[LM_NET] Hit: Converting 8mm to Digital

[Mary Ludwick <ludwick@SWBELL.NET>]

Many thanks to those who gave information.  Here are the responses I
received.  I will list them in the order I received the response.

I'll let you decide what answer works for you:

1.      Frame by Frame would be the best quality.  Your 8mm source would be
played through the camera into a computer's video editing software (iMovie,
Pinnacle Studio, etc.) which captures the complete video then allows you to
edit or record into a new format (CD, DVD, VHS, etc.).  The Lens to Lens
method would use a video camera to record the playback of the original 8mm
tape on a TV or projector screen.  The same method many illegally copied
VHS/DVDs are created and resold by unscrupulous merchants.

2.  My husband who is a video/IT professional did this to my old 8mm and
Super 8 films. He set up a matte white piece of foam core and played the
film on the projector and recorded it using our mini-DV digital camera. He
adjusted the shutter speed on the camera to eliminate any stutters and frame
rolls. Then he used Adobe Premier Pro to edit and color correction as
needed. Then he made DVDs. He does it on the side all the time. 

3.I haven't actually done this but I have heard about it. It seems to me
that a frame by frame would be best since all you are doing with film is
taking a series of continous still pictures. The lens to lens involves
projecting the film and transfering from the projection. You would
definately lose a lot of picture quality that way.

4. I had some old super 8's that I wanted converted to DVD and ended up
driving 50 miles south to a place in Marshalltown called.........
http://www.cjstechnologies.com/

I was amazed to discover that these young guys (2 college age kids who were
set up in business by their dad) had a few hs/college kids working for them
and that they were attracting business from all over the country as well as
a few places overseas.
When I drove in, there were several cars parked in the lot, so I assumed
that there were several customers in the building. As it turned out, I was
the only customer there at the time and the rest of the cars belonged to
kids working there.
Yes, they did a good job.
I tried doing it myself.........but quickly discovered that I did not have
the right equipment to get rid of the hot spot in the center of the screen.
(I was video taping the picture projected onto a screen set up in front of
the super 8 projector. I was then going to convert the video from tape to a
hard drive, but gave up when I could not get rid of the hot spot that
appears when you project the film onto the screen so that you can video tape
it. Is that clear as mud?)
The guys even made two sets of DVDs, one that I can use in a DVD player and
another that I can use to transfer onto the hard drive of my computer so
that I can use video software to edit it. I have the material transferred to
my hard drive and have experimented with editing our wedding tape (ah, well,
48 years ago, it was 8 mm), but I have now decided that I need to buy a new,
much more powerful desktop to do the actual editing.
Incidentally, the two sets of DVDs were necessary because the one that you
use in a DVD player has a different format than what you need to edit.


5.  I've done it though I don't know the difference between frame and lens.
 
I don't remember what I paid either but all my home movies from the 60s that
were 8 mm were transferred to DVD and it was worth it.
 
6. I hade our home movies transferred at the Photo department at Walgreens.
I think it turned out to be something like $10 per roll of 8mm - they fit
all 16 rolls on one dvd and I had a coupon to get a "free" dvd, so I ended
up with two.

7.I also have some old 8mm home movies that need to be converted. I can't
remember exactly what it costs, but I do remember that it was pricey. One
vendor told me that they just set it up and run it with an 8mm projector
(which I have) and video it as it runs with a digital video camera. I have
been reluctant to try it because the film is probably so brittle that I'm
afraid it would be breaking, if not crumbling, as it runs through the
projector. I know my father had already spliced several reels of film.

8. I'm not sure this will help, but here is a link where they discuss this
in depth. http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-40334.html
I spoke with my husband who is in the camera business and he said frame to
frame was preferable, but was probably expensive. 
From an ad: For film home movie transfer, we use special Telecine projectors
to project aerial images to a 3 chip CCD digital camera. This special
process is a lens to lens transfer with no screens involved. The process has
been developed to produce a frame by frame, flicker-free image with no hot
spots. The color is enhanced and the image is sharpened digitally. The
camera archives to a mini-DV video tape. This is true digital video, we do
not "bump-up" an analog signal from a old fashion analog chip. The digital
signal can then be captured by the PC for further enhancement and editing.
The finished movie or storyline can be recorded back to a DVD disc or other
digital media
Digitally scanning" each frame. 

If you are talking about the way a digital intermediate is made in feature
filmmaking, I can't imagine any cost effective way to do this for 8mm film.

The most common way to transfer is 'poor mans' telecine. Aim it at a screen
and shoot. Not a bad way to do it, but not the best. 

After that, you are into telecine transfers. The projector performs the
pull-down, and aims the imagine into a video tube. A variation would be a
rank-cintel, also very expensive, but several facilities offer this for
super 8. 

The moviestuff process, utilizes a 3ccd camera to capture EACH FRAME
independantly, as a single image file and store them to disk. This is the
closest approach to placing the negative frame on an optical scanner, and
scanning 2k resolution for an image. You still wind up with one frame, one
image. No blurring of frames across fields, like you get with a telecine
image.
http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-40334.html

9. I'm hearing that Costco does this for a VERY reasonable price.

10.  One person wrote that she tried videotaping while running the projector
and the image jumped because the speed of the two images were not the same.

11.  For the video transfers, there are low-tech and high-tech options. The
low-tech way, if you still have a working movie projector, is to play the
video on a nice screen or smooth white surface and record the image with a
digital camcorder (this is how we did my family's old movies!). This is
sometimes called a projection transfer; PC Magazine has a good article
explaining how it works at
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,1618829,00.asp
<https://owamail.irvingisd.net/owa/redir.aspx?C=d622a3e0b6f7474c8948620766ec
b11b&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pcmag.com%2farticle2%2f0%2c2817%2c1618829%2c00.asp
> .

Lens to lens transfer involves special equipment with mirrors to eliminate
various issues like parallax (because in a projection based system, the two
cameras will always be at slightly different angles relative to each other,
and the resulting images will be a bit skewed). Even a few years ago, such
units were very common, but there aren't many of them for sale new now. You
can find them on EBay, though; search for "film transfer unit" and you'll
see units from Sima and Ambico for $50 and under.

There are also specialty units out there for higher-tech, frame-by-frame
digitization; see, for example, the units at www.moviestuff.tv
<https://owamail.irvingisd.net/owa/redir.aspx?C=d622a3e0b6f7474c8948620766ec
b11b&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.moviestuff.tv> . Sometimes this is called "HD"
transfer. These units basically take a picture of every single separate
frame in the film; the film needs to be in good shape for this to work,
though, since the frame rates of the original and the scan must be exactly
calibrated. I generally recommend outsourcing this type of transfer, as the
equipment is just too expensive for individuals or small institutions. 

Also, the Texas Archive of the Moving Image is an excellent source of
information on film digitization, and they will do transfers of home movies
as part of their "Texas Round Up" series. See their website at
http://texasarchive.org/services.htm
<https://owamail.irvingisd.net/owa/redir.aspx?C=d622a3e0b6f7474c8948620766ec
b11b&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftexasarchive.org%2fservices.htm> . They also have some
educational resources online at http://texasarchive.org/education.html
<https://owamail.irvingisd.net/owa/redir.aspx?C=d622a3e0b6f7474c8948620766ec
b11b&URL=http%3a%2f%2ftexasarchive.org%2feducation.html> .





Mary Croix Ludwick
Librarian, Thomas Haley Elementary
Irving, Texas (near Dallas)
mludwick@irvingisd.net
ludwick@swbell.net (home)




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