Did buyer concern with film stock when buying film a long time ago

[Winbert Hutahaean]

This question is not for today's situation but for buyers who bought super 8mm films during the heyday in 1970s to 80s. Today's people will concern a lot with what film stock and film base is being used but what about during that time?

Have people found different picture quality for respective film stocks or bases?

Even if they were the same quality when new, the color temperature will be different. This will be important for title that has more than one reel. Different stock will give different feeling during the reel changes.

I knew a company like UFA, who releases so many three reelers, used different film stocks for the same title such as Eastman, Kodak SP, Fuji, Agfa or 3M. I knew too during that time buyers were very often to buy reels in separate time, so this month might be buying reel #1 and the following months for reels #2 or #3 and that could be from different places.

What people would think if the stock was different with the previous reels that he/she had bought?. Will they returned it or accepted it as it was?

Also in similar question, did people at that time know (or has noticed) that a particular stock would hold the color better than the others?

I was joining the 8mm in 1985 when the time has already passed so would like to know what people think before me.

Cheers,
Winbert

[Lee Mannering]

Speaking for myself its not something I ever thought of back then as most films were purchased new and the used market at least in the UK was very small. Super 8 for instance was a pretty new format when I got into it which today almost seems surreal.

The only other thing I can add to that is with regard to films making using Kodachrome 40 and Ektachrome 160. Some of us used to edit the stocks together when making a complete film which in later years we found to be a grave mistake as 160 caused some sort of chemical reaction with the projected film turning unto a visual snow storm.

[Maurice Leakey]

Winbert
When films were bought new many years ago I don't think the question of film stock actually was a concern.
Often, the same film was sold over time on different stocks which was due to what the lUK lab was using at the time of printing.

[Mark Williams]

The simple answer is No as it wasn’t really an issue back then, but what I did do was to check what USA labs did certain prints as the Ken releases were very variable as the Technicolor lab prints were usually superior to the Maritz Lab prints,the Star Wars 1st release prints being a fine example.

[Brian Fretwell]

I remember saying to someone from PM films that I thought "Escape from Precinct 13" would have had less contrast if it had been printed by Rank on Kodak stock rather than Buck on Fuji when that was released so I must have been checking then.

Strangely the colour on that has held up better then some other prints on Fuji from that time. I haven't been able to compare it with later Derann prints on low fade stock, unfortunately.

[Melvin England]

As a buyer of 400'ers in the 1970's and 80's, before the purse strings extended to features, the thought of colour fade did not cross my mind in the slightest. Everything was fresh and very recently printed and no thought was given to the distant future.

It is the same with super 8 film stock. As far as I was concerned, the raw super 8 film used for printing movies was super 8 film......was super 8 film....was super 8 film! The question of whether it was Eastman, Fuji, Lpp etc just didn't enter the ball park. Nowadays, with the onslaught of colour fade, it has now become a lottery as to which stock each purchase had been printed on, as to the progression of the fade.

I must say that it is really only since joining this wonderful forum that my eyes were opened to certain aspects of our hobby I was not aware of, including the various types of stock available.

[Osi Osgood]

Unless a person was a professional with film stock, it wouldn't even enter the mind. These days, of course, we know better, in large part. For me, for instance, I will buy a new print, but not one on that yellowish acetate, as the color reproduction is just not as good, the whites not being a true white, ect.

[Philip Hamilton]

Mostly I purchased silent 8mm and then later super 8mm films. All in Black and White. The ONLY Color films I was able to afford or find for that matter - was PLANET OF THE APES, SUPERMAN, STAR WARS, BAMBI, and ISLAND OF MYSTERY (Swiss Family Robinson). They all looked fantastic back then and was so happy to have them.

Then, decades later, I projected them. WHAT!!?!?!?! They had all turned in varying degrees and I was careful storing them - but in air tight plastic containers - not the original boxes which I didn't keep because I spliced them together onto 400' reels. Yeah I know - what was I thinking??

But to answer the question - NO I NEVER thought these movies would fade due to the film stock. The black and white stuff looks just fine. And by the way, my Dad's home movies from the 1950s in color still look great - so even back in the 1970s I had no reason to think that film stock would fade.