Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Jo Goodtimes wrote: >Hello all . >Today I made the bought of the year : >A Super 8 P1 movie camera from Fujica ! >Price : 6 USD , mint . >I was wondering if I could convert the thing into a still camera , this >would made a hell >of number of pictures with just one film ! >Anyone did that ? Well I've done it with Standard 8 (aka Double 8 and Regular 8), way back. If your camera has a single frame setting you could use that, but otherwise you can just press the release for a brief period and shoot a few frames. Super 8 is available in a very wide variety of stock - ALL the Kodak 35 mm motion picture negative stocks (including the ISO 50 daylight EXR stock) are available in the UK and the US for sure. Kodak ISO 200 negative stock is used for surveillance cameras - this is exactly the use you have in mind - a whole 50 ft of tiny tiny still pictures. I am not aware of Tech Pan being available in Super 8, but if you have the cash anything is possible in that whacky world of moviedom (seriously - ANY 35 mm film can be slit, perforated and loaded into Super 8 cassettes. Very fast films like TMZ can be split, but suffer from static marks when run through a movie camera. Normal minimum order 400 ft of 35 mm = 1200 ft of Super 8) BTW Standard 8 is available in all 16 mm stocks (reversal, neg, colour, black, white, blue, pink etc), because it is just 16 mm film with extra perforations, as used in some high speed 16 mm cameras. You buy 16 mm double perf film and get it reperforated by a reperforator (who else?). These people exist. Reperforating 16 mm film all day in the dark. Imagine! Processing is identical to 16 mm processing, then it gets slit neatly down the middle. Without consent! I suspect that you have a Single 8 camera - Fuji's own version of Super 8. The film has the same width, frame size and sprockets as Super 8 but it is normally on an ester base which is thinner and stronger than the acetate used for most other stock. This meant that Fuji could get 50 ft into a smaller cassette than the Kodak-invented Super 8. The Single 8 cassette has the feed and take up spools in the same plane, 'displacement' style. Super 8 spools are side by side. The ester base also means, by the way, that the film is stronger than some camera mechanisms. Not good if the film jams. It is better for the film to tear than for the camera gears to strip! Single 8 is not available in as many flavours as Super 8 and Standard 8. There is a Single 8 society here in the UK. I don't have the address with me right now, but will pass it on if you wish. Fuji's support of Single 8 has been pathetic in comparison to the support that Kodak have given to Super 8. Contact me off list if you need any more info. I shoot Super 8 and Standard 8 regularly. They are both in fashion right now, which is nice for those of us with the gear. Regards, Malcolm