8mm Forum: 35mm or 16mm?

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Topic: 35mm or 16mm?

Matt Darr
Junior
Posts: 26
From: Little Rock, AR, USA
Registered: Jan 2018

posted January 30, 2018 09:24 AM

I have a very simple question that I did Google but cant find the answer for.
I see some Ebay listings for 16mm reels as shown below but isnt that 35mm? That hole is weird, doesnt look 16mm to me

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Greg Perry
Film Handler

Posts: 86
From: midwest
Registered: Dec 2015

posted January 30, 2018 09:38 AM

Hi Matt,

The odd shaped plastic disc in the middle is called a "film core". They can be found on both 16mm and 35mm films. These cores are used in conjunction with a "split reel". A split reel unscrews so both sides of the reel come apart at the middle (where a standard 16mm or 35mm "hole" would be).

The film as pictured on a core would be placed over the matching male hub on one side of the split reel and then the two halves would be screwed back together. Then the split reel with the film still on the core could be put on a projector like a more standard reel and screened as normal.
I think these cores were used to save shipping costs and the extra costs associated with putting every film on its own separate reel.

Others here can probably explain it in more depth...It IS handy to have a 16mm split reel. You can find split reels for sale on ebay or at Urbanski Film Supplies online store.

Greg

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Matt Darr
Junior
Posts: 26
From: Little Rock, AR, USA
Registered: Jan 2018

posted January 30, 2018 09:45 AM

ok thanks for that.
I see this but cant figure out how its used.
Would there be four separate reels on that one big reel that you play then rotate for the next one?

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Greg Perry
Film Handler

Posts: 86
From: midwest
Registered: Dec 2015

posted January 30, 2018 10:08 AM

Hello,

**I should add that the four cores shown in the four openings of the split reel is just coincidence/posing for the picture--obviously only a single core is mounted onto the center hub of the split reel when used..
**

What you have there is four individual cores and one split reel.
So only one core is used at a time with one split reel. A film that would normally be found on more than one reel--say four reels--could instead be mounted on four cores and then interchanged individually as needed onto the split reel. Each cored film could be swapped out directly on to the split reel as you watched one of the four, one after the other.

After viewing the film that was cored, you could instead rewind it back onto a standard reel (instead of the now-empty split reel and core, by removing the core + split reel and putting a empty standard reel back on the supply arm).
In that way, you could transfer any film that was on a core onto a regular metal or plastic (non-split) reel. This transferring could also be done using rewinds.

I am guessing most of us transfer any films that we may buy that happen to come on a core, onto a regular reel.

Cores are cheaper than reels and so sometimes sellers will put films for sale on a core and then they would be able to sell the now empty reel for a few bucks as well.

Greg

[ January 30, 2018, 03:52 PM: Message edited by: Greg Perry ]

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

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

posted January 30, 2018 03:01 PM

When I used to buy 16mm features from the US they were shipped on cores to save the extra cost which would have been involved if they had been sent on conventional spools.

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Maurice

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Allan Broadfield
Master Film Handler

Posts: 452
From: Bromley, Kent
Registered: Nov 2010

posted February 01, 2018 05:57 AM

Those look like 16mm cores. In my experience 35mm cores tend to be of smaller circumference.

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Steve Kraus
Junior
Posts: 9
From: Chicago, IL, USA
Registered: Dec 2017

posted February 01, 2018 09:14 AM

In both cases the opening is 1" diameter (not counting tiny tolerances). In both photos the cores are nominal 2" diameter (in actuality maybe 1/16" less). Cores come in various diameters for all gauges.

35mm movie trailers were typically sent on roughly 1" diameter cores which the supply catalogs sometimes refer to as "hubs." They resemble a 1" inner diameter thin wall black plastic pipe with a small tab sticking inward which mates with a groove on a core adapter.

But I've seen cores as large as 5" diameter.

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

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

posted February 01, 2018 09:46 AM

I have two sizes of Kodak 16mm cores, their diameters are 50mm and 75mm.
The cores shown in all the above pictures appear to be the 50mm size.

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Maurice

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Brian Fretwell
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1785
From: London, UK
Registered: Jun 2014

posted February 01, 2018 11:49 AM

The shadows makes it look like 16mm, I have a 35mm trailer on a core by me at the moment and it looks thicker when viewed from the same angle.

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Maurice Leakey
Film God

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

posted February 01, 2018 11:56 AM

Matt said it was listed as 16mm on eBay.

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Maurice

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Mitchell Dvoskin
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 128
From: West Milford, NJ
Registered: Jun 2008

posted February 07, 2018 03:07 PM

Motion picture film comes from the processing lab on cores. Archives tend to store film on cores in archival cans. While less common for 16mm, many 35mm collectors store their films on cores, they take up less space that way and 35mm shipping reels tend to be cheap crap.

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Clinton Hunt
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 845
From: Waharoa,North Island,New Zealand
Registered: May 2010

posted February 08, 2018 10:47 PM

And if you don't have a split reel for it as I don't,then there are other ways to do it ... using 2 round cardboard pieces for either side and careful wind it on to a normal reel.It works but take it slowly [Smile]

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Cheers from me in New Zealand :-)

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