The nightmare that is the metal can.

[David Strelitz]

I did my first attempt at cine transfer back in 1983 and have come on a bit since those early days... I like to think😁.
If there is one thing I still dread it's film cans. Whether 8 or 16mm I refer to the silvery ones that seem to shrink, get slight dents, mild rust, with lids that require coaxing cogolling and a good command of Anglo Saxon, just to get to the films. Sometimes lid removal takes longer than the telecine 🙄.
Last week 4x 35mm cans arrived, each contains 3x 200ft 8mm reels. Amazingly, the Fire and Rescue cutting gear was not required and not even a broken finger nail or screwdriver blade drawing blood. Today one 400ft can of 8mm...the nightmare returned.
Is there a metal can support group?🙄😳🤔😁

[Lee Mannering]

So enjoy reminiscing about the early home cine transfer days.
My entrance was 1981 with the all new singing dancing Ferguson Videostar colour camera and a Bell Howell 642 projector with my dad. We had to rewire the camera multi connector which was a bit of guess work with no diagrams to follow.
Dad was using low density open reel video tape in the 60's to transfer cine onto video and i managed a tape transfer a couple of decades or so ago of the old home movies. Dad was so pleased...
Dad kept the tapes in Sony plastic cases and so with the films.

So many times films for transfer come in rusty cans and like your good self difficult to open. I tend to run a little WD40 around the join and leave overnight which release much better. But whats is Inside?

[David Strelitz]

WOW- the early reel video. Were they the Ampex 2"? After my first Panasonic domestic camera, in 1984 I bought a Hitachi FP7, a semi-pro single tube camera. I was introduced to a Hitachi engineer who lived a few miles away and built me a CCU for it. When I moved onto a DXC 3000, that camera head was used as a feed for my Black Burst Generator (another custom build). The flight case is now home to my Portaprompt teleprompter. "Video Recycling"???
I do recall after playing with some borrowed projectors, going in to Vic Odden's at London Bridge in 1983. Vic told me about a Std/Sup 8mm Bauer that with a speed conversion was £160. "I'll never get my money back" said sceptical Dave. Vic laughed and asked me how many reels of film were in circulation. I bit the bullet and a few months later had another Bauer with a two bladed shutter for the odd 24fps sound film.
The Bauers have long since gone but the transfers continue, along with a full range of production services.