No More E64T?

[brokenflashlight]

buy a high end nizo or canon from ebay for $50 and you're set.
/matt

I guess I'd be considered a Super 8mm "newbie". However, you're most definitely not going to find a high end Nizo or Canon on eBay for $50. I bought a Canon 1014 E. AZ off eBay for $300 CAD. That was a steal from what I could gather. Damn, find me a Nizo 481 or 2056 for under at least $200 and I'll be a happy man.

[brokenflashlight]

edit: i posted that twice by accident.

[brokenflashlight]

Kodak said in 2003 that that was their best year, in terms of the amount of MP film sold. I don't think the figures were broken down as to what and what.

The 9.5 analogy is a good one. Those guys were called crazy 40 years ago. But they stuck together, a few of them started companies to perf their own film, and away they went. The rise of cottage industries here, like Pro8 and Spectra, is an encouraging thing for the future of S8.

This price comparison argument has been raging for years. It's funny-- old movie making magazines go on about this issue. The really old timers remember when the average British weekly wage was 5 pounds, and 8mm film was 12 and 16 schillings-- quite a chunk of change back then.

The price of S8 films has gone up very little the last 20 years-- not much at all. The $13 Kodachrome with processing was a short-time deal when Kodak was trying to get rid of their stocks a few years ago-- it was the exception, not the rule.

I don't think things have ever been better. It's easier to get a good camera repaired now than it was 20 years ago. Good luck back then if you had a broken 6080 in the U.S. There's more good knowledge around than ever before, too. Sure there's no sound film-- but with digital video, and all the software, do you really need it?

Also, it should be noted that living outside any major urban centers creates even more of a money jump for the super 8er. Living on an island in Nova Scotia on the edge of Canada means forking out about an extra $50-$100 dollars round-trip ... depending, of course, on quantity involved (shipping from Kodak, shipping to lab in Toronto, which is the closest possible developer [there's only MAYBE 3-4 places left that actually process super 8mm in Canada], and then the shipping back to me.) It's quite an ordeal.. but I'm totally committed to it and the results, so far, have been so wonderful (minus some old b&w stock that gave me the twitches) and also, renewed a sense of joy and wonder in my life that I actually thought I lost forever. My super 8 lens acts like my minds eye which I once thought suffered from severe cataracts. A miracle.

[mattias]

I guess I'd be considered a Super 8mm "newbie". However, you're most definitely not going to find a high end Nizo or Canon on eBay for $50.

sure you will. the "lower end of the high end" go for around that all the time, like the 814e for example. the top cameras are overpriced and have the same optics just more bells and whistles.

/matt

[Angus]

If you are prepared to wait, bide your time and bid low knowing you will lose many more auctions than you win....then the bargains will come your way. Sooner or later that camera you want will come on the scene at a time when nobody else notices it (perhaps its in the wrong category) and you can snap it up.

Same way I got my Elmo 1012 s-xl for £35 ($50 at the time).

However if you use eBay like a shop window, see something you feel you really want NOW...then you'll probably pay top dollar for it.

Good things come to those who wait!

[cubdukat]

But from the consumer standpoint, the format is a dead duck, and will continue to shrink in market- as digital gets better and better.

From the consumer standpoint it was dead not know but 15-20 years ago. 8mm is not fighting to be a consumer format again. It's just for enthusiastics and amateurs and that's how the format should be seen to realise that it's not dead at all...

Super8 is not fighting against digital. It would be a nonsense. Super8 is now a very specific format for very specific purposes where it remains unbeatable.

Well said. Super-8 gave up the ghost as a consumer format ages ago. The fact that Kodak would put negative film in super-8 carts--knowing it couldn't be projected directly or printed easily--more or less backs that up.

Super-8 is the "new" 16mm--the perfect entry format for the filmmaker who still wants to shoot film. In fact, if you look at some of the stuff shot on super-8 neg, it really looks like 16mm.

Yeah, its market will shrink with the years, but I daresay it'll never go away entirely because of one simple fact: there are still things that you can do with film that you cannot do on video, and probably never will with the same quality. There's a reason film's still around, and it's not because they haven't come up with anything to replace it. It's because film works.

[Jim Carlile]

... It's quite an ordeal.. but I'm totally committed to it and the results, so far, have been so wonderful (minus some old b&w stock that gave me the twitches) and also, renewed a sense of joy and wonder in my life that I actually thought I lost forever. My super 8 lens acts like my minds eye which I once thought suffered from severe cataracts. A miracle.

Interesting. Did you shoot 8mm when you were younger, and then rediscover it?

I know what you mean-- there's something cerebral and 'compressing' about shooting film. Like a poem, where you have to focus down on the meaning. Video is way too ubiquitous, too easy-- it doesn't have that same need for concentration. It's just there. And the end result always looks like the 5 o'clock news. There's no way around that limitation.

Plus, the film world is closed, it's ended. That creates a wonderful sense of history that we plug into every day. It's a world of study and distance.

[brokenflashlight]

Interesting. Did you shoot 8mm when you were younger, and then rediscover it?

I know what you mean-- there's something cerebral and 'compressing' about shooting film. Like a poem, where you have to focus down on the meaning. Video is way too ubiquitous, too easy-- it doesn't have that same need for concentration. It's just there. And the end result always looks like the 5 o'clock news. There's no way around that limitation.

Plus, the film world is closed, it's ended. That creates a wonderful sense of history that we plug into every day. It's a world of study and distance.

Ahh, perfectly said indeed.

I've always been dabbling in creative mediums. Music was my first discovery. I play various instruments. I didn't get serious about film until university where I majored in Film Theory, though I was always a huge film buff my whole life. Being only 24 right now, I was getting bored with all the other stuff I was only half-heartedly immersing myself in. I was totally stagnating and in a funk. I've always been very drawn to the look and feel of 8mm, though. So, when I found some old reels in my attic last year, a light came on inside me. I was hooked ... and having an extensive film theory background made the decision very simple for me. I finally felt "at home" with film. Also, I can incorporate my other creative outlets in conjunction with film (namely my musical abilities, as well and photography for scouting locations, etc). So, when I say I rediscovered something inside me I'm referring to a very specific feeling I have for the things around me, I guess; a feeling that was very potent for me when I was younger. I guess that sounds pretty ambiguous, but it's hard for me to describe other than to say it's a very, very nice feeling.

[Angus]

Feelings can't always be explained. I think most of us here, in one way or another, feel good when we shoot film...feel better than when we shoot video, for example.

[Will2]

In addition to the aesthetics, film seems more permanent (more permanent? Bad English... sorry...something can't be more than permanent).

I found 8mm film from the 40's of my parents and grandparents. It was stored in garages and attics for 60 years and was still decent looking (especially any Kodachrome). Somehow I don't think my VHS tapes from the early 80's will last 60 years even in ideal situations.

But I wonder if we will look back at crappy video with the same fondness 60 years from now... those big old video cameras with a wire running to a huge VHS machine you carried with a shoulder strap.

[MIKI-814]

But I wonder if we will look back at crappy video with the same fondness 60 years from now... those big old video cameras with a wire running to a huge VHS machine you carried with a shoulder strap.

Partly I am fed up with domestic video changes and formats. It's funny that I can watch family films from the 50's but have to copy and recopy my video recording to keep them watchable as years go by. Simplicity is what survives...

Ok, I may be a freak but I'm happy and enjoy my hobby :lol:

[MovieStuff]

Plus, the film world is closed, it's ended. That creates a wonderful sense of history that we plug into every day. It's a world of study and distance.

Nicely put, Jim.

Roger