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Deleted member 50714

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Recently came into possssion of 8-16 mm family home movies.

What to do? No projector. I can have them digitally converted but for whom? No one besides me would be interested, and how many times am I going to watch them? I can't bring myself to throw them away.

Also, a couple boxes of archaic photos, I assume of relatives, but have no clue.

Any thoughts?
 

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D

Deleted member 86082

Guest
You don't have any kids? Digitize them anyways. You never know when you'll feel nostalgic.
 

tinman

Well-known member
What could be useful?
No idea. Bad joke. We had a similar situation in my family. Lots of family travels, some in " interesting" parts of the world, and my dad took lots of slide photos, all fairly well archived, but on the parents' passing what do you do with them. Lots of sentiment, but the volume was overwhelming. I would have had a hard time dealing with them, but a younger (probably smarter) sister took on the task. Quite a few years ago, and I think she got part way through and mybe dumped them. It's good to have a few photos to pass through the generations for potentially curious descendants, and paper is probably as reliable a medium as any, but digitizing the amount of stuff you have would probably not serve a useful purpose in most families. Expensive too.
 

autostaretx

Erratic Member
Hmmm ... i wonder if your local library might have an 8mm projector you could borrow (or use on-site).

Every once in a while i see one for sale at Goodwill.

--dick
 
D

Deleted member 50714

Guest
No idea. Bad joke. We had a similar situation in my family. Lots of family travels, some in " interesting" parts of the world, and my dad took lots of slide photos, all fairly well archived, but on the parents' passing what do you do with them. Lots of sentiment, but the volume was overwhelming. I would have had a hard time dealing with them, but a younger (probably smarter) sister took on the task. Quite a few years ago, and I think she got part way through and mybe dumped them. It's good to have a few photos to pass through the generations for potentially curious descendants, and paper is probably as reliable a medium as any, but digitizing the amount of stuff you have would probably not serve a useful purpose in most families. Expensive too.
No!!! I got the joke and think it was really funny and chuckled. No snark. Don't stop, I think your may be on the cusp of a comedic breakout!!! I was just playing dumb and trying to set you up with a Hank Kimble response.

The box is smallest of four. Many albums and loose photos of unknown souls long since passed. I'll just store 'em and let some one Toss them.

Cheers!
 
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220629

Well-known member
...

Also, a couple boxes of archaic photos, I assume of relatives, but have no clue.

Any thoughts?
We have similar archives. Fortunately (double edged sword) my relatives had a habit of putting names and often dates on the back of the photos. I've been scanning select photos for posterity.

Might be useful for some future forensic investigation.
:hmmm: Be careful what you find.

A story that I shouldn't repeat.

We found a bunch of my Grandfather's home movies. I do have a projector. After some birthday and Christmas reels, we loaded one fateful reel into the projector and flipped it on.

There on the screen was my grandfather and grandmother at an adult party. Someone had brought anatomically correct male and female "aprons" to the event. There was my grandpa and grandma laughing while bumping and grinding in front of everyone. :bash:

MY EYES... MY EYES.... it can never be unseen.

:cheers: vic
 
D

Deleted member 50714

Guest
We have similar archives. Fortunately (double edged sword) my relatives had a habit of putting names and often dates on the back of the photos. I've been scanning select photos for posterity.



:hmmm: Be careful what you find.

A story that I shouldn't repeat.

We found a bunch of my Grandfather's home movies. I do have a projector. After some birthday and Christmas reels, we loaded one fateful reel into the projector and flipped it on.

There on the screen was my grandfather and grandmother at an adult party. Someone had brought anatomically correct male and female "aprons" to the event. There was my grandpa and grandma laughing while bumping and grinding in front of everyone. :bash:

MY EYES... MY EYES.... it can never be unseen.

:cheers: vic
Yes, I remember those. A long time ago, before Gloria Alred sued companies for such sinister "sexist" behavior, a guy was selling them at work, Boeing, for 10-bucks. Always good for a laugh.
 
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flman

Roadrunner, Genius of Birds ALWAYS WINS! NO FAILS!
When my father died a couple of years ago, I transmitted a bunch of slides to digital, and looked at them once.


Me sitting on big brothers lap as a young lad.
 

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flman

Roadrunner, Genius of Birds ALWAYS WINS! NO FAILS!
7 or 8 years older? Looks sort of like a Norman Rockwell, an all American nuclear family. We had 8 kids in the family, so we recycled all of our clothes, that is why my pants are 10x too big. :smirk: Another thing, growing up in a big family thickens the skin, and makes you much more independent. In a pack, it is survival of the fittest.
 

glasseye

Well-known member
It's conventional wisdom among photographers that those who suffer home loss due to fire regret most the loss of their family albums. Nearly everything else is replaceable.

It's relatively easy to photograph prints with a modern digital camera and the results are usually quite satisfying. Best done outdoors on a cloudy day.

35mm slides are more difficult, usually requiring a macro lens to image them successfully. Macro lenses are fairly cheap have many other uses. You may also try reversing the lens, manually aligning it in the lens mount to allow temporary macro function.

By far the most difficult media to digitize will be the movies. Re-photographing them with a projector is by far the easiest, but may result in disappointing quality due to exposure variations resulting in flicker. You may be able to triage the movies by viewing them directly to see if they're worthwhile digitizing. Use a big magnifier or one of your lenses held backwards to view the tiny imagery. A cheap USB microscope would also work really well for imaging or viewing single 8mm frames.

This project would be like shooting time lapse. You never know what you'll get until you shoot it. :thumbup:
 
D

Deleted member 50714

Guest
7 or 8 years older? Looks sort of like a Norman Rockwell, an all American nuclear family. We had 8 kids in the family, so we recycled all of our clothes, that is why my pants are 10x too big. :smirk: Another thing, growing up in a big family thickens the skin, and makes you much more independent. In a pack, it is survival of the fittest.
It does look like Norman Rockwell lithograph.

I didn't have pack, the wolves abandoned me and lone sheepdog since. Good Sheepdogs eat wolves.

The jerk who, by the unfortunate consequence of birth, my big brother, six years older. When I entered elementary school K-6, he had entered junior high, 7-9. As a result the age disparity, I was the pesky little brother he tormented and didn't want hanging around. As a result, never developed a close relationship...any relationship. Fortunately, from 7th grade on, I rarely saw him. As we grew older, the only time he would call is when he wanted something. As a result, I don't answer or return his call and haven't talked in years. A good thing.
 
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flman

Roadrunner, Genius of Birds ALWAYS WINS! NO FAILS!
It's conventional wisdom among photographers that those who suffer home loss due to fire regret most the loss of their family albums. Nearly everything else is replaceable.

It's relatively easy to photograph prints with a modern digital camera and the results are usually quite satisfying. Best done outdoors on a cloudy day.

35mm slides are more difficult, usually requiring a macro lens to image them successfully. Macro lenses are fairly cheap have many other uses. You may also try reversing the lens, manually aligning it in the lens mount to allow temporary macro function.

By far the most difficult media to digitize will be the movies. Re-photographing them with a projector is by far the easiest, but may result in disappointing quality due to exposure variations resulting in flicker. You may be able to triage the movies by viewing them directly to see if they're worthwhile digitizing. Use a big magnifier or one of your lenses held backwards to view the tiny imagery. A cheap USB microscope would also work really well for imaging or viewing single 8mm frames.

This project would be like shooting time lapse. You never know what you'll get until you shoot it. :thumbup:

I bought a converter that you put each slide in, and it recorded it to an SD card. Did not have to do any film conversion. OTOH, my stepson had my wife's fathers movies put on DVD by some photo shop.
 
D

Deleted member 50714

Guest
It's conventional wisdom among photographers that those who suffer home loss due to fire regret most the loss of their family albums. Nearly everything else is replaceable.

It's relatively easy to photograph prints with a modern digital camera and the results are usually quite satisfying. Best done outdoors on a cloudy day.

35mm slides are more difficult, usually requiring a macro lens to image them successfully. Macro lenses are fairly cheap have many other uses. You may also try reversing the lens, manually aligning it in the lens mount to allow temporary macro function.

By far the most difficult media to digitize will be the movies. Re-photographing them with a projector is by far the easiest, but may result in disappointing quality due to exposure variations resulting in flicker. You may be able to triage the movies by viewing them directly to see if they're worthwhile digitizing. Use a big magnifier or one of your lenses held backwards to view the tiny imagery. A cheap USB microscope would also work really well for imaging or viewing single 8mm frames.

This project would be like shooting time lapse. You never know what you'll get until you shoot it. :thumbup:
Times are a changing. I remember about 20 years ago, just prior to digital explosion, the news did a story about an old man, a photographer, who was going blind and wanted to give away for free, all of his equipment to a youngster interested in the profession. The problem was, all of his stuff was 40+ years old. They showed all the chemical trays, projectors, cameras, drying racks, etc. Now, mere relics of a bygone era.
 

220629

Well-known member
Times are a changing. I remember about 20 years ago, just prior to digital explosion, the news did a story about an old man, a photographer, who was going blind and wanted to give away for free, all of his equipment to a youngster interested in the profession. The problem was, all of his stuff was 40+ years old. They showed all the chemical trays, projectors, cameras, drying racks, etc. Now, mere relics of a bygone era.
I hear you.

I had my Dad's cameras, glass trays, etc. in the basement. My DIL is a photographer. I gave all of it to her to use as she wanted. Most all of it became memorabilia props for display. Times have changed.

My daughter and son made me aware of how easy and effective it is to take pictures of pictures with a cell phone camera. The results are as good as some of the copy stand work when I was helping a photographer with some historic photos, and much less setup/expense.

We lost much of my Dad's hoarded memorabilia when my wicked old step mother moved out with his things. Actually she wasn't wicked, is my step mother, but is now old. She really a nice woman. In some ways it is probably good that some/most of the things are gone. Otherwise I'd probably just add the stuff to my hoard.

:cheers: vic
 

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