I found an 8mm canister containing what think is footage taken in the 50's near the depot where I live. If memory serves me correctly, the train stops & my grandfather, my uncle, and my father are all seen. My grandfather was an engineer, my uncle a fireman, and my father was the maintainer. I cannot recall all the footage, but it is a larger reel marked "railroad". I thought this was long gone and haven't seen this film since I was in my mid 20's. I'm trying to figure how best to handle this old film. I need to find a way to transfer it onto a dvd. Also, I'm trying to figure how to get some stills off of it so I can post and share here on the trainboard. Not that any would be interested in my relatives, but many would be interested in the train shots. Any suggestions for now on how to somehow get stills off this film would be greatly appreciated. Is there a device where I can hand crank this film through and stop it to copy stills? No idea why this thought came to mind, perhaps my mind is reaching for anything that seems plausible. Thank you in advance for any and all assistance in this matter. Blessings & best wishes, Pastor David J. Kress, Sr.
I would seriously look at taking it into a major photograph place and have them convert it to digital as these old tapes can be very brittle. Once it's in something like AVI format you can pull still photos from there safely.
I'll echo the 'handle with care' suggestion. If nothing else, it is precious to family members, not mentioning any historic value. Once digitized, all kinds of possibilities are available. Stills, clips, restoration, whatever might be desired.
Don't let a big box store handle this - they'll send it out to a lab located who knows where and you might never see your film again. See if you can locate a reasonably local camera store that does 8mm to DVD transfer right at the store and have their expert look at what you have.
Thank you for responding. Going to make some phone calls Monday about getting these reels taken care of. If anything turns up that is of interest to others here on the board, I'll try to post.
I agree with all of the above comments. Remember, on those old movie films, every frame is a still photo negative, or positive. Even if the film breaks due to age brittleness, stills can be salvaged. Good luck, I sure hope you can get the motion picture part all intact. :tb-biggrin:
Gee something that old... maybe even call the Library of Congress or your state Archives for a consult or a referral?
If it is 8mm, there are places that can do scans off of your footage. Another thing to worry about is that someone at the lab will copy and steal your footage for their own needs. It depends on how possessive you are about your movie. Local places may not have the proper equipment and may simply project the movie and video tape it for a high price, so make sure the place has some kind of movie scanner.
I second this one! I recently bought some old RR negatives and slides and wanted them converted into digital images. I found a local camera shop here and told the guy what I wanted. He informed me that he would pass it on to his lab tech. I then asked to speak to the lab tech directly. After conversing for about 5 minutes, the lab tech knew EXACTLY what I wanted and gave me a price to do the work. Yes it was more expensive than I expected but the images will be able to be used for years and years to come.
