Home movies to DVD

Film, Video, and Slide Transfer

Film and Video to DVD Conversions!
35mm Slide Conversion to CD

Welcome to Foxchase Photography of Alexandria, Virginia, your source for professional film transfer and video conversion. We're proud to offer you the opportunity to relive your memories. With our film and video transfer process, we can convert your old 8 mm film, super 8, 16mm film, camcorder tapes, and VHS into a convenient DVD that will play in your home player.

Also, with our 35mm slide transfer, you can protect our photographs by putting them on a CD or enjoy the memories through a slide show DVD.

It's SAFE...
The home movies to DVD transfer process does not damage your 8mm film, super8 film, 16mm film, camcorder tapes, VHS tapes or 35mm slides in any way. With our bar coding system, you can track the status of your order during each and every aspect of transfer. It will be like you are walking along with your order!
Serving Virginia Maryland Washinton DC and nationwide.

It's EASY...
We'll walk you through the home movies to dvd and vhs ordering processes. You can send in as many film reels, slides, and tapes as you'd like! We do not limit our customers. Most orders are processed within a week.

New ! Learn about old Movie History

8mm Film History
In the early 1900's manufacturers were looking to provide the home and independent film maker a lower cost alternative to 16mm film. Film manufacturers had seen success with 16mm film introduced in the mid 20's. In 1932 Kodak introduced a new film format dubbed, "Cine Kodak Eight." Since then the film has taken on the names of double 8 or regular 8mm film.

Professional home movies to DVD or VHS transfer

This 8mm film format was targeted directly at amateurs and home film making enthusiasts. In reality this film was 16mm film with extra sprocket holes which were on both sides of the film. The cameraman would simply run the video film through the camera in one direction, then reload the film in the opposite direction and expose the other half. After processing, the film laboratory would cut the film (movie) lengthwise down the center, and splice the ends together. The 25 foot film roll then becomes 50 feet in length.

DVD Dupes

8mm film was almost an instant success. It's popularity grew so rapidly that within 10-15 years 16mm film was relegated to almost exclusively professional use.
One of the advantages of 8mm film was that it reduced the amount of film needed to produce movies of the same length. An 8mm frame is 1/4 the size of a 16mm film.

Convert Your home movies to DVD or VHS

In practical terms this allows a film maker to produce roughly 4 minutes of film on a standard 25 foot 8mm film reel. (split to yield 50ft of film) The same amount of footage shot with 16mm film would require 100 feet of film. Some cameras even allowed larger spools of film to be used. Because of it's ability to shoot longer movies coupled with it's lower cost compared to 16mm it is not surprising that 8mm was extremely poplar with amateur film makers. 8mm movie cameras were becoming increasingly popular on vacations, parties, and family events.

Super 8 Film History
Released by Kodak in 1965, super8 film was a modification of regular 8mm film. 8mm film had enjoyed immense popularity for over 30 years. Manufacturers were interested in retaining both the spirit and the low cost of 8mm, while improving it's quality. Super8 film (often spelled super-8, super 8 film or super 8mm film) proved to be an improvement over it's predecessor in two key ways.

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First was the introduction of the Kodak super8 film cartridge. The film itself was contained inside a black plastic cartridge making it far more easy to load. In addition to it's ease of use it also removed the danger of getting light on the undeveloped film.

Another improvement was to the film itself. While keeping the width of the film identical, the sprocket holes were reduced in size on super 8 film. This allowed for over a 25% increase in visible frame size compared to regular 8. Following in Kodak's footsteps, Fujifilm also released an improvement over regular 8 in 1966. Fuji's film, called single8, was very similar to Super 8mm film (movie).

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The main difference was that it was housed in a better cartridge. Fuji's design allowed for easier rewinding which allowed the film maker greater freedom with in-camera effects. Single8 film was identical in dimension to super8, which meant that after processing, single8 film could be viewed on the same projectors as super8. Of course it is important to note that an 8mm projector could not project super8 film. This was resolved by the introduction of the dual 8 projector which served as an 8mm projector or super8 projector with two sets of sprockets and film gates included on a single projector.

Contact Foxchase Studio for all of your home movies to DVD conversion

Another important development was the addition of sound to super8 in 1973. These new developments allowed Super8 to enjoy much of the same popularity that regular 8mm film had. In fact super8 was the single most popular format for home movie making. It wasn't until the mid 80's when camcorders began to take the market away from film.

Today super8 is still used, although not nearly as widely as it was in the 1970's.. There are numerous super8 clubs that continue to shoot on super8 film. Most have forums that discuss aspects of film making. Some have even written petitions to companies to express their desire to keep super8 film alive.