Believe it or not, there are still people out there with reels of 8 mm and Super 8 film. Because setting up the projector and the screen is a lot of effort for a few minutes of entertainment, most folks have relegated the equipment to storage. But since the advent of camcorders and digital video cameras, it’s a fairly simple process to convert your old films, so you can watch them on your television or computer.
Instructions
1. Realize the way to transfer analog film to digital is not as high-tech as it sounds. It is accomplished simply by projecting the film and setting up the camcorder on the tripod to capture it off the screen. When affordable home video emerged in the early 1980s, the people who transferred film to VHS (or Beta) were tech-savvy electronics buffs and charged an arm and a leg for the service at a time when most households didn’t have a camcorder.
2. Set up your screening room. It should be a room that can be darkened completely with light blocking draperies and doors that shut completely. A white wall works better than a traditional screen as long as it is clean and has no nicks or dings or damage that will show up in the final result.
3. Set up the equipment. Clean the projector so the digital version is unmarred by specks of dust or hairs. Make sure the film is also clean. Installing a new bulb in the projector isn’t a bad thought either.
4. Position the camcorder on the tripod. Do a few test runs to find out the optimal distance that delivers the best quality. You want the camcorder set up so that no shadows or disturbance are captured on the final product.
5. Connect the sound-out on the projector to the sound-in on the camcorder if the projector has a line-out jack (usually a standard 1/8-inch audio jack). Cables for this are readily available at any electronics store. This will transfer the sound directly and not pick up any background noise. If there is no line-out jack (just a small internal speaker) in the projector, hook up an external microphone to the camcorder (if your camcorder has the audio input to support this) to limit any projector noise.
6. Download the movie to your computer, edit it and add (or subtract) any audio. Once you burn it to DVD, watch it on a couple of different TV to make sure you’re happy with the end result.
Tags: camcorder tripod, camcorder your, line-out jack