Reel to reel projector rentals??

[yoda313]

Hi,

Well its our neighboorhood garage sale this weekend and I bought a sima film to video projector. It has a receiving screen for the projector to shoot into and another end for the camcorder to record the film. My family has some old 8mm (the reel to reel type) but we no longer have a projector.

We're planning on using our slide projector to do some still caps on my wintv pvr250. I may even do a slideshow set to music to dub to dvd.

Anyone know of rental prices for reel to reel projectors???? I saw an 8mm reel to reel for sale on ebay with a starting bid of $25. But this is not something we would be doing a lot of so we don't need to own one.

I've been looking up local stores and one was $100 and another was like $80 or so. Are those the price ranges I should expect???? (that is to take the film to them and have them do it.

Does anyone know what a rental fee might be for a reel to reel???? I would only need it for a few hours at most.

Thanks for any input. And know I don't have a dv camera. Just a modern sony 8mm video cassette camera (about four years old I think).

Kevin

(sorry if this is the wrong forum I wasn't quite sure where to put it)

[Marvingj]

The prices varies from 70-125. Which is the price for a Day. No one really uses the Reel to reel anymore so most rental Companies hype the prices up. Your better off trying to find one on Ebay. I saw a few good ones for under 60 bucks. Just make sure the bulb is working because those suckers are expensive like 30 bucks a pop. Hope that helps......

[yoda313]

Hi,

Thanks marvingj. I guess we'll have to decide how much we want to do this. Hopefully we can borrow one off a relative!

But we still have a slide projector we can use

Kevin

[Donny661]

Regarding the slides, if you have access to a scanner, you can just scan the slides for better resolution. There is a way to scan the slides without having the special slide scanner. Here is the link. You can also use that method with your video film, but it can be a pain scanning all of those frames in. But, there is a program that allows you to scan handful of frames at a time, and it recognizes where the individual frames are and saves them separately. It is called 8mm2avi.

These are just a couple more options you might want to look into. I haven't attempted either myself.

[yoda313]

Hi,

Thanks donny661, that's an interesting idea. I've done a test of the slide projector with a digital camera. THe results have been promising. Its a matter of focusing the picture properly. But its interesting. Thank you.

Kevin

[redwudz]

Check your local photo stores, preferably the ones that have been around for a while. I used to rent 16mm projectors for a weekend for a decent price. They also had 8mm projectors available. The big chain stores don't have this service, but the smaller ones still might. Also the local rental places sometimes have projectors available.

[yoda313]

Check your local photo stores, preferably the ones that have been around for a while. I used to rent 16mm projectors for a weekend for a decent price. They also had 8mm projectors available. The big chain stores don't have this service, but the smaller ones still might. Also the local rental places sometimes have projectors available.

Hi,

Thanks. I'll look into it.

Kevin

[thecoalman]

Regarding the slides, if you have access to a scanner, you can just scan the slides for better resolution.

I've been experimenting with slides and negatives myself with a backlit scanner, I think more importantly than the resolution is the color. The scans look almost as if they were taken with a digital camera, the only trouble that I have come across is dust, a little spec becomes hugely magnified. I've been using air in a can but that's a pain in the ass, just adds another step.

If you only have a few films Yoda I'd look into getting them professionally "captured". Just have them "capture" to A AVIO then you can edit or do what you wish with them.

[oldfart13]

I bought 2 working Bell & Howell 16 mm projectors from an estate sale for $50CAD. Never got around to checking the 200 16 mm films I rescued from the landfill, including many documentaries and cartoons I have yet to see. I may power these up sometime but they were guaranteed to not be dead anyway...

[mikel]

Another inexpensive alternative would be to check out a local college.
I work in the Media Dept of one. We have 8mm, S-8, and 16mm
projectors that can be used (in our building) by students and
others as long as they have a valid Drivers license.
mikel

[chemame]

FWIW, I'll add my experiences to the mix here...

We spent a day last year capturing 12 8mm reel-to-reels. Among the things I learned:

- We ended up tossing the little film-to-video projector box, in favor of direct projection to a screen. And, by screen, I mean we also tossed the official projection screen in favor of a sheet of white posterboard. Posterboard gave the largest, most crisp, brightest picture, with the best resolution.

- Find a video camera with manual focus, or at least an ability to disable autofocus. The lower priced ones only offer autofocus, and if you can't disable it, then any time the reel goes out of focus, the camera adjusts but can't compensate, and even after the reel is ok, it's a few seconds before the capture is in focus again

- Of the two cameras we used that had manual focus, one was extremely sensitive to the projector's flicker. And I don't mean "oh look how quaint, you can see the flicker"... I mean more of a strobe effect. I think I remember finally determining STEADYSHOT to be the culprit or something... odd... anyway, any digital processing inside the video camera may be thrown off-kilter, so look at those features if you have problems.

I think that's it. I made sure to record a few minutes of CLICKclickCLICKclickCLICKclickCLICK, with the intent of offering it as a second audio track on the DVD, for nostalgia. Never did, though. What would be real nice would be if you could capture the SMELL of the projector.. mmmmmmmm memories.

Chemame