Billy Fire LLC

I mentioned previously that my Canon HG10 replaced a ZR, whose firewire port had ceased to function. I realized a few weeks ago that the ZR replaced another Canon, but not a video camera, a Super 8 film camera, the Canon 318M.

I’ve had this camera in my cupboard for over 25 years and I hadn’t though much about it. I was recently surprised to see that some wedding videographers were actually offering Super 8 footage as part of their wedding packages. The idea being that film has a special quality which is difficult to achieve with video. I also imagine that 8mm film conveys a nostalgic feeling to those of us who used to sit through silent family home movies.

I got the camera out and it is in great condition. The design looks very contemporary. I also realized that there was a film in my camera that was half used. I cannot remember the last time I used the camera exactly, but I suspect it was when I was about 18. A lot has changed since then.

I decided to use the other 25 feet as my (very large) children were enjoying their Easter Egg hunt. I bought some some new batteries, put them in the camera and it worked first time (after I remembered to switch it on).

I searched for where I could get the film developed. It seems that developing the Kodachrome is exceedingly rare and Dwayne’s Photo claim to be the only people that develop it. I sent them the cartridge (see below) and in a very short time it was returned.

I think I receognize my sister in the first few frames, but don;t have a projector and so the next stage is to have the film telecined.

MyMovieTransfer.com appear to have some top notch equipment and so I will be sending it there for transfer to DVD.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 4:44 pm and is filed under Gadgets, Technical. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.