Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted idea?

L

LUCAS_HITCHBERG

Active member
I can hear you all now: "What a waste of a great camcorder!" Well, I still haven't pulled the trigger and 'invested' in a DVX-yet, so don't freak out. Here's my situation. It's 2am in the morning and I just finished transfering some regular 8mm film to video via my Sony TRV22 miniDV. My client will be happy, I won't be getting rich from this kind of work, but it looks pretty good for a 1 chipper thank you, and it got me thinkin'.

4:3 video cuts off the sides of a projected film. A good in-cam wide screen might make things better; and while I'm at it so would progressive mode - right? And -here's the twist- could the DVX do all this AND firewire it out to my trv22 instead of wearing out the heads of the DVX?

If this were to work, it would make the transfer much easier (TRV22 is a bottom loader) and possibly look a great deal better, what with cine-like gamma or whichever setting.

You see, I made a super8 film back in my high school days - a Star Wars parody - and I'd like to get the very best transfer to video for my masterwork (haha) without spending thousands at some transfer house.

So, anybody wish to comment on my twisted ideas? Any confirmation on the ability of the DVX100A to send progressive images out to a second 'cam-as-deck via firewire? Many thanks in advance.

LHB

I sleep now. Talk to ya later.
 
Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

I don't see why this wouldn't work -- I've captured 'live' to HD (hard disk) before... you could even do it that way.

CaptM
 
Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Yes that would all work. However, Regular 8mm and Super 8mm are a 4:3 aspect ratio (well, it's 1.37, whereas video is 1.33, but they're almost identical) so you shouldn't need widescreen mode.
 
Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

I thought it should work. As for shooting regular 4:3 video, it works all right to a degree. If you frame so top and bottom just fill the screen, quite a bit of each side _is_ cut off. Usually this isn't a big deal, but sometimes you lose a cousin or two. :)

Thanks for the replies.

LHB
 
Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

I have a unit someone just gave me...........You connect your video cam to one end and the projector lens to the other...........Looks like top notch 70's technology heh heh!!! I'll unpack it tomorrow and post more info!
 
Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

[quote author=LUCAS_HITCHBERG link=board=Events;num=1085557944;start=0#3 date=05/26/04 at 17:56:04]  If you frame so top and bottom just fill the screen, quite a bit of each side _is_ cut off.  [/quote]

Odd. I'd suspect that what's happening is your projector's gate is probably too short, so in fact the projector is cropping off some of the top and bottom. The frame size should be exactly the same shape...
 
Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

[quote author=Barry_Green link=board=Events;num=1085557944;start=0#5 date=05/26/04 at 20:40:13]

Odd.  I'd suspect that what's happening is your projector's gate is probably too short, so in fact the projector is cropping off some of the top and bottom.  The frame size should be exactly the same shape...[/quote]


I do know that a super 8 frame is wider than regular 8mm and that cutting off the sides when transfering any 8mm film format is an issue in virtually everything I've read about on the subject. Perhaps it is the shadow mask of the television that is the issue. You can definitely see a wider projected image than what is recording/showing on the TV.

At any rate, leaving black all around the picture looks like amatuer hour. Wide screen mode with black across top and bottom would look very acceptable. I may just do some experiment'n to satisfy my curiosity.

BTW would 24p work *better*, technically speaking, than 30p in transfering film that runs at 18fps (or 24fps for that matter)? Probably no theory to go on here, just have to try and see, am I right?

Cheers,

LHB
 
Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Yes, Super 8 is wider than Regular 8, but it's taller also, so the proportions remain the same: they're both 4x3.

And yes, it could very well be the TV that's obscuring more of the frame...

As for 30P or 24P, I'd venture to say that if you have a crystal-sync projector, 24P could theoretically work, but aligning the two systems would probably prove very difficult. You would probably be better off doing the transfer at 60i. But, I'm just talkin' off the top of my head here... experiment and let us know how it turns out!
 
Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

I actually did captured some 16mm for a friend. He set up his projector and then I used my syncro scan @ 24p to get a perfect syncronization. I think it came out to 1/47.6 shutter speed, and I didn't get any flickering or pulsing when capturing. His projector was pretty old, and I think all projecters are different, but staying around that 1/48th mark, a little up or down, you should be able to capture frame for frame. I also adjusted the cinegamma settings until it almost perfectly matched his original footage. It was pretty sweet. I'll have to look for that tape and see if I can post some footage from it.
 
Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Re: Transfering old 8mm film to video a twisted id

Please do so.
 
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