chessy waller , Sep 25, 2005; 05:09 p.m.
hi, i am new to the board and new to transfering film. i have just inherited our family
"bags" full of old slides and 8mm film shot of us as children. i would like to purchase
some equipment that would enable me to transfer this to a mac computer.
1. can you recommend any equipment.
2. are the old 8mm films the same as 35mm film (been reading descriptions of flatbed
film scanners).
3. do you feed the film in and it moves or do you lay it flat and do only a few frames at a
time.
thank you so much for your help. so far i haven't been too successful in finding the
answers.
chessy
Colin Thomas , Nov 05, 2005; 11:53 p.m.
Projection and transfer to video is less time consuming and more time-tested than scanning with a flatbed or film scanner. And you can still feed the output of the camera to your Mac.
However, you can cobble something together that will scan the 8mm on a flatbed into your computer. Details are on this website .... http://www.public.iastate.edu/~elvis/8mm/film_scanner.html .....
I had a look at that site and decided to just get a 8mm projector and super-8 projector, both variable speed, and an old broadcast tv camera and transfered my films by projecting on a white matte paper and focusing the camera on the image. The super 8 projector had a bright spot in the middle of the image so I placed a thin piece of ground glass between the bulb and the film gate to obtain a more even illumination. Get a "contrast filter" (Tiffen makes them) on the camera end or projector end if you have film with too much contrast. The video camera was fed into the computer and I used video editing software to jazz up the color/brightness/contrast a bit when necessary.
Everything I learned about this was from mostly google, so if you get stumped, that might be a good resource to tap into.
Colin Thomas , Nov 06, 2005; 12:13 a.m.
I want to clarify, that the white matte paper size is the standard 8" by 11" printer paper. you put the paper on its long end, and fill it with the projected image.
The projector and video camera (or camcorder) are placed side by side, both pointing at the white paper. The paper is about 4 feet away from the projector & camera.
Ideally you should connect your camera or camcorder into a tv to monitor the output, as this will be easier than using the tiny viewfinder. Some video capture cards for computers have a video "out" that will work nicely for this. Otherwise, you'll need a Y-splitter cable to send video to both the tv and the computer.
Adjust the projector's lens until the image is sharp and fills the paper, focus the camera onto the projected image, if possible, turn off any auto-focus, as some cameras will try to focus during bad-focusing that may have occured originally on the film.
Use the variable speed control on the projector to eliminate flicker (dark bars moving up/down on the video image).
I've probably left something out again, but thats all I can think of for now. Get back to me if you have questions.
Philip Thomas , Nov 06, 2005; 09:33 p.m.
Please cut and paste this link: (link) or goto www.all2digital.com save the mess and hassle, save your time and creative enthusiasm for editing the finished product done by a professional !
Drop us a line anytime (602) 326-9167 Digital Transfer Services
Joe Photo , Nov 13, 2005; 11:41 a.m.
There are projectors available at flea markets or yard sales that project both 8mm and super 8. I have some films that I plan to transfer using one of those mirror / rear projection transfer devices but it's low on my project pile. I tried to make a unit from the innards of an old Polariod One Step camera (first surface mirror) and a cardboard box with a hole and a sheet of vellum paper (no grain like tracing paper) but had the bright center to deal with. I can't picture scanning 8mm and then stitching them all back together to get a movie, though.
