For years I heard my parents had nine 8mm video reels stored away, but without an easy way to watch…read morethem. In the past few years I took a lot of old 35mm photo negatives they had in storage and embarked on a journey of organizing and digitizing them. In the past year, at the last mention of the 8mm videos, I decided it was time to take care of them as well, but having gone through the journey (and all the related research) with still photos, I knew I would be much better off just finding a professional business (with a professional scanning machine) than trying to do it myself.
I explored a number of options in southern and Northern California, but eventually decided I'd reach out to Buck and Movette on the basis of their site and output options. I was so shocked to see that other vendors were still offering to master on 480p DVDs. Perhaps a good option for an elderly customer unlikely to buy better playback devices, but a shocking betrayal of the resolution and longevity of film, since 8mm can easily take advantage of full HD at a minimum.
Initially, paranoid about losing the reels in the post, or the vendor misplacing them, I had hoped to see if they'd let me come a few times and stick around for the scanning but once I realized that wasn't possible and also that Movette was the best option I'd found locally, I made an appointment to drop off the reels and waited a few weeks.
Upon pickup, one of the double reel containers which Buck flagged as a risk for off gassing and eventual vinegar syndrome had been moved to recycled tins, and the 2 TB SSDs I'd left with Buck were both fully loaded. He showed me a few snippets and explained what I was getting. In short, I received each of the nine reels (combined over 3 hours of footage) as:
- cropped h264 compressions
- cropped ProRes 422 (18 fps converted into 24 fps via duplicated third frames)
- cropped ProRes 422 (18 fps retimed to 24 fps - meaning I could retime to 18 again in a video editor without issue)
- ProRes 422 overscan masters (18 fps retimed to 24 fps)
- ProRes 422 overscan one light safeties, basically straight out of the scanner, no touch ups (18 fps retimed to 24 fps)
I was blown away at the quality of the scans, and the thoughtfulness with which the above package of files was decided on and organized. It means I could easily share the simple h264 compressions right out of the store, and I could also load the overscans into Resolve, retime to the original 18fps to play at the natural speed, stabilize (using the extra margins as a buffer), load those ProRes files into Topaz, use AI to interpolate frames up to 30, and if desired (though I've not opted to), upscale and enhance using AI.
The scans are everything I'd hoped for, captured in a fidelity and with a thoroughness that ensures the contents of the reels are perfectly preserved forever, giving me peace of mind that the precious memories weren't going to be lost to entropy. I was especially happy to see how well colors had come through, but we've just generally the sharpness/focus and cleanliness of the scans is excellent.
I paid a premium to bring them to Buck and not go to cheaper options, but if you're making this decision for yourself consider this: Movette uses the Lasergraphics Scanstation 5k, a scanner into the six figures. That resolution allows for the overscan at a quality that, even if you crop down to the video frame, you're well above full HD. Other local business seem to use the RetroScan, devices that can be had for a few thousands. Yes, there are laws of diminishing returns, but there are also some incontrovertible truths. Pay a bit more and have the job done on hardware unanimously considered the best for the work, or roll the dice and hope the film isn't damaged by whatever scanner is used.
My thanks to Buck and Movette for their work and for staying in business in what I know is an expensive city to run one. If my parents unearth any more reels, or if any of my friends tell me they need something scanned, I know where I'll send them.
