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Okay folks this has probably been asked many times before on the older forum . What is your favourite film collecting gauge ?
Or do you simply like and collect them all because they are on actual film ?
Super 8 is and always will be our main gauge, but over the last 2/3 years we have managed to get back into 16mm.
Obviously the super 8 is easier to handle and store, but i must say that for me personally, i do really prefer the 16mm gauge. There are clearly more titles out there, (there's also a host of crap), but the quality is better in my view. The sound is always excellent and via our pioneer amp there is never a problem. The image is always pin sharp and much brighter. I guess from a gauge designed for bigger venues than the average home, it is always going to look very good.
Only in my opinion though
Tom i agree with you on the sharpness and brightness of 16mm film . Even though there are very many excellent 8mm prints out there i still prefer 16mm for home use any time . Mind you i have had some real " duffers " print wise in the past on 16mm too.
Maurice i think that working with 35mm film for most of my life has caused and coloured my preference for 16mm at home too . That and those school 16mm film shows and projectors .
It is hard to settle for less and compromise sometimes even though i started my film collecting on 8mm film gauge when still a kid .
As all my film shows have been public and since film has albut disappeared, I've had to build my own library. 16mm tends to be far more stable in both sound and picture departments, but due to the fact that it leant itself to damage from uninformed individuals hiring prints, there.seems to be more in the way of damaged copies around. Last month I did run a Super 8 show which looked pretty good on screen, but less than decent copies look just that, so for me it's 16mm.
16mm will always be my first love, for the same reasons given by Maurice and David. However, for portability and ease of handling in terms of size, I also have a fondness for 8mm.
Probably 8 prints in 10 I'm buying lately have been 16mm, but this is not preference: very often when I look at film lists lately many 8mm prints I like I already have. 16mm is newer to me and there's a lot I've never had access to before. It's like starting over again without losing anything.
At the screen size I have, I don't think I'm getting full benefit of 16mm's larger frame size vs 8mm. If I went double the screen size, I'd see it for sure. (I'd need a new house to go with it!). The good news is I like the sound quality better than I expected to at first.
I like the sharpness and brightness of the fixed focal length lens at the same time I miss the flexibility of a zoom. If I stuck with the 2" lens I'd need to move my wife's chair!
Advantages I find for 8 is the machinery is quieter, which doesn't fight the sound tracks so hard in confined spaces, and also the storage situation.
So my favorite stays 8mm, although I'm enjoying both and don't feel I need to choose one way or the other.
What was kind of fun was I bought my 16mm machine at CineSea: Three people, a bunch of luggage, and two 8mm machines wedged into a subcompact coupe. It's not that the Pageant is really that big but adding that into the mix I thought my kid was going to have to ride home standing up through the sun roof!
Last edited by Steve Klare; December 09, 2019, 03:25 PM.
I bought a 16mm projector last month, and picked up a mystery film in an antique centre. As far as I can remember this was the first time I've seen a 16mm film and was blown away by the quality! Bright vivid colours, pin sharp and no flickering: stunning. Then again, like Michael and Steve, I have a fondness for 8mm. We grew up with it, and our family is documented in the soft warm flickering light of projected Standard 8. To answer the question though, I must choose 9.5mm. It's the history and the age of the guage that grabs me. When I hold one of the Pathe Baby cassettes of film from the 1920's I feel like I'm holding a time capsule!
Iain
8mm for me. I do have some 16mm but was put off by the space needed and some films shown at school, scratched and claw marked. Training films at work showed how good 16mm could be though.
I have a strong liking for 9.5mm film too for the same reasons as Terry and Ian above . I have a fair amount of this gauge in my collection sound and silent .
I think I got into this hobby much too late. Oh to have been into 8mm when Derann was at its peak! I have been a 8mm projector junkie...but not so much into the 8mm films. The selection in titles of quality prints is so few. Once I got into 16mm the selection for me broadened and although it's hit or miss on the quality at times...mostly miss... there are more titles available. I buy 16mm for watching...not so much for collecting. I only buy films that I want to watch again and again. I also find that running my 16mm films on my Elmo 16CL (channel load) projector is less prone to damaging film than the 8mm auto-feed machines. Films are much too expensive to have them chewed up or burnt my the projector. All that said...ALL film gauges are wonderful...just because they are all FILM.
I have been a 8mm projector junkie...but not so much into the 8mm films. The selection in titles of quality prints is so few. Once I got into 16mm the selection for me broadened and although it's hit or miss on the quality at times...mostly miss... there are more titles available. I buy 16mm for watching...not so much for collecting. I only buy films that I want to watch again and again. I also find that running my 16mm films on my Elmo 16CL (channel load) projector is less prone to damaging film than the 8mm auto-feed machines. Films are much too expensive to have them chewed up or burnt my the projector. All that said...ALL film gauges are wonderful...just because they are all FILM. 
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