I had a few reels of super 8 converted to DV, I think it cost around $50 and it turned out good. Most cities have someone who will do it. They use a projector with a special tooth pattern to reduce flicker. I tried it myself with a standard projector and the flicker was too much.

Thanks everyone,

I did a search like wcoxe1 suggested and here is a previous discussion on the subject if anyone is interested:

8mm film to DV

I'm in the middle of doing some old 8mm movies my Dad shot over 40 years ago. I've converted some to DVD and am happy with the results. I used my Dad's old 8mm projector and projected it on an 8x10 piece of paper taped to the wall. Closed in so I have a very small picture and did it in the darkest room I had (bathroom). Placed my digital camera on a tripod to shoot it. At first I was getting flicker but finally figured out how to get rid of it by setting a longer shutter speed on my video camera. Once on Mini DV I brought into Vegas, placed titles and captions and burned to DVD. I really can't tell much difference from the DVD to the projected picture.

One tip I did... when first shooting and playing back in Vegas I thought... "Something is missing...." then figured out what. As kids we would watch these films once or twice a year. Dad would haul out the projector and we'd all watch and laugh and listen to the clackety clack of the projector... "That's it!!! no projector sound! So I recorded the projector sound and put it with the clips. Now all is right with the world!! :{> And for those who don't enjoy it as I do, just turn down the sound.

MadMikey

Hi Zstevek,

We transfer thousands of feet of film each year in our business. We have great success capturing the film through a camera (Sony DSR500) fed directly through a Canopus ADVC100, which converts the analog signal to DV directly into Vegas Capture. From there, clips are tidied up and put on a timeline with music and titles and either sent to VHS or DVD. We could go directly from the camera to the computer with firewire, but using ths Canopus converter allows us to leave the VCR permanently hooked up so we don't have to plug and unplug everything when we need to go from the computer to the tape.

There are projectors once manufactured by Elmo which have a direct video out (there is a video lense built in). These are expensive and nearly impossible to obtain. The external camera method works well, especially if you use a 3 chip camera. Another way to adjust for flicker is using a projector with a variable speed control.

If you would like more help, please email me offline and I can give you more specifics.

Mike

My Grandpa used to convert his 8mm home movies to VHS with the Ambico All-in-Oe Video Transfer kit. It was basicaly a box with a projector "screen" on one side and a "lens" on the other. You would play your projector onto the "screen" and have your camera lens up lose to the "lens" on the box. I would think you could to the same with a DV camera as with a VHS camera. They are only about $15 on e-bay too. Here's the link:
http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2F&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&from=R7&ebaytag1=ebayreg&query=ambico+video+transfer&query2=ambico+video+transfer&search_option=1&exclude=&category0=&minPrice=&maxPrice=&ebaytag1code=0&st=&SortProperty=MetaEndSort

hope that helps!

How was the flicker on these transfers your Grandpa did? From what I've heard flicker is the number one problem when it comes to 8mm film to video transfers because of the different frame rate. because video is so much faster you wind up recording the black between frames on the film because the speeds do no match. Or something like that.

On my digital video cam I am able to adjust the shutter speed. That eliminated the flicker for me.
MadMikey

My grandpa would speed up the 8mm a little, so it would go faster but wouldn't flicker. I could never do that, but he was a wiz with thos 8mm projectors. On the other hand, I could use the computer and he would use it for target practice. :)
Try different speeds. If you can set your projector to do a film (24fps), Pal (25fps), or NTSC (29.97 or 30) then you should be ok. Just play with a short segment (about 30 seconds-minute) and see how it turn out, and be sure to write down what settings you use for next time. :)

Well I just sent mine to the big guy's so the registration would be
perfect and the color corrected and I wouldn't have to worry about
the 5 bladed shutter etc.

JJK

What's up with this thread being 1500 pixels wide?

JBJones