Converting Old Film to Video

The thought of inserting an expensive roll of film into a cine camera for the benefit of three minutes of home movie footage that then needs to be sent away for processing before it can be viewed seems a rather quaint and somewhat impractical one in this digital age. However, roll back the clock thirty years or more and that's what home movie making was all about.

Although an expensive hobby by today's standards, it's perhaps surprising to discover that there remains a considerable amount of cine film awaiting conversion to a digital form. In the late '60s and '70s, the most popular format was Super8, which is still used by some die-hard filmmakers to this day. Before that, Standard 8mm was used in addition to its professional cousin, 16mm. If you need to copy cine film onto video, you'll require some specialized equipment. Of course, having a projector in the appropriate format will help. If you have rolls of Super8 film and the projector to play them on, you're halfway there.

The quickest way to copy film to video is to point a video camera at the projection screen and (if appropriate) take an audio line output from the projector and connect it to the camcorder's audio input. There are better ways to achieve this, and a look through a local services directory will probably lead you to specialist companies who can undertake what's called a "telecine" transfer. Here's the do it yourself approach, however.

The first thing you need to do is to set the projector up so that it can project a clear picture onto a bright white, highly reflective surface. Aim to create a small image, one that occupies a piece of letter-sized paper will suffice, as this concentrates the light. "High Gloss" inkjet printer paper is good for this purpose. Now set up your camcorder on a tripod, positioned so that it looks over the projector in such a way as to minimize image distortion.

With the camcorder set in its most suitable position, put the camcorder into Record Standby mode and run the film. View it in the camcorder's LCD screen or better still, on a TV screen, using the camcorder's supplied AV output cables. What you'll now see won't impress you, but there are adjustments you can make to improve things.

The first thing you'll notice is that the picture will bleach out on the bright sections, and it will quite possibly have a yellow/green hue. It's really important to switch off auto controls and use manual adjustments throughout. Firstly, lock the camcorder's focus at a point where the film image is sharp, and then set the white balance as follows. Run the film out of the project to the point where the projector light throws only a white image onto the card. Now set the white balance ("WB") manually and refer to the user guide in order to check the procedure if necessary.

Once this has been done, ensure that the exposure is set to an optimum level by running the film and making the appropriate adjustments until you're reasonably happy with the results.

Super8 cine film will have been exposed at 16 frames per second (18fps, or even (in the case of sound film recordings) 24fps. Each and every one of these will cause a flicker on the video picture, something that you'll not be able to eliminate completely. If your camcorder has an electronic shutter utility, experiment with settings for best results. Once you're happy start recording!