8mm, Super 8 to Digital Converter

[pharvey]

A budle of lost familly movies have landed on my doorstop (literally).....

The problem is that the "newest" dates back to 1977 - they are all on 8mm or "Super 8" film. My family as they are, have made it my task to convert them to a digital format - a very expensive procedure when going to another party (+/- £10 for 50Ft at best). I'm therefore looking at a converter to do this - I can see several that I believe will do a decent job in the £320-£400 range, but still trying to work out max "Reel Size". The vast majority of the reels we have are 3", a few 5", but 3 or 4 larger (10" maybe).

The question is, has anyone had experience with this type of converter and any recommendations?

Note: The Converters I've looked at thus far only seem to handle 5" reels as a maximum.

[EDIT] Another question is regarding conversion speed(?) All talk about fps (frames per second I assume) - what is a standard? Some mention 30 fps, others 15 and so on.

Any advice much appreciated.

[Dannie Boy]

I’d certainly try and find somebody who offers the conversion service and see if they’ll do you a one-off price for a job lot - at £10 for a 50 foot tape, that’s an awful lot of reals to get up to £3-400?

[pharvey]

I’d certainly try and find somebody who offers the conversion service and see if they’ll do you a one-off price for a job lot - at £10 for a 50 foot tape, that’s an awful lot of reals to get up to £3-400?

I think the initial quote was +/- £10 for UPTO 50 ft, this would cover the majority of reels we have, but there are also 10 or so larger reels which would obviously cost more to convert. We have some 75 reels of "memories" taken over many years and across several countries, so I still think purchasing a converter would be the way to go - a little more investigation and understanding is required though!

Thanks for the comments though

[Dannie Boy]

I’d certainly try and find somebody who offers the conversion service and see if they’ll do you a one-off price for a job lot - at £10 for a 50 foot tape, that’s an awful lot of reals to get up to £3-400?

I think the initial quote was +/- £10 for UPTO 50 ft, this would cover the majority of reels we have, but there are also 10 or so larger reels which would obviously cost more to convert. We have some 75 reels of "memories" taken over many years and across several countries, so I still think purchasing a converter would be the way to go - a little more investigation and understanding is required though!

Thanks for the comments though

Sounds like it was a case of “Watch out, Harvey’s about” as in Jeremy Beadle - you were clearly very busy with the Cine!!

[derek60]

Found a batch of my Uncle's Cine reels from 1960/70s. I had them digitised professionally. Very pleased with the results, but cost about £400. They scan them frame by frame to ensure the highest quality.

[pharvey]

Well then... Some things learned!

50 Ft of film equates to a 3" reel, and around 4 minutes on "Standard 8", 3.5 minutes on "Super 8" - +/- £15 to transfer (High quality) Note: Standard 8 no sound, Super 8 with sound...

Should you purchase "blank" film, this will set you back +/- £45 for a 50ft reel (3 MINUTES!) this will then cost you +/- £15 to develop before you can even think about transferring to digital...... So +/- £20 per minute - Christ, on a par with Pattaya for some!!