As someone who went to school in Rochester, NY (RIT), i love to see Kodak making a move that could possibly return them to a relevant position in the film industry. Rochester was once a proud city that has been beaten down by missing the innovation train. I hope this and other initiatives help to return it to some of its former luster.
Kodak resurrects Super 8
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Re: Kodak resurrects Super 8
#62You may have not noticed it, but the benefits of film have been going extinct this decade. Check out how many feature films are shot digitally versus on film. Unless you are Spielberg, you are shooting digitally.
Currently, there are small digital cameras like the Blackmagic Pocket Camera (BMPCC) camera, under $1k, which have a capability to shoot images that are so similar to 16mm film that the average consumer couldn't tell.
The bottom-line today: if you want the 8mm vibe, you oversample your image when shooting (16mm or 35mm digital) and then degrade the image in post-production to 8mm.
Re: Kodak resurrects Super 8
#63Amusingly, it's also a video camera, since the viewfinder is an LCD display. Not clear if the manual aperture and shutter time settings affect the viewfinder. You can feed video into the display (why?) but it's not clear if you can get video out of the camera. The film costs $50 to $75 per cartridge, for a running time of 3.5 minutes. Market: wannabe hipsters and old guys in the movie industry.
Kodak makes movie film only because the major studios, at the urging of some older directors, pay them to do so.[1] (Pro movie film sales were down 96%) The studios have to pay for a certain amount of film whether they take it or not. This leaves Kodak with a paid-for, underutilized film production plant and film development facilities. That's probably why Kodak is doing this.
[1] http://www.wsj.com/articles/kodak-to-continue-making-movie-f...
Re: Kodak resurrects Super 8
#64Interesting. Today I've come across quite a few stories on analogue tech. This + new Technic SL-1200 models + new vinyl pressing machines being produced due to vinyl demand continuing to grow + record players and instant film cameras being incredibly popular on Amazon this Christmas. I wonder if we'll see this occur to other analogue tech too?
I call this the "letterpress phenomenon".
Once upon a time the only way to get some text printed was to hire somebody to arrange lead type letter-by-letter and print your thing on a six-ton iron press. This required significant amounts of training to do well and still resulted in artifacts of the process, in this case slight debossing of the paper as the fibers were crushed between the press and the type.
Then came photolithography and xerox and laser printers, and nobody saw the point of all that labor and machinery.
Then came inkjet printers and Microsoft Word and email, and suddenly a textual message doesn't seem to have the gravitas or expertise that once did. At which point, having something letterpress printed is very noticeable and neat, even if you can't put your finger on what's different, and a person who does letterpress printing has necessarily invested enough time to correlate with passion and a keen typographic eye.
Once the old thing takes off, people really want those artifacts of the antique process, to the point where contemporary letterpress printers are goaded into ramping up the pressure on the press until the paper is crushed to oblivion and your print is ridiculously three-dimensional, more so than would have been acceptable back in old times.
Similarly, people who are shooting on Super 8 these days are really looking for grain and weird color temperature. And it also explains why, like photolithography, 16mm or analog video are neither distinctive nor expensive enough to be as interesting.
Re: Kodak resurrects Super 8
#65You may have not noticed it, but the benefits of film have been going extinct this decade. Check out how many feature films are shot digitally versus on film. Unless you are Spielberg, you are shooting digitally. Currently, there are small digital cameras like the Blackmagic Pocket Camera (BMPCC) camera, under $1k, which have a capability to shoot images that are so similar to 16mm film that the average consumer coul…
Or unless you are Quentin Tarantino; see Inglorious Basterds (2009) to see what rich colors film can provide.
Re: Kodak resurrects Super 8
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is there theoretically anything preventing them from putting a line like this from insta's TOS in there? "Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, subject to the Service's Priva…
Why does that text concern you? If you want Instagram to display your photograph back to you (or other users at your request) then you have to grant them a license like this. Where terms get concerning is when they want a redistribution license, or they want to allow unnamed third party "partners" to be able to utilise your photograph royalty free. Neither of which appear in the snippet above.
> Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content
Does "sub-licensable" not allow the "partners" you speak of?
Re: Kodak resurrects Super 8
#67Amusingly, it's also a video camera, since the viewfinder is an LCD display. Not clear if the manual aperture and shutter time settings affect the viewfinder. You can feed video into the display (why?) but it's not clear if you can get video out of the camera. The film costs $50 to $75 per cartridge, for a running time of 3.5 minutes. Market: wannabe hipsters and old guys in the movie industry. Kodak makes movie film…
The vie finder is digital because people are used to a digital viewfinder and not an optical one anymore.
Re: Kodak resurrects Super 8
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Never mind audio, this is, sadly, proprietary bullshit, and has been since the 60's. "Super 8 film cartridge" - what? I'd be far more interested if they were just doing reeled 8mm with development services - I have a perfectly serviceable 1930's 8mm that I haven't been able to find film for (well, at any sensible price) for twenty years. I'd love to be able to shoot with it again.
What kind of 8mm film does it take? I don't think I've seen anything but Super 8 for ages. I know some 8mm cameras can take standard 16mm film that's been cut in half.
Standard 8 - they made it from '32 to'92. Camera is a kodak, from '32, model 20, in the family since it was new. It is beautifully engineered.
Re: Kodak resurrects Super 8
#69Amusingly, it's also a video camera, since the viewfinder is an LCD display. Not clear if the manual aperture and shutter time settings affect the viewfinder. You can feed video into the display (why?) but it's not clear if you can get video out of the camera. The film costs $50 to $75 per cartridge, for a running time of 3.5 minutes. Market: wannabe hipsters and old guys in the movie industry. Kodak makes movie film…
>You can feed video into the display (why?)
I'd guess it's cheaper/easier than using glass especially to support swivel. Unclear if there's a prism in the light path though or if they're getting the image to the sensor in some other way. It would seem to take away from the whole retro vibe though.
Re: Kodak resurrects Super 8
#70Amusingly, it's also a video camera, since the viewfinder is an LCD display. Not clear if the manual aperture and shutter time settings affect the viewfinder. You can feed video into the display (why?) but it's not clear if you can get video out of the camera. The film costs $50 to $75 per cartridge, for a running time of 3.5 minutes. Market: wannabe hipsters and old guys in the movie industry. Kodak makes movie film…
The vie finder is digital because people are used to a digital viewfinder and not an optical one anymore.
Um.
1. DSLR users are not.
2. The whole point of this exercise is to make a product for people who want a retro (and largely impractical) film movie camera. What people are used to is [EDIT: 100% digital cameras].