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viewing vintage super 8 film


Mick van de Wiel

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I have a collection of old (40+years) family super 8 films, most are on the original 75mm reels. Should these still be okay to view on a projector? I also have quite a few larger reels of film, from memory these are all spliced together from the original shorter 75mm reels. I understand the spliced reels are more likely to break at the joins, but will the age of the film itself pose a problem? Would i be better off to have them professionally converted to digital? I'd love to sit down, with projector and screen and watch them the way my Mum and Dad used to show them.

 

thanks in advance!!

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That really depends on your projector. I wouldn't try and run it on a projector that hasn't been serviced and scratch-tested.

 

What I recommend is that yes, have it properly converted to digital, and then project it when you get it back. That way you have a backup in case the worst happens.

 

Over here I recommend Gamma Ray Digital and Cinelab. Not sure what the options are in Oz, but make sure you don't get scammed into an off-the-wall transfer.

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Good advice but you may balk at the price of a good transfer.

It's not hard to check a projector to make sure it's not damaging film too badly and if the film was shown from time to time the odds are it's picked up some scratches already, so assuming the projector isn't a complete wreck another run isn't going to make much difference. If you do have a video camera, it's surprising how reasonable an off-the-wall transfer can be. At least it may give you an idea of what you really want to have transferred.

Old splices are a lottery- my Super-8 tape splices from the late 70s are OK but they have dried out on a lot of the 70s 16mm I run on the Steenbeck. Older cement splices are OK but they were professionally made.

You can't beat halfway decent projection though.

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Gday,

I did a few d.I.y transfers, for my own needs, and found the vivitar transfer effective and easy to use. Just get yourself a cheap minidv camera, and you can do your own digitising.

 

For example https://m.ebay.com.au/itm/Vivitar-All-In-One-Universal-Video-Converter-UVC-1-Slide-Movie/253352213828?hash=item3afcf7fd44:g:Xi0AAOSwyKxZ~U7g

 

Good luck

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