Newbie in need of equipment advice!

[Andrea Nelsen]

Hello, and thank you in advance! This is my first post and I hope I'm not repeating past questions. After doing some searches I didn't see answers so here goes. Anyway I came across a stack of 8mm films from my grandfather, taken in the 1940s. I have tried one thing after another to try to watch them and am having horrible luck. So far I've bought 2 viewers and 2 projectors, and no luck.

The viewers are a Baia 8mm Ultraviewer and a Minette 8 Viewer Editor. Both were "functional" when they arrived. But neither actually works. The Biaia bulb works, but no image gets projected onto the screen. I've looked inside it and the mirrors look intact, although I have no guide for what the inside of this viewer should actually look like. I've dusted the screen and lens. I've tried adjusting the focus. I know these films have visible frames and yet nothing is projected onto the screen.

The Minette has a very small screen. It too was not producing a clear image, and then earlier today, the light just stopped working. Yet the filament on the bulb is intact, so I'm not sure it's actually the bulb. I suppose I could replace the light with a different light, but that's a lot of work and still might not be effective.

The projectors I have are a Sears Du-All and a Keystone 95. The Sears runs fine and the bulb works. However there is a rubber ring missing from the loading mechanism and I can't load it, and also don't trust it without all its parts. The Keystone is manual load, and I can thread it, but it does this strange thing, where only the top reel turns when the motor is on. The top reel is, I assume, the starting reel. The bottom reel, the take-up reel, doesn't turn. So the film goes through the machine but then piles up at the bottom. I opened it up and saw that in the top reel, there is an intact belt. In the bottom reel, there are gears. When the motor is on, they don't move. Should they be moving? I don't know if the bottom reel is supposed to turn while the machine is running or not, but if it doesn't turn, then how is the film supposed to be wound onto the take-up reel? Also I am not sure that the frame advancement is running at a consistent speed. And it surely needs oil - but I don't know where that would need to be applied.

I don't want to damage my film on a projector that's not working, which is why I bought the editors. But they don't work either!!! I would love advice about what to do next. Of the 4 devices, the Keystone seems the close to working, but I have no idea how to get it there.

[Osi Osgood]

Run, run for your life! Run! (Koff!), OK, all silliness aside, you have just had a run of bad luck on those machines. It sounds like we're dealing with standard 8mm, and I am sure that others are far more well suited to give advise on a good standard 8mm projector, but it all depends on what your actually wanting to do. If you are just wanting to view these films and have no desire to do any real collecting, I would suggest taking these precious memories to a business that does a good digital transfer of your films, and then continue to store these films for posterity, while you can watch all these memories digitally, without putting anymore wear on your films. Good luck on whatever venture you choose.

[Andrea Nelsen]

Thank you! Yes, this is standard 8mm. Alas, I want to do a few things. One is, I want to watch the movies the way they were designed to be watched. I also want to convert them to digital, and I have a scanner that should do that, but I want to be able to see how well the scanner works by comparing the originals to the scans. I wouldn't be opposed to having a professional scan them, especially if they have better equipment than what I have, but I'm worried about losing control over the process. I used to do a lot of film photography and I like working with film, and being able to view at least some of the film I have through a projector just appeals to me.

Maybe I need to try a third projector? I'm just getting really skeptical of the ones that are for sale! If I can fix the Keystone, I would give that a try.

[Tony Kelly]

hi andrea buy a standard 8mm projector from ebay or advertise here for one, many people on here im sure will sell you one that is in tip top condition

[Osi Osgood]

As you probably already know, there are various levels of scans, 2K, ECT, and you can get a pretty good fine grain scan that will certainly do justice to these memories. I totally understand wanting to see them as they were meant to be seen ... there is a sense and real feeling like your reliving, as your family did years ago, the very same experience, albeit, they aren't there, but it is the shared experience.

[Andrea Nelsen]

Thanks everyone. I will check out the advertisements here for a working projector! Does anyone have advice about a scanning device? The one I have compresses the files pretty significantly so it might be hard to work with them later.

[Orestes Roumeliotis]

Thanks everyone. I will check out the advertisements here for a working projector! Does anyone have advice about a scanning device? The one I have compresses the files pretty significantly so it might be hard to work with them later.

Honestly? Unless you really want the projection experience I suggest you just contact someone and get them to transfer it to digital so you can view it on a computer, laptop, or even a TV. You will also run less of a risk of destroying everything by scratching it in the process of trying to play it on projectors you have no history of.

There are the big ones like Film Rescue that can do scans on film scanners that are worth more than the literal price of your house, but I'm sure if you tried hard enough you could find someone or a company in Minnesota willing to transfer it for you, without transferring it over the border to Canada... Although... Minnesota to anywhere in Canada is really not that far so maybe Film Rescue is worth looking at if you care about the memories more than the costs.

You can try buying a Wolverine type film scanner that is affordable for at home viewing and scanning, but they're a dogs breakfast and can stop working just as easily in the middle of a reel, especially with spliced film. I would suggest just stumping up the money and sending the reels to a profession such as the above.

The one I've mentioned since editing above are the most well known in the entire world, bar none, and the reputation doesn't come without repute. The only problem with those labs is that they're so large that the process can take up to months especially if its older undeveloped film... But also even for scanning.

But then it depends? What are the memories worth to you? Old film, may not be "fire safe" and may actually be made out of cellulose if it were sold before 1938, there is a high risk the film could catch fire and you could lose everything, which is another reason to send it to a professional.

Edit: Seems the other company to do with "Colorado" took a turn for the worst since 2010 onward, but a lot more in recent years, the more you know the more you know, I won't be recommending them again. I won't mention them directly so as not to steer any traffic their way.