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I have had a camera for as long as I can remember. My first camera was a Kodak Brownie Hawkeye. I guess I was about twelve years old or so when I got it; and soon after I got my first darkroom outfit. I have been taking & processing pictures ever since. I would have been twelve years old in 1954. My Aunt and Uncle had the first home movie outfit I ever saw (around 1950). My folks bought their first movie camera, a Revere Model 50, in 1953. I still have the films they took. In 1957, when I was 15 years old, I bought my first movie outfit. It was a Kodak Brownie outfit. It wasn’t very expensive, but took quite respectable pictures. A farm boy back in the 1950’s couldn’t afford anything very fancy. About 1960, my Grandfather bought a movie outfit. It was a DeJur brand camera that had three lenses mounted on a turret (normal, wide angle & telephoto). It was a top of the line, state of the art camera of its day. He also had a quality DeJur projector. I still have this camera & projector, along with my folk’s movie camera and my first movie camera. They all still operate perfectly! At that time, the 8 m/m film that was available was called Regular-8 or Double-8. Equipment manufactured for Regular-8 film was manufactured from 1932 to 1963. The double run principle means that the film is run through the camera twice. Each run exposes a row of images down one side of the film and then the other. After the film has been processed, it is slit lengthwise and the two ends are joined together. In this way, a film that starts out as 16 m/m wide and 25 feet long becomes 8 m/m wide and 50 feet long. Super 8-film and equipment was introduced in 1964. Most Super-8 cameras are battery operated. (Regular-8 had clockwork wind-up motors.) Super-8 film starts out 8 m/m wide and 50 feet long. It is loaded in a special cartridge and is run through the camera only once. The Super-8 sprocket holes are different from Regular-8 and the picture area is considerably larger giving a brighter, sharper image. In the late 1960’s, I bought a Super-8 camera. It was an Anscomatic with a 6 to 1 zoom lens and automatic exposure control. Around 1980 I bought a Minolta Super-8 with an intervolumeter for taking time lapse pictures. I have some great time lapse films of flowers opening and clouds moving by at super fast speed. They are quite dramatic. About 1990 I bought a used sound Super-8 camera and projector & started collecting movie cameras, projectors & films. Most manufacturers discontinued making home movie equipment around 1985. About that time video was coming on the market in a big way and home movie equipment became unwanted and could be picked up cheap, & still can be. Most of the cameras and projectors in my collection I paid between $2.00 & $15.00. The sound equipment is worth more ($50.00 to $200.00 or more). In the late 1960’s, I bought my first 35 m/m Single Lens Reflex (SLR) still camera. It was an Astraflex 1000 LM, made by Edixa in West Germany. In the 1970’s, I bought a Minolta SRT series SLR. About 1990, I bought a Minolta 700X program SLR. In the meantime I bought another Minolta SRT. I purchased all of these new. I do a lot of close up and copy work, so I needed a SLR. I had three cameras so I could have a different kind of film in each one (black & white, color print & slide). My Mother gave me my Grandfather’s old Conley Junior, 4 x 5 glass plate camera that he used around 1915. I bought a couple of 4 x 5 cut film holders and was lucky that they fit the camera, so I could use 4 x 5 sheet film which is readily available. I took a few pictures with this old camera and processed them myself. They turned out great! I am what I call a very serious amateur photographer. Everywhere I go, I carry a camera. Over the last few years, my wife, Helen, has been taking most of our stills and I carry my trusty movie camera. I still take movie film because it will last and video tape won’t. Kodachrome color movie film and black & white film have a life expectancy of 100+ years. Kodak Ektachrome color film has a life expectancy of 75+ years, and then only a 10% change in color & image. Video tape, if stored properly, will last 10 years, 20 years tops. So film should be used if you want it around for the next generation to see. The old Kodachromes that my folks took over 50 years ago are still as good as the day they came back from the processor. Those old films have pictures of my folks, grandparents, and Aunts & Uncles most of which passed away many years ago. It’s great to get those old films out and see all of those family members, as I remember them when I was a kid, in moving pictures! Of course my sister and I were in those old movies too, as kids. With the video craze going on now, fewer and fewer people are using their old home movie camera. I am afraid that the demand for movie film will get so low that manufacturers will discontinue it. Kodak has already discontinued Super-8 sound film. I am doing my part to keep it going! I take about 15 to 20 rolls (50 foot rolls of Black & White, Color, and Regular-8 & Super-8) of movie film every year and plan to continue. When I was a kid, I would save my money and when we would go shopping in Beloit, which was about once a year, I would buy a Hollywood film or two. Hoppalong Cassidy was my favorite cowboy. Abbot & Costello were my favorite comedy team. (Who’s on 1st is a classic!) I would buy 50 ft. Abbot & Costello and 200 ft. Hoppy movies. Of course they were all silent back then. I still have those old films, but they are in rough shape as I about ran them to death, and didn’t take care of them when I was a kid. The 50 ft. films cost about $1.50 and the 200 ft. films cost $5.00 or $6.00. This was a small fortune for a kid in the mid 1950’s. Most of the films I have been buying over the past few years are used films. I have a dozen or so full length sound features. The feature films I have cost anywhere from $50.00 to $100.00. Most of the films I have are cartoons and 200 ft. & 400 ft. digests. I collect both silent & sound. I have some old Charlie Chaplin & Harold Lloyd films that were released about 1915—1930. Of course these films I have aren’t originals as they didn’t have 8 m/m back then. Most were put on 8 m/m during the 1950’s, 1960’s & 1970’s. There are two companies in England that are still releasing new Super-8 films on a regular basis, but new feature films are quite expensive, costing $300.00 to $500.00. Cartoons and other 200 ft. “shorts” run about $40.00, which is not bad. New features are too pricey for me, but I do purchase a new 200 ft. film now & then. Trailers are also fun to collect. A trailer is what you see when you go to the movies, which is the “Coming Attraction” of an upcoming film. They only run about 3 or 4 minutes and cost about $10.00 for a used one and $20.00+ for new ones. Used 200 ft. cartoons and 400 ft. digests run from $10.00 to $30.00. Of course some of the used films have had hard use and aren’t perfect. They may have scratch lines, or the color may be faded as Kodachrome film wasn’t used most of the time for these films. Film collecting is a lot more popular in Europe than in the United States. There aren’t many companies dealing in films in this country anymore. I have been buying a lot of my used films from England. I use my credit card to make the purchases. The Pounds Sterling are converted to U.S. dollars automatically. It works out great. If I place an order by e-mail, the order will arrive in about a week. Right now (2003) £60 (Pounds) equals about $100.00 U.S. The exchange rate does go up and down some, but not much. I purchase new films that are now being released in England from the U.S. distributor, “The Reel Image” in Kettering, Ohio. Steve Osborne, the owner, also has very reasonably priced used films and equipment. He also publishes a very nice magazine three times a year called “The Reel Image.” It has movie reviews of all the latest releases and very interesting articles on filming and collecting. He is a nice, honest man to deal with. This is a great hobby! There is nothing like pulling down my 70-inch “silver screen” and watching Hoppy, Gene or Roy ride across my living room and into the sunset! There is just something about threading up your projector and watching a movie just like in the theater. It’s just not the same watching a video or DVD on the TV screen!! I also have an anamorphic lens that is used to project wide screen “Cinemascope” films. The model I have is a 35 m/m model made by Bausch & Lomb to be used with a 35 m/m movie projector, but can also be used with 8 m/m and 16 m/m projectors. I made a wooden stand to mount my lens on. The lens sets in front of the projector and the Cinemascope films are shown through it. My next project is to make a Cinemascope screen. The image projected is approximately 4 ½ ft. high and 10 ft. wide. What a picture! I am probably going to have to set it up in my basement, or out in my shed! Of course the farther back you move the projector, the bigger the image. I have wanted one of these lenses for a long time. They are kind of hard to find, so when I saw this one advertised in “The Reel Image,” I jumped at the chance to buy it. Some Hollywood films and trailers are only available in scope. It is truly amazing what can be done with this little Super-8 film! I have written this article in hopes it will stir interest in the hobby. Get those old cameras out of the closet and buy some film. Film is still available for both Regular-8 and Super-8. Or if you are a youngster, or teenager, and the filming bug has bitten you like it did me, start looking for a camera or projector and get started. Right now there is still a good supply of good, used cameras and projectors out there, and they are cheap to reasonable in price. Look in antique stores, at rummage sales, in thrift stores, on E-Bay (lots listed there, but sometimes are a little high priced), or place a want ad in the newspaper. There is a lot of old movie equipment out there in someone’s closet or attic. You just have to find it! If we don’t create new interest in our hobby, especially the younger generation, I’m afraid as us older collectors die off, there won’t be anyone to keep it going and the hobby will die. I have had many other hobbies in my lifetime (woodworking, violin making, beekeeping, model railroading, raising parakeets, fishing, hunting, target shooting, reloading ammunition, & more); but none have brought me more enjoyment and been as rewarding as photography in general and specifically taking moving pictures and film collecting. If you are at all interested, start now. Get those cameras and projectors rolling! You will never be sorry you did. I also have a list of manufacturers, suppliers and processors available for the price of $5.00. Click on the link on the front page of our website “Big List 8mm” for complete information. If you would ever want any other information or advice on the hobby, I will be glad to help if I can.
Photographer & Collector |
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