Trouble videoing 8mm film: First off I'm new to video and I have a new D750 camera. I have it set on 1080/60 and high quality. I'm trying to digitize some very old 8mm film by showing...

tscali

First off I'm new to video and I have a new D750 camera. I have it set on 1080/60 and high quality. I'm trying to digitize some very old 8mm film by showing the film and then trying to video it with my D750. The problem I'm having is that black flashes are showing when I play the video. If I use a movie camera I do not see these black flashes. I suspect that I'm not in sync with the 8mm film speed; but I do not know how to correct. Any help would certainly be appreciated.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

tscali wrote:

First off I'm new to video and I have a new D750 camera. I have it set on 1080/60 and high quality. I'm trying to digitize some very old 8mm film by showing the film and then trying to video it with my D750. The problem I'm having is that black flashes are showing when I play the video. If I use a movie camera I do not see these black flashes. I suspect that I'm not in sync with the 8mm film speed; but I do not know how to correct. Any help would certainly be appreciated.

I think your suspicions are correct. If you have a camcorder, use that. I've done that in the past, and it's worked fine.

Some ideas -

http://photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00CpsV
http://gizmodo.com/5782892/how-to-transfer-8mm-footage-to-a-canon-dslr-in-real-time

Papa Joe Loc: Midwest U.S.

tscali wrote:

First off I'm new to video and I have a new D750 camera. I have it set on 1080/60 and high quality. I'm trying to digitize some very old 8mm film by showing the film and then trying to video it with my D750. The problem I'm having is that black flashes are showing when I play the video. If I use a movie camera I do not see these black flashes. I suspect that I'm not in sync with the 8mm film speed; but I do not know how to correct. Any help would certainly be appreciated.

Since Digital Video functions at (approx) 30 frames per second, and most home movies are either 16 or 24 fps...this causes the lines you're seeing. If you happen to have a movie projector with variable speed adjustment, you can overcome those 'lines' by speeding-up the projection a tiny bit. It takes a little experimentation but I've done it successfully and without causing too much obvious 'Charlie Chaplin effect'.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

tscali wrote:

First off I'm new to video and I have a new D750 camera. I have it set on 1080/60 and high quality. I'm trying to digitize some very old 8mm film by showing the film and then trying to video it with my D750. The problem I'm having is that black flashes are showing when I play the video. If I use a movie camera I do not see these black flashes. I suspect that I'm not in sync with the 8mm film speed; but I do not know how to correct. Any help would certainly be appreciated.

Frame rates difference. 16 fps does not translate well to 29.97 fps. Get professional film to video transfer services. They use telecine equipment that uses special shutters to match it up.

You could play around with dSLR shutter speed to try to minimize the problem.

tscali

Thank you for your responses. I suspected as much. Will use a camcorder to correct the problem.

Tom Lee

The shutter rotation in the projector is the source of the problem, As the shutter rotates it cuts off the light between movie film frames causing a "black" frame. I have copied videos with a video camera without that problem but the results are not very good. better to have a professional video transfer job done with your movies. Too bad but that gets a little spendy.