Regular 8mm Family film just found. Need conversion.

My wife's mother just found around 40 - 50 reels of family movies taken all on Kodachrome regular 8mm (50 foot reel each) taken from around 1951-1957. That's about two hours worth of movies if you splice them all together. I checked one up to the light and it appears unfaded. Considering it's all Kodachrome, I suspect they all or most should be OK.

Can you recommend a process to convert it to digital so I can load into my computer and create DVD movies? Any recommendation of companies that do a pretty good job of conversion at a reasonable price? What final format should I request (ie AVI, etc.)? Any other suggestions? Thanks. Alan.

About five years ago, the 8mm film of my parents' wedding finally surfaced. At that stage they had been married for about 48 years. We always knew a film existed but it was only five years ago that we found it. Two years later, it was great to have those wonderful scenes for my parents' 50th wedding anniversary.

One week ago today was my father's funeral. We made a photo tribute which was played during the ceremony and which featured the 8mm wedding footage.

Regarding the conversion, I had it done by a local company here in Melbourne. They converted it to DVD and also a tape master copy. They did a great job and the price was very reasonable.

Never underestimate the power of those old memories. In our case, they certainly helped give a picture of my Dad's life for his funeral.

Why don't you scrounge up a projector and enjoy the whole experience.

My local Costco offers a transfer service for 8mm or Super 8 to DVD. I have nothing to compare it to, of course, but the transfers look fine. I still prefer to project the reels for the whole experience (watching the DVDs without the whir of the projector feels wrong), but having the DVDs offers peace of mind. The cost was pretty reasonable, or so I recall.

Jonathan

With 8mm 1280X720 is best with Mpeg 4 and even better Blu-ray compression, AVI is too clunky. Two options: If you're looking to do it DIY there's freeware (http://hosting.aktionspotenzial.de/CineToVidWiki/index.php/Hauptseite) available that lets you scan (using home scanner) and then assembles the movies from the frames scanned, although its kinda rough around the edges and you need to build a method automatically advances the film. I have used this in the past and it can be quite tedious and time consuming. Another option is home video studio (a franchise company) that has private owner-operators throughout the tri-state area (not sure in queens, but worth finding out). I often send my own 8mm/16mm for scanning to my local home video studio (Westfield, NJ) and their work is consistent and of very decent quality and pricing is very reasonable . If you don't mind traveling or sending via mail to new jersey here's the contact info: 908.301.9300 (ask for Dan) or online: http://www.homevideostudio.com/video-services/204/Home_Movie_Transfer.cfm. Hope this helps.

I've sent my movies out to Moviestuff: http://moviestuff.tv/transfers.html They are the company that makes the transfer machines used in most non-professional transfer houses, and scan in up to 1080P HD. They're currently not accepting orders due to a backlog, but they do excellent work.

I'm sure you can find a place to transfer them online somewhere. But I'm writing to tell you that color film from the early 50's is valuable as stock footage, depending on content. My wife's grandfather was an avid movie maker from the late 40's to about 1960, and Getty has sold bits of his home movies for years now, again and again. Apparently footage that shows women doing domestic work, or with small children, or shopping or doing ordinary chores is always in demand. Vacations at the beach, birthday parties, etc. probably not.