impressive price for a Super 8 projector...

[Caroline-NL]

This is for all the people who believe 8mm is dead:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEDW:IT&ih=011

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by Caroline-NL This is for all the people who believe 8mm is dead: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEDW:IT&ih=011

That looks like a very fancy model with VU meters and everything (indicating sound). It appears that a typical silent Super 8 projection is going for about $55. I'm surprised, but also not surprised. They are relics from the past of little practical use today. However, I think many families have a lot of 8mm home movies they want to preserve.

[nakanakaumai]

Originally Posted by Caroline-NL This is for all the people who believe 8mm is dead: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEDW:IT&ih=011

I actually didn't know it was even alive. I suppose this was the format before VCRS? Also, as Snowman pointed out there aren't many practical uses for this machine these days, so why would one even want one?

[Caroline-NL]

Originally Posted by nakanakaumai I actually didn't know it was even alive. I suppose this was the format before VCRS? Also, as Snowman pointed out there aren't many practical uses for this machine these days, so why would one even want one?

Because zillions of movies, especially cartoons, documentaries and porn movies, were only released on 8mm and never for sale even on vintage vcr formats. The winner is a company in Germany, who also offers 8mm transfers to video. This is no normal 8mm projector, but the "Lamborghini" of 8mm projectors.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by nakanakaumai I actually didn't know it was even alive. I suppose this was the format before VCRS? Also, as Snowman pointed out there aren't many practical uses for this machine these days, so why would one even want one?

"Super 8" cameras preceeded video cameras as a way for consumers to take home movies. The format was first introduced by Kodak in 1965. Prior to this a similar format called 8mm was available. They were real film cameras and one had to send off the reel for developing after shooting it. The reels were about three minutes long. The film is 8mm wide and originally Super 8 movies were silent. In 1973 Super 8 with sound was introduced using a magnetic soundtrack. In order to view these movies, a projector like those above on eBay was required. They were basically mini versions of the film projectors used at movie theatres.

I had an inexpensive (silent) Bauer Super 8 camera as a teenager and Chinon projector. However, I never was able to use it much because it was relatively expensive to shoot films. If memory serves, the film was about $5 a reel and processing was maybe $10. At this time, the minimum wage was about $3.30 an hour.

Interestingly, I learned on Wiki that in-flight movies used the format in 1971 until videos came on the scene.

I thought of Super 8 as purely amateur format, but it appears it was used in commercial applications such as shooting television commercials. Check out the sophisicated Cannon camera and gear on this page!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_8_film_cameras

Many porn loops were also shot on Super 8 as well.

Here's some Super 8 links for the curious:

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

http://super8wiki.com/index.php/Main_Page