Not even Kodak sells the Super 8 directly to American buyers. When Kodak launched the Super 8 in December 2023, it was tough to get.
Interested customers had to sign up on a waitlist on Kodak’s site to wait for their turn to buy it, and that’s after they’d already decided the $5,495 price tag was worth it. It’s no cheaper now, and who knows what kind of impact Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff sleight of hand may have on it in the near future, but at least the Super 8 is easier to get. Sort of.
hard to locate
The Super 8 rolled out slowly, as Kodak never seemed to intend it to be a big seller. When otherwise staid car companies release their most fun, exotic cars, such as Mazda with the RX-8 and Ford with the GT, they don’t expect to sell many of them or even turn a profit on them.
They intend for them to create positive associations of excitement with their brands and get people into showrooms to buy their bread-and-butter models. The auto industry calls them halo cars. So, might we also consider the Super 8 a halo camera for Kodak.
Who else is making vintage-inspired film video cameras these days? Never mind that the Super 8 has a legendary, almost mythical aura surrounding it in cinephile circles.
As B&H puts it, “This camera uses what Kodak calls Extended Gate Super 8 format to capture an area approximately 11% larger than traditional Super 8 film. Measuring 4.2 x 6.3 mm, it provides a slightly taller 1:1.5 aspect ratio that is more flexible when intercutting with other formats.”
More than a year after its release, stock is a bit more reliable than it was last year. You can only get it from one retailer (officially), though, and it’s not Kodak. It’s B&H Photo Video, the New York City-based mega-retailer known for its massive Hell’s Kitchen retail store that resembles the nuclear fallout shelter from Terminator 3 more than any other electronics store I’ve ever been to.
I used to live a block away from it, and I still had to psych myself up for a trip. Map, emergency rations, personal locator beacon, last will and testament, all that jazz. These days you can just order it from their site. That is, if you’re willing to pay up.
The post Can’t Find the 1960s-Inspired Kodak Super 8 Film Camera? There’s Only One Place to Get It From. appeared first on VICE.
