In 1965, Super-8 film was released and was quickly adopted by the amateur film-maker. It featured a better quality image, and was easier to use mainly due to a cartridge-loading system that did not require re-loading—and re-threading halfway through. Super 8 was often erroneously criticized, since the film gates in some cheaper Super 8 cameras were plastic, as was the pressure plate built into the cartridge; the standard 8 cameras had a permanent metal film gate that was regarded as more reliable in keeping the film flat and the image in focus. In reality, this was not the case. The plastic pressure plate could be moulded to far tighter tolerances than their metal counterparts could be machined.
To easily differentiate Super 8 film from Standard 8, projector spools for the former had larger spindle holes. Therefore, it was not possible to mount a Super 8 spool on a Standard 8 projector, and vice versa.
There has been a huge resurgence of Super-8 film in recent years due to advances in film stocks and digital technology. The idea is to shoot on the low cost Super-8 equipment then transfer the film to video for editing. The transfer of film to video is called telecine.
