Watch Home Movies on Your Home Movies Tube
A television series featuring clips from home movies has gained a worldwide audience in recent years. Shows like America’s Funniest Home Videos and Kato-chan Ken-chan Gokigen TV first aired in Japan in 1986, and You’ve Been Framed! and Video Gag followed in Britain and France. Since the advent of YouTube in 2005, which lets anyone create and share user-generated content, home movies have found new audiences.
Super 8 film
When you watch Super 8 film on your home movies tube, you’re going back to the ’80s and ’90s, a time when cinema was small and everyone had a home movie camera. Its unique aesthetic quality helped revolutionize amateur filmmaking and is still used today for short films, commercials, and music videos. Super 8 home movies are the precursors to the picture-taking millennials we know today.
Originally, Super 8 film was strictly video, but a magnetic strip was added to the cartridges in 1973. As a result, the quality of a Super 8 film was superior to 16mm film. However, you can still find Super 8 film on the internet, and there are online stores that offer the film for sale. Unlike 16mm film, Super 8 film is easier to transfer to a home movie tube, but you’ll need to be patient while the process takes place.
Single-8 film
When you want to show off your own home movie collection, you may want to consider displaying single-8 film. This film is much thinner than standard 16mm and is compatible with home movie projectors. Single-8 film can be projected in a Super 8 projector. Unlike standard 16mm, Single-8 film comes in B-shaped cartridges and has two separate spools. Single-8 film allows for unlimited rewinding, unlike the older Super 8 format, which only allowed for a few seconds.
Unlike Super 8, Single-8 film was never a worldwide phenomenon. It is still produced today by Fuji, although not as widely as Super 8. The Fujichrome R25N filmstock is daylight balanced and suitable for indoor use. The Sound Film brand is no longer manufactured, but Fuji offers a magnetic sound stripe for Single-8 film. You can also find Single-8 film made by Gainax, a Japanese company that produces tokusatsu films.
Kodak’s 8 mm film
In 1932, the Kodak Eastman company introduced 8 mm film for home movies. It was cheaper and more convenient to use than 16mm film. Its perforated frame meant that each reel would hold more footage. Eight mm films were also made with sound, allowing you to hear your movie. The company added sound to their 8 mm film by adding a small magnetic strip next to the perforations.
The Kodak M 475 film camera cost $75. The cheapest projector cost $60, and a 100-foot roll of film cost six dollars. Kodak marketed the 8 mm camera on Ed Sullivan’s TV show. The camera was a hit, and many dads had one! By the end of the 1960s, more men owned one of these cameras than daughters.
Fujifilm’s Single-8 film
When Fujifilm first introduced Single-8 film to the world in 1965, it was a revolutionary new way to take home movies. Single-8 film is 8mm wide and preloaded into a magazine that snaps onto the camera. It won universal praise for being more accessible than previous methods and helped Fuji establish itself in the global marketplace. Single-8 films were extremely popular for home movies, especially those of friends and family, and today many still use this type of film to make their home movies.
Fujifilm stopped manufacturing Single-8 film in the United States, but it’s still manufactured in Japan. Single-8 film is still widely available in Japan, and used Single-8 cameras can sell for a lot of money at eBay and Yahoo! Japan auctions. The Fujica ZC1000 is one of the top models of Single-8 cameras and can fetch up to 250,000 Japanese yen (approximately $30), and if you’re in the market for a new Single-8 camera, consider a refurbished model.
Color reversal film
Slide film, which is the opposite of negative film, is used to create positive images. It creates vibrant, rich colors, and has much greater contrast than negative film. The downside of slide film is that it is not as flexible as negative film and requires precise exposure, particularly in areas of high contrast. A slide projector produces a print, but this process is much more expensive than scanning and transferring a home movie.
Slide film is available for 35mm and medium format film cameras. Color reversal film is processed with E-6 technology, but many companies don’t list this as an option. Films are typically mounted on paper mounts, plastic slide mounts, or film strips in protective sleeves, depending on the type of reversal film used. Movie film usually comes back on reel for projection. However, reversal film can still be processed digitally.