With the amount you have your best bet might be a service like Legacybox. If you had a lot of it, or if you plan on doing more of it, you might want to consider getting a scanning device. I have one from Wolverine that works well and costs about $300
Oh wow then it would definitely be most cost effective to buy [a unit like this one.](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1272222-REG/wolverine_data_f2dmm100_8mm_and_super_8.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI%3A6879&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD7yMh22VgxeIOGqgd1dmQAMpDupM&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5LnXwKicgwMV3EtHAR364gCGEAQYASABEgJRMPD_BwE). They're very easy and straightforward to use and spit out a ready-to-go mp4 file so you don't have to do any additional editing if you don't want to, although I always slow them down to about 90% speed since the machine's FPS is just a little too fast.
Most services are about 10$+ or so per 50 foot 3" reel. So, you would have about 500 dollars in having a company do it. If you buy a machine, do the transfer, and sell the machine (or do other people's films) you can cut your out of pocket costs. Each film is about 3 minutes and 20 seconds of running time. If the machine runs at about 1/4 to 1/2 running time you can figure out your labor hours. Add about 5-10 minutes to clean and rewind the film if you transfer. Would need to decide what method you are going to watch the films. DVD ? Flash Drive? Internet? etc. A few other considerations if you do the labor/buy the machine. What works best for you? Any other family members that can "kick in" a few bucks to get a copy?
I have one of these film scanners too. Quality is good as it scans each frame individually. Problem is speed is slow, it scans each frame individually. And it doesn't do sound, just the images.
This is what I did as well. I have somewhere around 40 reels ranging from 3 in to 9 in that I needed to convert. The Wolverine generally does a good job of converting the film to digital; however, the frame rate is off. I had to re-encode the frame rate from 30 FPS to 18 FPS otherwise the video looked way too fast. Plan on learning how to use DaVinci Resolve which is a free video editing program if you want to do any sort of improvements to the film that's been converted. Also make sure that you clean the film of any dirt or debris as it can transfer into the digital conversion. Good luck and enjoy your films!
I’m have a box of old super 8 that may grandfather and father shot between the 50s and 80s. I bought a machine to digitize them and have been working my way through the pile.
Get a projector and a screen, thread it up and focus your video camera on the screen. Try your best to avoid the glare from the projector bulb. Not the most professional way to do it but it’s free!
You need a super-8 mm projector: [https://www.super8camera.com/filmprojectors/super-8-projector/](https://www.super8camera.com/filmprojectors/super-8-projector/)
or a viewer/editor for super-8mm:
[https://www.super8camera.com/filmprojectors/editor/](https://www.super8camera.com/filmprojectors/editor/)
Make sure you get a projector that is for Super 8 and not 8mm. Both formats get confused a lot (they look nearly identical) and the same goes with projectors. Sometimes sellers will list 8mm projectors as Super 8 ones so make sure to double check. Usually the projector will say super 8 or s8 on it somewhere.
I would be happy to help get those converted for you. I have a small business that uses a better machine than the Wolverine. [www.facebook.com/thompsonstapes](https://www.facebook.com/thompsonstapes)
Oh gosh there's some bad info here. I wouldn't recommend any of the companies mentioned here (Legacybox, Wolverine, Just8mm, or Thompson's Tapes). I _think_ the unit Thompson's Tapes is using is the one made by [FocusScan](https://www.ebay.com/itm/133890617011). There's a few companies that make those, they'll called Snipers. They're just projectors, usually Elmo brand projectors, modified to let a camcorder record the film through the gate. They're not a very good design, they're just cheap machines used to convert directly to VHS/DVD hence the use of the Camcorder instead of a machine vision camera. Camcorders generally have a 250 line imager (yes 250, not 480 or 576 or 720) and as you can imagine the technology has changed a lot in the past 30 years since the snipers were first made. Your 8mm film is 16fps, you can scan to 16fps digitally, those things however and the Tobins will hard-convert to NTSC so 60i (30 frames per second with interlacing and ghosting).
Wolverines and Retroscans will damage film, and your 1970's and 1980's film is not worth damaging to save a buck even if you don't care about the quality of the scan. The cheapest 8mm scanner of decent quality available to hobbyists is the Filmfabrik Pictor, and yes it costs over €10,000 (which is considerably less than the €40,000 HDS+). The [TVT-8 and TVT-S8](https://www.urbanskifilm.com/tobinmanuals.html) cost $3,500 each and you would need both, however they are not digital scanners - they convert directly to NTSC or to PAL (depending on the model you buy). Ventura Images sell a low-end 16/8 scanner for CAD $11,000 I believe.
The Wolverines and the similarly designed units can only be built at the price they are by using subpar components. A decent 2K camera will cost $600 on its own, add another $400 for a lens and you're already way above their price-point. The Wolverines have a line-array imager that isn't very good.
The LaserGraphics Archivist launched at USD $40,000 - now I think it starts at USD $50K and that includes the host computer. Quite a few of them have been sold to "mom and pop" scanning facilities/labs to replace the Retroscans and other junk scanners. The real reason that other "mom and pop" transfer companies don't purchase them is because they're afraid of the investment. To most of them spending $5,000 on a Retroscan represented a huge investment, so the idea of spending $40,000 or more on a Filmfabrik or a LaserGraphics is a barrier that they won't cross. Once you go above $5,000 there's very few people willing to spend the money on them.
If you want to get your films scanned in the US I'd recommend you have a chat to my friend Austin [here](https://reelrevivalfilm.com/). He has two scanners, the LaserGraphics ScanStation is his main workhorse, most of the scanning he does is commercial for people that are producing blurays or putting them to streaming or doing film restorations, but he also scans home movies. His other scanner is a 4K DIY scanner that he's probably spent now $25,000 on not counting his own labour in developing it and it produces very similar quality to the LaserGraphics scanner. Pricing is flat per foot, tell him I sent you and he'll do a discount off his website rates. His base price for 50ft 8mm reels is usually $30 I think, color correction is optional at an additional cost - his commercial clients really like his CC but you may prefer to do it yourself in Resolve. No hidden fees. There's still a lot of the "professional companies" that charge extra for _everything_: extra for sound, extra to output to a hard drive (!), extra for a proxy/proof, extra for DNG or DPX, etc etc. Some of the "mom and pop" places that have purchased LaserGraphics scanners are doing it as well, presumably because they see other companies with them doing it and think it's normal!
By the way, does the library you work at have film they want to scan? If they do we can get Austin to give them a sample if they want to send something his way.
With the amount you have your best bet might be a service like Legacybox. If you had a lot of it, or if you plan on doing more of it, you might want to consider getting a scanning device. I have one from Wolverine that works well and costs about $300
I have about 50-60 rolls
Oh wow then it would definitely be most cost effective to buy [a unit like this one.](https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1272222-REG/wolverine_data_f2dmm100_8mm_and_super_8.html/?ap=y&ap=y&smp=y&smp=y&lsft=BI%3A6879&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD7yMh22VgxeIOGqgd1dmQAMpDupM&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5LnXwKicgwMV3EtHAR364gCGEAQYASABEgJRMPD_BwE). They're very easy and straightforward to use and spit out a ready-to-go mp4 file so you don't have to do any additional editing if you don't want to, although I always slow them down to about 90% speed since the machine's FPS is just a little too fast.
Thank you for letting me know!
Most services are about 10$+ or so per 50 foot 3" reel. So, you would have about 500 dollars in having a company do it. If you buy a machine, do the transfer, and sell the machine (or do other people's films) you can cut your out of pocket costs. Each film is about 3 minutes and 20 seconds of running time. If the machine runs at about 1/4 to 1/2 running time you can figure out your labor hours. Add about 5-10 minutes to clean and rewind the film if you transfer. Would need to decide what method you are going to watch the films. DVD ? Flash Drive? Internet? etc. A few other considerations if you do the labor/buy the machine. What works best for you? Any other family members that can "kick in" a few bucks to get a copy?
That’s actually a great way of looking at it!
I have one of these film scanners too. Quality is good as it scans each frame individually. Problem is speed is slow, it scans each frame individually. And it doesn't do sound, just the images.
This is what I did as well. I have somewhere around 40 reels ranging from 3 in to 9 in that I needed to convert. The Wolverine generally does a good job of converting the film to digital; however, the frame rate is off. I had to re-encode the frame rate from 30 FPS to 18 FPS otherwise the video looked way too fast. Plan on learning how to use DaVinci Resolve which is a free video editing program if you want to do any sort of improvements to the film that's been converted. Also make sure that you clean the film of any dirt or debris as it can transfer into the digital conversion. Good luck and enjoy your films!
I’m have a box of old super 8 that may grandfather and father shot between the 50s and 80s. I bought a machine to digitize them and have been working my way through the pile.
I used this company to digitize about 10 or so family films and felt they did a decent job: https://just8mm.com
Get a projector and a screen, thread it up and focus your video camera on the screen. Try your best to avoid the glare from the projector bulb. Not the most professional way to do it but it’s free!
If your phone has a video app that gives you control over shutter speed, give that a go to reduce the flicker or banding on your video.
Could you point me towards a YouTube video of what you mean? I’m new at this, so I can’t quite imagine what you are saying, but I’m willing to learn.
Just search for super 8 projector setup. I’m sure there’s plenty of tutorials available.
Thank you!
You need a super-8 mm projector: [https://www.super8camera.com/filmprojectors/super-8-projector/](https://www.super8camera.com/filmprojectors/super-8-projector/) or a viewer/editor for super-8mm: [https://www.super8camera.com/filmprojectors/editor/](https://www.super8camera.com/filmprojectors/editor/)
Make sure you get a projector that is for Super 8 and not 8mm. Both formats get confused a lot (they look nearly identical) and the same goes with projectors. Sometimes sellers will list 8mm projectors as Super 8 ones so make sure to double check. Usually the projector will say super 8 or s8 on it somewhere.
I would be happy to help get those converted for you. I have a small business that uses a better machine than the Wolverine. [www.facebook.com/thompsonstapes](https://www.facebook.com/thompsonstapes)
Thank you, I’ll mention your services to my grandmother
Thank you
Oh gosh there's some bad info here. I wouldn't recommend any of the companies mentioned here (Legacybox, Wolverine, Just8mm, or Thompson's Tapes). I _think_ the unit Thompson's Tapes is using is the one made by [FocusScan](https://www.ebay.com/itm/133890617011). There's a few companies that make those, they'll called Snipers. They're just projectors, usually Elmo brand projectors, modified to let a camcorder record the film through the gate. They're not a very good design, they're just cheap machines used to convert directly to VHS/DVD hence the use of the Camcorder instead of a machine vision camera. Camcorders generally have a 250 line imager (yes 250, not 480 or 576 or 720) and as you can imagine the technology has changed a lot in the past 30 years since the snipers were first made. Your 8mm film is 16fps, you can scan to 16fps digitally, those things however and the Tobins will hard-convert to NTSC so 60i (30 frames per second with interlacing and ghosting). Wolverines and Retroscans will damage film, and your 1970's and 1980's film is not worth damaging to save a buck even if you don't care about the quality of the scan. The cheapest 8mm scanner of decent quality available to hobbyists is the Filmfabrik Pictor, and yes it costs over €10,000 (which is considerably less than the €40,000 HDS+). The [TVT-8 and TVT-S8](https://www.urbanskifilm.com/tobinmanuals.html) cost $3,500 each and you would need both, however they are not digital scanners - they convert directly to NTSC or to PAL (depending on the model you buy). Ventura Images sell a low-end 16/8 scanner for CAD $11,000 I believe. The Wolverines and the similarly designed units can only be built at the price they are by using subpar components. A decent 2K camera will cost $600 on its own, add another $400 for a lens and you're already way above their price-point. The Wolverines have a line-array imager that isn't very good. The LaserGraphics Archivist launched at USD $40,000 - now I think it starts at USD $50K and that includes the host computer. Quite a few of them have been sold to "mom and pop" scanning facilities/labs to replace the Retroscans and other junk scanners. The real reason that other "mom and pop" transfer companies don't purchase them is because they're afraid of the investment. To most of them spending $5,000 on a Retroscan represented a huge investment, so the idea of spending $40,000 or more on a Filmfabrik or a LaserGraphics is a barrier that they won't cross. Once you go above $5,000 there's very few people willing to spend the money on them. If you want to get your films scanned in the US I'd recommend you have a chat to my friend Austin [here](https://reelrevivalfilm.com/). He has two scanners, the LaserGraphics ScanStation is his main workhorse, most of the scanning he does is commercial for people that are producing blurays or putting them to streaming or doing film restorations, but he also scans home movies. His other scanner is a 4K DIY scanner that he's probably spent now $25,000 on not counting his own labour in developing it and it produces very similar quality to the LaserGraphics scanner. Pricing is flat per foot, tell him I sent you and he'll do a discount off his website rates. His base price for 50ft 8mm reels is usually $30 I think, color correction is optional at an additional cost - his commercial clients really like his CC but you may prefer to do it yourself in Resolve. No hidden fees. There's still a lot of the "professional companies" that charge extra for _everything_: extra for sound, extra to output to a hard drive (!), extra for a proxy/proof, extra for DNG or DPX, etc etc. Some of the "mom and pop" places that have purchased LaserGraphics scanners are doing it as well, presumably because they see other companies with them doing it and think it's normal! By the way, does the library you work at have film they want to scan? If they do we can get Austin to give them a sample if they want to send something his way.