ILKNOX-L Archives

From: Tom Lundeen <>
Subject: Re: Seeking advice...
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 22:31:56 -0500

A few weeks ago, I asked this forum for advice on converting an old family
film from 8mm to digital. After receiving lots of advice and a few
recommendations, I selected a firm in Urbana, Illinois. My choice was based
on a personal experience by one person local to Urbana, a viewing of their
website and a phone call to investigate further. Given their apparent
experience and their proximity to a pool of talent at the UofI, I felt that
it was worth the chance to send them my film.

Ironically, I have never seen the film -- I only know that it was marked for
the marriage of my father's cousin, and know that they were married in
Galesburg on February 2nd, 1940. When the bride in the wedding and her
sister passed away in recent years, their descendants sent many old
photographs and other memorabilia to me as the unofficial family historian.
The film was included in these items.

After ignoring the film for several months (I was more interested in the
hundreds of old photographs), I finally examined the film, still it its
original Kodak box/mailer. Suddenly, I realized that the box was labeled
"Kodachrome" -- which was a clear indication that the film was in COLOR!
Keep in mind that the first color movie was "The Wizard of Oz," which
appeared in 1939, and you will understand that color movies of that era were
rather rare.

I didn't want to ship the film out over the long 4th of July weekend and
have it sitting somewhere in a truck baking in the sun, so we waited until
last Wednesday to send it off by UPS. Using the UPS website, I tracked the
package until it was delivered last Thursday afternoon.

Early Saturday afternoon, I received three emails from the firm. The first
informed me that I had been registered on their website as a customer and
issued me a user name and password so that I could inquire about orders. The
second acknowledged receipt of my order, and the third was a statement of
account -- I was charged $14 for the conversion of the film to DVD and $8.50
for return shipment via UPS.

Monday, I received another email, notifying me that my order had been
shipped. It also provided me with a link to the UPS tracking site, as well
as a link to my order on the website. In checking the UPS website, I knew
that it was due for delivery on Tuesday. At 12:30 today, UPS was here. I
think I had the DVD in the DVD player before he was back in his truck!

I'm still amazed at the results. The contents of the film were less than I
had hoped for, but it was still a bit mind-blowing to see a movie taken 65
years ago of folks I know. The images are a bit dark and grainy, but that's
attributable to the quality of the film of that time. We could see no flaws
in the reproduction on DVD -- I could not have expected more.

Keep in mind that I never saw the original film, so I cannot say if the
images on the DVD were better (or worse) than the originals. I believe I
have enough of a photographic background to better assess the results than
most folks -- and I have zero criticism of the job converting the film to
digital.

If, as some of you folks noted at the time, you have any old films stored
somewhere, and you have any desire to preserve them, you might want to
consider this firm:

http://www.digitaltransfersystems.net/

I cannot say that they have converted miles of film for me, but they did
convert one very important film. I don't think they treated me any
differently than a customer who had a ton of business. Their rates are
reasonable, they have a quick turnaround, and they did a quality job. What
more could I ask?

One last point -- if you do send films to them, do choose their
"frame-by-frame" conversion. It is more expensive, but I can attest to the
final quality.

Tom Lundeen

This thread:

• Re: Seeking advice... by Tom Lundeen <>