On Thursday March 9th our class met with Daniel Stanley who showed us around the Museum of Redundant Media. I was extremely impressed and interested with the many different old media equipment on display.
What I really wanted to explore was the Super 8mm Camera. This is because I have recently obtained one myself, have some film in my fridge and want to shoot a short artistic film in Japan over mid semester break.
The Super 8mm camera was firstly manufactured in 1965 by Kodak for their newly introduced amateur film format, which replaced the standard 8mm film format.
“The film is nominally 8mm wide, the same as older formatted 8mm film, but the dimensions of the rectangular perforations along one edge are smaller, which allows for greater exposed area. The Super 8 standard also allocates the border opposite the perforations for an oxide stripe upon which sound can be magnetically recorded.
Unlike Super 35 the film stock used for Super 8 is not compatible with standard 8mm film cameras.
There are several different varieties of the film system used for shooting, but the final film in each case has the same dimensions. The most popular system by far was the Kodak system.”
– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_versus_nominal_value
Typically these cameras would be used by families, friends, groups, etc. to shoot valuable moments such as birthdays, weddings, holidays, etc.