Ever had one of the moments?

where you just want to hit yourself?

A co-worker came up to me asking if I knew anyone that could transfer 8mm video (reel2reel) to DvD.

so a quick google search showed a few "services" in the area. a $1.50 per foot of tape.

Ouch!...

grassroots alternative?

a little bit lengthier search shows this idea.

Used 8mm projector from ebay/craigslist... free? if not close to it. A Digital Camcorder on a tripod....we all know someone who has one to borrow. a dark room.

why didn't I just think of that?

You mean 8mm "Film"? It's this strange celloid stuff that you can see through, different than "video."

Yeah, make a Telecine box.

There is a company that sells analog to digital equipment as well.

Make sure that the projector allows you to fine tune the speed, otherwise you may end up with flicker. Some libraries rent the projectors, so check them before you go and buy one Also, if you are looking to get the brightest image possible, get some bright white posterboard and use the matte finish side to project onto instead of the projection screen. Use the zoom feature on the camcorder to crop the image tightly to the projected image.

I had it professionally done a few years ago. I dropped off about 20 reels of 8mm film and a shoe box of old photos. The guy did it in his basement (2nd career) nicely edited, has up tempo background music and was about $150. It was short clips of video between still shots on VHS. I burned a dozen copies and gave the as Christmas gifts, I have five brothers and a sister.

I found this guy in the yellow pages.

Dan

My granma has this device that does it for you. I haven't seen it in years, but there as I recall, is a port for the video camera and the film.

I wonder if she still has it?

Joey

There is software that will do it. Borrow a negative scanner from someone and scan it in frame by frame. Takes a long time, but then there is software that puts it all together.

Or you could do what I did; set up a DV camera to record a screening of the film. Its not perfect since the projector will suck at getting an accurate representation to the screen, but keep the projector close to the backdrop and you're good to go. The resolution of the DV camera is far greater than the old film so losses aren't terrible.

then download some free video editing software and have fun. I did this with some old footage my grandparents had and put it on DVD.