Trying to watch old 8mm tapes..

I have about 15 8mm tapes from my childhood that I really want to watch. It seems that the only way to do this is to play from an 8mm camera and record to VCR, or take it to a shop and have them converted to DVD. I've already purchased an 8mm camera from ebay, but it came broken and the seller won't take responsibility.

I don't want to buy another camera, and I don't want to pay a shop $20 per tape to have it converted.

I've talked to all my friends / family but nobody has an 8mm camera. Can anyone help me out here? Any of you that are local (socal 818,805) have an 8mm camera that I can borrow to transfer these?

 

Rent maybe?

 

I know exactly how you feel..... and I have a bunch of Hi8mm tapes that I need to get converted somehow. My Wedding videos are on Hi8 tapes sitting here at home collecting dust.

If the tapes are that important to you - get them converted. It might cost $20 now....versus....waiting too long and even the shops won't be able to do it and those important memories will be long gone.

It's bad enough the media we have today...will probably have to be converted again in another 10 years to something else.

I gotta get off my ass and get this done. I gotta shop around....and atleast get our wedding videos done.

Good Luck with your search!!

 

Yeah, I would do that but it's last resort. I really don't want to spend ~$300.

If I can't find anyone with a camera, I think I'll just convert a couples tapes a month to make the cost easier

 

If you can get your hands on a 8mm cam corder you can check out Brookstone. They have a product called IConverter which transfer your home recordings to digital SD cards, they run about $100.00, and claims that no computer needed.

 

If I got a camera, I would probably just buy a USB capture device and use the PC to record to dvd. fry's has them for like $40

 

Everytime I see a post like this (or something 8mm related) - it makes me think of the tapes I have. Thanks for the reminder... It'd be nice to see our wedding vids again. Haven't looked at them since that day 15 years ago.

8mm stuff didn't last very long....in the scheme of things.