypal-account. So stay away there.

 

Retro-8 is stock keeping and delivering nice and quick. Wittner and FFR from germany also just deliver after ordering.

[Jurgen Lossau]

Fuji R25N Daylight film is still available. US customers can buy on www.retro8.com or FFR Filmtechnik (www.ffr-film.de)and maybe on other places, too. Processing can be done at Fuji itself or at Tak Kohyama's Retro 8. In any case films must be send to Retro 8 because Fuji does not take cartridges form private customers. Processing can me done with adding a magnetic stripe at Fuji.

 

There are also other stocks (black and white, Fuji Velvia, Astia 100F, T64 prof) for Single 8. You can see this on Retro 8, FFR-Film and Wittner Cinetec. Single 8 is still alive!

[Miguel Loredo]

In fact it's more alive than we think because Single-8 cartridges are very easily reloadable and I know many people that use them with "metterware" film that is available in Wittner, for example.

[Mark Dunn]

 

 

 

If you have a personal problem with me, fine. But I do not expect you to follow me from thread to thread patronizing me. And you can go back to calling me Borowski or ignoring me. You don't know me, and you obviously don't know how to converse civilly with those who don't share your fantastic viewpoint on 8mm film gauges.

 

I think this sort of thing could go in a PM, don't you? It gives a very bad impression to an occasional visitor like me.

[Geoff Howell]

I was still able to buy R25n in regular Japanese high street stores such as 'Bic camera' as late as mid 2009.

 

It's fantastic film, amazing colour rendition, super fine grain; what's not to love! I'll miss it far more than K40 :(

 

 

It's a real shame that the few publicly avalible examples of this stock in action are badly telecined, badly compressed Youtube clips that do it no justice at all.

 

Oh, and R200T isn't too shabby eather!

[daniel mahlknecht]

I shoot regularily single8, and for some years now it has become easyer to get cartiges. It appears to be thru, that Fuji R25N will be available only until 2012. (I really love this film, and I still have fresh cartiges of it).

But you will still be able to get other filmstocks easily, at least in Germany there are different places where you can order it.

When I need the processed material quickly after shooting, then unfortunately I can not use thr R25N as this has to be processed in Tokyo, and this takes som time (and shipping risks, if you live in Italy :-( ).

But all the other filmstocks you can get in single8 cartiges, can be processed in any lab together with the modern super8 film.

The only bad thing is, that the newly available single8 films are as super8 on celluloid basis, instead of polyester. This means, that the film is thicker, and in a single8 cartige therefore fit only 12m instead of the 15m of a super8 cartige, but they still cost the same. But frame steadyness is much better in a single8 camera.

The R25N and the 200N is on polyester, and in a original Fuji cartige there are 15m of it.

Polyesterfilm can not be wetspliced, so you need to edit the original FUJI films with tape splicers or with ultrasonic splicers. But polyester ismuch stronger and durable than celluloid, so there are pro and cons for both formats...

 

daniel

[Edward Koehler]

If you have a personal problem with me, fine. But I do not expect you to follow me from thread to thread patronizing me. And you can go back to calling me Borowski or ignoring me. You don't know me, and you obviously don't know how to converse civilly with those who don't share your fantastic viewpoint on 8mm film gauges.

 

Sorry, guys. My intention was to merely correct Karl's statement that single8 is 'dead'. It's not my intention to always be 'right', but I do endeavor to not be factually incorrect. Karl Borowski takes offense to my corrections to his factual inaccuracies, which is telling.

[K Borowski]

What is telling is your continuous and repeated personal attacks.

[Edward Koehler]

What is telling is your continuous and repeated personal attacks.

There is nothing personal in correcting your erroneous statements, Karl. It really is not about you.

[Geoff Howell]

If anyone's interested here's some quick frame grabs:

The top row is un colour corrected R25n,

The center row is R25n with colour correction,

and the bottom two rows are colour corrected RT200n

[Andries Molenaar]

Beautiful and all in Japan? I feel a bit of envy :)

 

Japan seems to love silver-based-photography. Darkroom supplies were plentiful and Fuji materials abundant. Even splicing tape etc. All at very modest prices... I.e. one-third of Europe.

And then all these direct-finish like materials. All from Fuji.

 

What is the girl with Rolleiflex on the poster for? Advertising for www.ki-re-i.jp

Edited November 10, 2010 by Andries Molenaar

[Geoff Howell]

Thanks!

yeah 90% of those were taken in Japan, I haven't shot much single8 since returning to the UK as I'm not to keen on having to ship exposed film all the way back to Tokyo for processing, and the Pound being so weak against the Yen at the moment dosn't help :(

 

The Rolleiflex addvert was from one of my many unsucsesfull attempts to film on the metro dure in the rush hour stampede, Fun times!

[Friedemann Wachsmuth]

Regarding "Development in Tokyo only": If you don't mind removing Remjet, Single-8 film can perfectly be developed in E-6, even at home. The process seems fully compatible. Since the remjet might mess up your chemicals, process R25N last in almost exhausted liquids.

[K Borowski]

I've heard the process is most similar to the old EM-26, an old reversal film process. So if you use E-6, the color chemistry may result in all sorts of color shifts. At the very least you'd want to adjust the temperature.

 

And I wouldn't use "exhausted" chemistry, since proper development is critical with reversal. If you use exhausted chemistry, you'll probably get a washed-out purplish image with muddy highlights.

[Andries Molenaar]

Fuji Single-8 can be processed in E6. Works OK. Retro-8 does the same on the express process for Single-8.

Removing the backing is a bit of pain. And the backing may flake in the process baths. :( Which makes them less suitable for another round. But with proper filtering it can done. Just don't let the film dry without wiping off the water and deposits.

I believe Fuji removes the backing in advance of the developer. Kodak does/did the same with their materials.

 

The differences between E6 and EM26 are best detailed by mr Baumgarten :)

 

 

[K Borowski]

Yeah, I know he also has said he uses E-6 for VNF films. But that is not STRAIGHT. He modifies the chemistry somewhat before using it to render proper color.

 

 

 

I would severely caution anyone wanting to run Single 8 in E-6 to do some research first, maybe even a clip test to make sure it can render proper color in your processing method.

[Friedemann Wachsmuth]

I have done this, Karl. It works. No reason to raise concerns.

BTW, E6 is always color controllable in a pretty fair range by tweaking pH. Thats not news.

 

And if you read carefully, you see that I wrote about almost exhausted liquids. The last film run through E6 is not at all getting worse than the first one if you stay within specification. There is no risk at all to run into a "washed-out purplish image with muddy highlights" then.

 

Test clips are certainley always recommended, but who would NOT do them anyway?

[K Borowski]

Well, acceptable results for me are a grey card reading 1.00 1.00 1.00 (or whatever it is for a grey card on E-6) on a densitometer.

 

 

Whenever I have used reversal processes I always replenish after each cycle. Almost exhausted chemistry, to me, is the same as saying un-replenished chemistry. It's far more critical with color than with B&W.

 

 

 

I know plenty of people on here probably don't know how to control pH (or what it is) and don't run test strips. I wouldn't recommend color processing to a hobbyist at all. And E-6 is the most technically challenging process, currently, that is out there.

 

Not saying that it can't be done, but that it is difficult to do right.

[Edward Koehler]

Well, acceptable results for me are a grey card reading 1.00 1.00 1.00 (or whatever it is for a grey card on E-6) on a densitometer.

 

So you do densitometer readings of a grey card on your S8 reversal then, eh Karl?

[Miguel Loredo]

I know some many people only in Spain who process Fuji at home using Tetenal E-6 with superb results. The only issue being the remjet, but it's not that much...