Hello all.
I have not posted in these forums as I have bean doing a lot of 35mm photography work over the past year and a half.

I am un sure if this question is appropriate for this particular forum so if the admin’s feel it right they may move it to a more appropriate forum.

Now for the question.
I am about to take delivery of an 8mm motion picture film camera from a friend (!!Freebee!!) in awesome shape (supposedly still in original box with the price tag in-tacked). I am not sure on its make or model.
I am wondering what people’s opinions are on the different film stocks for 8mm.
With 35mm my film of choice is Fuji Velvia 50. Is there a film that comes close to this as far as contrast and saturation? If not how dose these films effect when push processed? Is it expensive to have it transferred (Telecine) to mine DV or DVCAM?
Any other information related would be great.

Thanks,

Alex

Always the best source is Kodak:

http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/super8/

Kodak recently introduced their new Vision2 stocks in Super8. These film stocks are awesome and the general feeling is they give you an image closer to 16mm of a decade ago. Of course, the 16mm images are much better too as is 35mm.

There has been a big upswing in interest in Super8 lately. Sales at Kodak have jumped up. In fact, total film sales this year should beat last years record breaking amount.

I have only tried the Kodachrome 40(since its the only one that is easy to get a hold of in Denmark), the grain of that specific stock is very fine. However the images seem a little dull to me, would have liked a bit more contrast.

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Belics : Sales at Kodak have jumped up -->>>

Too bad that film sales aren't enough to top the steady downward spiral of this great company which has seen much better days: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=EK&t=5y&l=on&z=l&q=l&c=

You say the camera is "8mm" is that the actual film format, or is it really SUPER 8?

You can still get 8mm filmstock in single and double rolls. In some ways, 8mm is superior to super 8 because the cameras have an actual steel pressure plate that improves the registration, while the super 8 cartridges have a built in plastic one.

The new vision stocks are remarkable, and telicine is slightly less expensive than 16mm. Check out Super 8 Sound in burbank, or Moviestuff on line. Most houses will transfer to whatever tape format you specify. You can always do your own "poor mans" telecine right of a screen if you have a variable speed projector.

Of course for reversal stocks, there is Kodachrome, Ektachrome, PlusX and TriX as well as some german film stocks.

Good luck, and enjoy!

you may wanna check out http://www.pro8mm.com they produce their own super8 film stock in different speeds and offer processing and telecine as well. i've shot test footage with their films and it looks more than acceptable.

Boyd,

Kodak revenue is up 11% this year. Total revenue is close to $14 billion dollars. They make a profit every quarter and ever year.

I wish I was hurting that good.

Pro8 has some good stuff but they are expensive.

That "hurting good" must be comforting to the 5,000 laid off in Rochester. You can read Kodak's 8-K (http://biz.yahoo.com/e/040514/ek8-k.html) at Yahoo. Their US operation had lower net sales, lower gross profit, lower gross profit margin, and the companies net earnings were down 74%.

Some foreign operations were up, but others were down and the resulting 9% increase in sales is attributable to favorable impact of exchange (meaning a weak dollar) rate. If you factor out the favorable exchange rate, Kodak's combined operations lost 3% last year.

Not an encouraging report.

My point is Kodak is still a profitable operation with billions and billions sold.

Thank you all for your replies. This information should prove quite useful. Dose any one know of a good lab in western Canada?

Thanks,

Alex

The link I gave you gives a list of Super8 labs.