How to digitise very old film?

Hi

I have some very old video film (about 25 years old) and wondered if anyone knows of a specialist who could transfer it to digital format.

I don't know the name of the film format. The film is 8mm wide, and each frame of the film appears to use about 4.2mm of the length. It's on a plastic reel that is 75mm in diameter.

Any help gratefully received!

Sounds like 'Super 8' domestic Cine-film to me.

Top of the Google results is http://www.cineconversions.co.uk/

Also search for 'cine transfer' on e-bay; there seems to be lots of services and also machines for DIY transfers.

Thanks Ade, your comments have been very helpful. The whole thing looks to be far more straightforward than I'd imagined. I'll follow up on your suggestions. www.reelintime.com also look like an interesting site.

Thanks again

If the content were of local/historical value, you might be able to get help from historical-type media folk.

That's a clever angle. Sadly they'll be more hysterical than historical!

As others have said - sounds like 8mm and it shouldn't be too difficult to get someone to transfer it to a digital format for you. If you want the best quality I'd talk to them about what encoder they're going to use, file format, bit-rates etc.

If you're technically minded have a look what this guy does in terms of post-processing his 8mm transfers with Avisynth and a load of 3rd party plugins (all free & open source). The results are pretty spectacular.

If you're really technically minded then he has some pages on his own web site detailing his home-bre transfer system

Thanks, I'll take a look. Not sure I'm quite technical enough, but looks interesting.

Interesting link, I'm surprised there doesn't seem to be any automated film scanners available. I would like to capture 8mm films frame by frame rather than use a telecinie machine or one of those silly little gadgets that let you project your image into a video camera.

Anyone know of a proper scanning machine ?

try this...