Super 8 to VHS Transfer
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Super 8 to VHS Transfer
October 2002
I'd like a recommendation/suggestion on where I can transfer my
old super eights to tape for a decent price.
gerrit
I don't know any place that will do film transfers for
a ''reasonable'' price. But I do know Access Video Productions in
Berkeley will do a good job of it. If you're really on a budget,
I've heard that you can do a decent transfer yourself by
projecting the film onto a matte surface and using a DV camera
lined up as closely as possible to the projector to capture the
images. A crude method, but might be worth a try. I'm sure a
Google search would yield more information.
Patrick
I'm going to be starting an inexpensive film-to-VHS (& DVD)
service after the holidays. If you can wait until then, I'll be
offering discounted rates for new customers. I will be able to
convert 16mm, 8mm & Super 8 film. Take a look at my Website and
send me a message if you'd like more information.
http://www.HeritageAV.com/
--Patrick
First of all, you definitely don't want to transfer your Super-8
movies to VHS alone: you'll want to get a high-resolution DV
(digital video) master! Second, you may want to reconsider your
desire to get it done cheaply. You have to be careful and
selective because many cheap transfer companies will send you a
DV tape that is a just copy of the VHS tape in other words, has
no more info than a VHS tape.
If you have only VHS tapes made you will never be able to make
copies that are any good at all and you will lose LOTS of data
from your original film. You can make crisp stills from home
movie film, but a video still (as you'll note when you pause your
VCR) looks terrible.
I just did a big project editing home movies. When movies are
transfered cheaply they flicker so horribly that they are painful
and nauseating to view! THis is because when they are recorded
the recorder captures the closed camera shutter as an image
resulting in dark screens being inserted in your film every third
frame or so. The difference between a good transfer and a bad
one is huge.
Reading this tutorial helped me to understand the issues, but I
cannot vouch for the services provided by this person, because I
didn't use them. I just had to work with the junk I had, since,
sadly, the original films had already been thrown away:
http://film-to-video.com/Tutorial.html
Good luck!
susan
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