What date was Super8 born?

[Andreas Wideroe]

We all know Super8 was introduced by Kodak in 1965, but anyone know a specific date (birthday of the format)?

Cheers,
Andreas

[Maurizio Di Cintio]

I guess the format was conceived several months before 1965 along with a prototype of the "Kodapak" cartridge. Then from some information I gathered years ago from Small Format, I seem to recall the first cameras and projectors reached stores in may. But this is not 100% certain...

[nikonr10]

We all know Super8 was introduced by Kodak in 1965, but anyone know a specific date (birthday of the format)?

Cheers,
Andreas

Hi kodak in it's history give's no date only April of 1965 so she really is now 50 year old

[swingparty01]

I bought my first Super8 Camera,A Kodak at the Air Base PX at Chu-Lai South Vietnam in late April 1966. The magazines were easy to unload and ship to Kodak, from that hot,dirty place.

[pzo]

Here's a great history from Kodak:

http://motion.kodak.com/motion/Products ... /index.htm

[gbarac]

"... On June 6, 1965, Kodak's announcement came. The company unleashed what it described as the biggest movie marketing-assistance program in Kodak history, beginning with six full minutes of network television commercials on Disney's Wonderful World of Color, and 20 more minutes of network ads later in June. The same month saw multipage spreads in LIFE, LOOK, SATURDAY EVENING POST, TIME and THE NEW YORKER. Over 200 daily newspapers carried 1.000-line ads, and dealers had fountains of display materials available to them with ther first order on the factory..."

This writes in the article named "THE COMING OF SUPER 8 - 1965 a new format was born" by Alan D. Katelle, that was published in the magazine "Smallformat" No. 1/2005...

[S8 Booster]

from the soft disk i think to recall that what became Super8 / Single8 started as a cooperative act between Kodak And Fuji - a common 8mm film cartridge system were to be ready in time for the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 1964 to sort of introducing a much simpler system than the old "dual/regular" 8mm roll loading. However, somehow the cooperation went sour at one point and we saw 2 different systems arise but with identical technical film specs so the film material was compatible. Kodak went for a thicker Acetate base while Fuji went for the Polyester Base. One problematic issue was that only Fuji managed to perforate the Polyester properly. Agfa tried but could not get it right and probably Kodak so as well. It was possible to load almost 50% more film into a given space using the Polyester base because it was so much thinner.

Both Super8 and Single8 was introduced in 1965 rather than probably due to the diverging design directions.

well, from soft disk but i think it is about so. i am sure Jürgen Lossau can fill in the blank parts. i think i read this in a German article some time to long ago.



shoot.....

[Tommy]

I recall Super 8 being first announced in January 1965 in Popular Photography magazine. I recall the first Super 8 cameras/projectors in department stores the following spring.
At the time, I was a young teenager shooting on a second hand spring wound 8mm camera. The great thing about Super 8 was within months after its introduction , new high end regular 8mm cameras were being sold at 30% - 40% off their original sale prices.

[Andreas Wideroe]

OK, cool. Then we need to do something special within the next few months to celebrate.

[S8 Booster]

The full story in German: 45 Jahre Super 8 marking the 45 year anniversary in 2009.


Googlified in Translation and as one would expect; originally crafted by Jürgen Lossau

walking on a nostalgic journey into a choppy and grainy, but somehow cozy world of yesterday.
Jürgen LBerti Vogts did, Willy Brandt also: In the seventies Super-8 film was a hobby for millions of people. But the small film boom was also a business thriller - with dirty tricks, the US company Kodak and Fuji Japanese electronics giant fighting. At the end of the Better subject. By Jürgen Lossau


Tuesday, 08/12/2009 - 14:21 clock
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It was important visitors who entered on this cold January day in 1978, the sales room of the house Photo Henseler in Bergisch Gladbach. World Cup winner Berti Vogts appeared in the old-established shop to personally pick up his new toy at owner Reginald White: a Super-8 sound film camera, the celebrity status of the international's appropriate provided with an engraved nameplate. Why he is not quite cheap high-tech device bar? "I am fascinated by the movies, because it holds a slice of life," Vogt stated for the record, "a slice of life that would be quickly forgotten without a camera and film."

How true. The warm shades. The light bouncing image. The hum of the projector. The inevitable lint in the image window. With no other medium of naive flares charm of the seventies has been captured as authentic as Super 8. Thanks to the ingenious cine film format from the House of Kodak, the Germans were long before the dawn of the digital age become a nation of film amateurs. Berti Vogts did, Franz Beckenbauer did, Theo Lingen and Rudolf Augstein made it too: films with Super 8 was in the seventies a big hit. 1970 went to the Federal Republic of tens of millions of Super-8 films on the shop counters, ten years later, there were nearly 20 million.
Was made possible by the boom a simple invention: the film in the cassette, the development of which began in 1959 and the 1964 Kodak brought to market. The first 8-millimeter film for amateurs, the US group had in 1932 put on the market, but the filming was pretty tricky: If you wanted to download a movie in his camera had to crawl to the open coil first in deep shade possible to involuntarily to expose the photosensitive material. And after a short 7.5 meters, which were exposed within 90 seconds, the 16 mm wide film had to be turned. Now one could again verkurbeln 90 seconds before the strip went to the development laboratory.

Everyday lives of yellow post bags

Something had to be Simpleres: Super 8. Now was the film in a light-tight cassette and had 15 meters at a stretch; the image area was greater by half. Kodak applied his invention in full-page ads with the slogan "Or love you trouble?". From the mid-seventies there was Kodak Super 8 even with sound. A technical masterpiece - unfortunately with a small flaw: Because the picture and sound at different points of the material was recorded, you could not cut the film basically. The customers were still thrilled advertising such as Franz Beckenbauer ("My children are to be stars of my live sound color movies!") Were a further popularizing the use of narrow-track sound film. "It has been shown that the use of film in sound film cameras by up to 100 percent greater than for silent film cameras," said Otto brake, then sales manager of Kodak Germany enthusiastic.

So the Super 8 boom began. Newspapers showed prominent when shooting with chic hand-held cameras: FDP-man Walter Scheel about, or Rut Brandt, the Chancellor Willy husband banished along with wildlife on celluloid. Folk actor Willy Millowitsch showed how he set his narrow home movies - namely through an integrated inside the projector, tape recorder, which ran synchronously with the film. Whether vacations, family reunions, company parties - the everyday life of the Republic was henceforth held by its residents in moving images. If after about a week the characteristic yellow Kodak film bags came back from developing by mail, the evening was secured employment: In hours of painstaking work, the short film roles were chained at the dining table by gluing press together. About the "how" amateur filmmakers could talk shop for hours - "wet", "dry" with putty or with adhesive strips, was a matter of faith.

Kodak, the yellow giant of Rochester, for decades at the amateur filmmakers had a de facto monopoly, had been in 1959 remains to be seen. This year, namely a consortium began under the leadership of Fuji, the green film brand from Tokyo, concoct a substitute for the inconvenience 8-millimeter film reels. The Japanese companies Canon, Konica and Yashica participated, then Agfa, Bell & Howell and Kodak were added. The objective of the Group strategists to bring in time for the Olympic Games in Tokyo in October 1964 practical disposable cassette as a common standard to the market.

Vain hit

But the beginning of 1964 left the group and all of a sudden Kodak announced in April coup-like in its own format: 8. In order not to lose the Super connection, the company gave to Fuji on their own plans and waved to the new Kodak film format. This, however, they packed in a separate, incompatible with Kodak cameras cartridge, called Single 8. The Single-8 system was far superior to the US technology: the movies could be proposed as desired and rewind, double exposures and transitions were possible. The Super 8 cartridges, however, had juxtaposed coils that send the film about complicated pulleys. Also, Fuji polyester film - Tear-resistant, temperature resistant, supple - was far more advanced than Kodak's old-fashioned acetate.
In short, Fuji had hit the jackpot. The also found the camera Canon, Elmo, Yashica and Konica - they decided to build cameras for the Single-8 system. In Germany in 1965 Agfa joined the Single-8 stock. But because the Leverkusen polyester technology uncontrolled and therefore put thicker Azetatfilm in their cartridges fit into just ten feet of film. Agfa was thus a chance and soon switched to Super. 8

In Japan, after all, was 8 single leader, but outside of the country, there was, at best, earns respect. Over the years, all the camera manufacturer of single 8 turned away and Super 8 to. Only Fuji remained faithful to their own invention. "We had the better system, but Kodak had the worldwide market power," said Shigeo Mizukawa, former designer of Fuji cameras. The Single-8 film "Fujichrome" there is still to buy - but only in Japan.
A jerky, grainy, somewhat homely world

Kodak basked in the glory of the one and a half decades of Super-8 coups. But in 1981, the number of films sold off, despite the fact that video was far from ready for the market. 1990 has been a million super-8 films could be brought to the man in West Germany, and now are selling just 300,000 cartridges per year - worldwide. From mainstream recreational fun Super 8 is slid into the booth, it is considered a cult format for skaters movies, music clips and experimental filmmaker.

And it is a term memory. Loads of slumber old Super-8 coils in German cellars, often next to an old-fashioned-looking projector. Those who manage to throw him and thread the old strip - walking on a nostalgic journey into a choppy and grainy, but somehow cozy world of yesterday.

Jürgen Lossau is editor of schmalfilmtage , the magazine for fans of Super 8 and 16 mm. The magazine is published in the 62nd year and is the world's only magazine exclusively dedicated to this topic.


Shoot....

[carllooper]

- cut -

[retroman]

we just have the first reels dated from 1964 with Super-8 some years ago to be scanned
they were very blue

[BBC History]

Were you a Super 8 camera fan in 1966? Or do you have some super 8 footage from that year? BBC ONE is making a history documentary about that year and would love to hear from you. From family life to fashions and gadgets, the British landscape to community gatherings, if you've got a Super 8 story to share, please get in touch with researcher, Emily Wallis at remembering66@bbc.co.uk or visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/take ... mbering_66

[BBC History]

Were you a Super 8 camera fan in 1966? Or do you have some super 8 footage from that year? BBC ONE is making a history documentary about that year and would love to hear from you. From family life to fashions and gadgets, the British landscape to community gatherings, if you've got a Super 8 story to share, please get in touch with researcher, Emily Wallis at remembering66@bbc.co.uk or visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/take ... mbering_66