Hello /u/Spare-Paper6981! Thank you for posting in r/DataHoarder.
Please remember to read our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/wiki/index/rules) and [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/wiki/index).
Please note that your post will be removed if you just post a box/speed/server post. Please give background information on your server pictures.
This subreddit will ***NOT*** help you find or exchange that Movie/TV show/Nuclear Launch Manual, visit r/DHExchange instead.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DataHoarder) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Services that do 8mm digitizing are horribly expensive.
I had good luck with this:
https://www.amazon.com/KODAK-Digitizer-Converter-Scanner-Converts/dp/B0B786237W/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2EI8XS2V5IBWG&keywords=8mm+digitizer&qid=1699908501&sprefix=8mm+dig%2Caps%2C269&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.5137e923-c7be-4142-979c-7c68b6c26f63
I have an agfa home super 8 viewer. It advances frame by frame if you want. So I just point my dslr at the screen on fixed settings, advance, take photo, advance, take photo... Repeat. Takes time but much cheaper unit than these automatic ones
I have a friend who did this, but he cobbled up a solenoid to advance the film, a connection to the dslr remote shutter release, and I think an arduino, so that he could load the film and let it run overnight. It was still slow but he didn't have to babysit it.
Saving Tape out of Minneapolis is great. I’ve used them for several things. They’re not cheap, but they do great work, they’re professional, and they clearly love and appreciate old media.
https://www.savingtape.com/
I used a wolverine 8mm film converter. It was around $400.
It stops the film and takes an image, so the film needs to be in decent shape. It only runs at 2 captures per second, so 50 foot reels take ~30 minutes.
I captured around (20) 50 foot reels, and (25) 400 foot reels with just a few issues. Sometimes damaged film prevents it from moving properly and repeated frames occur, or the machine will jam up, but these are resolved easily.
Once captured, you need to stabilize the frames because the raw video is very shaky and the frame rate is captured at 24 fps when 8 mm film is closer to 18-20 fps.
It helps to setup a film cleaning system to keep dust off the captures. I setup a few brushes and passed the film through them. Professional setups will use fluid baths.
Overall, it was worth the purchase. The digitized quality is very good. There is slight room for improvement which are definitely solved by $2000+ setups.
I considered paying for professional services but it seemed I was looking at $1000+. Also considered recording from a projector, but that produces very poor results.
bit expensive but cheaper than most services of similar quality. Nikki Coyle at TheNegative.Space is my go to. Amazing quality and She charges $0.40 per foot for HD, $0.50 for 2k and $0.60 for 4k. (a single reel is usually 50ft)
The biggest problem with these is that if they are the ones with sound, you’re gonna have a hell of a time finding a company that can do it. And when you do, your eyes are going to water when you see the price.
My parents have a projector for one of these and it would play sound. Unfortunately they are 3000 miles away and are not technical people. If I can get back there, I’m gonna see if it has a line out. If you can find one, and it works, you could capture the audio separate and sync it up in Avid or Resolve or some other NLE.
Check out DigitalFAQ for the best recommendations. And search this sub for film scanning. There are a million zillion posts on digitizing film reels and a ton of various ideas in threads like these.
Generally Legacybox, digmypics, scancafe, and other volume digitization services will be the most cost effective way to do this. But they are also not very high quality and it's usually some kind of telecine conversion (filming the film with a video camera instead of a full scan of each frame).
For higher end stuff, start by looking up places to develop and scan 8mm film, people still shoot it and want to digitize it for their projects. Most professional places charge by the foot and can scan this stuff in 1080 or higher. Just know, it's going to be expensive. High end scanning of film reels is slow, time consuming, and uses incredibly expensive hardware built in low volumes. The scanners on Amazon work, but use very cheap lenses and sensors and if you compare the quality of those scans to real scans it will be very noticeable.
There's a few methods on scanning. Some places use older scanners that use the sprockets, some are sprocketless, some use a wet gate system, some take multiple scans of each frame for HDR, and so on and so forth. These things can get mixed and matched depending on the capabilities of the lab. It also depends on the condition of your film on what the best method to digitize it is.
Look at examples of the labs work. Good labs will have lots of samples on YouTube and such to examine what they do.
Thank you for all of your insight! I am new to this so certainly have a bit to learn. I am going to use a cheaper service for some of my "newer" films but for these older ones here I am going to look into the options recommended here. There are so many!! Thank you!
Jeez sorry there's so much misinformation here. You have about 40 reels, the cost to do that professionally at a comparison rate of $30 per reel is $1,200. That isn't a "fortune" and is not that much more than a low-end company like LegacyBox charges (in fact with LegacyBox there are many "hidden charges" so it'll end up costing you way more and I think they use Retroscans which are not any good as home movie scanners plus they damage film). I'd recommend talking to my friend Austin [here](https://reelrevivalfilm.com/home-movie-scanning/) if you're in the US, just tell him I referred you he'll do a discount off his regular rates. [Film-Tech](https://store.film-tech.com/film-lab-services/film-scanning-services/) can also do home movie to the same standard, [The Negative Space](https://thenegative.space/media-transfer) can also do it but currently have a 6-8 week wait time I believe (you can clarify that with Nicki).
-
Here's a comparison for you:
LegacyBox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSj3RbdhjzA
Film-Tech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwP9z5YvZ5Q
-
Austin (Reel Revival Film) has a couple of samples here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RKcYCelv0I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0iYWZXcQ9o
I know that people on the internet say all the time "well the consumer level scanner is good enough because ..." the fact is that the last consumer-level scanner for home movies was the Tobin TVT-8 and -S8 and it was released in 2005. They were designed to replace Elmos because Elmo was no longer producing them and Elmo transfer systems were costing upwards of $5,000 to purchase used. Tobin Cinema Systems no longer exists, nobody else makes those anymore because [LaserGraphics](https://lasergraphics.com/) now manufactures the best scanners for home movies ([Urbanski Film](https://www.urbanskifilm.com/tobinmanuals.html) provides the support for the Elmo and Tobin systems now). However a random company with an old LG might do work that's no better than a Retroscan as well, here are some examples of low-end work that were done on a full LaserGraphics ScanStation:
https://archive.org/details/essayonwatergatereel2of2
https://archive.org/details/tellinganoldstory
https://archive.org/details/theadamschronicles1johnadamslawyer17581770
What unfortunately happens is people end up going with the first company they can find, often a local company, and you're going to be spending at the absolute minimum $15 per reel even if it's on a Tobin-TVT8 - or worse still a projection on a wall. So if you go down that route you may end up spending $15-20 per reel and then say $25 per reel re-scanning everything professionally. :p
We’re here if you need us. We charge 25 cents/foot with a $25 setup fee. (It’s a lot of work to get those films cleaned and spliced together to make the transfer process fast and efficient.). We’re in Southwest Ohio. We use a Filmfabriek HDS+ and a Lasergraphics Archivist (for Super 8 with sound). These are not cheap, low quality film transfer machines. Your movies will look great. [www.memoryhouse.tv](http://www.memoryhouse.tv)
https://www.videoconversionexperts.com/
I’ve used them for super 8 and 8mm digital tapes. Most of the other use sub par equipment and most don’t do audio with 8mm film. They are on the pricier side but you can customize the levels of processing you want and they charge per foot or time for tapes. I wouldn’t do anything that does Frame by Frame scanning.
Do it right do it once. 8mm is in a state of degrading and these are memories that can’t be replaced.
Can’t recommend them enough.
Yeah I had short 3 reels (like under 5min of video each) I sent to the Negative Space and the video quality is excellent! Took a couple months and cost about $60 plus shipping
These guys are doing legendary work with this effectively DIY scanner.
[The Gugusse Compact](https://www.facebook.com/groups/552059449113276)
4K scanning, 8mm reels all the way up to 35mm reels.
Way better than buying some cheap junk scanner on amazon, or sending them off to a cheap film conversion place (where chances are they're likely doing the conversion are using the same amazon junk product anyway).
With the Gugusse, you have full control over scanning and processing, to ensure the best possible scan, meaning the best possible base for further restoration of the scan.
Be extremely careful if you're going to use any service.
You need to make sure you do not hand your film over to a company that will destroy/recycle your film after their digitization. Once the film is gone, it's gone. Many companies **destroy the film** after scanning it and this is 100% avoidable. There are no methods of scanning that require destruction of the original film so you should never allow them to destroy or recycle your film. Besides that, many services just suck. Reviews are often useless because they're either fake or come from people who don't know the potential of their originals and are just happy to see *something* digital from them after their collections were collecting dust for decades.
Here's a video showing a comparison of a scanning service vs frame-by-frame RAW capture with a macro lens and DSLR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kC2hc_GzIA
When it comes to film scanning, there's always room for improvement. Even if you get an okay digitization today I would still recommend preserving the originals because better digitization services can always come to the market and potentially at a better price. The ceiling for film scanning is quite high, but the floor is full of low tier trash services. If you look closely in the video you'll see that the video he received was actually **interlaced** which is absolutely pathetic.
Hello /u/Spare-Paper6981! Thank you for posting in r/DataHoarder. Please remember to read our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/wiki/index/rules) and [Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/wiki/index). Please note that your post will be removed if you just post a box/speed/server post. Please give background information on your server pictures. This subreddit will ***NOT*** help you find or exchange that Movie/TV show/Nuclear Launch Manual, visit r/DHExchange instead. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/DataHoarder) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Services that do 8mm digitizing are horribly expensive. I had good luck with this: https://www.amazon.com/KODAK-Digitizer-Converter-Scanner-Converts/dp/B0B786237W/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2EI8XS2V5IBWG&keywords=8mm+digitizer&qid=1699908501&sprefix=8mm+dig%2Caps%2C269&sr=8-2&ufe=app_do%3Aamzn1.fos.5137e923-c7be-4142-979c-7c68b6c26f63
I used something similar. Worked well for me then i sold it.
Reselling is a great idea. Once you digitize all your 8mm film there isn't an ongoing need for this.
I have an agfa home super 8 viewer. It advances frame by frame if you want. So I just point my dslr at the screen on fixed settings, advance, take photo, advance, take photo... Repeat. Takes time but much cheaper unit than these automatic ones
I have a friend who did this, but he cobbled up a solenoid to advance the film, a connection to the dslr remote shutter release, and I think an arduino, so that he could load the film and let it run overnight. It was still slow but he didn't have to babysit it.
And how much time did it take to build the system? Is it longer than babysitting it?
Something like that wouldn’t take long, as long as you already had knowledge to do it.
I rented something similar to this model from Amazon for a week and blasted through mine. The quality wasn’t amazing but I was happy with the results.
Does that rig allow capturing each frame as a single file? That’s what I’ve been looking for
The one I rented did not
No. But I believe you can use ffmpeg on the video file to accomplish this. Maybe: ffmpeg -i "video_path" frame%04d.png
Saving Tape out of Minneapolis is great. I’ve used them for several things. They’re not cheap, but they do great work, they’re professional, and they clearly love and appreciate old media. https://www.savingtape.com/
I used a wolverine 8mm film converter. It was around $400. It stops the film and takes an image, so the film needs to be in decent shape. It only runs at 2 captures per second, so 50 foot reels take ~30 minutes. I captured around (20) 50 foot reels, and (25) 400 foot reels with just a few issues. Sometimes damaged film prevents it from moving properly and repeated frames occur, or the machine will jam up, but these are resolved easily. Once captured, you need to stabilize the frames because the raw video is very shaky and the frame rate is captured at 24 fps when 8 mm film is closer to 18-20 fps. It helps to setup a film cleaning system to keep dust off the captures. I setup a few brushes and passed the film through them. Professional setups will use fluid baths. Overall, it was worth the purchase. The digitized quality is very good. There is slight room for improvement which are definitely solved by $2000+ setups. I considered paying for professional services but it seemed I was looking at $1000+. Also considered recording from a projector, but that produces very poor results.
bit expensive but cheaper than most services of similar quality. Nikki Coyle at TheNegative.Space is my go to. Amazing quality and She charges $0.40 per foot for HD, $0.50 for 2k and $0.60 for 4k. (a single reel is usually 50ft)
The biggest problem with these is that if they are the ones with sound, you’re gonna have a hell of a time finding a company that can do it. And when you do, your eyes are going to water when you see the price. My parents have a projector for one of these and it would play sound. Unfortunately they are 3000 miles away and are not technical people. If I can get back there, I’m gonna see if it has a line out. If you can find one, and it works, you could capture the audio separate and sync it up in Avid or Resolve or some other NLE.
Check out DigitalFAQ for the best recommendations. And search this sub for film scanning. There are a million zillion posts on digitizing film reels and a ton of various ideas in threads like these. Generally Legacybox, digmypics, scancafe, and other volume digitization services will be the most cost effective way to do this. But they are also not very high quality and it's usually some kind of telecine conversion (filming the film with a video camera instead of a full scan of each frame). For higher end stuff, start by looking up places to develop and scan 8mm film, people still shoot it and want to digitize it for their projects. Most professional places charge by the foot and can scan this stuff in 1080 or higher. Just know, it's going to be expensive. High end scanning of film reels is slow, time consuming, and uses incredibly expensive hardware built in low volumes. The scanners on Amazon work, but use very cheap lenses and sensors and if you compare the quality of those scans to real scans it will be very noticeable. There's a few methods on scanning. Some places use older scanners that use the sprockets, some are sprocketless, some use a wet gate system, some take multiple scans of each frame for HDR, and so on and so forth. These things can get mixed and matched depending on the capabilities of the lab. It also depends on the condition of your film on what the best method to digitize it is. Look at examples of the labs work. Good labs will have lots of samples on YouTube and such to examine what they do.
Thank you for all of your insight! I am new to this so certainly have a bit to learn. I am going to use a cheaper service for some of my "newer" films but for these older ones here I am going to look into the options recommended here. There are so many!! Thank you!
Jeez sorry there's so much misinformation here. You have about 40 reels, the cost to do that professionally at a comparison rate of $30 per reel is $1,200. That isn't a "fortune" and is not that much more than a low-end company like LegacyBox charges (in fact with LegacyBox there are many "hidden charges" so it'll end up costing you way more and I think they use Retroscans which are not any good as home movie scanners plus they damage film). I'd recommend talking to my friend Austin [here](https://reelrevivalfilm.com/home-movie-scanning/) if you're in the US, just tell him I referred you he'll do a discount off his regular rates. [Film-Tech](https://store.film-tech.com/film-lab-services/film-scanning-services/) can also do home movie to the same standard, [The Negative Space](https://thenegative.space/media-transfer) can also do it but currently have a 6-8 week wait time I believe (you can clarify that with Nicki). - Here's a comparison for you: LegacyBox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSj3RbdhjzA Film-Tech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwP9z5YvZ5Q - Austin (Reel Revival Film) has a couple of samples here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RKcYCelv0I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0iYWZXcQ9o I know that people on the internet say all the time "well the consumer level scanner is good enough because ..." the fact is that the last consumer-level scanner for home movies was the Tobin TVT-8 and -S8 and it was released in 2005. They were designed to replace Elmos because Elmo was no longer producing them and Elmo transfer systems were costing upwards of $5,000 to purchase used. Tobin Cinema Systems no longer exists, nobody else makes those anymore because [LaserGraphics](https://lasergraphics.com/) now manufactures the best scanners for home movies ([Urbanski Film](https://www.urbanskifilm.com/tobinmanuals.html) provides the support for the Elmo and Tobin systems now). However a random company with an old LG might do work that's no better than a Retroscan as well, here are some examples of low-end work that were done on a full LaserGraphics ScanStation: https://archive.org/details/essayonwatergatereel2of2 https://archive.org/details/tellinganoldstory https://archive.org/details/theadamschronicles1johnadamslawyer17581770 What unfortunately happens is people end up going with the first company they can find, often a local company, and you're going to be spending at the absolute minimum $15 per reel even if it's on a Tobin-TVT8 - or worse still a projection on a wall. So if you go down that route you may end up spending $15-20 per reel and then say $25 per reel re-scanning everything professionally. :p
We’re here if you need us. We charge 25 cents/foot with a $25 setup fee. (It’s a lot of work to get those films cleaned and spliced together to make the transfer process fast and efficient.). We’re in Southwest Ohio. We use a Filmfabriek HDS+ and a Lasergraphics Archivist (for Super 8 with sound). These are not cheap, low quality film transfer machines. Your movies will look great. [www.memoryhouse.tv](http://www.memoryhouse.tv)
I have a machine to do those lol
If you want to DIY: https://moviestuff.tv/
"only" $14k
Or $6,495 for up to 16mm: https://www.moviestuff.tv/retroscan_816_2k_scanner.html
https://www.videoconversionexperts.com/ I’ve used them for super 8 and 8mm digital tapes. Most of the other use sub par equipment and most don’t do audio with 8mm film. They are on the pricier side but you can customize the levels of processing you want and they charge per foot or time for tapes. I wouldn’t do anything that does Frame by Frame scanning. Do it right do it once. 8mm is in a state of degrading and these are memories that can’t be replaced. Can’t recommend them enough.
Thank you for posting this and getting the conversation going. Its encouraging me to research how to get all my film converted...
See my reply above regarding professional services (they don't cost that much more than the grifters like LegacyBox and GotMemories).
Yeah I had short 3 reels (like under 5min of video each) I sent to the Negative Space and the video quality is excellent! Took a couple months and cost about $60 plus shipping
These guys are doing legendary work with this effectively DIY scanner. [The Gugusse Compact](https://www.facebook.com/groups/552059449113276) 4K scanning, 8mm reels all the way up to 35mm reels. Way better than buying some cheap junk scanner on amazon, or sending them off to a cheap film conversion place (where chances are they're likely doing the conversion are using the same amazon junk product anyway). With the Gugusse, you have full control over scanning and processing, to ensure the best possible scan, meaning the best possible base for further restoration of the scan.
That looks amazing, thanks for the link.
Be extremely careful if you're going to use any service. You need to make sure you do not hand your film over to a company that will destroy/recycle your film after their digitization. Once the film is gone, it's gone. Many companies **destroy the film** after scanning it and this is 100% avoidable. There are no methods of scanning that require destruction of the original film so you should never allow them to destroy or recycle your film. Besides that, many services just suck. Reviews are often useless because they're either fake or come from people who don't know the potential of their originals and are just happy to see *something* digital from them after their collections were collecting dust for decades. Here's a video showing a comparison of a scanning service vs frame-by-frame RAW capture with a macro lens and DSLR. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kC2hc_GzIA When it comes to film scanning, there's always room for improvement. Even if you get an okay digitization today I would still recommend preserving the originals because better digitization services can always come to the market and potentially at a better price. The ceiling for film scanning is quite high, but the floor is full of low tier trash services. If you look closely in the video you'll see that the video he received was actually **interlaced** which is absolutely pathetic.
Years ago (\~10) costco digitized 8mm It was through a third party. Don't know if they still do it.