Preserve aging 8mm films by transferring them to DVD.
Before video technology dominated the home movie market, an 8mm film camera was the only way for the average person to create home movies. 30 years after the decline of 8mm film technology, people still stumble on reels of old 8mm films. Many of these film reels contain priceless images of family events. Converting the film to modern DVD formats will insure the memories are preserved for years to come. The quality of the transfer depends on how much you are willing to invest in film transfer equipment.
Instructions
1. Attach a white foam core board to your wall. Make sure the edges of the board are level. This board will serve as your projection screen.
2. Position your 8mm film projector directly in front of the screen. Avoid placing the projector off center from the screen. Doing so will cause distortion of the projected image known as "keystoning."
3. Mount your camcorder on a tripod as close to the projector lens as possible with the camera lens facing the screen. Placing the camcorder off-center from the screen will likewise distort the recorded image by skewing the edges.
4. Insert a videotape into the camcorder. Turn off the lights in the room so the room is as dark as possible.
5. Thread the 8mm projector with the film you want to transfer. Project a portion of the film onto the poster board and confirm the image is level, focused and fills the screen.
6. Turn on the camcorder, adjust the camera position and focus the lens so the film image from the screen is sharp and fills the viewfinder of the camcorder.
7. Rewind the film to the beginning, press record on the camcorder and begin projecting the film reel. When finished, stop recording on the camcorder.
8. Plug the video output from the camcorder into the video input of a DVD recorder using an RCA audio-video cable.
9. Insert a recordable DVD into the DVD recorder. Wait for the unit to format the recordable DVD.
10. Rewind the videotape in the camcorder and set the camcorder to tape playback (VCR) mode.
11. Press the record button on the DVD recorder as you push the play button on the camcorder.
Tags: from screen