The Super 8 standard also allocates the border opposite the perforations for an oxide stripe upon which sound can be magnetically recorded.

Starting in 1963, Kodak privately invited manufacturers of home movie equipment to inform them about a new 8 mm format under development.

After Bell & Howell learned about it, they began developing cameras and projectors as the Earlybird project, despite incomplete details about the cartridge and film size.

In 1973, the system was supplemented with a larger cartridge, containing mag stripe film, which allowed sound cameras to record monaural sync-sound audio on the main strip.

During the mid-to-late 1980s Super 8 began to re-emerge as an alternative method for movie production, beginning with its use in MTV music videos in 1981.

Color stocks were originally available only in tungsten (3400 K) Type A, and almost all Super 8 cameras come with a switchable daylight filter built in, allowing for both indoor and outdoor shooting.

[22] In 2005, Kodak announced the discontinuation of their most popular stock Kodachrome[26] due to the decline of facilities equipped with the K-14 developing process.

Film cut to Super 8 from other manufactured raw stock such as Fuji, Orwo, Adox, Agfa and Foma are also available.

Other stocks, such as the new Fuji reversal film, and existing supplies of Kodak 35 mm 100D are often made available in Super 8 by these specialty companies.

Super 8 films may be transferred (scanned) to digital and then imported into computer-based editing and correction systems for post production.

During processing, the film is split down the middle, and the two pieces spliced together to produce a single strip for projection in a Super 8 projector.

DS8 can also be used as an alternative film stock in modified 16 mm cameras and projectors, which allows for larger image sizes due to the narrower super 8 sprockets.

[30] As Super 8 progressed to be used in HD and theatrical applications, a need arose for widescreen compatibility without having to use expensive optical adapters or excessive cropping.

The creators of Sleep Always[31] experimented with widening the camera gate to expose into the sound track region to achieve this.

[35] These cameras use a widened gate as well, providing an 11% increase in imaging area over the standard Super 8 frame and achieving aspect ratio of 1.5.

A working prototype was displayed at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, with Kodak hoping to begin production in spring 2017.

Some of the more notable companies that made Super 8 equipment include: Canon,[42] Bauer,[43] Nizo,[44] Super8 Sound (Pro8mm),[45] Beaulieu, Leicina, Logmar, Ciro, Bolex, Goko, Hahnel, Wurker, Minolta, Minnette, Nikon.

Several Super 8 specialty companies such as Pro8mm in Burbank CA, Wittner Cinetec in Hamburg, Germany, and Kahlfilm in Brühl, Germany, slit and perforate raw 35 mm film stock from Kodak, Fuji, ORWO, Agfa, and Foma and then repackage it in Kodak Super 8 cartridges.

Standard 8mm had the stripe between the perforations and the edge of the film which made good contact with a magnetic head problematic.

The 200-foot editions in black and white and silent were widely available and often sold in department stores such as Woolco in the $5.00-6.00 price range in the 1960s and 1970s.

Columbia Pictures, which had operated an 8mm division since the early 1960s, enjoyed success with a "Viewer's Digest" series of 400' feature condensations and complete prints of their Three Stooges short comedies.

Full-length sound films, particularly those in color, were seldom released due to the fairly expensive price of such films although a small number were released by such companies as Viacom featuring stars with wide popularity such as John Wayne, Elvis Presley, and Katharine Hepburn.

[57] Blackhawk, which held the 8mm and 16mm rights to the Laurel and Hardy classics produced by Hal Roach, offered both their short comedies and complete features in black-and-white sound prints.

Most sound films that were released complete on Super 8 with multi reels were usually public domain titles such as My Man Godfrey (1936), Of Human Bondage (1934) and His Girl Friday (1940), and sold by smaller companies such as Thunderbird and Niles.

Oliver Stone, for example, has used it in films such as JFK, where his director of photography Robert Richardson employed it to evoke a period or to give a different look to scenes.

A recent example of particular note is the 2005 BBC2 documentary series Define Normal, which was shot largely on Super 8, with only interviews and special timelapse photography utilising more conventional digital formats.

[62] Thanks to over a dozen film stocks, the ease of function and finding a camera, and the ability to do high quality digital scanning to standard motion picture digital formats like 2K and 4K, DPX or ProRes 4444, Super 8 remains a popular format for creating a variety of interesting scenes.

Super 8 provides an ideal, inexpensive medium for traditional stop-motion and cel animation and other types of filming speed effects not common to video cameras.

[70] Super 8 can still be found at a few select higher educational institutions offering film production courses including the program at Chaffey College in Southern California.

These programs use the analog experience of film for its own creative potential rather than use Super 8 to teach traditional modern production methods.