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Topic: Hello- Where does Super 8 come from
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Paul Adsett
Film God
Posts: 5003
From: USA
Registered: Jun 2003
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posted December 27, 2003 11:54 AM
I agree with you on this one Trevor. My standard 8 films look much better than any of the stuff I took on Super 8. The reason is simple: 1) The standard 8 cameras were designed for spool loading film, and all the cameras incorporated precision stainless steel gates and pressure pads for superior film registration. Super 8 on the other hand, uses that tacky plastic cartridge from Kodak. This is why a lot of people prefer the single 8 system from Fuji, which utilised a cassette with a precision camera gate mechanism.
2) The camera lenses of most of the best standard 8mm cameras, such as the Bolex series, used prime (non-zoom) lenses. In the case of Bolex camears the lenses were superb quality Kern and Switar glass lenses. So the image sharpness and contrast was usually far superior to the plastic zoom lenses which were on nearly all the super 8 cameras. So most of the advantage of the 50% increase in film area on super 8 was lost due to Kodak's cheap cartridge design, and the advent of mass produced plastic cameras with poor zoom lenses. (Fortunately this does not apply to Super 8 printed films, which we all collect, which are far superior to standard 8 printed films)
My standard 8 Kodachrome films from the 1950's are as sharp as a tack, with beautiful rich colors and contrast. They look like they just came back from the lab. No color fade, no shrinkage, they knock the socks off any home video's I have ever seen (My Sony 8mm videos from the early 1990's are already showing signs of deterioration with tracking problems etc, -talk about going backwards in quality!)
-------------------- The best of all worlds- 8mm, super 8mm, 9.5mm, and HD Digital Projection, Elmo GS1200 f1.0 2-blade Eumig S938 Stereo f1.0 Ektar Panasonic PT-AE4000U digital pj
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