tonybear

Howdy HHoggers,
I'm a long time producer of documentary photography- first acquiring many hundreds of Super-8 mag-striped sound films in the 70's, then switching over to the consumer video formats that evolved over the years from the 80s to today.
In going back over my Super-8 archive, I need a quality method to convert my original Super8 sound films to the video format for more convenient enjoyment. I am aware that film to video conversion services abound everywhere, but the financial cost of such is out of my ballpark.
So I was wondering if ANY of you in the HH readership had experience in doing the conversion yourself- at home, if you had the right equipment. I still have a high quality Elmo ST-1200 HD mag stripe projector, and a Sony RX-10 digital camera with with to "recapture" the projected image on video. But here comes the well-known dilemma- the on-screen flicker, due to the differences between film (18 or 24fps) and video (60fps). I understand that there are projection solutions called telecine projectors, which essentially eliminate the flicker issue, but again, these are financially out of my ballpark.
I have been told that one solution is to obtain a projector with a variable speed control, whereby one might modify the speed slightly so that the flicker minimizes, but the only Super8 projector I am aware of that can do that is the Elmo GS-1200, which is unfortunately still too expensive for my tastes
I have also been doing some research in modifying the shutter speed of the taking video camera to the point that perhaps the flicker effect minimizes. Older camcorders might have this feature, known as a "night shutter/slow speed shutter". But I have not been able to run any specific tests to verify if it works.
Again, any and all thoughts on this home conversion process would be appreciated.
Sincerely,
Tony Gomez

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Any chance you could find a video camera at a reasonable price that supports 3-2 pulldown? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-two_pull_down

BebuLamar

A very slow method but I think would give the best result is to either scan or copy one frame at a time.

rvharvey Loc: Southern New Jersey

I have captured a number of Super and Regular 8 silent films by projecting onto a white poster-board screen and setting the camera as close as possible to the projector. Normal movie screens are beaded and that seems to have a negative affect. My projector has the speed control to minimize flicker.

If anyone out there is a programmer, I would like an editing program that could automatically eliminate dark images and suggest other settings to improve the video such as light and irregular movement from horizontal sweeps. I usually add a sound track of music or music and speech using a video editor. To get the original sound, it might be easier to copy it separately and then add it later with the editing program. Is there a way to copy the sound track without projector noise? I am not a pro, but they can usually afford the expensive route!

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Does your projector have an audio output or external speaker jack?

tonybear

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, MY super-8 sound projector DOES NOT have the variable speed control, so I am searching for other ways to minimize flicker. I have been told that using a video camera with a longer exposure time, ie. NIGHT MODE or LOW LIGHT MODE might accomplish a similar effect in minimizing flicker, so I'm still researching it. BTW, I have so MANY super-8 films that it's economically not practical to convert them all using professional services.