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Just curious, has anyone ever picked up one of those commercially sold digest prints from the 70's and the color was actually all there? I have been buying some lately (watched Spielberg's Duel this morning) and I was well aware of the color being reduced to red when I bought them but it got me wondering if anyone has ever found one where the fading hadn't occurred? Every single print I have ever come across was faded.
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Some but not all of the color Super 8 digests offered across the pond do not seem to have such bad color fade as they do in the states. But yeah trying to find a decent low-fade color Super 8mm film stateside is like the needle in a haystack. The home movie films my dad shot in the 1950s on Regular 8mm Color still have very decent color.
Such a shame these digests were produced and sold on bad stock.
Would love to see pictures of stateside Super 8 color digest prints in 8mm that still look good. -
Aaron, I have Film Office (France) and Walton (UK) prints that still holds good colours, not to mention Derann prints starting from the '90s. Remember that you can send faded prints to Italy and get them back with improved colours (it depends on the filmstock, this works for some specific ones only).Comment
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Woah, I am unaware of this process in Italy. Please send me any info you can. Many thanks.
So it sounds like finding prints outside the U.S. is the best way to find ones with color. I have only looked on EBay here.Comment
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Sadly, most prints in the USA were struck on quick fade Eastman which, except for film lab professionals, most people did not know about. However, occasionally, there were low fade prints struck in the US, Red Fox struck low fades as well as other studios, but it does literally become an art just finding low fade prints and sometimes it can take years to find a good print. For a long time, I thought that there were only faded prints of the feature, "Till the Clouds Roll By", but then, out of nowhere, after years, one came out of nowhere, and on low fade, and then, the victory of a successful search! So, they CAN be found!Comment
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My prints of Ken Films' "The Poseidon Adventure" and "Coffy" both have magnificent color. In fact, I own four prints of "Poseidon," and each is beautiful. Unfortunately, I don't have a single digest from Columbia Super 8 that hasn't faded terribly.Comment
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As others have stated, there are SOME with good colour. Walton prints have an above-average chance of still looking good, partly due to use of Fuji stock that has held up well. I've also have Ken digests with excellent Agfa colour, such as Roustabout and The Rose. The key thing is when printing took place. Kodak LPP came in towards the end of 1982, and in 1983 and beyond low-fade stocks had largely taken over, although you can still be unlucky due to labs clearing older stock. A lot of the very best Super 8 releases were after 1985 and are almost certain to be low fade. Derann released some good digests in this period such as 600' versions of The Fog and Capricorn One, but before long feature-length releases largely took over. But there were also huge amounts of shorts released too. The trouble is that they are harder to find than the older prints because collectors are more likely to hang on to them!Comment
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Walton were also users of Agfa stock and (unfortunately) in the early 1970's 3M. I have a couple of extracts on that that have faded badly. One film t hat has 2 200ft extracts has on on 3M the other on Agfa!!Comment
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