Kodak M100 sales brochure

[Paul Adsett]

With thanks to Maurice for finding this sales leaflet for the brilliant but elusive Kodak M100 SUPER 8 SOUND PROJECTOR complete with a stunning f1.0 22mm Ektar prime lens:

[Steve Klare]

Thanks Maurice and Paul,

This actually answers a question I've had for a long time about M-100. Why was a sound machine produced so early? If I remember correctly this one came out in 1965 and the first sound on film cameras came out around 1973. What sound films were going to be available to use this machine's abilities for those 8 years?

It looks like they anticipated this machine being used as a recording device. I'm betting they hoped that it would encourage package film producers to start making S8 sound prints too.

I'm kind of partial to this machine because it's basically a miniature Kodak Pageant! (I'm sure the resemblance is no accident!)

[Paul Adsett]

Steve. looking at the brochure, it is evident that Kodak had high hopes for widespread super 8 use in education and commerce. I think its fair to say that those goals were at least partially achieved, as I remember seeing Technicolor S8 cartridge players running all day in many department stores before the advent of video. And of course super 8 was widely deployed on the airlines as well.
I had an M100 for a period of time, and found that the picture quality was really excellent, very bright and sharp, due no doubt to the high quality f1.0 prime lens. Sound quality though was not as good as my Eumig S802, the latter sounding much crisper than the M100. The published specs support that observation with the frequency response of the M100 only going up to 7,000Hz at 18fps compared with 10,000Hz at 18fps for the Eumig.
The big plua of the M100 of course was that it was designed for 1200ft reels, obviously with the projection of full length features in mind, and being based on the 16mm Pageant design, it was built like a tank.
Kind of wish I had kept mine!

[Steve Klare]

Kodak imagined Super-8 sound becoming a medium for news crews given it's compactness and light weight. This was part of the reason for developing those ultra-rare 200 foot camera cartridges.

When did commercial sound prints first appear? I've heard a date of 1973 for Blackhawk, for example.

[John Burgess]

Kodak used a similar design for the 3 gauges 16 mm Pageant, the Kodak sound st 8 and finally the super 8 M100. The Pageant
was an all tube amp, the st8 was both tube and transistor and the M100 all tranny The Kodak 8 also boasted an f1.0 22 mm lens but smaller diam than the M100. Three great old school machines and a credit to Kodak. They don’t make em like this anymore, pity !
pic shows my modified St 8 version, you can spot the family resemblance
John

[Thomas Dafnides]

In 1965, Kodak predicted that Super 8 would become the format of choice for both local and low budget productions in the future advent of Cable TV . I believe some European TV news crews did use Super 8. And even the 60 Minutes program in the USAm , utilized Super 8 to obtain footage in hostile foreign countries.
Do you remember the Mr Bill episodes on Saturday Night Live that were filmed in Super 8? During the 70s in NYC, some guy filmed a low budget soft core porn super 8 film with an unknown actress, who later became Madonna. In the 80s, he sold it to some Video distribution company for over a million dollars.
Of course, the biggest 8mm money maker was the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination...sold to the government for 8 million dollars in the 60s!

[Brian Fretwell]

Yes, Kodak had a Super 8 Video News reversal film and a table-top development machine that could process the film ready for telecine in about 30 minutes.

[Steve Klare]

There's one on E-bay right now!

If I had all the space and all the time in the world, I'd buy it for sure, (-never mind money!)

If I'm honest with myself, I don't need it!

It must have been quite the feeling to be the only one on your block to have one of these back in 1965: kind of like opening your garage and finding a Corvette or a Porsche there!