A warm welcome to our latest member here, Mr Martin Dew.
I have had to change the nickname you initially used "Musicalfox" to your actual real name, in order to comply with our rules on registration with us all here Martin.

I hope this meets with your approval.

We look forward to your posts here.

Thanks, Andrew! Great to be on this site.

I worked for Lucasfilm THX for 9 years in international sales in San Francisco, then for NEC Digital Cinema (2K Projectors) for 7 years in LA. I now live back in the UK and write for Home Cinema Choice magazine. I actually wrote an article in the November issue (out now) about Super 8 film collecting, so please go and seek it out at WHSmith and other good newsagents!

I have a good B&H TQIII 1695 and Eumig S807. My dream is to find 16mm scope prints of Where Eagles Dare, The Odessa File, OHMSS and Ben-Hur - if they exist, of course.

Welcome ... You should do a round in "cinemas" in Norway, my local one just can not adjust sound ... Crackling speakers, ears hurt with the treble and midrange ... Awful :-)

Hope you like it here

Wow that's incredible Martin!😊
What a C.V.!!!

We are truly among home cinema royalty it appears!!!

All I can say Martin as an introduction here from us all, is simply thank you for the fantastic article you have written in HCC recently.
It gives fabulous exposure to the origins of our great hobby and though I've yet to actually make it into town to purchase my copy, it is something I will be doing this weekend.

What I found particularly heart warming to learn from one of our collecting friends over on the film tech forum, was that the article gave great respect to the Super 8mm gauge and was in no way condescending towards the image quality of Super 8mm packaged movies.

In fact from what Rob was saying over there, it virtually suggested any home cinema isn't entirely complete WITHOUT a real movie projector and real film within it somewhere.
This was agreed over there, and is also very much the case here as the forums motto suggests!😂

This hasn't always been the case for such articles written in mainstream media so again I thank you Martin for your excellent work in promoting the screening of real film to an audience that may not entirely have discovered such merits.

That's so nice of you, Andrew! Thank you. I meant what I said about picture quality. Super 8 and 16mm film blow you away after you've been regularly feeding on a diet of Blu-ray.

My only slight reservation about proposing that article for the mag was that I didn't want to let too many people in on our secret! In reality, I hope that more people taking an interest in our hobby will be good for all of us - more vendors, more awareness, more attention to preservation etc.

Very much agreed Martin on each and every point there!

It is a bit varied response here with me. Some people can't see the difference they say, but others have come into my cellar and seen a film running and exclaiming ... Wow, just like the cinema and they feel the difference. I simply so happy to have refound the formats, I used to own an Elmo ST-600 when I was 11, but went to the dark side and bought VHS for the full features. Now, I mainly see film, not much video at all. Cinema has lost it's magic (except for a couple here in Norway that I can attend, who runs films) ... Last I saw in the cinema was Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but only because I was handed a free ticket. Never pay to go to a digital screening. I did love The Hateful Eight in 70mm at Cinemateket, that was really a special evening.

I am cheering for Tarantino, Nolan and the others using film to win.

Welcome, Martin! That sure was an impressive CV! Real film blows me away each time. I can't pinpoint what it is, but it is magical It is the picture, the images that are alive with its small imperfections, the sound of the projector and everything together. Last night I had a projector problem and I ended up doing some service for 10 minutes in the middle of the film. But to me this is a bit part of the game and I love tinkering with my projectors :-)

I look forward to read more of your posts here!

The projectors themselves are also a huge part of the attraction and continued fascination with screening real film for me also Eivind.

All this electro / mechanical way of working, was the way I grew up understanding how things work.
Maintaining the machines themselves allows me to put into practice all I've ever learned from my career in electrical and mechanical engineering since 82 even if it is on a miniature scale compared to the machines I work on in my job.

I love them working as they should, but I also enjoy keeping them that way when at all possible.

Just got back from Stockport with my good lady and duly purchased my copy of issue 265 November 2016 Home Cinema Choice.

I've just finished reading Martin's wonderful article on the unique world of film collecting and then in particular, focussing on the specific hobby of Super 8mm film collecting especially in the 70's prior to the mass market take off of the newly launched VHS technology of the late 70's and early 80's.
In particular the article concentrates of the mass market sales of the 17 minute digests of the features back then and also speaks of the home movie maker market back then.

It is a superb read and one I'd recommend to all to purchase a copy and read.
Although the article does give a mention to Paramount feature films from Marketing issued on the Super 8mm format and though Derann and its early feature releases also gets a brief mention, it is just a pity the article didn't then go on to speak of the peak era of Super 8mm feature film releases so far as Derann is concerned in and around the mid to late 80's right up until their demise well into the 21st Century.

Still perhaps that holds out hope that yet another article could subsequently be published showing the gauge still competing and often bettering the image quality from most of the video projection equipment of that era!

Martin also goes onto to explain that setting up a film screening was never as simple as just throwing a disc into a player and points out some of the various and possible drawbacks of screening real film including film fade, scratching to prints and how ALL projectors were noisy, something I have to strongly contest of course! Ha ha ha.

All in all the piece is extremely respectful to the world of film collecting and its equipment and Martin goes on to point out that film and equipment is still readily available from Classic Home Cinema in Cleethorpes and the likes.

Well done Martin, a fascinating read and I for one, am hoping for a part 2 article sometime in the future featuring all of the high end Super 8mm Cameras and Projectors of the later years as well as an in depth review on Derann and its releases when the shop was in its hey day prime with its full length releases and mini classics.

On this, we could write a book, never mind an article!

Many thanks, Andrew!

I did mention in my original draft about Derann finally closing in 2011. I would like to have expanded more and, like you say, a book could be written on the subject. I really wanted to communicate within the word count - which I and the editor had agreed - that Super 8 was, for the most part, eclipsed by VHS in the 80s. More importantly, many of the manufacturers shut their doors in that decade too, so it seemed sensible to present the article to the uninitiated in this way, without dumbing down or telling any untruths. One of the difficult things to gauge with a hobby mag like HCC is how much the bulk of readers already know or understand, while also trying to make an article entertaining for even the most casual reader.

I wrote a long piece on film aspect ratios in the June issue, and had to deal with the same dilemma: how much to include, and how much to leave out!

Understood Martin and as said, you did a wonderful job!

Any exposure to the "layman" or expert reader alike, is more than welcomed and none of the above comments were in any way a criticism of the piece.

I personally loved it!!

We are just only wishing a magazine existed like movie maker nowadays for the enthusiasm of all those left in the hobby, but of course, in this era, that is nothing more than a pipedream! 😂😂

Still we can dream, and for most of us,..simply remember with great fondness, the shear excitement generated from all of those "up to the minute" LPP feature length modern day releases from the king of Super 8mm packaged home movies and their monthly editions of Film For The Collector promoting them all. 😊😊

Hi Martin, I think you will be and indeed already are a very welcome member to our online community. Have you spoken to david Guest about your 16mm wants, David seems to be the man who can when it comes to 16mm. Anyway, again welcome I am already enjoying reading your posts.

thanks del and welcome martin enjoyed the very long chat on Saturday night