Have about 50 8mm film to capture, what to do?

[impmon2]

I have a pile of 8mm, many of them 30 years old to 60 years old and I wanted to capture them into modern format but I need advice. I thought about using projector and my camera but none of my camera will do 12 fps or equal multiples without lots of messy artifact, dark frames (in between film frame), or incorrect playback speed. I even tried using my camera in PAL setting (25 fps) but it's still not quite synced with the film at 12/24fps

It looks like I'd need professional equipment to do a clean capture and transfer but they don't come cheap and I don't want to keep any equipment around after the film's converted so I think I'll send the film to reputable source.

I tried to Google for 8mm film conversion service and even tried "8mm film conversion -tape" but got lots of hit for service that are doing 8mm magnetic tape. Whoever the idiot that made the 8mm term popular with magnetic tape needs to take remedial history because the term 8mm was used for film a few decades before magnetic media was invented and a good ~50 years before 8mm tape was invented.

Who would you suggest that can handle 8mm film at reasonable cost? The one service I did find is doing $1 per foot, which means I'd be playing about $50 per 3 minutes reel or $2500 total for the whole set. That seems pricey compared to just buying a pro film to video converter equipment, then selling it slightly used

EDIT: preferably in USA

[budwzr]

Why not buy a vacation package to India. They probably have all the old equipment and charge a lot cheaper.

[impmon2]

Because India technical support blows. What if there's a problem with video playback? I'd get canned "reboot computer, install xx, etc" and not get anything useful.

I'd still prefer USA location.

[Brad]

"8mm film transfer" or "8mm film scan" may give better hits.

Who would you suggest that can handle 8mm film at reasonable cost? The one service I did find is doing $1 per foot, which means I'd be playing about $50 per 3 minutes reel or $2500 total for the whole set. That seems pricey compared to just buying a pro film to video converter equipment, then selling it slightly used

http://www.moviestuff.tv/retro_8_telecine.html

I used this service to get a 35mm film trailer scanned to 1080p. Price depends on what services you want added to the scanning process itself. I wouldn't even consider the $0.18 scan since it's a whole different method, so $0.30 per foot up to $0.68 per foot unless you are a grain hater (it's part of the image on the film and not a defect added later).

Note that these are the prices just for the "scan/cleanup" and not for any of the other parts of the conversion process that are necessary to get the data to you. They've been running some promotions lately so use one of those to save some money if you do decide they are the right fit. For 2500ft at the "Remastered" quality level they quote $1720 if you send them hard drive(s) to put the data on and there is currently a 15% off coupon code = $1462.

[creakndale]

I've gone through the same saga you are going through. This is my experience.

Back in 2006, I needed to have 250' of ~22 year old 8mm film transferred to high quality files that I could edit in Adobe Premiere. After a lot of internet searching and email conversations with various companies I chose Video Conversion Experts in Chandler, Arizona. They were a new company and gave all the right answers to my questions. At the time, they had a 600' minimum but they agreed to waive this and charged me $130. When I got the film/files back I immediately checked them out. The quality was absolutely horrible. I contacted them and they checked their backup files and wouldn't acknowledge the problems but agreed to re-transfer them at no charge using a machine that had a better feeding system, with the "restoration" process turned off this time, and capture more of the frame. When I got them back the second time they were much improved but still not even close to the quality I was hoping for. I was so disappointed, I shelved the project. (I see they are still in business so maybe the problems have been solved)?

Fast forward to 2012. My parents gave me 700' of ~52 year old 8mm and 300' of ~54 year old 16mm home movie films. Even though I am still upset with the loss of $130 from 7 years ago, the parent's films sparked my interest again so I did the whole internet research and reading the forums, hoping that the film conversion process had matured and the problems had been resolved. I decided I wanted the transfer done in high definition even though my final output was standard definition DVD. Knowing all the footage is handheld, I wanted to be able to apply stabilization, do some panning and zooming without any quality loss (only down scaling, no up scaling).

I narrowed it down to two companies. FilmTransfer.com in Illinois and MyMovieTransfer.com in Pennsylvania. Both offer HD transfers but their file formats weren't compatible with my decade old Adobe Premiere software. So armed with sample files from each company, I downloaded trial versions of four modern video editors and eventually settled on Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11. I went with version 11 since I'm still running Windows XP. Version 12 is not XP compatible.

I opened up a chat window with FilmTransfer because they said Chat is Online but they never responded. So I called but had to leave a message. They called me back the next day and answered all my questions. I was told their chat, email and phone system were in process of changing which is the reason for the communication delay. I tried their Chat again and this time it worked. (As I'm writing this, I searched FilmTransfer.com and see that they are now called Pixcel. That might be why they were changing email and phone system). Their Better Business Bureau rating was "A" with just a couple of complaints that were satisfactorily resolved.

I called MyMovieTransfer and also left a message. They called me back in about an hour and answered all my questions. They said they do a lot of film transfers for people who are unhappy with the quality from other transfer companies. Their Better Business Bureau rating was "A+" with no complaints.

After mulling it over for a week, I decided to go with MyMovieTransfer even though it was going to cost ~$100 more. I went with their 720P transfer, had 2-pass film cleaning and sent them an external USB hard drive for the files. I knew they shut down between Christmas and New Years for holiday but I sent the package on 12/19/2012 and received everything back on 1/19/2013. So far the results are excellent and the quality meets my high expectations! I've finished editing the 16mm and I'm about 1/3 through the 8mm. I'm adding sound and audio effects as I go so it's taking me awhile to get everything just right.

creakndale

[Brad]

Yeah, Pixcel is what I used. They were called Film Transfer Company at the time I ordered and had changed the name by the time they shipped the HDD back.

Perhaps you could post some samples of the transfers you got?

[Richard_G]

I did some, although not as many as you have to do, by using the projector and camcorder method. However, you do need a camcorder that allows manual exposure and shutter speed adjustment. By playing around with the shutter speed, I was able to get a video file that didn't have any blank frames and gave an image that looked just like watching the original 8mm film.

[impmon2]

Thanks for a few useful information, I'll start checking them out. I'd like to get my film done before they turn to dust. Film don't last long if they aren't stored at optimal condition, and attic for 30 years is not optimal (120F in summer, -20F in winter at times, humidity from 0 to 100%) so the film are probably going to fall apart soon.

[Brad]

Just got an email saying that members of Pixcel's newsletter list currently get 30% off of the three "restoration" levels. $.31/ft for the "Enhanced" service or $.47/ft for the "Remastered". After reading that their dust and dirt removal is digital I personally would just go for the $.31 option in order to have the flexibility to run my own filters on it or keep it as-is.

[Brad]

Today only until midnight CST (only 2 hours left) they also have a "VIP" deal of an additional 15% off the 30% with coupon code PIXAGG51413. $1,349.50 for 5000 ft with the "Enhanced" service.

Not sure why they sent the email this late in the day.