KODAK Digitizing Box

[raydm6]

I have about ten reels of 16mm home movies my Dad took of us on his old 16mm Revere movie camera. I would like to have them digitized but am not sure if this is the way to go. I can still project them them using his old Keystone Projector and perhaps digitize myself?

I found answers to a few of my questions in their help files:

• We capture film in Standard Definition at 480p, which is enough resolution to see every last detail in the original frame
• Our repair service is limited to splicing... ...Splicing is complimentary.

Apparently, as of today, there are 251 ***** happy reviews.

https://kodakdigitizing.com/

Professionally Digitized

Our technicians convert your media by hand in our state-of-the-art facility. Receive real-time updates emailed to you every step of the way.

 

[DominikDUK]

Sorry but 480p is a joke a 16mm frame has more information than that. HD resolution is more than possible with 16mm even the old ones shot with amateur cameras have better resolution than 480p.

 

[raydm6]

Thanks for that. My dad shot a lot of these on Kodachrome movie stock. I still have an unopened box of Kodachrome 16mm movie stock in a magazine (I believe Expired in the 1980's). I will keep it as a reminder of my Dad.

Might be cheaper if I set up a video rig and capture off the projection screen.

 

[raydm6]

Well this is weird!

I just did a search on "Kodak Digitizing Box" and came across this web site.

https://legacybox.com/

The web site architecture is almost the same as Kodak's. Seems they copied their model, but no.

An Easy Mail-In Model

Building on the mail-in model first seen by Kodak, simply send your Legacybox kit, filled with tapes, film, photos, and audio recordings.

Strange.

And more from TechCrunch "The corpse of Kodak coughs up another odd partnership":

Now Kodak is talking about another partnership, this time with a Tennessee-based video and film digitization company.The new product is essentially a rebranding of LegacyBox, a photo digitization company that has gone through multiple iterations after a raft of bad press.

“The Kodak Digitizing Box is a brand licensed product from AMB Media, the creators of Legacy Box. So yes, we’ve licensed the brand to them for this offering,” said Kodak spokesperson Nicholas Rangel. Not much has changed between Kodak’s offering and LegacyBox. The LegacyBox site is almost identical to the Kodak site and very similar to another AMB media product, Southtree.

The product itself is a fairly standard photo digitization service, although Southtree does have a number of complaints, including a very troubling case of missing mementos. The entry-level product is a box into which you can stuff hundreds of photos and videos and have them digitized for a fee.

Ultimately it’s been interesting to see Kodak sell itself off in this way. Like Polaroid before it, the company is now a shell of its former self and this is encouraging parasitical partners to cash in on its brand. Given that Kodak is still a household name for many, it’s no wonder a smaller company like AMB wants hitch itself to that star.

 

[lcpr]

I’d send the 16mm to Pro8mm for at least a 2k scan. 16mm looks amazing when scanned properly.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Definitely send it out for 2k. 16mm has very good resolution and Kodachrome 40 was a good emulsion with pretty fine grain. If your father's camera made a good, stable image, a 2k scan will look amazing. Quite a few recent major motion pictures were partially filmed on 16mm and no one noticed.
Phil Forrest

 

[DominikDUK]

Cinelab is in your "neighborhood" and is highly regarded they are also less expensive than say pro8mm. http://www.cinelab.com/

 

[raydm6]

Thank you for the suggestions all. I will check those sites out.

 

[EarlJam]

I just went through this process with a dozen or so reels of my dad's 16mm Kodachrome movies from the 1950s and can vouch for 1080p/2k scans. Here's a frame grab for reference.

I used a service local to me, Legacy Digital. Cost was $0.32/foot. 100 feet scanned at 1080p is just under 900 MB, so figure 1 GB per reel for storage.
https://legacydigital.net/

Legacy uses a RetroScan frame-by-frame scanner; info at the link below. This seems to give better results than lower-end telecine's upgraded with 1080p cameras, in that there's no gate weave. File format is MP4.

http://www.moviestuff.tv/moviestuff_universal_mark_i_scanner.html

For anyone with older, small format motion picture footage: I had my grandfather's 9.5mm Pathe and Kodak 8mm footage transferred by ColorLab in Rockville, MD, on their custom-adapted Rank Cintel telecine. Decision was driven by age and condition of the film, especially the Pathe which was shot in the 1920s and early 30s, along with ColorLab being the only service that could handle the Pathe format. Not inexpensive, but worth the investment to preserve aspects of my family's history.

 

[raydm6]

Thanks EarlJam, that frame grab is beautiful!