Copying 8mm movie film?

I apologise for a rather off-topic query.

A friend has a collection of very old family cine films - probably 8 mm. Has anyone any experience of using a professional service to have cine films copied onto DVD disks?

Thanks,

Martin

I had experience of cine to tape. the quality was patchy due to tape but worth doing since the cine films were otherwise unviewable. DVD quality should be better - I suggest trying one film to test quality and product before committing to big expenditure.

Films can be copied in various ways. The most expensive and the "proper" way to do it is via a specialised copying machine.

Films can also be projected and re-filmed using a digital movie camera or even a DSLR. This can be quite good, but needs care. There are mirror devices to give a parallax-free image.

A bit of Google research might be the way to go.

I have done this once in the past, with a "good enough" result. My procedure was to set up the 8mm film projector with a piece of good quality white plain paper about 50 cm from the lens, so the projected film was shown on a very small frame. I placed my Canon Mini-DV camcorder next to the film projector, and recorded/dubbed the film.

Film flicker is the main problem with digitalising film with a DIY set-up. If I were to do this again, I would have tried to find a Eumig projector (or similar high quality projector) with a speed control, because it is possible to fine adjust the film speed so that flicker is greatly reduced.

My family have some very valuable 8mm films from my childhood in Tanzania in the 1960s, and one day I would like to have these digitised by a professional lab. The results from having the films scanned frame by frame using the best 8mm > digital machines is expensive, but will probably produce superior results.

A few years ago I had a load of 1960s Super 8 films copied onto DVD by a commercial firm. I've just had a look at the DVD and the company was called 'ontodvd.com'. I can't remember how much it cost, but recall that I thought it reasonable at the time. The process worked smoothly and easily - I just sent off the films and then got them back complete with packaged DVD.

Phil

Many thanks for your comments and suggestions. For various reasons (including the fragility of very old cine film that makes it undesireable to put it through a conventional projector) I am inclined to have it scanned professionally.

As John suggested, I have been investigating a number of firms that have come up on Google and am narrowing them down to two or three. (I was amused to find that Google had picked up on this very thread!)

I'll let you know how things went, in due course.

Thanks to all,

Martin