FILM FORMATS:

There are three main film formats commonly used for home movies. Eastman Kodak developed the 16mm format in the early 1920’s. Some ten years later in 1932, the 8mm format was introduced. This was actually called Double 8mm at that time because the film was actually 16mm wide and needed to be turned over in the camera to expose each 8mm width of the film. During processing the film was split and joined together forming 50ft lengths of Standard 8mm film. A lesser known format was the 9.5mm film first introduced in 1922 by Pathe. Film in this format still exists today although fairly rare and are generally only copies of commercial films of that era.

1965 saw the introduction of Super 8mm film with sound capability later added to this format during the mid 1970’s. Considering the actual size of the image area on the 8mm wide film stock (approx 6mm x 4mm) remarkably clear images were possible. The development of Super 8mm offered a slightly larger image area with marginally better image quality. The following is an example of the three most popular film formats.

FILM TRANSFER TO DVD

Technological advancements in the area of photography have seen a number changes in the way we record moving images. Analogue video spelt the death of 16mm and 8mm film as a recording medium. MiniDV has now made analog video redundant with the digital age transforming the way images are stored and viewed. We are now moving into the age of High Definition which will also be replaced with something bigger and better in just a few more years.

The need to keep up with this relentless advancement in technology has given rise to the film conversion market. During the 1980’s many people had their 8mm and 16mm film transferred to VHS video in an attempt to immortalize these precious movie memories. It was soon discovered that analog video has a shorter life span than the film that it was replacing. Major film studios are actually fighting a losing battle in an attempt to digitizing archived movies before they are eventually lost due to age and atmospheric contamination. Huge amounts of effort and cost are going into the restoration of feature movies such as the Austrian movie 'Opernball' which is being restored using a system called Limelight.

It became obvious when digital technology arrived that a conversion upgrade would be needed to rescue those precious memories after the demise of analog video. Converting analog video to DVD took with it all the inherent image loss from the original transfer including many of the idiosyncrasies attributed to magnetic tape such as video noise.

We have now found the need to go back to our original film to perform a digital upgrade which presents a problem for many who have thrown away their original film thinking that VHS video was the very best that could be extracted from their film.

High quality digital cameras can extract far more from the original film than could ever be achieved with the old analogue camcorders. Production of projection equipment stopped in the late 1980’s so to view these original films, 30 year-old technology must be resurrected once more.

Transfer companies such as ours have made it an art form to extract the very highest quality images from your 8mm and 16mm film. The supposed benchmark of quality was said to be from the Rank frame scanning telecine device that scanned each of the individual 18 or 24 frames per second of still images, one by one then stitched them together to form your movie. This produced a flicker free result as the film could then be played back at any speed without having to synchronize the frame rate conflict between projection and capture. This system is expensive and out of the reach of most mums and dads just wanting to watch their old picnic films with aunty Flo.

Transfer boxes emerged during the move to analog camcorders allowing the DIY market to perform their own film transfers. Quality was OK but the convenience of being able to watch videos without having to set-up the projector each time made this a great success.

The next generation of transfers are taking advantage of high quality digital cameras and transfer technology unavailable 10 years ago. Being able to effectively focus the camera directly onto the tiny 6mm x 4mm Super 8mm image has now released the full potential of the coloured emulsion forming the image on the film. Quality is so sharp that even the grain on the film is clearly visible during transfers. Post production software can now add more detail and clarity over and above what is on the original film.

Is this the very best that we can expect from such a tiny film format, or around the corner could there be an emerging technology that will make another giant leap in richness and clarity. Only time will tell, so the quest for perfection continues.