Super 8mm

Super 8mm film is a motion picture film format released in 1965 by Eastman Kodak as an improvement over the older "Double" or "Regular" 8 mm home movie format.

The film is nominally 8mm wide, the same as older formatted 8mm film, but the dimensions of the rectangular perforations along one edge are smaller, which allows for a greater exposed area. The Super 8 standard also allocates the border opposite the perforations for an oxide stripe upon which sound can be magnetically recorded.

Unlike Super 35, the film stock used for Super 8 is not compatible with standard 8mm film cameras.

There are several varieties of the film system used for shooting, but the final film in each case has the same dimensions. The most popular system by far was the Kodak system.

Launched in 1965 by Eastman Kodak at the 1964-65 Worlds Fair, Super 8 film comes in plastic light-proof cartridges containing coaxial supply and take up spools loaded with 50 feet (15 m) of film, with 72 frames per foot, for a total of approximately 3,600 frames per film cartridge. This is enough film for 2.5 minutes at the professional motion picture standard of 24 frames per second, and for 3 minutes and 20 seconds of continuous filming at 18 frames per second (upgraded from Standard 8 mm 16 frame/s) for amateur use. In 1973 the system was upgraded with a larger cartridge, which included film with magnetic sound. In 1975 an even larger 200-foot (61 m) cartridge became available which could be used in specifically designed cameras. The sound and the 200 foot cartridge system are no longer available, but the 50 foot silent cartridge system is still manufactured. Historically, Super 8 film was a reversal stock for home projection used primarily for the creation of home movies. It became an extremely popular consumer product in the late 1960s through the 1970s, but was largely replaced in 1980 by the use of video tape. During the mid-to-late 1980s Super 8 began to re-emerge as an alternative method for movie production, beginning with its use in MTV music videos in 1981. In 1993 the company's Super8 Sound, now called Pro8mm, pioneered the use of the color negative in Super 8 by custom perforating and loading a variety of 35mm film stocks into the Super 8 film cartridge. This included emulsions from Kodak, Fuji and Ilford. Today Super 8 color negative film is the main color stock used. There are also Super 8 reversal films available including 200D Agfa color and black-and-white (B&W) from Foma, ADOX and ORWO and Kodak.

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