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Author
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Topic: Blackhawks: Early or later generation better?
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted January 04, 2008 11:30 AM
This is a fun topic, and it may have been covered before, but I have found that the earlier generation of Blackhawks have a far better quality than the later releases, (except for the silver box releases at the very end.).
I was just watching two of thier silents yesterday, and I happened to have later generation copies of those same titles...
Do Detectives think?
That's My Wife
Now the early generation Super 8's are the titles that the "blacks", "dripping" (those who own these earlier prints will know what I'm talking about) into the sprocket area.
The grey levels are absolutely perfect. There is no wash outs at all, and the sharpness is truly outstanding.
What are you guys ideas on the subject?
Which brings up a second question. Have you fellows noticed that by and far, the silent shorts tend to have a better image quality than the sound shorts OR features?
I wonder if this is because Blackhawk had rights to very early
master negatives, while the sound subjects might be later dupes?
--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Gary Crawford
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 979
From: Manassas, VA. USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted January 04, 2008 11:57 AM
When I started buying standard 8mm sound and super 8 sound films from Blackhawk, I got some pretty awful sound prints. Fuzzy focus...bad registration...... My standard 8 Saps at Sea was printed so thin , you could hardly read the titles. Very few were acceptable or up to what Blackhawk had a reputation for providing. I had so many Laurel and Hardy films , including Way out West, which were so soft you couldn't even see basic facial features.
On the other hand, prints of silents like Air Pockets, Big Moments from Little Pictures...the silent Laurel and Hardys and some of the Snub Pollards, Larry Semon's ...and silent features were nice and sharp, much clearer and crisper. Yes, I did notice that and thought it odd at the time. Later, as you said, the silver box films...especially the Rascals and Laurel and Hardy films were just super. It was like night and day from the old to the new. It was strange to me that the 8mm versions of the early sound films were so bad compared to their 16mm big brothers.
On the other hand, many of the latter super 8 Castle digests seened to be pale shadows of their former Standard 8 ancestors.
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