In modern day films you rarely ever see scratches or unsightly lines come across the screen unless the editor wanted his film to look old timey. Unfortunately yours my might have scratches or worse, and you probably want them to look modern and clean. There are many factors that determine what shape your Home Movies are in, some you can repair others you can not. First you need to inspect your 8mm film before digital transfer or even before viewing with a projector.
You should already be up to date about the Vinegar Syndrome, but were you aware that if your film was stored in a humid environment there are tendencies for Mold, Mildew and Fungus to form, and it has its own disgusting smell. These biological microorganisms usually start from the outside edges and works its way into the emulsion; which will eventually destroy your film.
If you can detect the Mold while it is only on the outer edge of the film such as a white web type pattern; then a thorough cleaning can often times stop the attack before it gets to the emulsion thus ruining the image. There are chemicals that could remove the Mold from the emulsion but chances are extremely likely that your image would also be removed along with it. Once the Mold, Mildew, and Fungus is stopped and cleaned up you need to move your film to a dryer storage area.
I touched on Shrinkage a tad in my last article, and there are ways to measure it. The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) website will loan you a Shrinkage Gauge provided you join their membership. There is a manual low tech way of testing your film for shrinkage lay out a strip of 100 frames you want tested and next to it lay out a 100 frames of new film or new white leader.
Suppose your older film is ? a frame shorter than the new piece of film which means that you have.5% or ? a percentage point of shrinkage. Should it be 1 frame shorter than the new film you will have a 1% shrinkage. With a 1% shrinkage or 1 full frame difference you are putting your film at risk running it through a projector.
When your film has shrinkage of more than 0.8% the projector may damage it further. Once 8mm film shrinks 2% or more it's almost beyond transfer for even the most skilled Professionals. Shrinkage around the 2% range generally has other problems that should be fairly obvious. Shrinkage can be caused by an overly dry environment. Film Storage needs the happy medium between a dry and a humid climate to exist without causing any more damages than it might already have.
Some Film Vaults store film at 40 Degrees Fahrenheit and 35% Relative Humidity. That is an ideal climate for film but would be unpleasant for humans to live in. Chances are, you are not in possession of a Film Vault, so we have to make do with what we have. Storage in a basement, on the floor, next to a window, in direct sunlight, in the vicinity of water pipes, heaters, near paint, chemicals or in an attic is an undesirable storeroom location for film.
I urge you to get even more helpful information and some views of how some of my transfers turned out on some 8mm film that was taken in 1956 at http://danstrobel.com/8mm_to_Digital.html.
Thank you for taking time to read my article
Daniel D. Strobel
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