Super 8 made someone's day today!

[Mike Buckles]

When I was growing up, no-one on my dad's side of the family had a movie camera...oh, they took lots of pictures, but in the 70's it was b.c. ...before camcorder...so it was I with my little GAF super 8 at age 15 poking my lens at everyone at the family get togethers...unwatched and forgotten by them for 25 years...then my aunt called a few months ago, wanted to know if I had any footage of my grandma or dad (both deceased)...my uncle's 60 birthday was coming up, and she wanted to surprise him...so I made up a tape with music and titles, sent her the tape...boy was she floored...no longer having to rely on just memories...there were the faces, in vivid Kodachrome....no movie lights, bad camera work, scratchy film...but didn't notice any of the flaws....got a really touching message on my answering machine tonight...crying, she told me how precious my super 8 legacy had become....made me feel really good that I was a big pest 25 years ago! Just as an archival note...the one video clip I put on the tape had started to deteriorate, with drop-outs...doesn't have the archival power of our old friend super 8!

[Alex]

Great Story! Did you do the transfer yourself?

[Mike Buckles]

Yes, and it was poor...I used one of those "transfer kits"...that has the mirror on one side that reflects the picture onto a small screen where you have your camcorder set up...the projector does have variable speed control, so there was no flicker, but the screen makes the image grainy, and there is a loss of color and detail too. These films were pretty beat up, so I didn't think sending them to Moviestuff for transferring would help.