8mm Forum: 8mm digitization project for college repository

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Topic: 8mm digitization project for college repository

Josh Couch
Junior
Posts: 2
From: Little Rock, AR, USA
Registered: Sep 2016

posted October 04, 2016 09:40 AM

Hi All

I work at a college repository in the digital services lab and I thought I would join this forum to gain some knowledge about 8mm and 16mm projects and possibly share some of my own. We mostly digitize photos, documents, and audio, but the occasional 16mm film project comes along for which I use our Elmo TRV-16G. This machine allows me to transfer film to computer through an AV output. The National Park Service just dropped off some 8mm film concerning the 1957 Central High School Crisis. We do not have a machine for 8mm - my question would be what is the best and cheapest method or machine to digitize 8mm film with, without losing half of the film's quality? It would be nice to find a machine similar to our 16mm one, which I think would be an Elmo TRV-S8. Apparently, these machines are rare. We do not have a big budget and I want to be able to digitize 8mm in the future.

Any advice or comments is appreciated.

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Bryan Chernick
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 654
From: Bothell, WA, USA
Registered: Mar 2010

posted October 04, 2016 12:52 PM

I don't know what your budget is but the Retro 8 scanner is a popular one. I wish I had one myself.

Retro 8

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Tom Spielman
Master Film Handler

Posts: 339
From: Minneapolis, MN, USA
Registered: Apr 2016

posted October 04, 2016 03:54 PM

It depends on the level of quality you're looking for but there are plenty of services that will do at least as good a job as your Elmo for not that much money. If you have a volunteer staff and you're converting lots of film, then it might be worth investing in some of your own equipment, but otherwise a service may be the best way to go.

Is it silent or does it have sound?

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Jim Schrader
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1628
From: Savage, MN, USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted October 04, 2016 04:02 PM

is it 8mm or super 8 the trv-s8 is for super 8 and the trv-r8 is for regular 8? Tom's suggestion is best if you frequently get films in.

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jim schrader
"Let's see “do I have that title already?"

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Josh Couch
Junior
Posts: 2
From: Little Rock, AR, USA
Registered: Sep 2016

posted October 06, 2016 11:22 AM

I think the Elmo TRV-R8 will do 8 and super 8mm with no sound and the TRV-S8 will do both with sound. The collection we have is regular 8mm silent. We have 3 archivists committed to digitizing items, sometimes more. We do not receive a lot of requests to digitize 8mm. However, I thought that if I could find a machine for around $2000 I could make the pitch to purchase one in the near future. The Retro 8 is exactly what we are looking for, though new they are around $4500. I would not mind buying used equipment for this. We mostly digitize photos, documents, and various audio. Our digital services side of the repository is relatively new and we would like to expand our abilities.

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