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As with Edison – where his assistant Laurie Dickson perfected 35mm moving pictures
while his boss was on an extended honeymoon in Europe – Major Latham received the
credit for inventing the loop that bears his name – The Latham Loop – well it was on
his projector. It was I believe, created by his partner Mr Enoch Rector who suggested
that a constant speed four frame sprocket be attached above the gate that could take the
load of a much larger reel of film on the feed arm and create a loop above the gate that
could absorb the intermittent action and take the feed pressure off the film in the gate
– does that sound familiar? And then of course – “look fellas we could put one under
the gate and feed the film straight onto a take-up spool and do away with the film box.”
A significant moment of magic that would echo through the world of motion picture
cameras, printers and projectors for a century and far beyond. Thank you Mr Rector for
creating one of the first “big bangs” of Cinema.
Kev Franzi.
©Kev Franzi 2023.
All photos and graphics by Kev Franzi or from his Australian Image Resource Collection.

(Another?) Kodak Super 8 Camera.

Following the “fail to launch” of the
much hyped Kodak Super 8 film
camera back in 2016, Kodak have
finally released they new version
(well sort of) - but one has to ask
WHY?

At US$5500.00, one would have to
be a dedicated Super 8 filmmaker to
be interested, when that amount of
money would buy a good “high end”
16mm camera, or even a
professional standard digital camera.

The camera is a sort pseudo digital
camera anyway. The camera takes a
regular Super 8 film cartridge (silent
version), while the sound is recorded
onto an SD card located in a slot at the rear if the camera, it also incorporates
an electronic viewfinder and other facilities common to digital cameras

Kodak are asking for interested persons to sign up to buy.
More information and the sign up page is at …

www.kodak.com/en/motion/page/super-8-camera

REEL DEALS December 2023 9