Want to hear about pricing specials?

8mm Film History

In the early 1900's manufacturers were looking to provide the home and independent film maker a lower cost alternative to 16mm film. Film manufacturers had seen success with 16mm film introduced in the mid 20's. In 1932 Kodak introduced a new film format dubbed, "Cine Kodak Eight." Since then the film has taken on the names of double 8 or regular 8mm film.

This 8mm film format was targeted directly at amateurs and home film making enthusiasts. In reality this film was 16mm film with extra sprocket holes which were on both sides of the film. The cameraman would simply run the film through the camera in one direction, then reload the film in the opposite direction and expose the other half. After processing, the film laboratory would cut the film lengthwise down the center, and splice the ends together. The 25 foot film roll then becomes 50 feet in length.

8mm film was almost an instant success. It's popularity grew so rapidly that within 10-15 years 16mm film was relegated to almost exclusively professional use.

One of the advantages of 8mm film was that it reduced the amount of film needed to produce movies of the same length. An 8mm frame is 1/4 the size of a 16mm film. In practical terms this allows a film maker to produce roughly 4 minutes of film on a standard 25 foot 8mm film reel. (split to yield 50ft of film) The same amount of footage shot with 16mm film would require 100 feet of film. Some cameras even allowed larger spools of film to be used. Because of it's ability to shoot longer movies coupled with it's lower cost compared to 16mm it is not surprising that 8mm was extremely poplar with amateur film makers. 8mm movie cameras were becoming increasingly popular on vacations, parties, and family events.

Let Home Movie Depot transfer your 8mm film to DVD. Visit our online calculator and get your free estimate.