8mm Forum: New GK reloadable super 8 cartridge

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Posted by Josh Drake (Member # 4698) on February 23, 2015, 05:23 PM:

Hi All,

I'm new to the forum (but not to super 8) so if this topic has been covered elsewhere please direct me (I've looked and haven't found).

For a while I've been looking for a reasonable way to do a super 8 full roll double exposure and now is see that just last month GK film introduced a reloadable film cartridge (http://www.gkfilm.de/en/index.html?5_wiederverwendbare-kassette/wiederverkass.html). I have a ton of questions and wrote GK but have yet to receive a response. Perhaps you all can help/would make for a good discussion.

- does anyone have one? Any reviews:thoughts?

- where do you get film for the thing? Can you buy 50' rolls of stock not in a cartridge from anywhere? Can the film be removed from a standard cartridge and placed into the reloadable? If so, does the core need to be replaced? Can it be done after a roll has been previously shot (would be fun to shoot in reverse/upside down for this)?

- can film in the reloadable cartridge itself be rewound after shot? Obviously this cannot be done with a normal super 8 cartridge.

- what's the best way to send exposed film to a lab? Can it be placed in a light tight black plastic bag? I think i used to see 400' Kodak 16mm rolls with sealable black plastic bags but not sure what you could get now. Can the lab develop if not from a cartridge?

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on February 24, 2015, 10:00 AM:

Hello Josh. It seems that Wittner sells different kind of stock on core http://www.wittner-kinotechnik.de/katalog/04_filmm/s8_meter.php They also sell reloadable cartridges. Their site is sadly not translated.

Posted by Maurizio Di Cintio (Member # 144) on February 24, 2015, 10:14 AM:

Hi! Whilst Wittner in Germany used to sell 50' film for cart reloading, now I haven't seen thme for quite a long time. Yet is is certainly possible to pull out a film from its cartridge and transfer it into a reloadable one. But this should be done prior to first exposure because it's next to impossible to pull out the film from the cartridge once the exposed film has been wound on the take-up core (in fact the core has a non-reverse system which prevents it tu be turned in the wrong direction - I guess this was meant to prevent any film slacks).

I also guess GK Film will eventually make available new film for reloading otherwise selling reloadable cartridges would pointless. The GK reloadable cartridge will not allow to shoot in reverse and/or to rewind film that has been already shot: in fact this limit depends on the take up system in the camera, not on just the cartridge. (FYI the only camera that allows you to shoot in reverese is the Nikon R 10, but only for 4-5 secs).

In any case it goes witout saying a reloadable cartridge can be opened in the dark, the film can be rewound and you are ready for a second exposure (or even 3rd, 4th etc: Nizo 6080 came with a matte box which enabled breaking down the frame in 4 different shots, with 4 different consecutive passes of film!!! 5 seconds with standard cartridges, the whole length of film with 200' cartridges).

I haven't tested this specific cartridge but for the price they ask, I think I'll stick to my own way to reloading film: in fact I have always used regular cartridges - it's not so difficult to open them with a sharp blade (cutter) without damaging it too much. And Agfa carts are very good, there is even a spinning core which makes the unexposed film spin easier as opposed to Kodak's. I've never regretted using this system and you can still find these cartridges on ebay for peanuts.

Just experiment and enjoy. And yes, you can send the exposed film to your lab in a plastic black bag with no problem: I trust Frank Bruinsma of super8.nl lab, in the Nederlands for this delicate task.

Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on February 24, 2015, 10:58 AM:

The Chrome browser does a great job of translating most non-English websites.

Posted by Dominique De Bast (Member # 3798) on February 24, 2015, 12:04 PM:

Janice, I've just tried to translate a text from German to French via Google traduction and the result is more than average (but it's a technical article). Maybe Chrome does better translation or the English translator is more sophisticated. As I don't want to multiplicate the browser on my computers, I'll try with Chrome at work (during the break) this week.

Posted by Josh Drake (Member # 4698) on February 26, 2015, 10:16 AM:

Thanks for the help team! I knew Wittner sold alternate stocks but their reloadable gear makes more sense and is more reasonably priced.

Posted by Maurizio Di Cintio (Member # 144) on February 26, 2015, 12:31 PM:

The difficulty when you buy a 60 m spool on core is to break it down to 15 m length: you have to do it in total darkness and you don't want to overfill the cartridge as it might jam beyond fixing (at least outdoors). For acetate I use a regular 15 m black spool and wind film on it from the cored spool. With 33 crank turns the spool is full; then I transfer that length of film to the cartridge. But Aviphot is thinner being polyester, so I do not know how many winds you have to do to obtain the exact length: Certainly if you count 33 as well, you'll end up with, maybe even 20 metes of film. Now while this is fine if processing film in a continous processing machine, it's not the case when using a tank accepting only 15 meters of film.

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