8mm Forum: Availability of 9.5mm films.....

This is topic Availability of 9.5mm films..... in forum 9.5mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Clinton Hunt (Member # 2072) on November 17, 2011, 03:14 PM:

Hi all, I am recently new to the 9.5mm world although I had a good collection of Reg 8 , Super 8 and 16mm, Those 3 formats still have a large amount of films for sale to buy around the world but I have discovered that 9.5mm films are quite scarce....only a few listed on e-bay and rarely listed on Trademe here in New Zealand. So far I have a various reel with "dizzy dames" and 3 films to do with aircrafts, and recently got a Betty Boop on e-bay.

I have the Specto I recently won on Trademe and 2 crank-winding projectors - one that is going and the other has the lamp section missing.

Are you all finding them harder and harder to find?

Cheers, Clinton

Oh and thanks for directing me to a site that had a manual for for Specto - I was surprised to see that 9.5mm films feed from the back! Any reason for that?

Posted by Mikael Barnard (Member # 1637) on November 17, 2011, 04:08 PM:

Hi Clinton. One of the things to remember with 9.5 is that, with a few exceptions, new prints all but stopped after 1959. Films of other gauges are more common partly because they all blossomed to a larger extent than 9.5 (i.e. more prints were made), partly because they were made for longer. As a result the prints that were made have also had longer to end up with collectors who are keen to hang onto them in the long term, 9.5 sound films are a particular case in point. Also projectors for the other gauges continued to be readily available from new long after this had ceased to be the case for 9.5.

The other thing with 9.5 is that, whilst scarcer than the 'common' gauges, there are even greater gulfs of scarcity within the gauge itself. A 30ft Mickey Mouse cassette can be had far easier than a notched print of Napoleon. It all depends what you want to collect on 9.5 as much as anything.

In some ways the Internet may prove to be a bit of a saving grace for film, a significant number of people were using the 'common' gauges in the home well into the 1980s, this means that they've had comparatively less time to sit in boxes under eventual threat of being chucked out. If people had a few films 9.5 films kicking about in, say, 1965 it was much easier to just chuck them in the bin than take them physically to a trader/second hand shop/list them in a mag. Nowadays it just takes a few clicks on a button and a box of old film can be up on eBay, an option not available when 9.5 'finished' as a mainstream format.

If you think 9.5 is a challenge don't even get started on 17.5, 28 etc!

Posted by Clinton Hunt (Member # 2072) on November 17, 2011, 07:35 PM:

Too true with that info!
I guess it will pay to keep a lookout for the 9.5mm "anything" and if the budget allows then snap it up!

I do enjoy the simplicity of it and also Regular 8 - the projectors mostly have broken belts or blown bulbs unless something serious happens.

Whereas Super 8 sound ans 16mm projectors have alot more goingon inside..

Posted by Mark Todd (Member # 96) on November 18, 2011, 05:49 PM:

Dealers often turn them down when offered them.

Can be a bit of a minefield avoiding damaged, mouldey and/or warped copies so take care.

Best Mark.

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on November 19, 2011, 02:22 AM:

Rather depends on the titles. I had a pile of silent 300ftrs and one guy purchased the lot. If the titles are desirable silent’s will sell OK but the ones printed in huge numbers are a bit of a job to move. Sound films always move quickly and prove popular, but I always pray the buyer has a decent projector to run them on as once these films get shredded they can never be replaced due to no new prints being struck.

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