Stupid question about copies.

[George Ebersole]

Does Koday still do "contact print" copies of super-8 movies? Is that still a valid method of making a copy of a super-8 film, or is it all digital these days?

 

Just curious.

[Richard Tuohy]

Kodak certainly don't. There are two labs that can make colour positive prints from colour negative super 8 - andec in Germany and the lab in Florence

No labs offer prints from colour reversal

[George Ebersole]

Interesting. Thanks.

[Martin Baumgarten]

There hasn't been a practical demand for Super 8mm contact printing in many years. I stopped doing it also, not only due to lack of demand, but never liked the quality. The best prints were emulsion to emulsion, which then put the print into an emulsion in wind. If sound striping was desired, it was a pain, required 'rutting' the emulsion to reach the base so a mag track could be added. The better variation was a liquid sound track application which didn't require the rutting, such as the now long discontinued KODAK Sonotrack Coating, and some services from other labs now also long gone. Optical print duplication is better, more expensive, but doable. Some went the route of having the color internegative made on 16mm, which could then be printed to 16mm or reduced to Super 8mm. I did like making some of my own contact prints onto KODACHROME stock, back when it was available, but that mainly for Regular 8mm film. I was going to experiment with EKTACHROME 100D, since once filtered down for Tungsten Lamps, it would drop the filmspeed to something manageable in the lab, but then it was discontinued and I reserved remaining filmstock in the freezer for other projects. How nice though, that it's coming back later this year! I might revisit contact printing again.

[George Ebersole]

Oh really? How cool. I was just wondering, but it's still a thing. Ages ago when I was in film school I asked for a print of the student film we worked on (super-8), but the guy acting as producer said he didn't know how. Then one of the professors mentioned contact prints, but that (in those days at least) it tended to degrade the source footage or something. Or at least that was my thought on it.

 

Cool. I'm glad I asked. Thanks for the replies :)

[Carl Looper]

I had a contact print done in the late eighties, of a Super8 film I had made. Originally shot on Kodachrome 40. The print was superb. I was very surprised at the time. They managed to get the contrast exactly right (pre-flashing the film?) and there was only a very slight increase in grain. I still have the original film, and my co-producer has the print, which he screens every now and then.

 

C