Capturing 8mm and Super8 film to hard drive

[coldd]

I have a large project, actually involving several families and several thousands of feet of film shot from the 40s-70s. Has anyone had any luck doing this on their own? I've been calling various transfer companies in the area for quotes, and it seems to be quite an expensive task due to how much I'm working with, I'm thinking it might be cheaper to get my own equipment to do this.

If anyone has any advice of where I could go to find something to do this that would be great.. thanks

[DB83]

Well you can start here and just do a search on the word 'telecine'

And it is a steep learning curve if you want to do it properly.

[acusman]

I had been studying this for several years and finally pulled the trigger on the components necessary to transfer over 5 miles of family 8mm and Super8 film from the 1940s through the late 1960s. The Workprinter-HD from MovieStuff (moviestuff.com) is the primary component. Since I had so much film, I figured I'd buy the components, transfer it myself (I already had the video editing software) and then sell the equipment afterward, hopefully breaking even. Just started the transfer process two weeks ago and I've got to say the quality is truly amazing. And, with the software tools/add-ins available to clean up video noise and make color corrections, it's hard to tell it's 8mm film. I'm retired, so have lots of time.
A word of caution: the tab is close to $6,000 right now for everything I needed (Workprinter, HD 3CCD Camcorder, tripod, dedicated PC and associated hardware and special software, cleaning materials for the 8mm film, etc. etc.). I'm starting to put together a "journal" of what I learned since I was a novice starting out. Literally hundreds of hours spent researching issues about camera settings, hardware configurations and so forth. Not something for the weak of heart.

[filmboss80]

Actually, the correct link is www.moviestuff.tv -- not .com.

Whatever course you take, good results can only be achieved expensively, or with great difficulty. Even the cheapest DIY telecine methods involve quite a bit of labor. You cannot get good results simply by aiming a video camera at a projector screen. (Shutter mistiming creates an awful flicker; plus, the image is not sharp that way.)