1967: GAF Anscomatic S/80 Super 8 Camera

GAF Anscomatic S/80

It's football season again! Even with an antenna, on Saturdays and Sundays all day there is at least 1 channel with a football game on. For others, they have DVRs to record their games if they want to watch them later. The DVR is a big part of the home theater these days, some can record 5 different shows at once, and can store days worth of TV programming. Not to mention the thousands of options on online streaming and DVDs and Blu Rays. You can watch just about anything you want at any time, often without commercials.

But as I usually do in my blogs, I ask you to think back to 1967, long before the first VCR became cheap enough to purchase ($400 in the early 80s). Back then, there was just about no way to record anything on TV. Not even many re-runs. Once it happened, at the time, you thought you would never see it again except for pictures and descriptions in the next day's newspaper. My dad said he actually tried to record Rocky when it first came out with a Super-8 camera and an audio tape recorder. He said the quality was awful but he was able to line up the sound with the video, and to be able to play a movie, or any recorded show, whenever you want, was a surreal experience. I have a Super-8 camera myself: a GAF Anscomatic S/80

Origin & How it Works:

First, a quick overview on what Super-8 is. Super-8 is a silent video recording medium, that works similarly to commercial motion picture film. It is like the 2.0 version of 8mm video film that has existed since the early 1930s, but they are so similar many projectors can play both with the flip of a switch. Basically the film is a long string of pictures that are played at a certain speed (18 frames per second) in a projector to show a moving picture. Depending on how well the recorded video was focused, conditions, and how the projector was focused and it's quality, picture quality varied widely from really crappy to pretty decent. The best example of 8mm video film is all the Kennedy home movies that are widely publicized, and the infamous JFK assassination footage. This film was professionally converted to digital video using a machine that literally takes a picture of every single frame, then strings them together for a flicker-free perfect picture. Oddly enough, when you convert this footage it can actually turn out to be HD quality, that can look much better than newer VHS or even DVD format. Video film formats died in the late 70s to early 80s when VHS camcorders became widely available.

This is a little camera I stumbled upon in an antique store in Celina, TX. I thought it was pretty cool and would be a good match for my Super 8 projector. Before that, it's hard to say where it has been, but it definitely looks like it has been used a good bit. It's made of mostly metal, with plastic covers for the lens and other small pieces. It runs on 4 AA batteries, but unfortunately since I don't have any Super-8 cartridge to load into the camera, I can't really test to see if it works. The handle is detachable plastic. It's kind of an odd reverse-pistol grip, you hold it the opposite way you would think to hold it.

A reverse-pistol grip, the lens is on the left, you look in the viewfinder on the right.

At the front of the camera is the lens, no movable parts here except a knob you can use to select the exposure value, from 1.8 to 22. The smaller values were used for dark videos, while higher values were used for brighter environments. There is a guide on the side that actually tells you what value to use in certain conditions. On either side there are small windows that can tell you how many feet of film have been used to help keep track of how much you have used.

The middle values have warn away, but you get the idea.

 At the top on the front, there is a small window for the viewfinder. With analog video and picture cameras, there was no way to make the viewfinder through the actual lens, so it was usually set close to the lens on a corner to help you line up the picture. It wasn't very accurate though, often you would think you have everyone fit in the picture but you end up cutting everyone's heads off or you would be too far off to one side. This one really lets you tell just how small a Super-8 video picture is. I took a picture through the viewfinder standing about 10 feet away from this table. This is all you can see, and it really feels that small. You can see a small corner drawn at the top left to help you see what the camera will actually record:

That is a small picture...

At the top of the camera, near the front there is a screw-in plug for a detachable light. This would be necessary if you planned to take any video inside. Looking at old Super-8 video taken inside, nothing turns out, it's all far too dark to see anything. At the middle of the back was the button you would hold down to actually record video. There is also a sliding metal piece that locks the button to prevent accidental recordings.

Button on top and screw in light plug.

If you have ever used a 35mm photo camera that used film, you know that once you put in film, you can't take it out until you use all of the film, or else you ruin all the pictures. A lot of people forget that with digital cameras and camera phones taking nearly all pictures now. Super-8 cameras were similar, you loaded a cartridge with film, up to 50 feet in length. Believe it or not, one cartridge was good for only 3 minutes of film! There were cameras that could take longer film, the largest standard Super-8 reel was about 400 feet, good for 32 minutes of film. And you couldn't take the cartridge out until all the film was used. Once you finished the cartridge, you had to go get it developed at a photo lab. And finally you would get a reel of film you could play in a Super-8 projector.

Where to load the cartridge.

Conclusion & Future:

It would be really cool if one day I could get my hands on a Super-8 cartridge, record some video, then send it off to a photo lab that can still process Super-8 film. But nowadays, almost nobody can process Super-8 film, besides a few small companies that do professional Super-8 work. I've looked at how much it would cost, it would easily end up costing over $50. Maybe one day when I have disposable income. For now, its a cool little camera that I can put on display next to my Super-8 projector.

Thanks for reading, next week I'll bring us up to the 80s with my Cassette Recorder!