where is the meeting tonight?
by Pete Wason
and what's it about?
--
Pete Wason * Hy Noom Publications * 5088655414 * codevark(a)aim.com * codevark
"Aborigine left speechless by steady disappearance of native dialects." -- The Onion
4 years, 7 months
Reminder: No meeting tonight, next is tomorrow Thu 1/9
by Chris Thompson
Fortunately, I visited the WLUG site tonight and noticed the change of day
(yeah, I missed the mailing list mention of it). Just hoping to make sure
others notice too!
See you all tomorrow! Did I also miss confirmation on use of the same room?
Thanks,
--Chris
4 years, 7 months
[Super] 8mm Film to Video
by Larry Camilli
When I looked into this several months ago (because I, too, have a pile of
old home movies), I discovered:
The frame rates of film and video do not divide evenly. So, to get the
video
to flow at the same rate as the film, extra copies of frames are inserted
here and there - at regular, but odd intervals. [I wonder if, on a
computer,
you could set the video refresh rate and video frame rate to something that
would work for the original film frame rate.]
There are some relatively cheap set-ups available to project a film on
a small screen and video-record it. I can't imagine that the quality would
be better than horrible. With the incompatible frame rates, how bad would
the flicker be? I vaguely recall that you have to provide the projector and
camera. Those once ubiquitous Kodak Instamatic projectors are famous for
having brittle plastic gears. I have two such projectors; both broken.
[They
worked when stored 30 years ago. When I fired each up, little bits of
plastic
gear went flying.] There is a company I found on the web that provides
instructions
and parts to restore these things, but...
I would think that trying to run an old film through a projector - with the
jerky motion necessary to get each frame stationary in the gate when
the shutter opens - risks shredding the film. Non-linear scanning at low
speed sounds safer.
Googling, I found a web site by some guy who was working on his own
transfer mechanism. He was using a scanner with fine-enough resolution
that he thought it would be OK for such tiny pictures. And, he rigged up
some mechanical device to automatically advance the film some number of
frames at a time and scan a group of frames. -And, he was working on some
software to separate the frames and adjust them so that they're aligned
(based
on the sprocket holes) because the mechanism couldn't possibly align the
frames on the scanner well enough. I'll see if I can find the site again.
I wonder if there's pent-up demand for transfer services because the prices
are so high.
I had hoped to find a co-op or non-profit. But, commercial transfer
equipment
is so expensive, even a non-profit would have to charge a lot to break even.
-Maybe a charitable organization interested in preserving old film and
Americana
would do it on the cheap?
Or, a small number of people buying a (used) $1000 telecine machine could
split the
cost and take turns... ...and sell it when done?
I would think that it'll be worth looking over the films carefully and
deciding
which are really worth transferring. [I used a microfiche reader to look at
a few of mine. It was extremely awkward.] Some of the the companies
in/near Boston allow you to use their equipment for free to view your
movies.
And, there are old viewers (hand-cranked, for editing) around...
http://www.thebattles.net/video/8mm_restoration.html
http://photo.net/video-forum/003WXX
http://vimeo.com/22015773
4 years, 7 months
