The Supermag 400 is now ready!

[supermag400_inventor]

IT"S HERE! .... The Supermag 400, the worlds first and only 400 foot capacity super 8mm film magazine for super 8 cameras is now ready for purchase. The last tests completed were sucessful and the word from Phil Vigeant at Pro 8 is that the registration was rock solid. The latest improvements of the prototypes helped to drasticlly improve the magazines performance. Therefore, without any further delays, the magazines are now going on sale. The purchase price is $500.00 each. They come with a 90 day warranty on parts and labor. Go to my web site and take a look. Now you can shoot over 20 minutes of film without reloading. The magazine is easy to load and use. These units are built by hand and take time to make. I'm working as fast as I can, and the demand is expected to be high, so get your order in early. Go to http://www.supermag400.com for more information. Thanks to all of you for your support and interest in the project. I hope you all have a great new year!

Dave Sipmann
Inventor of the Supermag400

e-mail:
dave@supermag400.com

[Cranium]

David-
This is exciting indeed. It's wonderful to see innovation, and this is one "pipe dream" I've seen repeated over and over for years, so it'll be great to see it happen.
One question:
Have you considered sending a unit out for review to one of the more experienced S8 folks? You might find yourself getting some decent test footage as well, since all of your tests thus far haven't been great selling tools for the product.
Just a thought. I'd like to see some really well composed, well lit and well focused footage, and an independent review would prove valuable both to your customers and (hopefully) yourself.

[ccortez]

David-
This is exciting indeed. It's wonderful to see innovation, and this is one "pipe dream" I've seen repeated over and over for years, so it'll be great to see it happen.
One question:
Have you considered sending a unit out for review to one of the more experienced S8 folks? You might find yourself getting some decent test footage as well, since all of your tests thus far haven't been great selling tools for the product.
Just a thought. I'd like to see some really well composed, well lit and well focused footage, and an independent review would prove valuable both to your customers and (hopefully) yourself.

I would be happy to volunteer for a 20 minute sound sync demonstration with the Supermag and my Nagra! People (myself included) would flip to see that much continuous sync footage in Super 8!

[vonfilm]

I am curious what cameras would accept the Supermag 400 and where one would be able to get 400 foot rolls of Super 8 film to feed it. Is reversal film available in 400 foot rolls?

[ccortez]

I am curious what cameras would accept the Supermag 400 and where one would be able to get 400 foot rolls of Super 8 film to feed it. Is reversal film available in 400 foot rolls?

Do a little searching on this forum, there's tons of info about the Supermag. The inventor himself has been around answering questions from time to time.

There are some cameras that were designed to take a top-loading 200' mag, so they'll work. There's a complete list somewhere, but I couldn't find it in my first couple of searches.

I gave up on the Supermag idea b/c a) right now you are limited to Pro8 film and developing packages, which most feel are too expensive; and/or I remember somebody said you can get K40 in 400' from Wittner. Anyway, b) I like to hand-develop, but even if I could get 400' raw stock I can't do that much at once. And c) I don't have any of the cameras that accept the Supermag.

[mattias]

yeah, this is great news for sure. just make sure you remove that "commercial" from the site, or nobody will ever dare to buy any of your products. it's probably the worst piece of crap i've ever seen.

(yeah, i'm ready for santo's and roger's attack, but i have a feeling they agree with me this time)

/matt

[aj]

Also texts like below are not very encouraging for the prospect buyer:

The registration is steady as a rock , focus is good and although there is some occasional scratching most is scratch free. Its not that pretty because the exposure is way off and somewhere the film got slightly fogged but these are simple situations to fix

The film was shot under poor lighting conditions. Also, the film gate screws in the camera were loose and the film moved slightly out of focus. Nevertheless, here are the results for you to see. Bear in mind, the sound was recorded digitally and mastered to the silent film by computer. It isn't perfect, but you'll be able to see that the principal worked.

Also I do not understand why these small size JPEG's require so long to load. Maybe resize them a bit and use more compression.

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

If it indeed is ready for sale, you might want to remove

IMPORTANT NOTICE: ALL OF THE SUPERMAG 400 MAGAZINES ARE SOLD AS "EXPERIMENTAL"

Kinda doesen´t feel like a smart thing to buy, when it is still experimental....

[mattias]

Kinda doesen´t feel like a smart thing to buy, when it is still experimental....

i agree, but the price is *really* good, so that should still be ok with most, as long as there are no known problems.

/matt

[CHAS]

yeah, this is great news for sure. just make sure you remove that "commercial" from the site, or nobody will ever dare to buy any of your products. it's probably the worst piece of crap i've ever seen.

(yeah, i'm ready for santo's and roger's attack, but i have a feeling they agree with me this time)

/matt

I'm all for giving someone the benefit of the doubt...but this footage is truly horrendous. Couldn't they hire or ask a good S8 shooter to bring in some good promo footage?

[Uppsala BildTeknik]

the price is *really* good, so that should still be ok with most, as long as there are no known problems.

Maybe, but I think that a 90 day warranty is a bit low...

I mean you would have to plan your purchase so that you can immediately shoot a roll (and I suppose you´d want to shoot a full roll, to be sure there are no problems with a full roll) send it off to be developed, and then transferred (if you want to avoid scratches and dust from your own projector) and get the results back all within 90 days!

The magazine comes with a limited 90 day limited warranty on parts and labor. This warranty only covers the cost of repair, not replacement of the Supermag 400, during the warranty period.

NOTICE: The Supermag 400 magazines are hand crafted. Therefore, each unit should be considered as "Experimental". These magazines take many hours to construct and may have slight differences between each unit. Each magazine is unique. Each one is fully tested before it leaves the shop.

An Extended Warranty Plan is offered for an additional $100.00 above the purchase price.

So buy, shoot a full roll, get it developed, get it transferred, check it for stability and scratches, all within 90 days from purchase! Wait any longer than 90 days and you are on your own. At least that is what I would fear from such a short warranty.

Seems to me that a extended warranty for 100$ is very expensive, considering that the whole mag only costs 500$!
A warranty for six months should be the minimum, but maybe I´m spoiled with our Swedish warranties, they are pretty good. Not sure how it is in the rest of the world.

[MovieStuff]

yeah, this is great news for sure. just make sure you remove that "commercial" from the site, or nobody will ever dare to buy any of your products. it's probably the worst piece of crap i've ever seen.

(yeah, i'm ready for santo's and roger's attack, but i have a feeling they agree with me this time)

Agreed. Great product potential. Horrid film clip.

Roger
http://www.moviestuff.tv

[LastQuark]

It took a lot of time and effort to develop the product. I'm sure it will take much less effort to market it.

When I watched the footage in the website, there is the impression the product was rushed out to market. I know it was not because I knew about this for years. I hope that poor marketing will not eclipse the excellent engineering that was put behind it.

Take the footage out. Describe the registration in greater detail. If it is easy to reload the magazine to another camera, use different cameras to shoot (these are cheap) so the whole 400 ft roll will not be wasted in case something goes wrong.

At this point, from what I can see, anyone who will see the footage will not buy the product.
 

[sunrise]

Did anyone calculate the cost/benitfit of this product?

I genuinely think it's good for the super8 community, but bying bulks of K-40 from Wittner or Andec does not really compensate for the cost of the mag.

Speaking profesionally (neg stocks, and I really loved to bring forward that comment) what stocks are available in 400ft rolls? How much film do you need to shoot to make it economically viable?

I need to see another benefit than having the possibility of making a longer intro shot to my super8 film than "Touch of Evil". Shots longer than 2 mins or reloading are not one of my biggest concerns.

michael

[supermag400_inventor]

The footage shot with the first prototype is the first commercial. Yes, it is horrific. But it was only a test to find the bugs in the system. I found out many things from that test. The second test was much better but still there were issues with the scratches and with the gate plate not seating properly. Those have since been resolved. The third and last test was said to be "Rock steady" and only a "few" scratches but for the most part clean. The exposure was off because I didn't have a filter and the film sent to me by Pro 8 was old stock they had laying around the shop for who knows how long? It isn't the mag's fault. The fogging was probably due to me handling the film with my bare hands in the dark. Try that sometime and you'll know what I'm saying. It's hard not to scratch or touch the emulsion when transfering it onto another core by hand. These are minor issues to deal with. The one certainty in this project is that the magazine does work....and it works well. The camera used for the tests isn't the best quality machine and the film wasn't the best either. But remember. These were to test the mag's performance not the film or operator. Give me a break....I've put a hell of a lot of money and time into this project. If you feel you can do better, go for it. Otherwise, shut up and go back to your cave.

Grrrr!


Dave
Inventor of the Supermag