Were regular 8mm film synchronizers ever made?

[Flash of Insight]

Were synchronizers for regular 8mm ever made? I wonder if it's worth my time checking eBay for one

Thanks to eBay, I recently acquired a Super-8 3-gang synchronizer for my 8mm/Super-8 bench. Basically, I'm using it to measure feet/frames of large reels of Super8 (300ft to 600ft).

For measuring regular 8mm, all I could find was an Elmo Frame Counter attachment. The one I acquired only works in reverse, as going forward, the decade mechanism will jam on advancing the thousands wheel, and sometimes the hundreds wheel. It makes measuring the length of the regular 8mm reels into a big PITA.

I've considered 16mm synchronizers, but the toothed disks on them have a gap between the edges that I suspect 8mm film would be likely to fall into.

The super-8 synchronizer is so much smoother and faster, and you get the length in feet-and-frames. Another thing I've found is it's easy to detect shrunken footage by the sound it makes passing over the toothed disk. As a further aside, I've found that the perforations on some bulk Super-8 leader I purchased are a narrower pitch than camera-original film - the leader will only engage less than an 8th of the circumfrence of the toothed wheel (caveat emptor.)

Did they make regular-8mm synchronizers, or is it an imaginary unicorn?

[jpolzfuss]

Hi!

As for counting frames or seconds: There have been various sync-sound-systems that are format-independent and simply count perforation holes (via signals from the projector/viewer or via a photoelectric sensor, e.g. the Gebuhr-system:
http://www.megativ.de/film/synchron.htm

[jpolzfuss]

At Christy‘s, you can rent film synchronizers for 8mm:
https://www.christys.net/rentals/

[Mmechanic]

You can wrap a length of clear leader around the drum of a 16-mm. synchronizer, stick adhesive tape to it. That will support the 8-mm. film.

[alexmuir]

I am sure they were made for Standard/Regular 8.
The name Craven comes to mind, and Synchrodeck? The problem I think is lack of demand for the less obvious movie making accessories. People who have them might feel that they are now of no value, not realising that there are people who can use them.
Alex


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[jpolzfuss]

Hi

There’s at least this device for both reg8 and sup8:
https://www.filmkorn.org/super8data/dat ... acmade.htm