Dating film by reel type

[Patrick Donohue]

Does anyone know a reference for dating film based on reel type? Or dating film in general.
I have this reel… seems older than the 60s, based on the reel.

[Gregory Oliver]

Could be a compilation of multiple shorter loops. Best bet is to look for keys in the clothes, cars, surrounding buildings or locations.

[Steve Klare]

From the relative sizes of reel and spindle holes compared to the thumb, I'd guess this is a 400 Foot Super-8 reel, so no older than the mid-late 1960s.

On the other hand, I bought reels like this in department stores up into the early 1980s. They may have been available even later, but I was in college and kind of dropped out of life for a while! (Don't go to Engineering School unless you really mean it!)

The film stock looks like polyester. I'm guessing this is a commercial print, so the footage could be from any time since the dawn of motion pictures.

[Ken Finch]

You cannot possibly date a fil by the reel it is mounted on. The reel could have been changed many times over the years. If it is a home movie it can roughly dated by the image content and the film stock used. For a commercially printed film it would depend on a number of factors, gauge, film stock, when and what company printed it, and of course when it was originally released. Ken Finch 😊

[Jim Schrader]

there is some info

https://8mm2digital.com/kodak-date-codes

[Ethan Knightchilde]

My dad's 16mm films from the early 1950s to early 1960s are on reels that have that same look and texture. But as others have said, film can't be dated from the reel it's on!

[Joerg Polzfusz]

…The film stock looks like polyester. I'm guessing this is a commercial print…

Polyester doesn’t have to mean „commercial print“. It could also be some home movies shot on Fujichrome (Single8), Fujipan (Single8), 3M-Ferrania Color Movie (Super8, also sold under different brandnames, e.g. Revue) or Kodak MFX (Super8).

[Steve Klare]

Agreed, which is why I'm going with calling it a guess. (I don't have enough information to be sure!)

Still the same, the vast majority of home movies in the USA were shot on acetate stock: Kodachrome and Ektachrome, much more rarely Plus-X and Tri-X and the others. For one thing the Fuji Single-8 system never really caught on here, despite there being some real advantages to it. (I would love to have tried it out myself.)

-now, if this reel was for example in Japan, it could easily go either way.

Patrick? What's the film about?

[Shane C. Collins]

Based on the fact that light is shining through in the first photo, I say it's an acetate based film. Also, not positive here, but the leader film in the second photo looks like Super 8. The sprocket holes look smaller, much like Super 8. Here's a comparison photo (see below) comparing Super 8 with Standard 8 film.