I fear it’s something I’m doing wrong

[Colin King]

Hello everybody,

after a family bereavement i find myself the owner of a number of family 8mm reel-2-reels, and 2 projectors.

the first which has had the electronics removed is a Boots (uk shop) branded Tarta 8mm; the other is a smaller ‘Kokoku auto mini’ Which seems to work - although the motor is underpowered so i need to help both of the reels rotate.

i would like to be able to use one or either to try and view the films but at moment i have very little success...

the Tarta will only work if i attach a good torch and manually wind - but thats harder than I’d anticipated - am i wasting my time?

the Kokoku seems to work and does project, although i only ever get a flicker rather than actual image - i know it does work because the few times its jamned i get a good single frame - before i rush to turn off the light (to save burning the film)

i guess all of this is user error - but is it possible to use a modern bulb - perhaps a G10 - and manually wind???

And is my problem with the other, some kind of synchronisation issue in the projector, or just a symptom of having to assist the reels.

my goal is to convert these to digital for the wider family - so am i better off just buying a modern converter - i saw another post about Wolverine scanners - but i also read that many of them only convert to jpg; and capturing frame-by-frame, then restitching sounds like an awful lot of work.

sorry for all the questions, and too for potentially mixing topics - but any advice would be welcome.

i can provide photos if required.

[Colin King]

Reading more - could i be mixing 8mm and Super8 - can a 8mm projector play super-8 film .... and what about vise-vera?

[Colin King]

Ok - it looks like both of my projectors are standard 8mm, as too are at least a few (& those i’ve been testing with) film reels - so that’s a good start i guess.

[Gregory Oliver]

To start with, there is an easy way to tell which type of 8mm film it is. Standard 8mm had larger holes, about 1/3 the width of the film, and super8 has smaller holes, less than 1/4 of the width. That gives you a larger image surface.

[Colin King]

Thanks Gregory,
i’m pretty sure they are 8mm now - but i’d not considered there being an audio track, partly because neither of my projectors have speakers or outputs. MMmm... that’s something else to think about!

...it was only a only a few days ago i collected the box of reels and 2 projects and though to myself “how hard can this be!”

[Colin King]

OK - after another night playing - i have more success.. and have found a tourist guide to Paris and the final car scene from ‘W.C. Fields - Never Give a Sucker an Even Break’ which having found the details on-line, its a full length movie, so may be the contents of a number of the other reels.

having that success, i went back to some of the first ones which game me trouble - and they do seem be flickering images. Looking at the film itself it does seem to be a series of similar photos - but does anybody know if some 8mm runs a different speeds? I did also consider it being a separate audio track - but does it looks like images.

any thoughts?

[Dominique De Bast]

Colin, I don't know your projectors so what's follows is a kind of general consideration. A silent films runs at 16 or 18 fps and a (commercial) sound one runs at 24 fps. Since you said your projectors are silent ones, they are not supposed to have the 24 fps speed (sound projectors have a 18/24 selector) but they may have a speed control button. If you see flickering, the speed may be lower than 16 fps so the solution is obvious : increasing the speed. Regarding sound : if there is a magnetic strip glued on the opposite side of the perforations, that's a soundtrack (there may also be a strip on the perforation side, it's called compensation track but on standard 8 films, there is most than probably no sound on it ; on super 8, there can be sound on both tracks but you need an appropiate projector to read the compenstion track. Hope it helps.

[Colin King]

Dominique,
thanks - that makes sense. From the two projectors i do have, the working one is single speed, while the other looks to be variable, the electronics have been removed. I have manually winding and using a drill (which as a concept was good) but light is a problem. I had tried using a good torch and a small 12v spot light, but they are no match for the bulb provided - i may try a g10 if i can, but i guess its more about focusing the beam.

i am pretty sure my 8mm film is silent, and now I know they may differ in FPS, that could easily explain the flicker issues. There are about 30 reels in my box - so i can at least view most of those - enough to decide what to do next.

do you think there is any chance of manually using a projector? Finding a good enough bulb and rotating at the right RPM ..... or is that scrap!?

[David Roberts]

Colin, I strongly advise you forget the projectors you have,and find a good eumig,bolex or elmo on e bay. There are plenty of them,and it shouldnt cost much.
Use the guide Gregory posted to be certain the gauge you have.

[Trevor Adams]

Colin why not get someone local to put these wee films onto a USB stick.It would be cheaper in the long run and a pro will add back ground music! Trev

[Colin King]

Trevor - i did price up a local digital conversion and because its based on “ft of film” it was looking to be over £300est. This is far more than i’d anticipated.

David - thanks. There is nothing worse than unnecessarily struggling with the wrong kit. I found a few ‘confirmed as working’ P8M’s for ~£40. Is that the kind of thing?

But it’s good to know i can make my life a whole lot easier by scrapping the old projectors I do have.

i’ve certainly learnt a lot in the past few days - thank you all for your time, patience and advise.