8mm Forum: Transferring old home movies to digital files.

This is topic Transferring old home movies to digital files. in forum 8mm Forum at 8mm Forum.

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Posted by Alejandro Olivera (Member # 4725) on February 16, 2019, 07:35 AM:

Hello Everybody....

Greetings from Buenos Aires, Argentina. I while back I inherited my father's collection
of home movies. 16mm, 8mm and some super 8MM. I had some professionally transfer to digital files and I uploaded a few to youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&ar=2&video_id=MUFCeVAed_Q
https://www.youtube.com/edit?o=U&ar=2&video_id=2IFgbQcysLI

Both of the above wound up being used in a music video by a band from New Zealand !!!
I appear in the first one when I was a very young kid.
Since I have a lot of old home movies I would like to hear from anybody that has gone the DIY route and done the film transfer at home. I have 2 film projectors a Eumig Dual and a 16mm sound in perfect working condition.

I love this film forum !!!
More questions later.
Thank you!
Cheers.
alex

Posted by Werner Ruotsalainen (Member # 6217) on February 16, 2019, 09:07 AM:

quote:
Since I have a lot of old home movies I would like to hear from anybody that has gone the DIY route and done the film transfer at home.

These transfers are telecined; hence the softness of the very top/bottom (the black area between the frames), the glooming (fortunately, it isn't that bad) and the somewhat messed-up white balance (everything is a bit pinkish - I assume you used Kodachrome so pinkishness isn't caused by the faded original). I'd say even a Wolverine would deliver far superior results. Just take a look at my Super8 scans; for example, this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXD1UQIGZtU . Or even Normal 8 scans even shot on far inferior material like East-German ORWO back in 1955: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ID9aRrAOrdY

quote:
I have 2 film projectors a Eumig Dual and a 16mm sound in perfect working condition.

I don't think you can get better results than the above scans unless you do some very serious hacking (new lens for the projector, directly projecting into your camera etc.) Therefore, I'd go with the Wolverine. (Hope you don't get a dud like some of the other forum members here. If you do purchase one, make sure you can return it if it turns out to be a dud!)

BTW, the rights links of your videos are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IFgbQcysLI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUFCeVAed_Q

Posted by Will Trenfield (Member # 5321) on February 16, 2019, 06:08 PM:

Welcome Alejandro. I have to say that the original films appear dirty and I would have thought that whoever did the transfer should have cleaned them first. I digitized my family films by simply projecting onto a piece of white paper and capturing the images with a video camera. It takes a little time to set it all up but it doesn't cost anything. I have posted several edited videos on YouTube using this method. Here's an example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGuT4g6AuWY

Posted by Will Trenfield (Member # 5321) on February 16, 2019, 06:12 PM:

Welcome Alejandro. I have to say that the original films appear dirty and I would have thought that whoever did the transfer should have cleaned them first. I digitized my family films by simply projecting onto a piece of white paper and capturing the images with a video camera. It takes a little time to set it all up but it doesn't cost anything. I have posted several edited videos on YouTube using this method. Here's an example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGuT4g6AuWY

Posted by Alejandro Olivera (Member # 4725) on February 17, 2019, 09:25 AM:

Thank you both Werner & Will for taking the time to answer my query.
I'd never hear of the Wolverine before so this is a big welcome news. I'm going to pick one up next time I'm in New York. Re.: my home movie collection,... yes they're dirty.
I thought they would clean them up before doing the transfer too. Live and learn.
I might try the video camera projection with some of the 16mm films that I have.
I had thought about it before also. A while back when I was in NYC I bought a Panasonic DV video camera Model # PV-GS80 for that purpose. But I have a MAC system. Panasonic makes 2 cameras that are not Mac compatible. Well I bought one of them !!!. Just my luck. When I bought it I should have told the salesman that I only work on Macs.
I might try it anyway just to see how it looks. I can always have it transferred into a pen-drive and then take it from there.
BTW,... I looked at your video conversions and they look pretty good. It make me feel that I should go the DIY route.
Thanks again guys.
Be well.
Alex

Posted by Nantawat Kittiwarakul (Member # 6050) on February 18, 2019, 09:33 AM:

Seems like you're using Youtube's video stabilizer/deshaker/sort of function.
For better sesult,just don't use it. That'll cause more harm than good. [Eek!]

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