![]() They captured smeary, strangely tinted images. ![]() One doesn’t expect quality alongside instant gratification, and – true to form –early camcorders were awful. Worse still, we had unwittingly stumbled into a technological dark age. The film era had come to a sudden and premature end. Those that couldn’t – Bell & Howell, Eumig, Elmo, Chinon and dozens of others – vanished. Manufacturers shifted their focus to the new electronic technology immediately. Video, on the other hand, offered instant gratification and predictable results – just like a trip to McDonald’s for a quick bite to eat. Super 8 instantly became quaint and old-fashioned. I was a young and impressionable teenager when the army of sleek VCRs and camcorders rudely elbowed their way into homes around the world. The Super 8 industry collapsed almost overnight in the early 1980s. ![]() ![]() And – thirty five years after the “end” of Super 8 – this enchanted format continues to cast a powerful spell. The simplicity of the technology helped to assure its long-term success, and the affordability of the format encouraged millions of eager filmmakers to experiment. The world had never seen anything like it, and the resulting Super 8 revolution heavily influenced several generations of filmmakers and amateur movie buffs. The format was designed to be as simple as possible – pop a cartridge into the camera, point and shoot. When Super 8 burst onto the moviemaking scene in 1965, it was a breath of fresh air. ![]()
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