Topic: super 8mm stumbling

[mblindsey]

I just got about 40-50 "Kodak Ektachrome 160 sound movie film/super 8mm" reels dropped on me.  Along with them, I was also given a "Quasar Film/Tape Converter VE59OUUA" and a "Chinon 300GL Cine Projector".  The easy thing to do would be to drop the reels off at one of the many local businesses that specialize in transferring these, but that takes the fun out of it.  So, I ask, where is the ts.com equivalent of this old hobby?  Google searching is hard, since I don't *really* understand what I have.  I *think* the reels have sound, but I'm sure my projector does not.  Lost....

What to buy to play them (eBay seems fluff with expensive options)?  Am I stubborn for holding out on transferring these myself? 

--Michael

[phanophish]

I wouldn't mess with it!  There is a lot of work that goes in to handling the cleanup of the video.  People that do it professionally have much better equipment than is available to a normal consumer.  If you are really trying to preserve old family heirlooms it's probably worth the investment.....


http://www.videoconversionexperts.com/Film_to_DVD/default.htm

A normal 8mm movie reel is 50 feet long so it can be transfered at their "gold quality for $13.50 or to HD video for $18.  Not sure if 8mm is high enough quality to justify a HD transfer.

[eric.B]

I could be wrong, but Im pretty sure super8 does not include audio..

[momule]

If you end up having some one else do it ya might talk to this dude.  He's downtown at main and linwood next to subway.

http://www.atozvideo.com/

[chicofishhead]

Here's a Super 8 camera with sound I stumbled on on Craigslist today
http://chico.craigslist.org/pho/1522819666.html
I'm tempted to offer something for it because I think it would match my XL-401 if I wanted to shoot something from a couple angles at the same time.  I don't really care about the sound aspect though - for any project nowadays I'd definitely record the sound separately.  For one project in college the sound we recorded straight to Super 8 didn't come out and we had to dub in the sound live on this projector that recorded audio as we watched it.  Luckily it was supposed to be funny, and our misfortune actually added to the comedic effect.
The Minolta XL-401 does time lapses and I have some of them that I want to transfer to video.  Last time I did that I took the film to Bill Rase Productions in Sacramento and was able to watch as the transfer was done.  It was nice to be able to be there, plus I convinced the guy to let me do the splicing so I wouldn't get charged for that!  But, alas, Bill died a few years ago and I'll probably have to send my stuff away this time.

[splumer]

I've done this before, and I do video professionally, so I thought I'd comment. The problem with film to video (analog or dig) transfer is the frame rate difference: film is 24 frames a second, video 30. If you were to transfer it yourself, you'd have a noticeable flicker in the image on video - bad enough it would give you a headache or cause you to have a seizure if you were prone to them. Most consumer film-to-video tranfer units consist of a mirror & screen device that you point a camcorder at. Unfortunately, shining a light directly into a camcorder will cause bad hot spots on the video. I've gotten better results projecting onto a screen and capturing that with a camcorder, but I still got the flicker.

What the pros have is a projector with a five-bladed shutter. This mimics the frame rate of video and removes the flicker. Such projectors are not widely available outside the pro market.

Super 8 does indeed have sound, but not every camera had sound. I have  a bunch of old home movies from the '40s and '50s I had trasnferred. Definitely worth the cost to get rid of the flicker. hat are the reels of?

[guitard]

Like any service...you usually get what you pay for.  My uncle had my grandfather's 8mm reels from the '40s, '50s, and '60s transferred around ten years ago to VHS. 

As best I could tell, the guy just loaded the reels on one at a time and payed no attention whatsoever to whether they played properly - so there was lots of fluttering video (50%?) that wasn't usable.  I captured everything digitally and made a nice DVD out of the usable video.

So make sure the place to which you take the film has a good reputation and don't fret about having to pay extra to get good service.

[mblindsey]

I took a few reels into a professional place locally.  I got sticker shocked.  They estimated close to $400 to transfer the lot.  That might be an okay price, if I actually knew what I had.  It's a big gamble, because I don't even know if I want the footage.  I would almost like to buy the necessary gear to do it (used, of course) and sell it back when I am done.

I've since read about the flicker probs, and the use of a screen to record...much to learn...

My Canon VIXIA HF11 can record 24fps...does that make a difference?

--Michael

[chicofishhead]

I took a few reels into a professional place locally.  I got sticker shocked.  They estimated close to $400 to transfer the lot. 

My Canon VIXIA HF11 can record 24fps...does that make a difference?

--Michael

That seems like a lot.  When I did it, it was like $20 (for about 30 minutes of 16mm - some had a mag stripe and some was optical sound).

The place in San Francisco I called recently said they transfer to 24p, which seems like the way to go (although lots of 8mm is actually shot at 18 fps).

[mblindsey]

Sorry, that was confusing.  That was the price for the entire 40-50 reel lot (still haven't counted them)...

I don't know the exact calculation, but it went something like this:

($0.16/foot * about 45 50/foot reels) + (some DVD burning charge) + (some base charge) - (some discount) = about $400

[phanophish]

I would guess the trick with 24p Hd video is getting the frames synced up.  Probably impossible to keep it consistent even over a short 10 minute video clip.  Why not just watch the videos and pick out the ones you do want and pay to have them Xfered.  We did a similar thing with a bunch of old family photos my grandmother got together when doing geanology.  Burned them all to a DVD and it made great Xmas gifts.  Maybe a little late, but it makes dropping $400 a bit more palatable.

[keytohwy]

Thought I'd chime in...I used this guy a year or so ago to do some transferring:

http://film-to-video.com/

Suffice to say, I was super happy with the results.  Check out his site, he really gets into what was kinda already covered here, 24fps to 30fps, etc.  He does all the work.  Many places take your film, ship elsewhere, including overseas, and then hand back the project.  This guy offers DVD, Blu-ray DVD, DV tape, etc.  Really full service, can't say enough good things...

keytohwy

[chicofishhead]

Recently I practically stumbled upon a flyer for 8mm film transfers at the bar a few blocks from my house.  Actually I was there for lunch, thus no real stumbling.

The place that does it couldn't be more convienient - right on my way to work.

I insisted on being there while she did it, partly because I was curious about the process.  She has a combo projector/ Hitachi video camera thing that she said cost $7000.  The projector is modified to match the video frame rate.  It played the film slowly - it was on each frame for about a quarter or half second.  She gave it to me as an AVI file (I didn't want it compressed for a DVD).  Since AVI files won't go straight into Final Cut Pro, I used Mpeg Streamclip to convert it, but for some reason it shrinks the video to where it only takes up the top half of the screen.  The file she gave me is definitely full screen so I'm not sure why it's doing that.