Kodak is finally launching its new Super 8 Camera eight years after it was first announced at CES 2016. Now available for waiting list purchase, it offers some modern conveniences despite being a film camera: a four-inch LCD viewfinder, a microSD card for recording audio, and a micro HDMI output for connecting an external monitor.
This new Super 8 Camera is a hybrid of old and new technologies. It is still a Super 8 movie camera at heart, a format released by Eastman Kodak in 1965, but now also incorporates digital elements that allow users a more modern shooting experience like adding audio along with your movies.
It captures audio using either the built-in microphone or an external one. Captured audio is recorded to its microSD card, letting you synchronize the sound after you’ve processed and scanned your film. It is limited, however, to only 24fps or 25fps shooting, despite being able to capture movies in 18, 24, 25, or 36 frames per second.
It has been equipped with a 6mm F1.2mm C-mount lens that provides approximately 35mm equivalent coverage in full-frame terms. C-mount frames – even ones from many decades past – are compatible here as well. You can even use adapters to work with a range of other lenses too, though keep in mind that the format’s crop factor is approximately 5.7x.
The biggest of its features is the inclusion of a 4-inch LCD viewfinder that swivels for better camera angles and gives you aspect ratio overlays and audio meters that work by utilizing a split prism to redirect a portion of the light entering the lens into a digital sensor.
There is also an “Extended Gate” capture mode that uses a wider area of the film, making each frame 11% larger than the Super 8 standard 1.5:1 aspect ratio (or 3:2 for those of you photographers out there). With this, you’ll be getting a 14:9 full frame that gives your film the flexibility to intercut with other modern media capture formats and fill the frame of modern TVs and video screens. You can also enhance your capture with any HDMI-enabled monitor via its micro HDMI output.
The Kodak Super 8 Camera is now available for select purchase
The Kodak Super 8 is available for waiting list purchase with a $5,495 price tag. It is available through stock alert requests that are given on a first-come, first-serve basis – simply click the “notify when available” button and you’ll be contacted when the item can be purchased.
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