Kodak finally makes a comeback in the fast-paced digital world by embracing their roots and releasing a new Super 8 camera with a digital twist! The new Super 8 camera will ship at the end of 2016's fourth quarter and will retail for around $1,000.

The Super 8 camera will combine traditional analog capture coupled with digital camera features such as a digital display. The digital display on the new Super 8 camera will feature a 3.5 inch flip-out digital view finder, which will actually capture what it sees on Super 8 film, and that is a great feature because with a traditional Super 8 camera you can not see what you are shooting until you hit the button and expose the film.

The new Super 8 camera will use film cartridges much like the old days, and each cartridge will contain around 50 feet of film that will allow around four minutes of recording time depending on the frames per second. This works out roughly at three minutes at 18 frames per second and two and a half minutes at 24 frames per second. The frame rates on the Super 8 camera will be 9 FPS, 12 FPS, 18 FPS, 24 FPS and 25 frames per second. The lower frame rates will allow more time on the cartridge, while the 24 FPS and 25 FPS will offer the best footage.
As far as lenses, there will be two lens options for the Super 8 camera: a single fixed 6mm Ricoh lens and a 6-48mm Ricoh zoom lens. The exposure will be controlled automatically (via a built-in light meter) and manually (to adjust the speed and IRIS settings). Battery life will be around 15 minutes and charging will be done via USB.

The new Kodak Super 8 camera will also feature a detachable microphone that will allow you to record sound onto an SD card and sync it up post production. You will be able to also plug in your own higher quality microphone if you wish.

The Super 8 film will be priced at between $50 and $75 but that will include also development and scanning of the film. This means once you shoot on the film, you send it back to Kodak to process and scan. Kodak will then send a movie roll of film (so you can hook it up to an 8mm projector) as well as a digitized version of the cartridge film. It will be interesting to know what digital format Kodak will process and scan the Super 8 film because the Super 8 film is a low quality film in itself (and does not shoot natively at 16 by 9).

It really is good to see Kodak finding a synergy between digital and analog, and finally making a comeback in the modern world. I think with the Super 8 Kodak will, once again, become successful, who knows....Kodak may bring back 35mm film in the not too distant future!