Capturing 8mm and Super8 home movies

My parents made some 8mm home movies when I was growing up.  12 or 15 of them.  Including footage from their wedding.
I had them transferred to digital some years ago, but I was pretty unhappy with the quality.   I think a lot of these places just project the movie onto a screen, and film it in real-time with a video camera.
I could list all the things that I was unhappy about with that earlier transfer.  I learned that if you’re planning to have this done, give them just one movie first, to check out the quality.

I also have a few moving boxes full of home movies I got from various estate sales, and I watched many of them with a projector, but I didn’t feel like paying to get them transferred.

Then I found out about a consumer-priced machine called a Wolverine that could do an OK job.    It comes in 720p version, and a 1080p version.
I was talking about this on Facebook, and a friend offered to buy it for me if I would transfer his family’s movies.   Deal!

His movies are mostly from the 70s.  I’ve finished capturing the smaller Super8 reels.  Next will capture the larger 8mm reels.
Here they are:  https://vimeo.com/user1109857.

There are some older home movies on there, from the 50s.  Those are 16mm home movies from another friend.  I got those transferred at a film school where a friend works.

The Wolverine is time consuming, and not a perfect machine.  So far, it has trouble moving the 8mm movies forward.  The film gate is too tight.   I figured out if I don’t click it all the way shut, it works.     The Wolverine folks actually suggested using tape to hold it down.
The next more expensive option is significantly more costly.    The Wolverine cost about $470.

….

Hey are we doing this blog this year?  I’d still be up for it.  But I see we need more storage space.

Best wishes,
Hank