Codes on vintage Super 8 film reels

[Robert Gerdes]

Hi all,
I have recently taken possession of dozens of all of our family’s home movie films with the goal of digitizing and sharing them with relatives.

As a first step I am creating an inventory file in excel of exactly what I have (format, size, handwritten notes, sound/silent, etc).

Some of the reels have a small piece of the film with a code taped to them. The same code is found on the box. Maybe a serial #?

Is this useful info to retain or not?

thanks,

Bob

[Ken Finch]

I believe it was a code number to match the processed film to the customer. Not really important to retain.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

It’s indeed the code number to match the processed film to the customer. E.g. Andec is still using these stickers. And at least Fuji, Kodak, Agfa, Retro8 and Dwayne’s have also been using them. (Retro8 and Dwayne’s are also probably still using them. I haven’t used them recently.) Similar stickers have also been (or still are?) used by labs processing 135, 120, … film.
You’ll sometimes also find these numbers on the film or its white leader.
Some filmers have been using these numbers to sort their footage. E.g. you might find a list with „summer vacation 1974 = B4-16, 17678 and A9-7776“.
In your case, you can at least check whether the films are in their correct cardboard boxes.
That’s the only reason to keep track of these numbers. Otherwise, it’s useless to keep them. (When sending several films in one parcel to Andec, they‘ll return with consecutive numbers. But e.g. for Kodak or Agfa this wasn’t true - there was no obvious schema, it was more like several different employees opening the „process paid“ envelopes, each of them having their own role of stickers, creating a certain randomness.)

[Robert Gerdes]

Thanks for the responses.

As Joerg mentioned, they have been useful to make sure the reels are in the correct boxes with the correct descriptions.

[Steve Klare]

If it's Long Island: I'm thinking Fotomat!

Back in the day I used to ride my bike about two miles each way to get to my local one. In those days Super-8 had that built in exercise with each roll of film, then I got my drivers license. Just as well: I got rained on a few times.

As a matter of fact there used to be one on 25A where Stop & Shop is now. (-right across from Robkes.).