8mm Forum: Which projectors are kinder to films Super 8 or 16MM?

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Topic: Which projectors are kinder to films Super 8 or 16MM?

Osi Osgood
Film God

Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005

posted June 06, 2009 10:39 PM

It's a question that I suppose, can only be answered by someone involved in both gauges, but which projectors, In your professional opinions, are kinder to thier gauge of films?

Super 8MM (lets include 8mm in that) OR 16mm?

I have not had much experience in 16mm, but from those I have had the fun to operate, it seems like the film gets scratched fairly easy. Except in thew case of one projector, (an old soundstar), I have found that, with proper maintenance, my Super 8's rarely scratch my films.

But perhaps, with proper maintenance, 16mm would be just as kind to films.

I only think that the 8mm gauge projectors are kinder to films because these were specifically made for collectors of home movies, while 16mm would tend to be more for industrial use.

Your opinions, gentlemen?

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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "

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Roy Neil
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 203
From: Menlo Park, CA
Registered: Sep 2007

posted June 07, 2009 02:15 AM

Magnetic heads have to be forced down against the film, and less wear occurs with optical soundheads ( imho ) - Also the pins pushing down the film onto tho magnetic heads often trap debris and can easily scratch prints ( Leon Norris had this happen to a print )

16mm films are like rental cars, they get hammered by the people that rent them; Super8 tends to be in better shape for this reason. 35mm is varied depending on the people who have handled the print - I have prints in excellent condition in all 3 gauges.

Slotload Elmo or Eiki is probably the easiest on film - with my own preference toward Elmo in terms of kindness to film.

Super8 is so small and the autoload projectors can be finicky that this in itself becomes an issue - depending upon the projector.

I dont believe 16mm projectors are 'less kind' to film, in fact some of the 'industrial' projectors like the Eastman 25B utilize an intermittent instead of a claw - which is much kinder to film. The lack of slotload super8 machines combined with magnetic soundheads makes me want to say that 16mm projectors are kinder to film than Super8 projectors are to Super8.

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