The End of Celluloid As We Know It

[WmS]

I love the Digital Bolex, which duplicates the look of 16mm celluloid

For what it's worth, I own a DB, and it only duplicates the look of celluloid if you add grain in post.

I recall the company put out a prerelease video that looked like 1970s Ektachrome, and a lot of people took that to be the camera's look. But it had been heavily post-processed by a VFX artist. It does have a CCD rather than a CMOS sensor, so it looks different than most HD cameras. But it's still an HD camera.

Film is film, and the Kodak Super-8 is great news: a new-old tool for the kit! The thing I love the most about Super-8 is the unfussiness. I watched It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books twice last week for some reason, maybe because of the unfussiness.

[JeffreySchroeck]

Hopefully this leads to a decrease in price for the film and processing due to an increase in demand. Releasing a $500 camera seems like a kickstart in the wrong direction when used cameras are readily available.

Also, was it necessary for so much snark in that article? Scare quotes for "real" analogue film? Really?

[pzadvance]

Releasing a $500 camera seems like a kickstart in the wrong direction when used cameras are readily available.

I really don't think so. For any number of reasons, Kodak putting their money and promotional energy behind a brand new 8mm camera specifically designed for the current market is an incredibly smart move that is likely to attract new buyers. For one thing, it presents analogue film as an actively-supported format as opposed to a relic dug out of a family member's garage. Younger filmmakers aren't going to pursue shooting on 8mm if it doesn't seem like there's an infrastructure in place that will make it easy for them to do so. The fact that Kodak is, for the first time I've seen, packaging processing and telecine (including digital download from the cloud!) in with the price of film stock shows how committed they are to bringing film production into the 21st century and making it as user-friendly as possible.

In addition, the new camera has a number of features which have never/rarely been included with past 8mm home cameras--most notably the built in microphone, LCD viewfinder, and rechargeable battery. Its tentative price is currently about half the going rate of most DSLRs, so it strikes me as a very competitive price in the current market.

Just check out Kodak's Apple-fied home page for the new camera--they're really making every effort to present 8mm as a viable contemporary format, and I think that's gonna work wonders for them.

[JeffreySchroeck]

I hadn't seen that they were going to offer the film/process/scan deal. That sounds more promising. And of course all the modernized camera functions are great, I was just more concerned about accessibility of the materials, which unless the combo deal is upwards of a hundred dollars a roll, sounds like are taking care of.

[flyonthewall2983]

The art-house place here posted the other day that the last theater to have a 70MM projector was one that was across the street from where I am now. I remember seeing a few films there as a kid, The Rocketeer most notably.

[Trees]

Hipsters everywhere are celebrating.

[Drucker]

Well I'm not sure that I'm a hipster, but I'm very excited to get this camera. I had never been interested in photography or film when I was younger and had more resources at my disposal to pursue this hobby (clubs in school, mostly). But now as a film lover, I'm eager to shoot film, even just for fun.

Considering the dire situation the first post in this thread paints, and considering this is a film message board, I can't imagine why someone would snark at the idea that some company will be attempting to resuscitate film for a new generation of people to have an interest in it.

[Trees]

Drucker I was only teasing.