Explain this 16mm film to me

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

 

The image extends over to the edge on the right. 

 

Was it blackened in processing or film production? 

 

Why were circles left open? 

 

Did the lab blacken both sides of the film?

 

What is the purpose of blackening the edges of the film?

 

They had a lot of wasted real estate back in the day with 16mm. The blackening process would be welcomed if one was scanning with a Retroscan. (It works better with black edge film.)

Agfa used some beautifully tinted leader when processing. (No explanation needed...but feel free to add comments.)

 

This the real stuff. Looks to be shot and processed in Europe. I didn't acquire it. It is not that $$, but I'm shutting down the film Archive for majority of new acquisitions. Just too much hassle with scans. 

Photos from eBay: Fair Use

 

 

 

Edited March 19, 2022 by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

[Simon Wyss]

https://www.centerforhomemovies.org/documents/cameramarkings/

Greetings

[Duncan Brown]

45 minutes ago, Daniel D. Teoli Jr. said:

 

Did the lab blacken both sides of the film?

 

What is the purpose of blackening the edges of the film?

 

 

It's reversal film.  Anywhere that no light gets to is black.

Duncan

[Tyler Purcell]

The entire film is sensitive. 

The black ares are where the film did not get exposed. 

Any areas like the circle which are exposed, are done by the camera. 

So this camera had a little area where maybe there is a screw missing in the gate, which the image circle still covered that area. 

With cameras that have normal flat blade shutters, this is actually quite common with longer lenses. I've scanned stuff where the image goes over quite a bit. 

[Robert Houllahan]

Quite a few camera manufacturers had a specific cutout which identified what kind of camera it was, this cutout is likely one of those.

Somewhere I have a chart with about a dozen different outside the gate cutouts and which cameras were associated with them.

[Charles MacDonald]

yes, part of the early 16mm licence scheme would be that each brand of Camera had a special place in the gate where their was exposure to let the lab know what brand of camera was used.  the closest one on the chart simon posted would be an AGFA-Ansco camera, but I have seen charts that go for a couple of pages.

at the time,the cameras had two rows of perforations, and so no image was put in that area.  Later, (Not that much later) it was decided that one edge could have the soundtrack instead of perforations.  although home movies often did not have sound, and continued to use the double perf film.   16mm prints released for educational use, sales and amrketing and home and non-theatrical use would have the soundtrack instead of the right row of perfs.

relatively recently (late 1990s) some cameras started using the entire soundtrack area to make for a wide screen image.  that also uses single perf film.

 

[Dom Jaeger]

Simon posted a link to this image earlier. I thought I’d embed my copy of it, since links can die over time.

Not a missing screw,  a very deliberate system of camera identification. 

[Doug Palmer]

Really interesting... I've often wondered about these marks I see on old home movie footage.  Nothing I note on Paillard.  I'm sure I have a Seimens somewhere to try out, and this diagram shows it looking rather wide screen ? in fact almost Ultra 16 ?

 

Edited March 20, 2022 by Doug Palmer

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

On 3/19/2022 at 10:50 AM, Simon Wyss said:

https://www.centerforhomemovies.org/documents/cameramarkings/

Greetings

 

Thanks Simon!

Too bad they use such crappy scans. Just doable. Do you know what book it is from?

Edited April 20, 2022 by Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

[Daniel D. Teoli Jr.]

On 3/19/2022 at 11:29 AM, Duncan Brown said:

It's reversal film.  Anywhere that no light gets to is black.

Duncan

Thanks Duncan