For me that was 42 years ago; I had always wanted a cine camera and projector, but at the age of 15 it was at the back of my mind as I was taking still photos. Eventually I realised something was missing (movement); I bought my first cine camera, an Halina point and shoot; it came with a splicer, and two rolls of Kodachrome 40. I had mostly shot pictures in Black & white, now I would not only have colour but moving images as well, and it was process paid, so no further outlay except the cost of postage. It took a while to get used to how long you should let the camera run in one scene. Next I had to buy a projector, I got a used Hanimex from Dixons, a 40 inch screen, and had to make do for a stand. I remember the excitement of seeing myself, my parents and nephews on screen. My father commented 'It's just like being at the cinema'; a 40 inch screen may not seem large now, but at that time the TV was 18 inches.

Happy days coming home from work and finding a pile of yellow Kodachrome envelopes on the mat.

Not exactly, but I think I bought the camera, an Elmo 350SL a couple of years after my ST-600, so assume 79-80 or so. Tried trick filming and tested macros. Was great fun getting it back and viewing it. Put sound effects and music on later

You've been in this game almost as long as me Vidar, the Elmo would have been a top of the range camera.

It was very good. Stable and focus was good. Easy to use and gave good results on Kodak stock (of unknown kind, I didn't know anything about different film stocks at the time ... Still don't :-) )

I can remember shooting my first Super 8mm film away back in the 1970s on a Halina Camera.
A pretty basic camera which I think still works.

It probably does. The good times, when they were proud of quality. Now it's all cheap crap designed to break in a year or two. Evolution my a**.

I'm still waiting to shoot mine! I have a like-new Bell & Howell 670 XL from 1976, still in the box, that a long distance pal just gave to me as a gift. I have two rolls of unopened film for it but they expired in 1979 and 1983. I have put batteries in the camera though, just so I could pretend that I was filming and hear the clicking sound that the motor makes. I'll take some pics of it later and post them. I wanted to shoot a film back around 1990 or so with a camera that I bought at a Goodwill store. The manager of a Wolf Camera wouldn't order a whole case of super 8 film "just to have it sit on the shelf and go bad"! Obviously, the super 8 era had long ended for the masses and I was born just a tad late to enjoy it in it's heyday. I'm making up for lost time now though!

Pity you didn't do it then Timothy, there was still reversal film available. I bought a few rolls of 16mm from Stanley Productions, but they ceased, and I believe someone took over the name. Buying film from abroad is too expensive, plus developing costs.

Have posted pics of my mint condition camera in the 'My Film Equipment' section of the photo gallery.

My first film was just snap shottery, anything that moved, a Paul Plus super 8 camera with 2:1 ZOOM lens, but a nice camera that did the job. I even did some animation by a quick squeeze of the trigger, I then moved into more sophisticated tackle with the QUARZ 5
std 8 ensemble, built like a tank, still works today, its Russian, it'll survive a bloody apocalypse, a more solid camera I have yet to see,
it could be used as a weapon and still do the job. Tim, there are loads of film stocks out there to be used, though not reversal, however
you can still use your camera, but stock is expensive as it is negative, which means you'll get a negative plus positive print.