Kodak might not always be quick these days, but it seems they get there in the end. In 2016, the company showed off a new Super 8mm camera at CES 2016. Almost eight years later, the company has now officially announced it.
In 2016, Kodak said the camera would come with a price tag of between $400 and $750. This seems pretty laughable now, as it’s being released with an MSRP of $5,495. Processing the film has significantly jumped in price, too.
Kodak Super 8 – Too little, too late, too pricey
The camera was first shown off back in January 2016 at CES in Las Vegas. It got people very excited, as it was able to shoot on film, using Super 8 cartridges, and record audio to an SD card. It was going to be relatively cheap, too.
The Wall Street Journal quoted Jeff Clarke, Kodak’s then-CEO stating a projected price of between $400-750. Developing the film would cost around $50-75 per cartridge. A standard Super 8 cartridge holds around 50ft (15 metres) of film, good for 3600 frames At 24fps, this means about two and a half minutes.
The camera was expected to be released towards the end of 2016. However, 2016 came and went. Kodak CEO, Jeff Clarke, also went in 2017. In 2018, the company announced they were going to give it another go. The price had already jumped significantly from $400-750 to $2,000-3,500.
Since then, there was no real news. In fact, there was so little news that Frame Voyager posted a video on it last year as part of his “Abandoned Cameras” series.
No news – until now!
The 2016 prices still didn’t sound particularly cheap to most of us. And the 2018 prices seemed nuts. But this is film for cinema. Not photography. And it certainly wouldn’t be the most expensive system out there, had it been released in 2016 at those prices.
Those 2016 prices, however, are an absolute steal compared to those in the latest announcement. Even the 2018 prices look slightly attractive – if you’re into this sort of thing.
Kodak’s latest release announcement for the Super 8 camera puts it at $5,495. This is significantly more than the original $400-750 estimate. The company does not appear to have posted updated pricing on film development, but I bet it won’t be $50-75.
Coming to the USA first
Naturally, as an American company, Kodak is releasing the Super 8 camera in the USA first. The rest of the world will follow at some point, although Kodak hasn’t said when that will happen. They haven’t said when it’ll come to the USA, either, but there is a waitlist.
Kodak says when it becomes available in each region, they’ll reach out to those on the waitlist in order they signed up. So, if you really want one, sign up quickly to be higher up the queue.
To find out more, head on over to the Super 8 section on the Kodak website.
