American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1932)

New 16 mm. Camera from Eastman Gives a Picture 8 mm. Wide AMOTION picture camera that quadruples the number of images recorded on a given length of 16-mm. film, and thereby makes every foot of film go four times as far, has just been announced by the Eastman Kodak Company. Small enough to fit in a coat pocket, the newly designed Cine-Kodak Eight holds 25 feet of 16-mm, film but takes enough pictures on that length to run four minutes on the screen — equal to the projection of 100 feet exposed in other cameras using 16-mm. film. The Cine-Kodak Eight will save makers who use it nearly two-thirds of film cost. The new development in home movies is consistent with an Eastman policy effective since the early eighties — reduction of the expense of amateur photography to make it available to an increasingly large group without sacrificing the interests of "advanced amateurs" who desire to continue using the more elaborate equipment. The Cine-Kodak Eight, equipped with a Kodak Anastigmat F. 3.5 lens, is the lightest, smallest home movie camera with a film capacity permitting four minutes of projection. The low cost of both the apparatus and the film, together with the novel compactness and simplicity of the equipment at no sacrifice of convenience, should be of interest to that large group of persons who wish to make movies but who feel they cannot afford the special features of 16-mm. equipment. The quality of the resulting motion pictures is pronounced very high by persons who have seen them projected in Rochester. More than two years of direct experimentation will have preceded the appearance of the Cine-Kodak Eight on the market. An entirely new method of distributing on the film the sixteen photographic images taken per second is embodied in the Cine Kodak Eight. The new camera loads with a 25-foot roll of special 16-mm. film, but it exposes only half the width of the film at a time, recording a series of complete images on each half. When the 25 feet have run through once, the spool containing the film is removed and placed on the supply spindle. The other half of the film is then exposed. The width of each image being thus reduced by half, the height is similarly reduced and the number of images down the length of the film is doubled in consequence. Each exposed half of the 25-foot roll contains, therefore, as many pictures as a 50-foot roll exposed in other cameras using 16-mm. film, and the whole 25-foot roll contains as many pictures as 100 feet from the larger home movie cameras. When the exposed film reaches a processing station, it is processed, slit down the middle, spliced end-to-end, and then returned to the movie maker as a 50-foot reel of 8 mm. film with perforations down one side. Perforations on the special film for the Cine-Kodak Eight are spaced half as far apart as on other 16 mm. film. The new Eastman movie camera. The special 25-foot rolls of 16 mm. film prepared for the Cine-Kodak Eight are said to have an extremely fine-grained panchromatic emulsion that assures a clear, sparkling screen image in spite of great magnification. A black coating on the back of the film reduces the possibility of halation. The film rolls are small enough so that several may be carried conveniently in a pocket. As in the case of other 16 mm. film, the price of rolls for the Cine-Kodak Eight will include processing — and also the additional work of slitting and splicing the 16 mm. width into 8 mm. Two Kodascope Eights have been designed for the projection of the new 8 mm. movies. They will be put on the market (Continued on Page 34) 4s M I*' I t t t t £ * m « ■ « ■ * ■ * ■ * ■ « ■ At left, image on 35 mm. film. Next, on 16 mm. Next, the 16 mm. film after passing through new camera with 2 rows of images. Right, the film after being split into 8 mm. width. 1 1