16mm Film Format

Super 16 film format is different from the original format of 16mm film in one major way. 16mm film that was very widely used for news reels and documentation from the early 1900’s to the 1970’s had sprockets running down both sides of the film strip and the cameras had two matching pull-down claws that would advance the film, frame by frame. 16mm film often had an optical track of audio embedded into it as well, taking up some space on the film surface. Audio was added to the film doing the editing process so that a single canister of film could travel to a projector at a theater with sound included. 16mm dual sprocket had aspect ratios of 1.85 and 1.33 when using 2 perf or 3 perf ratios. When Super 16mm film was created, the same piece of film was used but one side of the perforations was removed and Super16 cameras were also designed to use only one pull-down claw for the single perf design of the film stock. This modification of the film and the camera allowed for more surface area of the film emulsion to be used for image exposure and resulted in an increase in resolution and lower amounts of film grain (noise) was captured due to the increased resolution. The aspect ratios allowed by design of Super 16 film were also improved to the potential for 2.40 widescreen aspect per 2 perforations or when shooting 3-perf, you could shoot theatrical standards of 1.85. If you wanted to shoot 4.3 aspect ratio intended for TV, you could also use a film gate that allowed for 4-perf framing.