[MacDV] Re: 8mm to DV

[Steven Rogers]

On Monday, August 4, 2003, at 11:28 AM, Char Roberts wrote:

> 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,

Right - that's the best way. People often mention using a telecine 
process, but for most people, that's about like suggesting renting a 
Lear jet for the family vacation - its just not going to happen no 
matter how good it might be.

>  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.

I browsed through his tips, and it seems all correct to me, if perhaps 
a little overly bleak. Did companies really tell people that VHS tapes 
are archival quality and to throw away their film?  I suspect that 
people did it - not because they were misled, but because they just 
didn't think.

Regarding the use of "transfer", when a company says they're going to 
transfer your film to DVD, they probably just mean "transfer" in the 
ordinary sense of the word. The average person has no knowledge of the 
film transfer process which creates an exact copy The use of "transfer" 
cannot be a scam that trades on the reputation of film transfer process 
because the average person has no knowledge of such a process.

And its true that no tape is archival quality, but I don't think it 
really qualifies as a "scam" to give people a DV tape and call it a 
master. In terms of the state of the technology today, that is 
effectively the master copy. Film and DVDs will deteriorate too, if 
fresh copies are not made. The digital media can be copied without 
degrading it - that's the difference between it and VHS. If someone is 
giving out VHS tapes and calling that a master, well, that's pretty 
stupid.

Do companies really shoot film with a VHS camera and bridge that onto a 
DV deck?  Boy, that would be exceptionally stupid, and would qualify as 
misrepresentation in my book.

SR