Digital Super 8

 


Can I get excited now?    Just heard about this, and it is still in the development stages, but it's exciting to hear about this innovation.  Before I ventured into 16mm there was my handy dandy Super 8 camera.  The epics that were shot with that camera were fun and filled with enthusiasm.   Even my dad filmed with his own 8mm camera the family events while I was growing up.  It seems like ages ago, and some how when I view the footage taken back then a feeling of nostalgia comes over me.  The color, and even the sound comes popping off the screen and I'm transported back to that time. The magic of home movies everywhere, but with Super 8 it was different then what we have today.   There were no shaky camera movement, because it was film, and we only had about three minutes worth to capture the people and places we loved.  There was a lot involved in getting that image, and you wanted it right, and perfect, and somehow that translates into the footage.  Maybe I'm a hopeless romantic, but I do marvel at the film footage back then, and feel there is a different aesthetic then what people are shooting today. 

Well now this company is developing a cartridge that can be used with your old Super-8 cameras and shot right to SD cards.    it will be interesting to see if the footage shot through this digital process looks like anything that was shot back in the day.  How does it work?  Here's what they say on their website:

"At the heart of the Nolab Digital Super 8 Cartridge is a tiny but powerful 5 megapixel image sensor similar to the one in your smartphone. Combined with a custom glass objective lens, the sensor focuses on a ground glass image plane pressed against the camera’s film gate. By using a 5 megapixel sensor we can capture 720p HD footage at the native Super 8 aspect ratio of 4:3.

Processors integrated into the image sensor are able to  process and encode the footage in real time to a removable SD card. Optionally the same processors can apply one of two predefined Film Look color correction filters to the footage. 

That sounds simple enough, To allow the Nolab cartridge’s image sensor to synchronize with the camera’s shutter, a unique sensor had to be developed. It’s this design that allows the cartridge to work properly in any camera at any frame rate up to 60 fps."

How cool is that.  I really like this and I have several cameras I'd like to try this out on.  Yes I did keep them and kept them in good working order.  I'm a man attached to his tools, and even when they become antiquated I sometimes think they'll make a resurgence.  After all everything old is new again, and this certainly is proof of that.

To see for yourself check this link.  I think you'll find it interesting.   Will be interesting to see it work.  Hurry up guys.  I know I'm interested.

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