[MacDV] Re: Re 8mm to DV

[Gerhard Kuhn]

On Monday, August 4, 2003, at 12:49  AM, Steven Rogers wrote:
> This is absolutely not true, unless the film was shot very poorly.  
> 8mm film has the capacity to be noticeably better than VHS, 
> particularly better than re-digitized VHS.
>
> SR
>


The only 8mm film I have dealt with are home videos shot 25 + years 
ago, outside shots over exposed, inside scenes with no lighting 
resulting in dark clips with little detail.  To add to the problem 
people seemed to shoot very short scenes leaving you with few editing 
opportunities, I don't know wether this was the result of the cost of 
film or that it was shot without the expectation of editing.  
Additionally the deterioration of the film over time results in quality 
well below VHS quality.  I have included 8mm film footage on a DVD made 
for 50th anniversary and was told that it looked better than the 
original did, it did seem to have better contrast than the VHS version 
not having seen the actual 8mm version I can't comment on that but I am 
sure the projector and screen would have an impact on perceived 
quality.  They had the film transferred to VHS a number of years 
previously so the choice had been made for me but no-one expressed 
disappointment with the result.

Gerhard Kuhn
suspice at hay.net