Ah, I was wondering about that. I’ve been afraid to try to run them for fear of damaging them, it was mostly an attempt to see how many we actually needed.
I wonder where roomie’s light table is…
I’m starting to think that all of the local places are doing the fancy version of projecting it & filming with a camcorder. From what I’m reading online, that’s going to be pretty low-quality. Unless they’re just puffing themselves.
I wish we had time to send a test reel & get bids. I’ve filtered it down to a couple of the online places, and I’d love to do that. But I don’t think there’s any way that will fit in the timeframe I’ve got.
Y’know, we’ve been talking for years about doing this. Once again, procrastination rules! (Although truthfully, I think we’ll end up with a better result now than when we first discussed it, due to improved methods.)
One good thing about analog technology, as compared to digital, is that you can just look at it with your eyes! So you might see if you can find, or rig up, a reel table: a way to manually spool the footage from one reel to the other, with a light box in the middle. With such short reels, you don’t need a geared crank system like we had in the projection booths I worked in. Just something to support two reels a foot or two apart. You could probably knock it together with a couple of boards and some dowels in half an hour. (Be sure to rewind all reels back to their original state when you’re done.)
Use cotton gloves when handling the film, and make sure your work area is as clean and free of dust as possible. Be very gentle in handling the film, and if it seems fragile or brittle, stop. Don’t attempt to splice, clean, or lubricate the film yourself. Just look at it, and let your selected provider do any splicing or cleaning that may be needed.
No need to worry about heat during a couple of days in transit. They’ve lasted for decades, they’ll survive a few more days.
Put a rubber band around the circumference of each reel so they don’t unspool in shipping. Don’t use tape, as that can gunk up the film. Also, don’t hold the reel and pull the tail out to tighten the wrap: that can create scratches and embed dirt. Better they’re a little loose.
Make sure the reels are labelled or numbered clearly so you can tell what reel is where in the video you get back.
Of course, your vendor is the best source for all this kind of info.
A lot of CVS and Walgreen’s stores do this, or rather they send it out. I had several reels of Super 8 converted to VHS but never had them do the next step to dvds.
We turned on the projector tonight, and it purred happily. So we bravely and very carefully tried a few reels. The projector is working great (it looks brand new and has been stored in the library all this time). A couple of threading issues, but I think we’ve got the hang of it.
That’s going to help quite a bit, I think. Of the 14 we reviewed, only three have much footage that we’d want for this; 5 didn’t have any at all.
So it looks like we’ll be able to cut down quite a bit on the film to transfer right now. That should help!