8mm Forum: 35mm or 16mm?

This is topic 35mm or 16mm? in forum 16mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://8mmforum.film-tech.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=5;t=001753

Posted by Matt Darr (Member # 6270) on 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

Posted by Greg Perry (Member # 5177) on 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

Posted by Matt Darr (Member # 6270) on 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?

Posted by Greg Perry (Member # 5177) on 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 ]

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on 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.

Posted by Allan Broadfield (Member # 2298) on February 01, 2018, 05:57 AM:

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

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 6244) on 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.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on 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.

Posted by Brian Fretwell (Member # 4302) on 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.

Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on February 01, 2018, 11:56 AM:

Matt said it was listed as 16mm on eBay.

Posted by Mitchell Dvoskin (Member # 1183) on 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.

Posted by Clinton Hunt (Member # 2072) on 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]

UBB.classic^TM 6.3.1.2