NORIS SYNCHRONER 100, 1962 PROJECTOR REGULAR 8MM (BUILT IN SYNC UNIT).



The standard 8mm film format was developed by the Eastman Kodak company during the Great Depression and released on the market in 1932 to create a home movie format less expensive than 16mm. The film spools actually contain a 16mm film with twice as many perforations along each edge than normal 16mm film, which is only exposed along half of its width.

When the film reaches its end in the takeup spool, the camera is opened and the spools in the camera are flipped and swapped (the design of the spool hole ensures that this happens properly) and the same film is exposed along the side of the film left unexposed on the first loading.

During processing, the film is split down the middle, resulting in two lengths of 8mm film, each with a single row of perforations along one edge, so fitting four times as many frames in the same amount of 16mm film.

Because the spool was reversed after filming on one side to allow filming on the other side the format was sometime called Double 8. The framesize of regular 8mm is 4.8mm x 3.5mm and 1m film contains 264 pictures. Normally Double8 is filmed at 16 frame/s. Common length film spools allowed to film about 3min to 4.5min at 12, 15, 16 and 18 frames per second.

Kodak ceased producing standard 8 mm film in the early 1990s. Black and white 8 mm film is still manufactured in the Czech Republic, and several companies buy bulk quantities of 16mm film to make regular 8mm by re-perforating the stock, cutting it into 25 foot (7.6m) lengths, and collecting it into special standard 8 mm spools which they then sell. Re-perforation requires special equipment. Some specialists also produce super 8mm film from existing 16mm, or even 35mm film stock.