Sign of the times.

[Allan Broadfield]

Just received the very last edition of the Group 9.5 magazine.
Founded around 1962 by enthusiasts determined to keep 9.5mm on the map, despite the closing of Pathescope, the meetings have been held in an old church building in Pimlico fortnightly for some years.
This is the last paragraph in the magazine bidding farewell - 'Just at this moment, as the magazine folds and members are about to forego all that bonhomie, comes the stark realisation that every single 9.5 projector is about to become defunct. If the mechanism doesn't fail, the lamp surely will. The solution must surely be to urgently transfer original footage to a digital format, so that you might reasonably expect the material to be seen and appreciated way into the future'
Sad times.

[Ken Finch]

I cannot agree that 9.5 mm projectors are about to be defunct. Mechanisms for most of them are extremely hard wearing and most worn parts are not that difficult to be restored or replaced. If you do not have the ability to do it yourself a local model engineering club can often oblige. Similarly, there are electrics and lamps can be updated. Yes it is sensible to transfer the original footage to digital but it is also essential that the digital format is backed up and the original cine film retained as far as possible in archival conditions. Group 9.5 and the magazine may have come to an end but that does not mean the end of 9.5. It would appear that there may even be the possibility of 9.5mm camera stock becoming available again but not at a price. most could afford to use it. It can never compete with the mobile phone. Sorry, I mean the mini computer. That is until the internet crashes through overload or artificial intelligence takes control ! Ken Finch.😳

[Maurice Leakey]

Very good comments, Ken.
I have sold all my 9.5mm silents to an enthusiast, but I have retained all my 9.5mm sound films plus sound projectors including some Buckinghams.
The films have lasted for at least sixty years and mine are still in excellent condition. They could last another sixty, but I won't be here to see it.

[Mike Newell]

I remember coming across 9.5 collectors 40 odd years ago as they were part of our 8mm club and was amazed that as a gauge it was still going and there were conventions of collectors. In terms of AI this is what is round the corner for us all. Remember she is a robot and wants to experience love. Just don’t call her stinky or you might end up being washed with a Brillo pad. Remember them?


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...ever-LOVE.html

[Dominique De Bast]

I don't see any urgency at all to digitalize 9.5 films. There are many projectors in working order. If a lamp burns, it's easy to replace and even if a specific model is no longer manufacture, it's still possible to find an alternative. Several 9.5 projectors have now a modern HID lamp.

[Ken Finch]

The way leds are developing, it will not be long before they will be a cheaper alternative to the HID lamp. Ken Finch. 😊

[Graham Sinden]

The only real reason to digitise 9.5 films is to keep another copy (or more) as a backup should the original be destroyed in a fire or it goes VS. In fact that should go for all gauges of home movies where the film is the only copy.

Projection of the original is still the best way to view providing the film is in good condition (I.e. not warped and difficult to project)

[Brian Fretwell]

Yes people say "Convert" the film to digital (A digital file) but they really mean "Copy it to a digital file".

[Simon Wyss]

It’s not even a copy. A binary-numeric data file is established after a scanning process that dissects photographic images into lines and pixels. Dematerialisation takes place. Film is abandoned at once. Almost nobody is honest enough to acknowledge that.

[Brian Fretwell]

But the film still exists, it is not transmuted into a "digital" form. That's whay I menat.

[Allan Broadfield]

Good to know the nine-fivers are still a force to be reckoned with, though hopefully not just old timers like me!

[Ken Finch]

Yes Allan,. It might well have been the most popular amateur film gauge were it not for the war and the adverse and unfair comments made about it by certain elements of the cine press when super eight was being first promoted. After all it was the first to use cassette
loading cameras and the first magnetic sound projector. With regard to printed commercial films it was years before they became available to purchase in any quantity on the other gauges. Indeed feature films on 16mm were only available to hire in the U.K. until the hire companies and t.v. companies started to dispose of their stock when vhs came on the market. Ken Finch 😉

[Allan Broadfield]

I agree on all counts Ken, though as a kid back in the fifties those films in the sound section of the Pathescope catalogue were just a dream, as santa forgot to leave me a Son (yes, I know it was trouble) projector at xmas!
Instead I hired silent films from a chemist shop in Shepherds bush to run on my Pathe Ace, even though they insisted only projectors with sprockets need apply. Total ignorance on my part and they must have overlooked it!
Fortunately I didn't damage any prints but some copies had that tell tale scratch hovering in the middle of the picture where someone's claw mechinism must have been out of position!

[Ken Finch]

Hi Allan, I also started with the ACE and used to hire silent films from Butcher Curnow photographic chemists in Blackheath village. The two assistants who ran the photographic department loaned me and checked it out before they let me hire any other films. They later found me a coronet camera for a fiver and would load chargers with camera stock for me from Gevaert reloads which came in small tins of 3 30 ft rolls. They worked out at 9 Bob per roll including processing. This was 2 shillings cheaper than Pathescope. The Mr Butcher who owned the shop was the same film pioneer who built projectors and operated the Butchers Empire Film Distribution company. Incidentally there used to be a cine dealer in Bromley, known as A C S if my memory serves me right. I believe the also ran a film library.Ken Finch.😊

[Allan Broadfield]

Hi Ken ah yes, The Amateur Cine Service, 44 Widmore road. It was on a corner, and now even the corner has gone.
I never used it as I lived in Fulham, and when I moved to Bromley around 1965, although it was still there, family matters took over for some time.
My hiring library was R.Middleton Ltd, Goldhawk Road. Mr Middleton was a kindly soul, perhaps thats why he put a blind eye to my sprocketless projector!