8mm to DV

[Char Roberts]

As a newbie to this list I was about to ask a similar question. I bumped
into a web site that I just don't know if is good advice or self-serving
advertising, that says the best way to get 8mm to digital is to "re-shoot"
the film, usually after doing some film cleaning, and preferably with pro
quality digital cams, not consumer level; and then save it in DV format for
archives, distributing copies via DVD or CD if desired. This would be a very
expensive process if you have a lot of old film. I'd appreciate the thoughts
on that from the obviously well-informed on this list.

Twenty years ago, when VHS cameras were large and clunky (and we hadn't yet
dreamed of digital), I shot copies of a lot of 8mm movies, including stuff
from grandparents that was done in the early forties. The VHS versions look
like garbage now. I think the tapes have faded, although they weren't great
to begin with. Even so the family loved them - so much easier than setting
up screen and projector, and the children could play the tapes whenever they
wanted. Clearly if they're going to last for another generation they need to
be redone. I have run some of the VHS tapes through a Dazzle bridge and
imported them into iMovie just to see what would happen. Obviously, that
doesn't improve things! I know I need to go back and work with the original
film again.

The web site has a tutorial by a company that is in the business, so I
realize it may be biased, but I thought perhaps the tips here were valid, in
light of my less than satisfactory experience:

http://www.film-to-video.com/tutorial.html

--Char

> Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2003 08:58:24 -0600
> Subject: [MacDV] Re 8mm to DV
> From: animal <animal at cuug.ab.ca>
> Message-Id: <EE972976-C5C2-11D7-A145-0003939DAB62 at cuug.ab.ca>
> 
> Found a place to transfer old 8mm 25 foot double films to VHS or DV.
> 
> Since I'm uncertain about the process, for the best quality am I better
> off:
> 
> 1) getting them to make digital .mov files of the footage OR
> 2) take the VHS tape and use something like a Canopus 1000 to make my
> own .mov  Is the quality going to be significantly less than:
> 3) get a NTSC mini dv copy and download footage via firewire (I would
> have to rent the mini dv camera as we only have a PAL mini dv.)
> 
> Then one transfer place said they use an 'Aerial'? transfer system.
> 
> Any comments appreciated.
> Lynn