What can you tell me about Super 8 Cameras?

I believe Super 8 cameras are out of date and I doubt if you will find one to purchase from a department store.

You might try the pawn shops for a good used one or Ebay.

I had a Panasonic Super 8 camera. I used it to tape our children in the 70s and 80s. It worked great, until my wife left it on a beach towel in Florida, and the tide took it out to sea.

It’s an out of date format, but it is still used for some style choices or what not… much like vinyl records. You probably won’t be able to find one at a regular store, you’ll have to find a camera specialty shop or get one off line.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8_mm_film

Are you talking about the Super 8 movie cameras of the 1960’s and 70’s that used actual film strips or are you talking about the High eight compact tape platform that was in use in the 1990’s.

In any case, the format is very outdated. I can see how one might want to use the old film to do some sort of kitschy retro home movie effect. However you would probably have a hard time finding somebody to develop it. Can’t see any benefit to the magnetic tape variety. You can get similar results from most low end cameras that support a movie feature these days.

It’s probably relatively easy to get a camera. The harder part will be getting film cartridges (Kodak Ektachrome) and finding a processing lab—but a quick online search shows they’re still available.

The earliest consumer cameras had wind-up clockwork mechanism to advance the film. Later battery-operated electric motor cameras became common. One 50-foot cartridge / roll typically yields 4 minutes at 16 frames per second (fps) or 3.5 minutes at 18 fps.

Since home video came on the scene in the late 1970s super 8 was dead in the water. By 1980 I was able to cheaply purchase a very nice super 8 camera (don’t remember the make) with good optics, zoom lens, automatic exposure (but no autofocus) and electrically operated single-frame mode by which I shot many time-lapse movies of cross-country driving with the camera behind the windshield.

Editing, of course, requires at the very least a frame cutter and cellophane-tape joiners, not to mention editors, spoolers, a leader roll, film cans, and various other accessories. And what’s the point of editing unless you’re going to view the final product, which then requires a projector and screen. Personally I prefer YouTube.

Hmm. Now that I hear it, I’m thinking maybe a Super 8 wouldn’t be the best for me…still, if it’s affordable and all, I think it’d be a nice thing to have. Thanks you guys! :]

@Joker94 Any possible “affordability” benefits to working with Super 8 film, would be, as @gasman points out, are far outweighed by the “pain in the ass” disadvantages to working with Super 8, particularly since there are so many alternatives now. You would have to track down a camera, special order the film, find someone to process the film, and if you want sound, there are super 8 sound recording capable cameras that record sound on a magnetic strip, but then you have to find that kind of super 8 film. Either that or you have to do the whole clap board, sinking up the sound business. And as @gasman points out, you need special editing equipment. I have a super 8 splicer if you want it. But even if you found the editors, spicing tape, cutter spools, and all that stuff it’s still a pain in the ass because the damn film is so narrow. You could shoot with it and have the raw footage transferred to a disc and edit it digitally but that is yet another step. Any money you save on the camera would be offset by the other expense. You can get a half-way decent HD video camera that would save you money, headaches and hours of tracking down the stuff you need, waiting for the film to come back from the processor. Not to mention hours of tedium.

@lillycoyote Dang, thorough answer. You’re probably right, a Super 8 just isn’t gonna be worth it.

@Joker94 There are people that do use Super 8 but the only reason to do it is if you’re a purist and are hell bent on shooting on film as opposed to video, or digital or HD video or digital because once you move up to 16mm and Super 16 it really does start to get expensive. Even a good used 16mm camera will be pricey and the film is expensive and the processing even more so. And you’ll need decent sound equipment. I think most people using 16mm nowdays have it transferred to a digital medium for editing so that that cuts editing costs and time. You wouldn’t have to invests in a flatbed editing system but I would advise agains Super 8 unless you are, as I said, absolutely hell bent on shooting with film and can’t afford to work with 16mm, which is a happy medium, but still very expensive.

Mehh, I’m not really hell bent on shooting with an 8mm. I just kind of like a more retro style, and was looking into picking one up just to do some short film or experimental films with. I’m kind of inexperienced on all this stuff, and kinda thought it’d be neat to have a Super 8 lol

@Joker94 Film is really superior in my purist, retro opinion, it’s just expensive. I wish I still had my Super 8 camera, it had sound capability, it was a sweet little thing; I’d sell it to you but, I kind of used to be very into all this stuff, I used it as a trade in when I bought my Bolex, and that itself was about a million years ago. I don’t do much film stuff anymore at all. Just a little amateur animation on my computer.

Ah, it’s cool, it’s the thought counts :D Amateur animation? Anything you’d care to share?

Maybe. It would involve me getting around to loading the stuff on YouTube and that could take a long time, given my propensity for both slow-pokedness (slow-pokiness?) and procrastination. :-)

Oh, I’m a procrastinator too, take your time :) Only if you get the chance, haha, I’d be more than happy to give it a viewing.

I have seen sections and whole skateboarding videos filmed in super 8. It can add a really neat artsy quality if your into filming and editing videos and stuff like that. You should get one and play around with it.