Converting 8MM Film to 1080P

I wonder if the JES Deinterlacer would have done a better job of frame rate conversion. You might want to give it a try as an experiment.

Great video.

Reminds me of my youth. Cute baby! Is that a little AppleMan I see?

Yikes that looks frighteningly like my mom and dad! Seriously.

But thanks for the information, my brother and I were just talking about doing something with our 8mm footage from the late 50s early 60s.
the great thing about this forum is there is so much useful information so we don't all have to reinvent the wheel.

roger

That is something, the res is great, much better than I wold have imagined.

Thank you for sharing that Appleman1958 (or should I say Tim). It brings back a lot of memories. I have over 4 hours of 8mm and Super 8 movies, dating back to the early Sixties. I bought my first movie camera in 1963 when just a callow youth of 18.

Your YouTube movie looks great, considering its age (1958) - no flicker and very clear. The processor did an excellent job. Was it processed by the frame-by-frame scanning method, i.e., with each frame being scanned individually, or the usual telecine method? I know you mentioned "capturing each frame" but just wanted to be sure of the method used.

My reason for asking is that I've been contemplating doing something similar with my old footage. Like you, several years ago I transferred the films to VHS tape (no digital back then). Rather than using a screen (which I have) or a sheet on the wall (like you), I used a "black box". The box has 2 lenses, one on one end and another on one side, with a mirror arrangement inside the box. The projector is set up to project the image through the side lens onto the mirror. The camcorder records the image through the end lens. I connected my (very old) camcorder (VHS-C) directly to a VHS recorder to avoid re-recording later and thus losing quality.

This method worked quite well, but did of course result in annoying flicker. Additionally, in some sections the camcorder picked up a "hot spot" in the centre of the frame, due to the projector lamp reflecting off the mirror. I used a neutral density filter on the camera to minimise this. These two issues aside, the result was reasonable, but not as good as I would have liked.

More recently, I imported the VHS tapes into iMovie '09, creating a range of Events (but only a couple of Projects as yet). I initially did this using the "pass through" feature of my older Sony miniDV camera - but had to use iMovie 4 to achieve this (other versions after 4 didn't work with pass through). From there I moved the clips into iMovie '09. These clips, of course, are currently in DV format (due to the capture method). I've been considering converting them to AIC, Motion JPEG or Photo JPEG in order to avoid the quality complications we all read about here with exporting DV projects. I'm still experimenting with these conversion options.

On my 15" MacBook Pro, the imported video looks quite good - better than I expected, but not as good as I would prefer, particularly if also viewing on a much larger HD TV. Hence my reason for now looking at getting a professional transfer done, as you've done. The cost is a bit prohibitive though, particularly the frame-by-frame scanning method. So for now, I'll probably keep procrastinating a while longer 🙂 At least I've now got a version that can be digitally edited, albeit of non-optimal quality!

Thanks again for the very comprehensive overview of the process you've gone through. Thanks also for the wise counsel you always give to this forum - much appreciated!

John

Looking at Appleman's excellent 8mm recovery results, I am this week sending a whole box of 8mm tape canisters (spanning maybe 1958-63) to mymoviecapture.com (which he used). It will cost a bundle, we predict about $1400 for all if we estimated correctly. But with my parents both passing in the last few years, me and my sibs now in our 50s, and all that coming with those life changes, will make the trip back in time and then having them in a safe and much improved medium, forever worth it.

roger

Thanks for the quick reply. That site is one I've looked at previously and did have bookmarked, but if I go ahead I'll probably use a company closer to home - there are a number in Australia that provide a good service, even in my State (South Australia). However, the different transfer methods are confusing.

There certainly is a lot of information to digest on MyMovieTransfer.com - I'm still not fully clear on their technique versus others I've read about - but the results speak for themselves (as in your case), so how it's done is probably a bit academic I guess. I will have a more thorough read when time permits (getting late here)!

Thanks again for the information - I will post back later if I have any further comments, just need time to digest it all 🙂

John

If you want to compare "apples to apples" to the "sheet on the wall" video linked in post 1, here is the 1080P version of that same footage, now available on YouTube here

Wow! There's a marked difference between them - no flicker, clearer, not "washed out" and more saturated colours in the 1080p version. I would definitely say "money well spent". I'll now have to get serious about mine!

John

Looking at Appleman's excellent 8mm recovery results, I am this week sending a whole box of 8mm tape canisters (spanning maybe 1958-63) to mymoviecapture.com (which he used). It will cost a bundle, we predict about $1400 for all if we estimated correctly. But with my parents both passing in the last few years, me and my sibs now in our 50s, and all that coming with those life changes, will make the trip back in time and then having them in a safe and much improved medium, forever worth it.

Thanks Roger. I fully understand your sentiments. We probably shouldn't put a price on these things, as nostalgic memories are priceless, especially when they involve family members, friends and relatives who are no longer with us. Those memories, now in celluloid form, need preserving for future generations.

Thanks again for your response. It's now bedtime for me!

John

FWIW, I also used this same film transfer company a few years ago after conducting a ridiculously long and laborious search. I finally decided these were the guys for my precious transfer job. Their service was professional and they even took time to discuss some technical issues with me (eg. why they weren't using wetgate cleaning). I'd recommend them to anyone.

I had them scan about 3,000 feet of 8mm film for me and put it on miniDV tapes, which is what my camcorder at the time used. I then imported the DV streams into FCP. I was generally happy with the results, but a little disappointed with the overall final image quality. I never blamed the transfer company for this - I think it's just film aging and other quality issues with the original footage. My results are very much like what you posted. I really should fire up my old 8mm projector to do a side-by-side comparison one of these days.

Anyway, given my less than stellar image results, I was a little surprised to read that you went to 1080P. I suppose I would also if I was doing this project today, but I don't think my footage would really justify the costs (processing, disk space, etc.) of any incremental improvement there might be over DV. I just don't think you could see it.

Appleman; that was great. But in my mind I knew it needed the sound of an 8mm projector running quietly. Here's the URL to a free one:

http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=60453

It's described by its uploader as "Single 8 mm film projector, type Revue lux 30 a. Projector start, run at 18 fps for just over 1 minute, projector stop. Projector loaded with film on 7 inch reels." Now, you'd really have something if you added that audio track to your film.

To really top it off, look up the Glen Campbell instrumental recording of "500 Miles" done on a 12 string guitar. I'd love to see your movie with that sound track.

Thanks for bringing back the 50's, if only for a little while. It made me smile.

Eddie