Sankyo XL-60S Super 8mm sound camera

A photo of a handheld, personal camera against its leather satchel case.
https://www.nfsa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-07/Image-Original-packaging-for-the-Sankyo-XL-60S-super-8mm-sound-camera-422741.jpg
Title:
Sankyo XL-60S Super 8mm sound camera
NFSA ID
422741
Year
1975
Access fees

We love this packaging for the Sankyo XL-60S, as it documents a typical evening at home in the 1970s: brown corduroy, pavlova and of course an impromptu piano accordion recital. A scene worth preserving with this trusty Super 8mm sound camera.

Moviemaking became increasingly popular in the 1960s and '70s due to the availability of affordable, easy-to-operate machines like this one. All of a sudden, anyone could shoot a film – holidaymakers, artists, amateurs and wannabe movie directors. 

American director Steven Spielberg famously shot his first feature film – the UFO movie Firelight (1964) – on Super 8mm film with his dad’s old camera when he was 17. It cost $500.

The NFSA actively preserves a collection of more than 6,000 home movies that reveal the personal and private, historical and cultural, and weird and wonderful memories of our nation.