Super 8 Sound Inc Circa 1973 from Phil Vigeant on Vimeo. Interesting film made by Kodak about Super 8 sound.

Reproduced from Practical Mechanics, April 1962.

Shoot Under Water Pic’s this Summer

A “Snorkel” Diver’s’ Camera case for less than 15s.

Fig. 1.—The complete assembly

With the increasing popularity of “Snorkel” diving, more and more people are seeing for the first time the unexpected beauty in our shallow coastal waters and quite naturally the desire to photograph this watery wonderland arises in many of us. The ability to do this is presented to us in two ways. In the use of a special watertight camera or the enclosure of a normal camera within a watertight housing. Both these methods can prove expensive but unless the intention is to visit deep water with the aid of breathing apparatus, the cost of a suitable housing for most 8mm. and 35mm. cameras need be no more than 15s. and the effort of one evening’s work. The components are shown in Fig. 2.

The housing is basically a rubber envelope with a perspex window, the camera is mounted inside in such a way that with few if any improvisations, all controls are available to the operator and remain effective in water down to ten feet and below. My own housing was used successfully with a Bolex C8 cine camera Paxette IIM and Ilford Sportsman 35mm. Cameras. Read more »

This has been digitised from a handwritten WWII notebook by the R.O.A.C. Yorks. circa. 20-25/10/1940.

Two of the images have been digitally remade and the last has been enhanced.

The B.T.H. Sound Projector

By R.A.O.C. York. Circa. 20-25/10/1940

Twenty-four pictures per second. Sound or silent with (Non-electric.) Forward & Reverse action.

The mute sound head:

The lamp. Is air cooled, 100v. 300w. Coiled coil pre-focus type. The lamp is inside a housing which has a rectangular opening in the front. A reflector is fitted to the reel of the lamp & is adjustable, but should not be adjusted unless absolutely necessary. In the front of lamp housing is a condenser lens. To the rear of the gate are two tandem condenser lenses. The gate is not sprung. Perforations of the film must be placed on the pull-down claws. The gate is in front of the condenser lenses. The rear gate aperture can be raised or lowered to centralise picture. Read more »

This is from a hand written WWII notebook by the R.A.O.C. York. Written 20-25/10/40.

This chapter is about the Bell & Howell Sound Projector. All the hand drawn diagrams have been digitally remade as close to the originals as possible.

The Bell & Howell Sound Projector.

By R.A.O.C. York. Circa 20-25/10/40

The B. & H. Sound Projector is divided into two parts. The mute head in which the picture is reproduced. The sound head in which the sound is reproduced.

The mute head. No belts, everything is driven from the motor. The motor is universally wound & the speed is fixed. A switch can change the speed from 24 pictures p.s. (Sound) to 16 pictures p.s. (Silent.) Motor takes D.C. or A.C. Voltage. 110v. 1/24 HP. Read more »

I found a small notebook from WWII which has handwritten instructions by the R.A.O.C York for a few projectors and some extra information. Slowly all the information from the botebook will be added to the site. This is information on 16mm sound films.

Sound films

By R.A.O.C. York. Circa. 20-25/10/40

Sound films are easily recognisable from silent, as 16 m.m. Sound films have one set of perforations only. Sound films must not be projected from a Kodascope or other silent projectors. The sound track of the film is of two types. 1. Variable density. 2. Variable area. Read more »

Cartridge notch guide for finding out which ASA speeds your camera will recognize. It can also be used to see what speed a Super 8 film cartridge is set to.

The guide is available in three differently sized PDF files for easy printing:

Cartridge Notch Guide – A4
Cartridge Notch Guide – A5
Cartridge Notch Guide – US Letter

To use, simply cut out the guide and place it inside the camera making sure the camera locating notch is aligned with the cameras pin. You will then be able to see which speeds your camera has pins for. Some cameras have a set ASA speed for when none of the pins are pressed (i.e. A camera that only supports 40 & 160 ASA may just have one pin for 160 ASA, so if that pin is pressed in it is 160 ASA and if not it is 40 ASA). The only way to check this is by looking in the manual for your camera.

To check which speed a cartridge is set to, simply align the cartridge camera locating notch with the camera locating notch on the guide and you should then be able to see the speed the cartridge is set to.

The guide is based on the following information from the ANSI PH22.166-1981 standard.

This information can also be found at the Kodak website.

Update: I have just discovered out that someone has already made a ruler just like this guide at the Super8Wiki website with a better explanation on how to use it. Definitely worth looking at!

I’ve found a small notebook from WWII which has handwritten instructions by the R.A.O.C York for a few projectors. This is the instructions for the Kodascope Model C.

I’ve done my best to copy the text exactly but because the handwriting was so difficult to understand a few bits may be wrong. There were also a few hand drawn diagrams in the instructions too which have been remake as closely as possible in digital formats. Read more »