As if I didn’t have enough hobbies/projects in my spare time…
Since a little after my Mom passed away, I had this idea of converting any and all Super 8mm film that I could find into digital video files.
The cost of offsite conversion concerned me, along with the idea of shipping these memories elsewhere.
After Dad passed away, I started looking into getting a home system to do this, but again, the price was a bit high.
Recently I checked pricing on these units again, they had dropped to an affordable price point, and decided to pick one up.
It seems to do the job well, having digitized about a dozen and a half 3-minute reels of film (at a rate of around 30 minutes per reel) and I’m pretty satisfied with the output.
For example: from about 45 years ago, Christmas 75.
Watching these films reminded me of another reason I didn’t convert them right away, it was still painful to see home movies of ones who have moved on, but age has made it a bit… less painful to watch.
It’s also fun to watch my niece, reacting to movies of her mother (my sister) as a baby.
Gotta say that’s it’s oddly satisfying and emotional to do this, seeing memories from over 40 years ago, and preserving them.