Old amateur 8mm film ran about 3 minutes per reel, so you can get a few reels on a CD. It is a bit time consuming, so unless you have a lot of 8mm films to transfer, you might want to consider having them transferred by a company. If you have many films to digitize, doing it yourself is the way to go.
Instructions
1. Set up the 8mm film projector in a room where you can make it really dark. A basement is a good place since you can block the windows relatively easily. Set up the digital video camera close to the plane of the lens of the projector and focus tightly on the area of the projected film to avoid difficult editing later.
2. Start the video camera, then start the projector. You probably will pick up sound from the projector as the film travels through it, but you can silence that later or keep it in for a nostalgic effect.
3. Open your software to edit video. This can be anything from top-of-the-line software you purchase to freeware. Plug the digital video camera into the computer. In the software, select the input from your camera and then use the "Capture" button to record the contents of the camera.
4. Save the digitized movie to your hard drive or to the external hard drive. In most software, this feature is called "Export." You can make it relatively universal if you export your films as QuickTime, if that option is available.
5. Start the compact disc burning software. Then, click, hold and drag the digital file of your movie into the window of the CD burning software. In some software, you can select "Video CD" as an option to add themes and playability. However, you can just burn your CD as a data CD. This will require clicking on each digitized movie to play it in your computer. If you use the "Video CD" option, you probably will be able to play your home movie CD on your DVD player.
Tags: video camera, burning software, camera then, digital video, digital video camera, digitized movie, hard drive