Alessandro Machi

I think John is refering to Super-8.

I think your instincts are right, it's possible that someone else won't handle the film as caringly as you would. However it's also possible the facility that preps your film has a pretty clean environment and they do it fast, which would hopefully minimize the dust factor. But be careful if they use plastic reels. Sometimes tiny plastic burrs end up on the inside of the reel flanges and the film can "bump" against the burr during transfer and the result is a "bump" in your footage everytime the film goes past the burr. I will be getting a pair of rewinds mounted to a sturdy but portable board so that I can do my own prepping.

Here a couple of tips I can offer about Transfering Super-8 film BEFORE you visit a high-end video transfer place that charges a few hundred dollars an hour. Use Professional Rewinds when you are spooling your Super-8 film onto one film reel. If you use the crank handles on a Super-8 movie viewer you will not create enough film tension as you prep your film for telecine. Your film will be wind "loose" and when the Super-8 Movie Reel is then loaded onto a high tension transfer system such as a Rank Cintel or a Spirit or Shadow, the film self-tighten, or CINCH, which can mean instant abrasion and scratch marks throughout THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE FILM! The Proper Movie Reel is just as important as film tension when prepping your film for high end telecine. I strongly recommend using METAL REELS WITH LARGE HUBS. If you cannot find such a metal Super-8 reel you can try using a plastic movie reel, but your choices are limited. The only Plastic Reel that I recommend is the Bonum movie reel. They are no longer made but they are a good quality reel. Don't forget to bring your own super-8 splicer and splicing material to the transfer session just in case your film comes apart at a splice point or you need to fix a broken frame of film.

I think the name Super-8 is fine for the forum name. Perhaps the description for the forum should be "All 8mm format discussions are welcome". "Super-8 only" means does not mean it's excluding the other 8mm film formats, but that you would not post about 16m or 35mm or video on this forum.

If you front slate and back slate your shots, I assume you can do "fit to fill" to sync up your shots in post. This should render the crystal sync issue moot, (unless you were planning to make an optical blow-up of the super-8 footage). One of the 7 essential features that I mentioned was a "module" design. A side panel module could actually be attached to the side of the camera and the module would offer different filming options. One module could be devoted to special filmming effects and speeds. It could offer slow motion, fast motion, single frame, time-lapse and time-exposure. Another module could act as both a crystal sync module AND as a blimp/barney to help ensure the camera is quiet. Perhaps this module would actually encase both sides of the camera to help deaden the camera sound. The module concept allows for all of the more specific functions filmmakers want incorporated without having to create excessive knobs and buttons on the camera, instead, just attach the side panel module of choice. The modules could be named after directors as a signature series.

Any splice tape that wraps around the film will cause a bump in the transfer. The splices that go on both sides of the film but don't wrap around sometimes don't bump.

an easier search word to use is "moviestuff" (one word). If one is merely splicing together 50 foot reels, it's probably a non issue. Ranks, Shadows and Spirits should work find with WELL MADE tape splices. Wurker makes a 2 frame and a 4 frame splice. Perhaps older edited films will need to have their splices redone, but newly spliced film will probably hold up. Avoide plastic reels for your transfer and go with bigger hubs on the metal reels that you do use.

Converting a 16mm camera may be the most cost effective way, but in my opinion it partially defeats the purpose. Super-8 is really like a mini-dv format, but in the film world. However, without a professional level of features, Super-8 is being ignored as a possible way to cut costs on 35mm film projects. Insert shots could be shot with a Super-8 camera. Throw away action shots such as the battlefield POV shots in Lord of the Rings is another Example. While I'm sure that Lord of the Rings helped the livlihood of many camera operators in the film industry, future ambitious film projects may not want to spend as much money. I am pretty sure the new Super-8 camera with the features that I am mentioning could have been used on Lord of the Rings on some of the several hundred hand-held battlefield shots that went by so quickly and so blurrily. Higher end video projects are benefiting by the emergence of Mini-Dv for quick, low cost b-roll acquisiton. Film should have the same arensenal available to it. The Spirit and Shadow Telecines have Super-8 gates. In some instances the post houses would not buy the million dollar system if it did not include a Super-8 gate along with the 16mm and 35m gates! Likewise in film production, film productions may be axed because the production could not be shaved by 10% whereas in video production money can be shaved by mixing in low cost acquisiton shots procured quite easily and quickly by means of a mini-dv camcorder. The parallels are there, The film world should have a low cost, quick fix solution to help deal with cost overruns. Whereas Video technology takes chances and makes a film like "28 Days" on mini-dv technology for 15million dollars, the film world sits back and does nothing innovative on the low cost end for beginning filmmakers. Instead the film world just there like a fat, well to do can't be bothered slog. How can the video world afford to waste 15 million dollars making a mini-dv movie while the film world can't even make an affordable entry level film camera? Other examples of film excess and waste include television shows that shoot way too much film footage that doesn't even get used! Some of the b-roll shoots that NEVER EVEN GET USED (I know from talking to extras who were waiting for scenes for their demo reel that ended up being completely cut out) could be shot with a new Super-8 camera. I also think the marketing of a new Super-8 Camera would be a slam dunk. What film director who grew up with super-8 wouldn't gladly hold such a new entry level camera in their hand and give the thumbs up?

The top seven most essential features for a New Super-8 Camera, in no particular order are... Removeable lens, pin registration, module side-panel concept for easily adding new camera functions, orientable viewfinder, Super-Duper 8 horizontal enlargement (for more compatible transfer to HD), Quiet, Digital Frame Counter. Of the seven features I have mentioned, NO SUPER-8 CAMERA EVER MADE has more than two or three of those features. Any manufacturer would have an easy avenue for marketing a new Super-8 Camera that used the seven features mentioned above AND ATTRACTING big names to promote the Super-8 camera.

I reworded the topic title and have created a new topic but I don't know how to delete this one, sorry for the mix-up.Go Here.

My favorite splicer is the Wurker splicer. My favorite line of movie viewers are the Elmo movie viewers. There are other brands of splicers however. A great way to learn is by viewing the various auctions on ebay. This will enable you to ask specific questions about the super-8 film products/auctions that you are interested.

Sometimes what gets overlooked about Super-8 cameras are the incredible array of features. Many times features found on super-8 cameras relating to filming speeds and shutter angles are only found on specialized 16mm and 35m cameras, so as a learning tool or a "curiousity tool" Super-8 makes a lot of sense. Super-8 won't be confused with 16mm and 35mm in terms of the likelihood of one earning a "living" but in terms of being a great "tool" to learn or experiment with it can't be beat. Plus Super-8 cameras make handy "scopes" when one is trying to convey framing to a client or crew during pre-production walk throughs.

Thanks to Tim Tyler for making a poll question out of this topic. If you would like to vote, please click Here.

Thanks to Tim Tyler for making a poll question out of this topic. If you would like to vote, please click Here.

The comment about HD Gear being cheaper to purchase rather than rent is somewhat misleading. Cutting edge video technology is notorious for losing value so quickly that if you don't make your money back plus profit in the first year your gear and your profits will be left behind. All the "negatives" that don't get mentioned when you buy the HD gear DO get mentioned when the next generation of HD Camera comes out and the manufacturer does their cross comparison to the gear you bought just months earlier. It's not a pretty sight. Then you have to explain to your client why it's OK to use something that isn't the best, the newest, the most compatible. Right now is a very questionable time to buy anything HD since the whole 4:4:4 issue is coming home to roost.

I noticed a particular thread has several forum members giving their opinion that a Super-8 forum would be a great idea. (the idea was suggested about the 5th or 6th post down by some guy who works for Kodak. :D) Super-8 Forum It's possible that the moderator may have never even noticed the suggestion because it was buried within a topic post with a different name.

Sometimes these Super-8 cameras can be had so cheaply that I have no sympathy when someone says, "You expect me to pay $25.00 to fix the camera, but I only paid $25.00 for the camera??? whaaaaaaaaaa, whaaaaaaaa". I find this to be the most self serving attitude on the planet. I'm not saying you did that but it's not being fair to your craft if you base the cost of repairs or manuals on what you paid for the camera. The camera should have a value to you that is separate from what you paid for the camera. I don't follow the logic that says if one spends $250 dollars for a camera then one is happy to pay $20.00 bucks for the manual, but if one finds the same camera for $20.00 they would never pay $20.00 for the manual??? Just what did you spend on the camera, and how much was the manual you don't want to buy?

You'd think Florida would have a lab or something. Especially when one factors in the retirees who live there as being the same people who would have been shooting Super-8 when they were raising families 20-30 years ago. LOL, they probably still have their cameras. Plus Super-8 Kodachrome looks pretty darn good on beachfront locations.

I can shoot 4 rolls of Kodachrome 40 and then process for 100 bucks max. I could then transfer on a rank for another $75.00. I'm not convinced that it is wise to directly compare the three primary film formats. Super-8 cameras come with so many additional filming options besides 24 frames per second that the circumstances where one would actually be shooting Super-8 in the exact same manner as one would shoot in 16mm or 35 are not that common.

I sometimes wonder if Kodak could figure out a way to unretire Camera Repair Guys who worked in the 70's and 80's and are currently clueless that Super-8 is still being used. The initial cost to get something going might not be as much as one would think. Super-8 Cameras can be bought on ebay all the time and if they don't work, can possibly be used as parts on fixable cameras of the same model. I currently have SEVERAL Eumig cameras that need lubing. As a matter of a fact, most of the Eumig cameras made in the late 70's seem to need lubing every two years or so.

So If I use a Standard Fed-Ex Box it might still be X-rayed? If that is the case, and they can put "do not X-ray" stickers on the box, does that mean the contents should be inspected by Fed-Ex personnel and then sealed at the Fed-Ex location?

John, I just sent 7 cartridges of Super-8 Kodachrome 40 to Dwaynes in Parson's Kansas from Los Angeles via Fed-EX overnight, do I have to worry about Fed-ex-Xrays?

My Website has some Super-8 stills on it, it's located at http://www.super-8mm.net/

I am looking forward to testing Super-8 directly to HD, if I can afford the $350.00 "super-8 gate charge" that is above and beyond the room charge. :unsure: My Super-8 Filmmaking in the Digital Age Forum has a topic devoted to the issue of transferring Super-8 to HD. Included are 15 locations around the world that offer Super-8 to HD transfer services. It's topic 1242 if you can't find it right away. You might have to register to see the topic, but that's only because I get lonely and like to see a name rather than "visitor" when someone does visit. (was that pathetic or what!)