8mm Forum: Going over to 16mm as my main collecting gauge.

»	8mm Forum » General Yak » Going over to 16mm as my main collecting gauge.

UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!

Author

Topic: Going over to 16mm as my main collecting gauge.

David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted December 03, 2017 06:01 PM

After a lot of thought it looks like next year I will stop collecting Super 8mm film for good.

I intend to slowly replace all my features and shorts with the 16mm version and sell off my Super 8mm versions when this is done.

However this will only happen IF and ONLY IF the 16mm copy is much better and has no fade whatever.

The Black and White ones will have to be on Black and White stock.

--------------------
" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

| IP: Logged

Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted December 04, 2017 02:21 AM

My largest collection is on 16mm.

--------------------
Maurice

| IP: Logged

David Roberts
Master Film Handler

Posts: 405
From: Suffolk. England
Registered: Apr 2004

posted December 04, 2017 02:52 AM

David,
I would love to do what you plan to. However,my film room is small,and I sit next to the projector,and I would be pushed to accommodate 16mm.

| IP: Logged

David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted December 04, 2017 07:42 AM

David that's a shame about your room size problem.
When I started collecting 16mm my room size was very small too.
Only about a 10 feet to 12 feet throw or so. The projector was also a bit noisy in this room.

However I could live with the projector noise ( after all that's part of the thrill ) but the image size was very small but really sharp. Problem solved by replacing the 50mm Lens with a 25mm one.

As for my deciding to swap over most of my Super 8mm features and replacing them with the 16mm one where I can. I know that is going to be a bit difficult at this stage of the collecting scene as I realize a lot of them may be well worn or faded. As I don't give a hoot about stereo sound and prefer optical sound despite its limitations this aspect is not a worry for me.
I shall also be free of those magnetic stripe tracks too.

Add to that the fact that I am now finding 8mm film as good as can be,to small and fiddly and fussy to deal with these days I need to move on.

However I enjoy the challenge and that is going to be part of the fun too.

I have a number of valid reasons for wishing to change.
So I have not gone entirely crazy at my age.

[Wink]

--------------------
" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

| IP: Logged

Maurice Leakey
Film God

Posts: 5895
From: Bristol. United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2007

posted December 05, 2017 02:24 AM

Don't forget that Bill Dsvidson called 8mm the Bootlace Gauge. [Smile]

--------------------
Maurice

| IP: Logged

David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted December 05, 2017 04:55 AM

Maurice Bill was correct there in his Bootlace Cinema reviews.
At times it can be as fiddly and awkward as trying to tie your shoe or bootlaces in the dark with a blindfold on.

I should not knock 8mm really as I did start on Standard 8mm and was forced to change to Super 8mm when they decided to stop printing Standard 8mm package movies then the film stock.

It was after all the gauge aimed at the home movie amateur mass produced market at that time.

8mm film succeeded in the mass market where good old 9.5mm failed and 16mm was for the well heeled and semi professional.

I often wonder how things would have been had 9.5mm became the gauge of choice.

[Smile]

--------------------
" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

| IP: Logged

Joe Caruso
Film God

Posts: 4105
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 06, 2017 03:29 PM

Or if 35mm and 28 were the norm, then 8mm became all the rage to the present - Reversals of history are fun, though chaotic - Cheers, Shorty

| IP: Logged

Paul Adsett
Film God

Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted December 06, 2017 03:54 PM

In France and the UK 9,5mm was the guage of choice from the 1920's well into the mid 1950's. 9,5mm had an amazing library of silent and sound films, and the print picture was as crisp as 16mm. In terms of picture quality it had everything going for it, and the equipment was as compact as 8mm. The thing that did it in was double 8mm Kodachrome and the onslaught of superior 8mm equipment from Europe and Japan.

--------------------
The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection,
Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade
Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar
Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj

| IP: Logged

Terry Sills
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1423
From: Weymouth,Dorset,England
Registered: Oct 2012

posted December 06, 2017 05:18 PM

Yes Kodak has a lot to answer for [Wink]

| IP: Logged

David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted December 06, 2017 06:02 PM

It would have been a good thing if 35mm or even 9.5mm had became the norm. At least the printed picture quality may have been a lot more consistent and much more acceptable than most of the average to dire images of some 8mm prints that were struck by a lot of package movie companies.

Yes Kodak does indeed have a lost to answer for. Especially the Eastman stock that has now faded to red in 35 / 16 / and 8mm.

They knew full well that this stuff would fade and yet they continued to supply the stock for not only commercial cinema prints and 16mm hire and of course for the 8mm package film home movie market.

We were all ripped off and conned into believing that we had a film that would last for our lifetime that would keep its colour which it has not.

--------------------
" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

| IP: Logged

Terry Sills
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1423
From: Weymouth,Dorset,England
Registered: Oct 2012

posted December 07, 2017 12:47 PM

Quite right David. Unfortunately it was the war which changed everything. Europe was impoverished and so a lack of investment in the home movie industry. The USA jumped in and we were consequently lumbered with 8mm, a much inferior guage compared to 9.5. Eastman film stock was a foreseeable disaster which was deliberately perpetuated.

| IP: Logged

David Hardy
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 955
From: Johnshaven Village , Montrose, Scotland
Registered: Jan 2015

posted December 07, 2017 01:00 PM

Terry we were indeed lumbered with the Standard 8mm gauge and indeed Super 8mm for the home movie enthusiast.

9.5mm and even 16mm would have been much better for package movies image wise.

I am glad to read that someone else agrees with me regarding Kodak's dodgy Eastman stocks. We in the trade thought it was an absolute scandal knowing what they did in the late 1970s and still going ahead with printing on this stock.

I have an industry trade report somewhere on this from the 1970s. If I can find it I will try and download it on to this forum sometime.

Even the film directors were protesting about this at the time as they were also aware that the prints of their movies were going to fade in time.

--------------------
" My equipment's more important than your rats. "

| IP: Logged

All times are Central

Printer-friendly view of this topic

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2