Standard 8 mm film

Normal -8 is a small film format, which was released in March 1932 by Eastman Kodak on the market and replaced with the introduction of Super 8 in May 1965 by this fast. According to the most common packaging is also spoke of double -8.

  • 2.1 Double -8
  • 2.2 Movex
  • 2.4 emulsion
  • 3.1 Driving
  • 3.2 lenses
  • 3.3 speed
  • 3.4 talkie

Dissemination

Formation

To save film costs arose from the well-known 16- mm film by an amateur film by twice each exposed it in half and cut after development in the center. This makes the image size was reduced from 7.5 mm x 10.4 mm with 16- mm film on 3.7 mm x 4.7 mm, ie approximately by a factor of 4.5. The modern high resolution film emulsions nevertheless ensured for a sufficient image quality, so that even in the late 1930s 8- mm cameras so often were twice as 16- mm cameras.

The advantages of the 8- mm film were in smaller cameras, but especially in significantly lower costs for equipment and footage, the private movies ever allowed only on a larger scale.

Agfa had introduced with the Movex film cassette and its simple film change another advantage, but the system could not prevail.

Decline

A disadvantage of this approach were the disproportionately wide for the narrow film sprocket holes, which eventually led to the Super-8 film in which a smaller perforation a larger image size and thus superior in resolution picture quality offered. This led to a designation for normal 8 (English: Regular - 8) for the previous film, before you spoke only of 8- mm film; on the other hand to the demise of the format to the extent that soon no more new devices were offered. With regard to the image prior Super 8 but remained inferior to its predecessor format.

The transition from normal to 8 Super 8 was swift, where used equipment at about half its value lost. Regardless, double -8 film stock until today remained on the market, black and colors.

Movies

Double -8

The most common were open daylight spools with 7.5 m ( effective length ) footage that was split by development in the laboratory and assemble them into a 15 m long movie. In a camera could run at 16 frames / s for 2 minutes are taken, then the two coils are reversed for the second pass. A few cameras could also record 30 -meter coils, which min recording time allowed for a total of 16.

Around 1955 the cost of a 7.5 -m coil with Agfa black and white film 13,20 DM, with Agfacolor daylight film 18,50 DM These prices included the development of the above-mentioned splitting and sticking together.

Movex

1937 introduced Movex cassette had two coplanar coils, which they looked similar to the Single-8 cartridge. She took 10 m film, where there was no second pass, and could be bought ready-made. Agfa offered to 1956 cameras for this system, and then went for lack of success on double 8 cameras.

Other companies offered double 8 or Regular 8 film in cassettes to, such as Kodak. However, as was able to prevail no uniform standard, these systems quickly overtook the same fate as the Movex system. In the United States also are 8 mm wide films in daylight coils on the market. More cassette systems from different manufacturers had to be loaded by users previously even with double -8 film on daylight spools. ZT was also offered this service of photo dealers.

Emulsion

Unlike Super -8, there have been at normal -8 color film art and daylight color film.

Cameras

Drive

Unlike Super -8, the electric drive was not, of course, in the normal 8- time, he only came on in the final stages. Previously, the film transport went with a spring mechanism vonstatten, you had to raise the camera spring and could then usually only about 1.5 m film exposed.

Lenses

It was the same with zoom lenses: Simple cameras had only a fixed focal length, more expensive models have a revolver with several lenses. Early 1960s came models with zoom lenses on the market.

Speed

It comes with the silent film not so much on the exact projection speed of, anyway kept the factory spring drives the cameras, the speed is not exactly, at least the accuracy of the governor for sync sound over longer passages was not sufficient.

Sound film

With normal -8 mostly silent movies were filmed, only a few dedicated amateurs produced since the mid-1950s also talkies what aufnahmeseitig always with the dual-band method (see Super 8 ) vonstatten went.

The demonstration was mostly from with various two-band method, but came in the 1960s already on sound film projectors, which were, however, expensive and consequently not very common. These projectors working with a subsequently to be applied on the film magnetic track, which was in contrast to Super 8 next to the perforation. For various reasons, the sound quality of the magnetic Randspurtons at normal -8 was rather modest, so most amateur sound films were set to music with different two-band method and demonstrated. Although the Association of German film amateurs tried the ETS method ( unit sound system ) with sync pulses to establish all 4 images as standard, but this did not prevail so right up.

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