8mm Film Transfer

My family has several projectors and many, many reels of 8mm film, dating back to 1937. Any tips on how to transfer to a medium that can than be imported into a computer. I have Final Cut Studio so I would like to edit these myself rather than take them somewhere else. Thought you experts might have some suggestions. Thanks for any help you can provide.
G5 Power Mac Mac OS X (10.4.2)

Really depends on the end-quality that you want (and how careful you want your films to be handled.)
The simplest, crudest method is indeed simply filming the projection. This has a couple of problems, and de-generates the image quality much more than necessary.
The best & most expensive way of transferring S8 to video is with a machine that uses a wet gate technology. This is very gentle on the film, gets rid of dirt and scratches, and gives amazing results. But your wallet won´t like it.
The middle way is using a specialized projector, which makes it possible to scan each and every frame of your film. These are made by a small family run business, Movie Stuff in Texas (i believe) http://moviestuff.tv/transfers.html
I´ve got one of their machines and think they are marvellous.
(And yes, they work on Macs; doing the finishing in FCP gives that extra edge.) Always good idea to add projector sound on a low level.
Yet another option is of course paying someone to do it for you; that way you get an experienced operator to do the transfer for you. Do a Google on 8mm tranfer, and you´d be amazed at the amout of results. Don´t go for the cheapest option...
Quad G5, iMac G5 20, G4 QS 867mhz, iBook G4, Mac mini, PB 190 Mac OS X (10.4.6) DSR-570, DSR-11, 2x24" and some more toys.

Similar Messages

Recommend 8mm Film Transfer Service

I would like to have our family 8mm films (and one 16mm from 1929) transferred to a digital format for editing in FCP. I don't want to spend a ton of $$ (I have 47 3-inch 8mm reels), but I want a good quality transfer. (One quote I got was for over $1,000) There are a bunch of companies that do this, but it is hard to tell who is good. Apparently there are several methods for transfer and it seems most result in an uncompressed .avi file. I am sorry to post this off-topic question here, but I trust this FCP forum and hope maybe some other editors have done this kind of project before.
Thanks in advance for replies.

Catherine
I think you have two incompatible requirements: "Good quality transfer" vs. "I don't want to spend a ton of $$." There is a high cost for a good quality commercial transfer.
A few years ago I got the bug to transfer family 8 and Super8 mm film to digital. My first attempt was to simply project the image on a screen and aim a camcorder at it. The result was not-so-great — flicker when projector speed isn't perfectly synched with camcorder speed, plus parallax and not perfect focus since the camcorder has to shoot the screen at an angle because it's alongside the projector, not directly in line with it.
Then, after a recommendation from this forum, I checked out MovieStuff (see Carl's post above). I ended up purchasing a WorkPrinter-XP and doing the job myself. (Click on the 'Equipment' link at the bottom of the MovieStuff page.) In simple terms, software on the Mac syncs the camcorder with the projector, capturing the film frame-by-frame, resulting in no flicker, no parallax, full-frame capture, and a sharp picture. Drop the file in FCP and edit to your heart's content, then create a DVD with music, a voiceover and/or closed captioning, and wow the family.
Other than having total control of all phases of the project plus the satisfaction of doing this myself, the next best thing is that, in the end, it cost me nothing. In fact, it continues to pay for itself. What would've been spent having the film commercially transferred, wasn't. As word spread, distant relatives asked if I could transfer their film. Yes, for a reasonable fee. Then word spread to non-relatives. You get the idea. In short, there is still a lot of 8mm film out there in canisters that people want to see but can't because their projectors don't work and many have heard horror stories of the product received when film was sent away to a commercial transfer outfit.
If doing it yourself interests you, one recommendation I would make is to splice the film on all those 3" reels and put it on 8" reels. The job goes a lot faster with fewer reels.
Good luck

8mm Film Transfer Services- .avi Uncompressed Question

I am researching film to digital transfer services and most of them seem to have this scanner technology that ends up as uncompressed .avi files. One company claims HD scanning. My problem is I edit in FCP and want to convert to ProRes. One company would do this for an hourly fee, but I'm trying to figure out how I can do it myself. I want as lossless a process as possible. Thanks in advance for replies.

Where are you located? We have Pro8mm here in LA that will capture as Quicktime movies. And they charge hourly...but that is the way it is done. And these guys do it right...professional telecine machines like are used in feature films. NATURAL BORN KILLERS used this place. I did for super8mm home movies.
www.pro8mm.com
but I'm trying to figure out how I can do it myself
Get a projector and HD camera and project the image onto a white wall and shoot it. That is the VERY poor man's way to do it. Another way that many cheap film-to-tape places utilize is a special projector straight into a camera lens, then to tape.
But for the lossless as possible, go Pro8mm.
Shane

SATA vs Ultra drives for importing from 8mm film machine

Hello,
The guys over at the g5 discussions sent me here.
I plan to buy a machine which transfers 8mm movie film directly to the computer.
It uses a rapid stop motion single frame capture.
You can view it at: http://moviestuff.tv/wp_xp.html
The vendor told me that I need to get 2 identical drives but they cannot be SATA because since those run at a pulse mode which is good for streaming but not for this type of transfer. He said the difference is in whether you capture a frame stationary or while it is in motion. He claims that using SATA will result in some of the frames captured to be blurred, and added that this would not happen with the Ultra.
He recommends also using a RAID0 configeration with CaptureMate.
This is all new to me. The guys at the G5 discussion feel the vendor has got it all wrong. They said I should be able to run it with the SATA drives already in the G5 and no need to RAID them.
I would appreciate any help you can give. Didn't know if anyone here ever had any experience with this type of machine.
Thanks.
Mike

Hi, Mike!
All I can say is that the guy who makes these things from scratch is as good as they come and probably has a good reason for his advice to you. I've researched these devices in the past and I think you've made a good choice for both performance and price, from all that I've read. Now and again, the subject of 8mm film transfer pops up here at the Discussions, and this vendor's products have always come highly recommended. Nothing technical about SATA versus ATA input/output, just my two cents worth of advice on what to do using the equipment he has designed and built...
Gary

8mm film to video- what do I need to know to transfer properly?

I'm going to have my dad transfer all of the family 8mm films at a professional transfer place. (8mm, mind you, NOT Super8) to DVD. I'd like to have uncompressed (HD) files so that someday in the future I can put them into imovie. For now, my dad would like them all on DVD.
What do I have my dad tell the guy at the transfer house in terms of transferring and format? Will this take a huge, huge drive for all the files? How many Gigs per hour of 8mm film?
Thanks!
David from NYC
p.s. my dad lives near Philly, and I live in NYC....any recommendations for places that do this in one of these cities or their environs?

I did a project like that earlier this year. [Details here|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=11284809&#11284809]
My recommendation is to capture in HD to a hard drive so you can edit the movies.
If all you want is unedited movies in SD, a DVD is OK.
The company I used, MyMovie Transfer.com (aka Debenham Media Group), is in Coraopolis PA, but I did everything by mail.

How To Transfer 8mm film to DVD

HI,
My Mom just gave me a bag of 8mm and super 8mm film reels. I want desperately to figure out how to get them into my mac for editing.
She does not have the projector any more.
Can anyone advice me on a course of action. I know I can go have them done some where but I would rather figure it out and do it myself.
Do I need to go buy a projector? If so, is there a specific projector I should be looking for?
Once I have the projector, how do you get it into your mac? adapter, go between?
I so appreciate your help. My Parent's wedding is on there and I have never seen it. I would be a dream to get to edit that for them.
Thanks in advance,
Susan

Start looking at links from this site:
http://www.moviestuff.tv/
As people are alluding to above, you'll have to decide how pristine of a transfer you want. I would advise looking into local companies if you're in a decent sized town/city. Then you don't have to worry about where your film will be or go to. Discuss the techniques used with the proprietor. I was able to find a company in Maryland that did a terrific job with stuff going back to the 30s using equipment from Moviestuff. The main thing to keep in mind is that you should NOT attempt to run the films through a normal projector that has a full-brightness bulb, which can result in your film getting cooked instantly due to their age. Also, a quote from one transfer site regarding home projection:
"The films are subjected to the harsh pull-down claw mechanism of a projector that may or may not be in good working order. The films of the participants may leave dirt and debris in the projector that will scratch the subsequently projected films." (see http://www.bonofilm.com/super8reality.asp)
--JV
Message was edited by: jvolino

Transfer 8mm film to DVD

My father has rolls and rolls of old 8mm film from the 1950s and 60s. Any one have any ideas on what is the best way to get that film onto DVD? I figure at the very least I can project the film onto the movie screen with a digital video camera pointed at it, and record them. Any other ideas?
Thanks

Use of a digital camera and projector, as you've suggested, is probably the simplest way. I would only suggest that, instead of a projecting onto a screen or wall, you use a video transfer device such as those designed originally for transferring movies-to-tape.
These devices have two openings and an internal mirror at a 45 degree angle. The projector plays into one opening, and your video camera records at the other opening.
The resulting quality will be much better than if projected/recorded off a wall or screen.
They should be cheap, and even be available on ebay .

Convert old 8mm film to what 'format' to edit in iMovie?

I have selected a service to convert and save my families old 8mm film to a hard drive (which I will be supplying). I would like to import the movies (files) from the HD into iMovie for editing and eventual burn to DVD. What format should the service save the files in? Quicktime .mov? or something else? The service lists: Raw DV or AVI Type 1 or Type 2 or Type 2c or Matrox AVI or Avid DV OMF.
Mac G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9) <<br>
Powerbook G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Hi Tyler!
Of the options you list I would choose 'Raw DV'. iMovie is designed to handle a DV stream @ 13GB per hour, for editing and transfer to iDVD.
But ask the vendor to confirm that his 'Raw DV' is designed for transfer to iMovie 6 on an Apple Mac, and before he loads up the hard drive you are supplying make sure that it has been formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

8mm film

I want to convert old 8mm film to digital, but not sure about converting to a high definition (HD) format or just standard digital format (SD). My goal is to end have the best quality, but also to be able to play back on my computer, HDTV and use the entire wide screen(s) without compromising picture quality. In addition, I want the file in a format that I can edit such as using Windows Movie Maker and/or share with others, i.e., burn to a DVD.
I have researched some, but get into technical issues such as the aspect ratio and the fact that in HD, I would still not have use of the entire screen. For example, the picture would have better picture quality, but with the black bars either on the top and bottom or sides.
Also, I noticed some of the companies performing these services can get very expensive. The SD conversions appear to be more reasonably priced, but I prefer to have the best quality.
Does anyone have any recommendations on how best to proceed? Thanks for your help.

Really depends on the end-quality that you want (and how careful you want your films to be handled.)
The simplest, crudest method is indeed simply filming the projection. This has a couple of problems, and de-generates the image quality much more than necessary.
The best & most expensive way of transferring S8 to video is with a machine that uses a wet gate technology. This is very gentle on the film, gets rid of dirt and scratches, and gives amazing results. But your wallet won´t like it.
The middle way is using a specialized projector, which makes it possible to scan each and every frame of your film. These are made by a small family run business, Movie Stuff in Texas (i believe) http://moviestuff.tv/transfers.html
I´ve got one of their machines and think they are marvellous.
(And yes, they work on Macs; doing the finishing in FCP gives that extra edge.) Always good idea to add projector sound on a low level.
Yet another option is of course paying someone to do it for you; that way you get an experienced operator to do the transfer for you. Do a Google on 8mm tranfer, and you´d be amazed at the amout of results. Don´t go for the cheapest option...
Quad G5, iMac G5 20, G4 QS 867mhz, iBook G4, Mac mini, PB 190 Mac OS X (10.4.6) DSR-570, DSR-11, 2x24" and some more toys.

I recently had some 8mm film transferred to DVD. I am trying to edit the film clips using Premier Elements 4.0. Some of the film clips copy into the project but others don't. I tried copying the VOB filed onto my hard drive and then changing the file ext

I recently had some 8mm film transferred to DVD. I am trying to edit the film clips using Premier Elements 4.0. so I can reburn the films on a single BluRay disc. Some of the film clips copy into the project but others don't. I tried copying the VOB filed onto my hard drive and then changing the file extensions on the VOB files to MPEG but this was no help. Some of the VOB files contain numerous film clips but my software does not appear to be able to recognize them as such. I need to know if replacing my old Premier Elements with the new Version 13 would solve this problem or not. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Bob

Bob
What do you have now.....
What computer operating system do you have?
We can go into the finer points of source and your intentions, but for now it would appear that you are using SD 4:3 source media to get to a HD 16:9 result. Lots to discuss in this regard.
What was given to you on the DVD disc? DVD-VIDEO 4:3 or something else?
If DVD-VIDEO on DVD disc, you should expect to find on the disc a folder named VIDEO_TS. That is your target for your video files.
If you were given a DVD-VIDEO on DVD disc, then all you want from it are the video files, specifically
VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VOB, and so on through that series until possibly getting to
VTS_02_1.VOB, and so on. How many files you have beyond the VTS_01_1.VOB file will depend on the size of the DVD-VIDEO.
Does the above scenario apply to you?
The alternative might be someone giving a DVD disc (data disc) which contains just the VTS files mentioned which were copied from
the VIDEO_TS Folder. So, you do not get the whole VIDEO_TS Folder, just the essential video files. Does this scenario apply to you.
I see no need to replace your Premiere Elements 4 with a later version unless you have a huge project and need a later version that will be a 64 bit application running specifically on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 64 bit computer.
Consider...Premiere Elements 4 and if you have DVD-VIDEO on DVD....
1. Place the DVD disc in the burner tray
2. Open Premiere Elements 4 and set the project preset for NTSC DV Standard (assuming you are working in a NTSC setup)
3. Go to
Get Media
"DVD, Digital Camera, Mobile Phone, Hard Drive Camcorder, Card Reader"
"Adobe Premiere Elements - Media Downloader" and its Advanced dialog.
Set the Source in the latter dialog for the drive which has your DVD disc inserted in its tray
You should see your VTS_01_1.VOB thumbnail in the "Adobe Premiere Elements - Media Downloader" Advanced dialog.
With this VOB selected, click on Get Media to get the file from there into the project.
Should work fine.
Complications may be involved if the people who processed your footage gave you something other what is described above.
Please review and consider, and then we can plan our project strategy accordingly.
Thank you.
ATR

Converting 8mm film question

Not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes. I have acquired the old family 8 mm film reels (no audio) and the projector, a Kodak Brownie 8 Model 10. I would like to put them into digital format and edit in FCE.
I have searched the web and local businesses to have someone else do this, but I'm cheap and would rather do it myself. Plus, I have read so many differing opinions on the best process (wetgate vs frame by frame, etc.) that I don't think I would trust a "transfer mill."
I am hoping I can set it up to capture the projected movie into the Canon, then download and edit in FCE. The final output doesn't have to be of pristine quality, I just want it to be as good as I can get using my current equipment. I like the ambiance of the old film look. I plan to keep a copy on MiniDV for future editing.
1) Is this really a feasible idea? 2) If yes, what am I looking at in terms of frame rate adjustment? What sort of settings do I potentially need on the Canon and in FCE? I thought I had found a few threads on this before, but can't locate them now. Please feel free to point me to those threads, if they do exist in more than just my imagination.
Thanks!
iMac 20" Intel Core Duo 2Ghz 1.5gb RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7) FCE 3.5HD, Canon Optura 50 NTSC>
iMac 20" Intel Core Duo 2Ghz 1.5gb RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hi Lisa,
Been there, done that.
A few years ago, as a favor, I set out to convert to digital all 8 and Super8 film shot by various relatives as far back as 1946. A variable speed projector is essential, and projecting on an off-white surface is best. Using manual focus and manual exposure worked best for me. Also, connect your camera to a tv — the larger the better — while you're filming. It helps a lot with focus, determining proper exposure, and correcting flicker. Much better than using the camera's small monitor.
No matter what, you still end up with some amount of flicker and a hotspot. Then, because you cannot get the camera directly in line the image, there is some amount of distortion created by the camera offset and you also end up losing some amount of the projected image.
In the end, you will have lost some quality and part of what was actually filmed, but will have preserved the captured memories and re-saved them to disk. Of course, with a dvd it's a whole lot faster to find a specific scene than having to set up a projector, find the reel, etc. So, that's good, and better than not transferring at all.
I've seen some of the results of the film transfer factories, and, for the most part, the do-it-yourself methods discussed here produce better results because you're working on something you care about, rather than have a min. wage person being bored processing other people's boring home movies.
I appreciate the desire to do this with minimal expense. My wife has described me as someone who can make Lincoln scream by squeezing a penny so tight. However, in the end, I just wasn't satisfied with the result. So, I shopped around a bit and ended up at www.moviestuff.tv and purchased the equipment to do my own frame-by-frame transfer.
The result is incredible. Full-frame capture of the original film frames, no hot spot, no flicker, true colors, sharp focus. And, as word spread to the friends of relatives, and to their friend's friends, I started getting requests to do transfers for them — for a reasonable fee of course. Consider that possibility when you look at the cost of the equipment. Just thru references, my setup has already been paid for.
Good luck with your project.
Tom T.
MBP 17" w/max memory; and a souped-up G4 that's still useful Mac OS X (10.4.8) FCS, CS2 pkg

Film Transfer question

Re: 16mm film transfer
Hello;
I have some vintage 16mm film that I would like to have transfered to an editable format. If I work in FinalCutPro what format should the 16mm film be transfered too so that it can be edited?
Any suggestions for a quality-reasonably priced -Manhattan based vendor who will do this work?
Thanks for your suggestions

If your system can handle HD, I'd ask for HD files on a drive since they'll likely crop the 16mm image to 16:9. That way you'll get as high a quality transfer as you can.
Andy

8mm film to IMovie

Does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can get from 8mm film to IMovie?
I had 400 feet of 8mm transferred to DVD But IMovie won’t accept it. Says QuickTime can’t parse it.
Called Apple and asked if QuickTimePro might do the job. The answer was yes and 100 bucks later I had Toast 8 Titanium. Rather than send it back( I thought I’d ordered QuickTime Pro) I called Roxio and asked if Toast would convert the DVD to something IMovie could use. Again, the answer was yes.
When I used Toast it gave me a message that it couldn’t do the job because the DVD “might be copy protected”. A call to the DVD provider indicated that the DVD was copy protected ... even tho’ it is my film on the DVD.
Someone said to try MacTheRipper. I did and it did rip the movie from the DVD but it was still “copy protected”. Running that through Toast didn’t help.
On online site suggests (buying) a digital movie camera and recording my movies from the projected movies, then transferring that to my MAC. I’ll probably do that if I can’t find something simpler.
I still have over 7,000 feet of 8 and super 8 film to work with so, if anyone has a suggestion I’d very much appreciate it?
For info, I’m very much an amateur.
IMAC G 5 (Intel) IMovie 6.03 QuickTime 7.0.3
and, I just downloaded all the info in IMovie comments re: help with deciding camcorder purchase .
Thanks,
JIm

A fascinating project!
My older brother had 4 hours of (silent) 8mm cine film dating back to 1958-1980 (when he finally bought a video camera!). He wanted me to convert them to carefully edited DVDs, with music, sound effects, titles and so on. Like a madman I accepted the challenge! To make life easier he lives in Belgium and uses a PC!
The process, to cut this short, was as follows:
At considerable expense he had all the film transferred to four DVDs in some PC-only friendly mpeg codec, and sent them to me.
I used Streamclip and the Apple mpeg thingy (saving time by not loking it up) to convert these to Quicktime DV files. To make life even easier, the Belgian moron who did the conversion to DVDs had not done so in chronologal order!
That made for a very large QT file, which I imported into iMovie, and set about carving it into date order, re-exporting the various years to QT as individual files, and then importing into iMovie projects to edit.
Only a couple of months later I had it organised into three projects, each of an hour or so, beautifully edited with titles, transitions, music, sound effects and other bells and whistles, and burnt them to 3 DVDs. I was generally agreed that I deserved an Oscar for technical merit!
That was just to let you know that it can be done!
Your only real hurdle is the copy protection. Can you get a fresh set that is NOT copy protected?
But before you even start I heartily recommend that you update your OS and all software to the latest versions, particularly Quicktime, and make that Pro.

Old 8MM film conversion

This year I would like to convert all my old 8MM film to DVD format for importing to iMovie for editing.
Question: Can the Intel iMacs import from DVDs?
Can anyone provide me with instructions to import from DVDs?
I've tried importing a movie burned in iDVD back into iMovie, but it's just not obvious to me as to how to do it.
Thanks

Hi rjr535
You will have to convert the DVD's image and audio to MPEG-4 (mp4) befor you can import it to iMovie!
I use a DVD recorder to burn my old camcorder tapes to DVD's, then pop the DVD's in the iMac and use HandBrake to convert them to MPEG-4 befor importing to iMovie!
Here is the link for [HandBrake|http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/21117]
Dennis

I have 8mm films transferred to .avi files at 18fps. Can I use Final Cut Express to convert to standard DVDs to play on a US TV?

I have 8mm films transferred to .avi files at 18fps. Can I use Final Cut Express to convert to standard DVDs to play on a US TV?

Hi
I was hoping that FCE would be able to handle the coversion from 18 to 30fps but that appears not to be the case.
It does - If I'm not totally wrong. Can be to much using FinalCut Pro (6)
Start FCE
Select type of project You want to do
I guess - NTSC 29.97fps - Select that from FCE menu / Easy Set-up
Start a new Sequence
DROP A PHOTO in TimeLine - at beginning.
Now project is locked to 29.97 fps
Now import and drop the 18fps clip in TimeLine.
Select to convert it to match the setting of TimeLine.
IF THIS IS A GOOD WAY - I hesitate to say - It works - but if quality is OK or not - I don't know
I DO : use JES_Deinterlacer (free from Internet) to convert the frame rate in my clips (usually 25fps) to 29.97 fps - Then and first then I import the converted clip into FinalCut to be used in my NTSC projects.
The quality done in this way - is very good and the program is free - so I can not want any better.
Yours Bengt W

8mm Film Transfer

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