Before digital film and DVDs became the standard, all movies were made with cine film. Cine film is that vintage, large film reels that they still use in movie theaters that haven't switched to digital reels that used to be all there was in film technology before other alternatives were made. Owning cine film for yourself is a great vintage collectable, however, many will not have the equipment to view it, or know what type of film they have and how to operate it. If you find yourself with a type of cine film and you are not sure what type it is or how to handle it, this guide will help you identify which film you have, and the pros and cons of each.

The most common type of cine film was the 8mm format. The 8mm reels can further be broken down into three different types—Super 8, Super 8 with Sound, and Standard 8mm. The difference between the three reels, looking at them at a glance, is that Super 8 and Super 8 with Sound have smaller holes in the film as opposed to Standard 8mm. Super 8 with Sound also carries a brown stripe down the side for the sound. The film was made in several different types of diameter, as three inch reels were approximately 3.5 minutes long, five inch reels were 14 minutes long, and seven inch diameter reels were around thirty minutes long. Super 8 with Sound film was only made for five inch diameter reels and above. Super 8 was the most popular type of sound film commercially available, however, its low millimeter format meant that you could not store as much picture on it as you could larger millimeter reels.

9mm cine reels are less common, and you can find some 9mm reels dating back to the late 1800s, if you look for the reels with the holes in the middle of the reel. 9mm reels were less commonly found with sound and color in vintage reels. Due to the fact that they weren't as common, it is very rare to see color and/or 9mm reels with sound, so it is harder to find equipment to play these type of reels or find places that might transfer the film to other formats for you. If you have a 9mm film reel, then it is best to possibly transfer it to another format, as if any equipment you have to play that reel breaks, it is incredibly difficult to find a replacement.

16mm cine film format was a great deal larger than other formats, and can be identified by the sprocket holes running down both sides. If the film has sound, then there will be sprocket holes on only one side, with the other side having a brown stripe down it, if it has magnetic sound. 16mm was also made late enough that it might have optical sound encoded on it as well, and if that is the case, the brown stripe will be replaced with a grayish one running down the same side. It was favored by amateur and professional users, but not as favored with Hollywood. Like 9mm cine reels, it is slightly harder to find equipment to play 16mm reels, but not as hard as it is looking for equipment for 9mm ones. 16mm film tends to transfer better and produce higher quality images, due to the width of the film aiding in the transfer process.

While all these formats bring something to the table and make the film encoded on them unique, for collectors, one should look at what there is available and if they are planning on viewing the film before deciding which type of film to get.