History of 8mm and Super8 Film
16mm film 1922- 1980's8mm film 1932 - 1965
Super 8 1965 - 1990
1922 marked Eastman Kodak's introduction of 16mm motion picture film for the amateur videographer.
1932 marked the introduction of 8mm film by Eastman Kodak, clearly based on its 16mm cousin, having an additional sprocket hole added, with a frame size only 25% the size of 16mm film.
The film was exposed on one half its width, and then turned over for a second exposure run through on the remaining side. After processsing, 8mm film was cut and spliced together to yield double the length of film that you started out with, now 8mm wide. 25ft reels were the normal standard size yielding 50ft, making a movie approximately 3-4 minutes in length.
George Eastman, a banker out of Rochester, NY, and founder of Eastman Kodak, introduced the Cine Kodak Eight. This camera cost over $300 for the average family, while a car cost around $550. In the 50's movie camera's cost approximately $30 bucks. As you can imagine, the 8mm movie camera flourished, filming birthdays, vacations and many other events.
Then in April 1965 Eastman Kodak introduced Super8, having smaller sprockets, allowing for the image to increase in size to approximately 25%, a breakthrough in the quality and size of the picture.
