8mm Forum: Has 8mm Film Been Filmed?

This is topic Has 8mm Film Been Filmed? in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Scott Belt (Member # 4579) on December 10, 2014, 12:23 PM:

I apologize since this is such a basic question to all you pros.
I found several 8mm film cartridges when going through my parents things and have no idea how to tell if these have any film footage on them. Any tips?

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on December 10, 2014, 12:27 PM:

They may well have footage, but these days, you would have to send them to what film labs are still available to process your film. Unfortunately, I can't give you advice on where to send your cartridges, as I don't know what film labs would process them. In some cases, depending on the film stock/cartridges, there are no labs still existing that can process it for you ...

Hopefully, there is. Someone who's more of a professional in this regard should take over now ... [Smile]

Thank you for posting concerning this and welcome!

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 10, 2014, 12:34 PM:

Usually the word "Exposed" appears on the film at the end and the film notches down to tell the camera to signal end of film, so this roll is probably still a virgin.

This roll is from the 80s, so it probably doesn't really matter anyway. Even if there was an image it is a couple of decades post expiration.

Focal Color Movie Film EM-25

Spectra says they will process it for $95 with no guarantees:

Spectra Film and Video

Posted by Adrian Winchester (Member # 248) on December 10, 2014, 01:52 PM:

Super 8 leader can be expensive nowadays so at least the cartridges can potentially be used in this way.

Posted by Scott Belt (Member # 4579) on December 10, 2014, 03:03 PM:

Thanks. I kind of figured these might be un used films. I have 4 of them.

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on December 10, 2014, 09:50 PM:

What's kind of strange about it is that the film is out of the packaging. Most people leave them sealed up until the moment they need them.

-usually at about 5 feet left I ask my wife to open a new one up for me so I can do a quick swap and not miss anything good!

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on December 10, 2014, 10:54 PM:

As Steve said, the word "exposed" should appear on the film. This is not the case of the film shown on the picture so it has not been exposed or at least not until the end. If one of your four films has the exposed word on it you can try to have it process but of course no lab will give you any garantee of the result. The rule is that once a film has been exposed it should be process as soon as possible. You may have good surprises with well outdated exposed film but you may also get an unwatchable film back from the lab. As the process is not cheap, you have to make the balance between what is resonnable in term of costs and what could be unvaluable in term of familly document. I don't know the make of the films you have (it's probably American), maybe someone can tell you if Focal is reputed for good quality or not. You can always contact labs to have more infos This one is not too expensive : http://www.super8.nl/english/e_index.htm

Posted by Timothy Duncan (Member # 4461) on December 11, 2014, 06:15 AM:

The Focal brand was manufactured for the K-mart Corporation to be sold exclusively in the retail chain back in the day. My guess would be that it was a substandard product as compared to a brand such as Kodak. Back in the early 80's, I bought a package of their blank audio cassettes and they were of acceptable quality, but not one of the best.

Posted by Winbert Hutahaean (Member # 58) on December 11, 2014, 06:50 AM:

It is so funny, the picture above has serial numbers 57022 while the one appears at super 8 database has s/n 57026.....THEY ARE SIBLINGS!! [Big Grin]

Posted by Scott Belt (Member # 4579) on December 11, 2014, 09:35 AM:

Yes KMart film makes sense. It was down the street from our house. The others are Kodak brand. I'm guessing since my dad was an early adapter of Camcorders (like 1984) that he may have not used these films.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on December 11, 2014, 01:29 PM:

Whar remains a mystery is, as Steve pointed it out, is that the cartridges are no longer sealed. Why would you open the package if not to use it. You can imagine that one film was put in a camera and then forgotten there but if four films are unsealed, that's less understandable.

Posted by Joe Balitzki (Member # 438) on December 11, 2014, 08:49 PM:

Focal movie film I believe was manufactured by 3M/Ferrania for Kmart and its a polyester base film instead of acetate base.

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