Old and New... What has changed for you?

[Shane C. Collins]

Osi and Steve you hit some great points here! I remember seeing Super 8 for the first time in the late 70's. I was a kid back then, but there was something about it that had my attention. The smell of the projector, the vinyl smelly screen, and those gleaming colorful images, ah! Yes, those images stayed with me for decades! By the time the late 80's arrived I remember seeing VHS recorded home movies. My first thoughts were OK this is cool. But, for some reason I thought back to those colorful Super 8 home movies I was first introduced too. This new format of VHS tape just looked lifeless to me. Now remember I was a young teenage boy by the late 80's. It's interesting when I look back, and think about the fact I even noticed this at age 15. Fast forward to 2005, and I myself started to play around with film. Let's just say what I saw on the screen took me back to the 70's again. I was instantly hooked, and haven't looked back since. When I began exposing the current Ektachrome (7294) to 64 ASA I was blown away by those images, and still am. It's very close to how Kodachrome looked in the old days. Vivid, sharp, with great contrast! The trick is you must over expose it 1 stop to see the difference. ND filter is also a must on bright days when applying this extra exposure! And of course sunny weather always makes Super 8 shine

[Douglas Meltzer]

Aside from the availability of sound cartridges (as Melvin said), what I really miss is the experience of visiting camera stores and browsing through displays of Standard 8mm and Super 8mm film releases. You’d find them showcased in glass counters, spinning racks, or sometimes just in a box that the salesman would pull off a shelf for you to dig through.

Willoughby Peerless, a massive camera store at 110 West 32nd Street in NYC, had the largest selection of 8mm, Super 8, and 16mm films. They were always the first to get the newest releases, which would often be playing nonstop on a Fairchild-type cartridge projector in the store.

Then there were the little camera shops, each with their own kind of charm, like the one I would visit where all the 200 foot Republic Pictures 8mm films were kept in a single box behind the counter.

I loved every bit of it.

[Lincoln Thorn]

Follow up Question for everyone! During the height of Super 8 film in retail stores like hobby shops, camera stores, etc. What would you have been most likely interested in or searching for at the time? Let's say between the 60s-80s.

[Steve Klare]

For me?

Late 1970s:

-almost all railroad films by mail order. On what money a high-school kid with intermittent part-time jobs could scrape together, it was one reel every couple of months. I appreciated them like fine wine! (They were rare!)

I had exactly one Blackhawk. Maybe 16 or 17 years old, I rode with my friend to the Dentist's office by bike and sat out in the waiting room while they worked on him. There were issues of Sports Illustrated there and there was an ad. for Sportlite Films. They advertised Blackhawk's The First Indianapolis 500 Mile Race about the very first Indy-500 in 1911. Once again, I scraped some money together and ordered it.

Going to college really put a crimp in all of my enjoyments! I had to become so focused on my studies that my Dad bought me a beer after I graduated and it tasted downright awful! I hadn't had one in a couple of years! (Girlfriends? Yeahhh...no!)

-and so: no films after September 1980, either!

After I graduated, it was so nice to be able to read a book and NOT have it be on some exam!

I easily have 100 Blackhawks today, but to this day The First Indianapolis 500 Mile Race is still the only one I ever bought new.

So decades and decades later, I took my son to the Pediatric Dentist (-drove this time...). I was sitting out in a different waiting room (again), and there were still Sports Illustrated issues scattered about. (They looked old: may have been the same magazines!).

Something different this time is I had a laptop and internet access. I had nothing to do but hear the high pitch drills (-and that gurgling sound) in back and watch really awful kids' cartoons up on the monitor, so I went on e-Bay, found THREE Blackhawks, buy it now, and sealed the deal before my kid came out in the lobby!

-as I've said a number of times here: in many ways, it's almost TOO easy to buy films these days!

[Douglas Meltzer]

I was always looking to see what horror and monster films the stores sold, but comedies were also a big thing. The first sound films I bought were all Castle Films Abbott & Costello or Marx Bros. 200 footers.

[Ken Finch]

I did not get involved with 8mm film collecting until I attended one of Keith Wiltons early film collectors conventions held at what had been a cinema. I cannot remember the name of the place or the actual year at the moment! One of the problems of old age😉. However, I started way back in 1949 on 9.5mm with the purchase of a Pathe ACE projector followed shortly after with second hand Coronet camera. Coming from a working class background it was difficult to pursue such an expensive hobby. The introduction of Super 8 was a blessing for me as wealthier enthusiasts abandoned 9.5 and I was able to afford good secondhand films and equipment. I stopped filming on 9.5 in 1986 as my father gave me a Sony 8 video camera for taking him to Australia to visit his brothers. I had just agreed to voluntary redundancy with early retirement. Probably why I am still here😊. Video filming has changed to mini dv and hdsc formats and video projection over the years. Currently my home cinema is equipped to show all four narrow gauge formats, VHS and DVD. Unfortunately film making clubs and film societies are closing down and interest in our hobby is in decline. As is my ability to be able to lift heavy projectors onto their stands or attend film collectors meetings.

[Mark Silvester]

Back in the UK around 1973 age 12 I used to love staring through camera shop windows at all the projectors and also - like Doug mentioned - going inside and looking at all those wonderful small boxes of package films on circular stands - 50ft..200”.. with wonderful artwork!
I also remember the wonderful adverts for cine films in news papers - anyone in the UK remember “ Exchange and Mart”?

Waiting with great eagerness the “ bumper catalogue “ pack from Mailmaster.. Mountain - that was a good one. Walton etc. I never tired of reading them..
I obtained a number of projectors in the early days from about 1976. My first a wonderful Eumig - can’t remember the model but it was Super 8mm sound . I hired many films from Derann. Great fun - it was magic. In those days we had to save.. technology wasn’t advanced and hobbies seemed wonderful. Things didn’t move as fast - to me a good thing.
last projector I bought new was a Bauer Super 8mm sound - it had 800” spools a beautiful machine and cost me a lot.
I had many great projectors after that - bought and sold quite a few. I really enjoyed my time in 16mm the best - I loved
it. I bought so many.. watched them all but they’ve all gone now. But not from my memory! They can’t take that away - I really do enjoy reading members comments . I love the videos of conventions.
Funny enough I’m only 2 miles away - 40 minute walk from Phil Sheard and Classic. I’ve known Phil since 1989 when I used to review the films at Cinema for local News.
I keep saying that one day I’ll go to the Blackpool Convention - there’s really no excuse as it’s easy enough to get to.
Best to all - great memories.. greater days to you by the light of your projectors!📽️
Mark

[Osi Osgood]

The latest Walt Disney hone film releases, on that revolving spindle, longing and never having the dollars to buy them. By the time I was out on my own, late 80's, and having started my own super 8 collection, there were the odd yellow boxed Columbia Films classics releases, but I wasn't into them ... and then, very late 80's, I discovered the existence of a little company in the UK, by name of Derann ...