This is topic Current status of Double Super 8 in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.


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Posted by Luigi Castellitto (Member # 3759) on October 29, 2018, 12:34 PM:
 
Currently, who uses Double Super 8 format?
I am use it, with Fomapan R100 and an excellent Pathé Webo BTL. [Smile]
If so, opinions?
 
Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on October 29, 2018, 06:36 PM:
 
I too shoot DS8 and I recently shot a 100ft roll of Fomapan. I love the stock, but I am really hoping we can get some DS8 Ektachrome color reversal and the new Ferrania when it comes out. To me, DS8 is the most cost effective way of shooting S8mm and the great cameras with their metal pressure plates and great lenses produce the best images the format has to offer. Yeah, the cameras are big and heavy, but to me they are a blast to film with.
 
Posted by Paul Adsett (Member # 25) on October 29, 2018, 07:19 PM:
 
David, I would not hold your breath for any Ferrania stock - it ain't going to happen, but I could see Wittner's maybe producing DS8 Ektachrome stock.
I agree with everything you say about DS8 cameras. They have to be superior to all the super 8 cameras that use the Kodak plastic cartridge. Nothing like a metal gate and prime (non-zoom) lenses for the ultimate picture quality.
 
Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on October 30, 2018, 06:56 PM:
 
Paul you are probably right about Ferrania, but let's hope for the best. Once I had shot, processed and projected my first roll of DS8mm shot with my Bolex modified Rex 4 camera, I sold all of my cartridge S8mm cameras and have not gone back since. I mostly shoot with my Canon DS8 and to me it is one of the best hand held cameras out there (even though I try to use a tripod all the time). Terrific viewfinder so easy to focus and frame with.
 
Posted by Luigi Castellitto (Member # 3759) on October 30, 2018, 07:21 PM:
 
The Fomapan is an excellent film, and then if we consider that it exists also in DS8 of 30 meters that is practically infinite...

I find myself very well with my Pathé, great results, even if I consider my camera lower than the Canon DS8 and a modified Bolex, but certainly it's superior to the soviets DS8, even if I used a model of they and the result was not bad.
I left on my Pathé the lens that is sold together with it (Angenieux 1.9 8-64,even if I changed it with an equal because one is broken), which is still a zoom, but of high quality. Then, the camera is all metal, has a metal press, has an automatic and manual solid loading mechanism. It has only one big defect, a reflex mirror almost made of "paper"! But luckily I did change with a better one, at the time!
Paul, you say about the prime lens, I deduce that you have a Bolex DS8? I can't remember other DS8 camera with prime lens, apart from my Pathé that has the turret and can also bring prime lens.
 
Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on November 06, 2018, 11:29 PM:
 
Luigi, I wouldn't say the Pathe is a step down from either the Bolex or Canon. I never owned a Pathe, but they are impressive looking DS8mm cameras. The Angenieux 8-64 can be a great lens if you have a nice sharp one. I don't shoot often with my Bolex due to the viewfinder being so dim and my eyes are getting old. I would like to some day send it off to Bernie to have him do his ground glass brightening and do an overhaul. I will have to save up for it, but I will do it if Ektachrome ever becomes available (or Ferrania chrome) in DS8mm.
 
Posted by Luigi Castellitto (Member # 3759) on November 08, 2018, 08:20 PM:
 
True, David, maybe I'm too critical with my Pathé, it's that I love my Bolex H8 Rex 4 for classi double 8, and it always seems to me the top of efficiency. But it has flaws, certainly, first of all the little and dark viewfinder! The first time I tried a Bolex H I thought there was a problem in the viewfinder! The other models, like the P3 that I also own, have very large and bright viewfinders!
I too have often thought about the modification of Bernie, it is not even extremely expensive, but I would pay a lot of shipping cost.
Instead I would never use an external LCD screen connected to the viewfinder, in my opinion they distort the beauty of the old machines.
The Pathé is also very beautiful to look at, it looks like a 35mm in miniature. It has the same problem of the Canon, if you want to use 10m or 7.5m films you have to wrap them in the 30 meter reels, the camera only accepts those.
My Angeniux is very clean, it was a model for Beaulieu, with the gear for the automatic functions, which of course I have dismantled. The originally lens (similar) it has fallen, but incredibly the whole optics has resisted a violent fall (but without glass... repair it would have cost more than a new one).
The Webo BTL DS8 is a less refined machine than a Bolex in the sense that it is more "metallic", for example on the H8 I have a Rexofader, with the Pathé I have to make a hard movement.
But it has the internal exposure meter, which I use very well with a battery adapter.
A never-repeated curiosity: to save the battery, the exposure meter was activated with... a head shot! [Big Grin] In the sense that your forehead pressed against a lever and activated the function. My machine, however, is modified, they are almost all modified, it was a very original method, but strange!

I also hope that the Ektachrome also comes in DS8 (and that costs less...). Ferrania ... mmmmh. :|
Once in a while there are expired DS8 films, often the Orwo, sometimes even Svema in color!
 
Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on November 09, 2018, 10:09 AM:
 
The title of this thread has confused me. Is Double Super 8 a new format?
Or is it the old standard/regular 8mm?
Such film is usually on 25ft spools, these are turned over at the end of its first run, then exposed again to complete a run of 50ft.
The film is virtually modified 16mm and is split to 8mm after processing and the two lengths joined together. The lab then returns 50ft of film.
 
Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on November 09, 2018, 01:32 PM:
 
Maurice

DS8mm is just like Double 8mm (R8mm) except it has Super 8mm perforations instead of the larger 8mm sprocket holes. DS8mm has been around for over 50 years. The initial cost of the cameras needed to shoot DS8mm kept the popularity of the format down. I personally love the format.
 
Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on November 09, 2018, 01:47 PM:
 
Maurice, here some informations about double super 8 : https://www.on8mil.com/2016/02/16/we-love-ds8-double-super-8/ I sadly never owned a double super 8 camera.
 
Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on November 09, 2018, 01:50 PM:
 
Thank you, Gentleman, I have learnt something new today. So, you end up with a Super 8 film [Smile]
 
Posted by Luigi Castellitto (Member # 3759) on November 09, 2018, 01:55 PM:
 
Don't forget that in addition to the perforations it has the characteristics of classic the Super 8, therefore also the largest frame.
I also love the format, being a Super8 with the great advantage of the pressure not in plastic. Great definition!
Dom and Maurice, why do not you try? The Soviet cameras are also available at 20/30 euros, as well as the 10 meter Fomapan R100 at around 12 euros. [Smile]
Obviously projectors, splicers, movioles, etc., are the same as the Super 8.
 
Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on November 09, 2018, 02:11 PM:
 
Also in its favour Double Super 8 used a metal gate and pressure plate in the camera which may have given better stability of the image over the plastic one in the Super8 cartridge.
 


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