I know, you keep meaning to digitize those boxes, sleeves, and envelopes full of negatives and chromes. But somehow it doesn’t get done. You’ve checked out companies online that will scan them for you, and even fantasized that a slide duplicator on your digital SLR will do a high-quality job. The truth, however, is that you’ll probably be happiest if you scan them yourself.

If you’re serious about doing it right, invest in a new book by Munich-based photographer Sascha Steinhoff. Scanning Negatives and Slides (Rocky Nook, 2007; $45) is a 1.6-pound volume, with 240 pages of photos and step-by-step instructions. Follow it, and you’ll be a master digitizer and scanned-file Adobe Photoshop jockey. The trouble is, few of us want to make that commitment.

Recognizing that most of us want a shortcut on the long road to digitizing our film, I asked Steinhoff what the interested — but not fully committed — digitizer must know. Here are his top half-dozen tips:

1. Curb your enthusiasm.

Think you can do your whole archive in high-quality scans? Think again. Even a fast film scanner takes 20 seconds for each frame, plus loading, unloading, and image-editing time. I suggest choosing only the best pictures and scanning them carefully.

2. Film scanners rock!

Dedicated film scanners are best; the Nikon Coolscan V ED ($550, street) is a great choice. Also, the Nikon Scan software is superb. Got lots of film larger than 35mm format, and don’t want to spend $1,850 for the Coolscan 9000 ED? Some flatbed scanners are reasonable runners-up.

3. Flatbed basics.

While the gap is closing between flatbed and film scanners, don’t go by resolution numbers alone. They can be misleading. Just because a flatbed is rated to 4800 dpi doesn’t mean it will achieve that with film. I’ve seen “4800 dpi” units scan a transparency at no better than 1700 dpi, which means you can’t print the file much bigger than 5×7 inches at 300 dpi.

Here are two good flatbeds. Epson’s Perfection V700 Photo ($500, street) has two lenses — one for prints and documents, another for film. Microtek’s ScanMaker i900 ($430, street) scans film in a separate tray under the flatbed glass, so there’s no glass between film and sensor — just like on a film scanner.

4. Scratch that.

Software-based scratch-and-dust removal systems are okay, but I prefer a scanner with a hardware-based approach, such as Canon’s FARE or Kodak’s Digital ICE. These use an infrared scan to find problems and software to fix them. Due to the silver content of the film, ICE and FARE don’t work well with traditional b&w or Kodachrome film. (The Epson, Microtek, and Nikon units mentioned here have ICE.) The Coolscan 9000 ED does have a version of ICE that can handle Kodachrome to some degree.

5. Out, damn curl!

Don’t count on the scanner’s film holder to flatten your film. It won’t. Instead, wrap your curled negatives and store them between the pages of a heavy book. In time they’ll flatten.

6. Restrain your resolution.

Don’t scan every image at 4000 dpi or higher — you’ll get monster-sized files (130 megabytes for a single 35mm frame!) that you won’t need except for poster-sized prints. Scanning at 2000 dpi is enough for standard scans and means less grain.

Ask John

Q. Are there any nonprofit groups specializing in teaching disadvantaged kids photography?
A. The most famous is Kids with Cameras (www.kids-with-cameras.org). Founded by Zana Briski, it grew out of her work in Calcutta and is the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Born Into Brothels. This program conducts workshops around the world. For details on other groups, see our Web exclusive article Photography for a Good Cause.

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First it was 10 megapixels, then 12MP, then 14MP. And now, as DSLRs hurdle the 21MP barrier, the standards for performance have taken a big leap upward.

That’s why we’re raising our standards for resolution, and therefore overall image quality, in our Certified Test Results from the Pop Photo Lab.

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Chances are you don’t need the Flashpoint F-1428 Carbon Fiber Tripod ($330, direct; www.adorama.com).

After all, it supports up to 26 pounds of gear, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone short of a hardcore wildlife shooter whose camera and lens approaches that weight. Even a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III with a hulking 400mm f/2.8 IS lens doesn’t hit 15 pounds. Sure, video shooters can use this Prometheus-caliber support, but photoretailer Adorama, which uses Flashpoint as its house brand, is promoting this ’pod to photographers like you and me. It’s clearly a statement that Adorama wants to be taken seriously in the tripod category. Not mere low-cost gear, but good gear that runs right up to the 26- pound-supporting pro level.

And the F-1428 makes the case for itself pretty well. With four leg sections and a center column, it rises to 6 feet, yet closes down to 24 inches. At 5.56 pounds, its relative light weight comes from the carbon-fiber construction of the legs. A three-section aluminum model with similar capacity would be a pound or two heavier and several inches longer. Carbon fiber is also strong and not frostbite bait in the cold, as aluminum is.

Of course, there isn’t just carbon fiber on this ’pod. The leg joints and collar are cast aluminum with a Gitzo-inspired gray crinkle finish. Bolts and the hook extending from the center column (hang ballast here) are stainless steel. The half-twist leg locks are rubber-covered aluminum.

In our field tests, everything worked smoothly and intuitively for both high and low camera positions—the legs splay out and the center tube reverses for getdown macro work.

In addition to tripods, Adorama has an impressive array of Flashpoint ballheads, gimbal heads, and quickrelease plates to handle virtually any camera and application. While the best ballheads can cost $600-plus, the Adorama line of magnesium-alloy models is under $100. These Arca-Swiss-inspired heads are well made and reasonably smooth, but if you’ve been spoiled by the creamy action of a high-priced head, the savings probably won’t compensate.

At $330, the F-1428 sells for less than half of what the platinum-caliber Gitzo GT2542L does, and it’s priced more like a good aluminum model.

So what are the compromises? This Flashpoint lacks some of the smoothness of a top-end unit, and has a little extra weight here and there (for instance, the center column is aluminum, not carbon fiber; and the leg locks are quite large). Those fourth leg sections are thinner than you might have in a threesection tripod (which means less rigidity), and an annoying allenkey bolt is used on the quick-release plate (give us the old slot that takes a Japanese 100-yen coin or American nickel).

Overall, however? This is not just a good tripod for the money, but a good tripod.

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Having spent decades in photography and the past six years as a full-time pro, Crim has fired the shutter millions of times. “But any creative person can get stuck in a rut,” says the 54-year-old.

So Crim decided to do something about it: He gave himself a 365-day assignment. His subject: St. Louis, MO’s Forest Park, the city’s 1,293-acre epicenter of nature, culture, and the arts, which isn’t far from Crim’s home. His project: Shoot in the park every day of the year, starting January 1, 2009.

“I’d taken engagement and wedding photos in the park many times over the years,” he says. “But I’d never really seen the owls, muskrats, and other wildlife, and this project has helped me see the familiar in a new way.”

Think it’s just another whimsical “photo-a-day” project? Hardly. For one thing, Crim set up a website to showcase his photos and chronicle his efforts (www.forestpark365.com). For another, Forest Park is huge-dwarfing New York City’s Central Park by nearly a square mile.

I talked with Crim 75 days into the shooting, and “effort” is the operative word. “It has spun into a whole lot more time than I thought it would,” he confesses. “There have been times I’ve been out in the park an hour before midnight.”

Typically, Crim spends two to three hours a day in the park shooting anywhere from 170 to 300 images, pulling from his arsenal of Canon EOS gear (1Ds, 1D Mark II, 5D, and 30D). Each evening, he devotes another couple hours to editing and posting about 30 images.

“Dust is the only thing I edit out of a photo,” he says. “I prefer to present things the way I see them. I’m trying to show people what’s really there.”
What’s there?

Classical architecture. The building shown in the photo at left is the St. Louis Art Museum. “It was the only permanent building built for the 1904 World’s Fair: ‘Meet me in St. Louis, Louis, meet me at the fair,'” Crim points out. “It was designed by New York architect Cass Gilbert, who designed the Minnesota and West Virginia State Capitols, and the U.S. Supreme Court building.”

Animals. In addition to the 700 species in the St. Louis Zoo, Crim’s encountered diving kingfishers, giant snapping turtles, and mating ducks. “I have new respect for wildlife photographers,” he laughs. “Try getting a small nervous bird to sit still for you. I’d rather photograph a bad kid.”

And, of course, people. “I’ve been out on a couple of 10-degree days,” he says, “and there are always people in the park.”

Joggers, anglers, rugby players, a man who’s fascinated by great horned owls…”I just walk up and say ‘Hey, that looks interesting. Can I take your picture?’ And nobody has said no.”

But still, how can someone who feeds his family working with a camera devote at least five hours every single day to an income-free creative project?

“It is very demanding,” admits Crim, who on the evening we spoke had an assignment at a corporate event. “But I’m one of those guys who works well under a deadline.

“For me, the creation of these images and meeting all of these people is enough.”

Is it making you a better photographer?

“Definitely. And it has put me in an awfully good mood.”

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Despite our geeky white coats, clipboards, and computer-generated reports, the crew in the Pop Photo Lab is a bunch of real-world photographers. We’re all about handling, usability, and the practicalities of in-the-field and in-the-studio shooting.

But we know that everything photographic starts with a solid grounding in the technical aspects of the camera, lens, and other equipment. You can’t expect any product to perform beyond the capabilities engineered into it. And that’s where we come in — finding out precisely what those capabilities are. Forget hype. We’re talking the kind of objective assessments that have made the Pop Photo Lab and our Certified Test Results the standard of the industry.

For DSLRs, that means we evaluate resolution, noise, color accuracy, and more. In keeping with our real-world mission, when we test a DSLR we shoot in RAW and evaluate in TIFF.

This means we take the data from the camera and run it through the RAW conversion software that came in the box, applying the manufacturer’s standard noise reduction, sharpening, and such. Once converted, the file can begin its life as an image — to be printed, edited, or whatever. It’s still a huge file, loaded with data that represents the true capabilities of the camera. Which is, obviously, very useful information when you’re shopping.

Would we get different data if we used different software to convert the RAW file? Yes, somewhat. But which software to use, if not the one recommended by the camera maker? There are so many RAW converters to choose from. And would the differences tell you anything significant? Usually not. But as an academic exercise it might be interesting.

The same could be said for evaluating the unconverted RAW data.

It’s with this sense of curiosity that I click around www.dxomark.com. Essentially a database of info on RAW files from dozens of cameras, this website gives you a reading of a DSLR’s intrinsic capabilities. In other words, it evaluates data straight from the imaging sensor. ISO sensitivity, dynamic range, tonal range, color sensitivity — it’s all there, as well as other readings, graphs, tables, comparisons, and various wonderfully techie whiz-bang.

And unlike much of what you see on the web, you can take this information seriously. It comes from France’s DxO Labs (www.dxo.com), which supplies sophisticated testing software to the optical industry. In fact, DxO’s Analyzer is an integral part of Pop Photo’s testing suite, and we swear by it.

We have such faith in DxO’s good science that in the months ahead, when you look up a camera test on www.PopPhoto.com, you’ll also find a link to www.dxomark.com. This way, you can get our hands-on evaluations of both the camera and the converted RAW file, along with DxO’s straight-from-the-sensor data.

Interesting, and an absolute gold mine of lab-coat-worthy geekdom. But what makes DxO do this? Altruism? To advance scientific research? Bolstering its brand? A money-making plan?

Credit some of each.

After all, the company sells a software product called DxO Optics Pro Version 5.3. It is — as you might have guessed — one heck of a RAW converter.

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In the darkened room, all I can see are the faces of a dozen women lit by the glow of their computer screens. Desks lined up classroom-style, they stare intently at the monitors as photos pop before them and their fingers spin dials, adjusting exposure, density, and skin tones. Nearby, at brightly lit workstations, more hands and eyes pore over stacks of 4×6-inch prints, checking every single one and pulling out any that betray problems.

For many photographers, this isn’t the way online photo labs are supposed to work. They go to the web for cheap prints, and don’t expect much service or quality control.

But Mpix has ignored the way things are supposed to be. As a result, since this online lab (www.mpix.com) opened five years ago, it’s become a favorite of serious shooters.

“It’s all about color and caring about the print,” says Richard Miller, the wiry, intense CEO, who can say that sort of thing without sounding like a self-serving executive. The reason? Mpix and Miller are part of America’s biggest pro lab, Miller’s Professional Imaging.

Started in 1968 by his father, William S. Miller, himself a pro photographer, the company is based in Pittsburg, KS, the silver buckle on America’s Work-Ethic Belt.

That’s a fitting setting, since a pro lab is where wedding, portrait, and other shooters who earn their daily bread by photography turn for prints and technical support. It’s little known outside the trade, but all the photographer really has to do is shoot and sell the images. The pro lab can handle everything else.

Photoshopping? Miller’s has 20 “digital artists” and retouchers who charge by the minute and perform everything from teeth whitening to “head exchanges” (making a group shot look good by combining noggins from various images). Albums? From cover to contents. And, of course, prints. All sizes, surface treatments, and styles. Every one has to be good enough for the photographer to sell.

Toward that end, all 369 employees (split between Pittsburg, KS, and Columbia, MO) are trained to know good from bad in both color and prints. At the same time, they’re instilled with the spirit of same-day turnaround.

It’s one heck of a culture to let loose with an online lab. But, as President Todd Coleman (grandson of the founder) puts it, “Our pro background gives us an advantage with Mpix.”

When I visited the Pittsburg lab this past summer, I was impressed by just how much of Miller’s pro DNA is in Mpix. In many cases, the equipment and staff are the same for both firms.

There are, however, key differences. Mpix accepts orders only through its website, and payment is exclusively by credit card. Customer service? E-mail, not the live, talk-you-through-it support that pros get. But when I made a book of photos through Mpix last year (Editorial, August 2007), any questions I e-mailed were answered in minutes. I’ve heard the same from everyone I know who’s used Mpix.

The range of products isn’t as limitless as what’s available to the pros. But with prints, photo books, greeting cards, and more, it’s tough to feel constrained by the selection. And while only Miller’s customers can order head exchanges, Mpix offers some retouching. For instance, stray hairs are removed for $8 per head.

Not surprisingly, serious amateurs aren’t the only ones using the site. A huge part of Mpix’s business is now coming from professionals.

So much for the way things are supposed to be.

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Ever wish your DSLR was smaller and lighter, and that packing a bag of lenses didn’t require second thoughts or a note from your chiropractor? You’re not alone. In fact, Panasonic believes millions of photographers feel the same way.

For them, Panasonic has a radical solution: the new Lumix G1. It’s not just a new model, but a new class: “The Digital Interchangeable Lens Camera System.”

Basically, it shrinks the size and heft we’re used to by combining the best of a DSLR with the best of an electronic-viewfinder camera. Panasonic presaged this move in August by announcing the development of the Micro Four Thirds standard. That is, bodies packing a Four Thirds-sized sensor (think Olympus and Lumix DSLRs) but without the usual DSLR hardware-mirror box, focusing screen, and pentaprism. Micro Four Thirds also calls for a smaller lensmount with more electronic contacts.

So it’s an EVF camera with interchangeable lenses, right? Yes, but…

A typical EVF camera has a tiny imaging sensor packed with tiny pixels that can give you high resolution, but also lots of noise and so-so color gradations. By using a 12MP Live MOS DSLR-style sensor that’s about four times the size of a typical EVF chip, Panasonic promises DSLR-caliber image quality.

The G1 also addresses two major drawbacks of current EVF cameras: gritty, jumpy images in the viewfinder, and sluggish autofocus. Senior Editor Dan Richards went to Japan earlier this year for a top-secret look at how Panasonic’s engineers attacked such issues on the G1. “For one, they looked beyond typical camera components,” says Richards. “The viewfinder comes from a pro video camera, with 1.44-million-dot resolution. That’s about seven times the number in a typical EVF.” And instead of the usual tiny LCD in the viewfinder, this EVF has an LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) that works much like a sophisticated digital projector, pulsing colors so rapidly that the image is fluid and flicker-free.

“The finder image is nearly as life-like as that in an SLR viewfinder,” Richards says. “In fact, in very low light, you can see more detail.”

Autofocus issues received similar engineering horsepower.

On a DSLR, AF is an independent system in the viewfinder. Called phase detection, it’s generally fast and sensitive. On an EVF camera, however, autofocus works off the imaging sensor, using contrast detection to find focus by comparing pixels-very accurate, though generally slow, and balky in low light.

“The processing engine was seriously beefed up, and communicates more with the lenses,” Richards says. “The result is AF on a par with phase-detection systems, nearly anywhere on the screen. And it can track focus.”

Impressive technology. But how small is the camera?

Tiny-half the volume of Panasonic’s own Lumix L10. The body weighs under a pound and is slightly larger than a kid’s juice box. But more importantly, the lenses are minuscule compared with DSLR optics. The G1 will be sold for an estimated $800 (street) with an image-stabilized 14-45mm f/3.5-5.6 lens that’s downright petite. Even the image-stabilized 45-200mm f/4-5.6 (90-400mm equivalent) isn’t much longer than a typical DSLR’s 18-55mm kit lens.

While Panasonic says many existing Four Thirds lenses will work well on this camera using an adapter, expect more Micro Four Thirds lenses in 2009.

Expect, too, future models to capture HD video. After all, most of what’s required is already in the G1. For instance, the 3-inch, 460,000-dot LCD on the back of the camera serves up live view at 60 frames per second. It’s just a half-step from there to the big screen. In all, expect big things from this little camera.

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While Nikon and Sony have been swinging for the fences with full-frame pro-level SLRs, Canon just seems to be swinging for a solid hit with its new mid-level DSLR, the EOS 50D.

An upgrade of the 40D, this DSLR lands in early October with a body-only price of $1,399. Though Canon insists it doesn’t replace the 40D (which now drops to $1,099 street), the 50D has enough new imaging firepower to trim the 40D’s long-term prospects.

The chassis and body are familiar, but the 50D packs a new 15.1-megapixel APS-C format CMOS sensor (1.6x 35mm lens factor) as well as a next-generation Digic 4 processor and 14-bit A/D conversion.The implications are many. For starters, a w-i-d-e standard ISO range of 100 to 3200, along with expansion modes of ISO 6400 and 12,800. And, says Canon, despite the increase in megapixels, you can crank up the ISO and get less noise than you would with a 40D at a lower setting.

The large files don’t hinder the burst rate, either. Try 6.3 frames per second at up to 90 Large Fine JPEGs or 16 RAW files if you slip today’s fastest UDMA card into the CF slot. As faster cards come, expect this number to rise.

Shoot RAW? You’ll like new settings that let you choose from a large, medium, or small RAW file, expanding on the sRAW concept available in some current Canon models. And never fear, you can still set any of these for simultaeous RAW+JPEG capture.

Other new whiz-bang includes vignetting correction. Picked up from Canon’s Digital Photo Pro software, it uses an in-camera database to correct for aberrations in various Canon lenses.
Fluorine coatings on the low-pass filter and the 3-inch, 920,000-dot LCD mean less dust on the sensor and fewer smudges on the display, says Canon. Want an even bigger view of your photos? Plug a high-Def TV into the mini-HDMI port.

While much of the 50D is pro-caliber, there’s a lot for the move-up amateur, too. For instance, face detection in the live view. And the new “Creative Auto” setting that’s a cross between full Automatic and Program. It’s smart, but it lets you make exposure, ISO, white-balance, and other decisions with easy-to-grasp on-screen slider controls and explanations.

The 50D will be packaged with a 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 EF IS lens that boosts the base price by just $200. But for more range, consider the new $699 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 EF IS lens that debuted with the camera. It isn’t offered in a kit (yet), but say Canonites, it promises sharpness far above typical kit glass.

Stay tuned to PopPhoto.com for our full tests of the new camera and lens. But in the meantime, there’s no doubt that Canon has swung and connected.

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It’s too early to declare it “Steal of the Year,” since production models are just now hitting stores, and we’ve yet to run one through the Pop Photo Lab. But judging from the specs and its well-known DNA, the new Olympus E-520 promises to be a strong contender.

First, the price: $600 (estimated street, body only); $700 with a lens that’s tested extremely well on our optical bench (August 2007), the Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 ED AF (28-84mm equivalent with the Four Thirds system’s 2X 35mm lens factor). Then, the fact that the E-520 packs about as much of the pro-caliber Olympus E-3 ($1,700, street, body only) as can be stuffed into the chassis it inherited from its 2007 sibling, the E-510.

In other words, this new DSLR is as much an E-3 Lite as it is an E-510 upgrade.

The image-stabilization system’s gyro sensor has the same sophisticated pro pedigree. The 10MP sensor rides on an IS mechanism that’s nearly identical to the E-3’s. Besides conventional IS, two modes allow you to pan with the camera held either horizontally or vertically.

The E-520 doesn’t, however, share all of the E-3 computing power, so it may not be as nimble at IS. Our tests show that the E-3 gives you a 2.5- to 3-stop advantage for handholding, and the E-510, 1.5 to 2 stops. So expect 2-plus stops of blur-beating IS from the E-520. And like other sensor-based systems (such as in Pentax and Sony DSLRs), this camera gives you IS with every piece of glass you mount on it.

While the live view on the E-510 was fun and useful, autofocus in live view was slow and clunky. Not this time, says Olympus. The E-520’s contrast-detection AF promises fast focusing via a halfway press of the shutter button. You can also focus with the camera’s regular AF by way of a momentary flip down of the mirror.

The image in the LCD is bigger and brighter thanks to more real estate (2.7 inches vs. 2.5 inches on the E-510 and E-3), as well as a boost in the display’s contrast ratio and color gamut.

The E-520 is bristling with big-league features, including the same battery as in the E-3 (a CIPA rating of 650 shots per charge), wireless flash control via the built-in unit, menu settings for customizing everything from dial rotation to control shortcuts, and a burst rate of 3.5 Fine-quality JPEGs per second, limited only by the capacity of the high-speed CompactFlash card you slip into the slot. (Yes, long-time Olympus shooters, there’s also an xD slot.)

For newbies (and the lazy), there’s such life-made-easy whiz-bang as face detection and Perfect Shot Preview, which uses a grid of photos to show what you’ll get with various settings on such things as white balance and exposure compensation. There’s also the impressive Shadow Adjustment Technology, which pulls up detail and is like a boost in dynamic range.

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If you’ve limited your nature photography to only where hiking boots can take you, you’ve been missing some amazing photo ops. Just ask Chuck Graham.

This 43-year-old from Carpinteria, CA, gets up close and photographic with otherwise hard-to-reach creatures and settings around the Santa Barbara coast by shooting from a kayak. It helps that, in addition to working as a writer and photographer, Graham is a lifeguard and kayak guide at Channel Islands National Park. But even for the weekend paddler, it’s easy to turn a kayak into a wonderful shooting platform.

“There’s nothing like being on the water at dawn, enjoying the solitude,” says Graham. “And you get unique, eye-level perspectives for landscapes, seascapes, and wildlife.”

Of course, most photographers also would point out that there probably isn’t a better way to destroy your gear than taking it to sea. Graham’s experience, however, doesn’t support that notion.

“I lost a camera and lens once when a wave knocked me out of my kayak in the middle of the Santa Barbara Channel,” he says. “But that was seven years ago, and I’ve been very fortunate not to lose anything since.”

Graham stores his gear in clear drybags. (“That way I can see what I want to grab.”) And he suggests being very particular about the kayak you use. “There are lots of beginner-friendly kayaks,” he says. “So choose a wide, sit-on-top model that’s at least 10 to 12 feet long and has a thick hull.”

His personal favorite, the Dolphin by Necky Kayaks , is no longer in production. But boats similar to this 14-foot-long, 28-inch-wide polyethylene model sell for under $800. Ocean Kayak specializes in the sit-on type.

Why a sit-on, not a sit-in, kayak? They’re easy to steady. (“Just swing a leg over each side of the boat.”) And they’re flexible. (“You can actually crawl around the boat and shift your weight.”)

But whether you’re in or on the kayak, there’s nothing like it for stealthily approaching wildlife.

Graham has found that kayaks don’t faze California sea lions, elegant terns, brown pelicans, and various wading birds, such as the marbled godwit. Harbor seals, however, are particularly skittish, as are seabirds that come ashore only rarely.

In any case, practice paddling with low, methodical, splash-free strokes. And get used to switching smoothly from paddle to camera and back; you don’t want your movements to, well, ruffle any feathers.

A confirmed film-shooter, Graham typically uses a Canon EOS 630, Elan 7, or EOS 3 loaded with Fujichrome Velvia 50 or 100. His Canon lenses include a 20-35mm f/3.5-4.5L (“my workhorse”), a 70-200mm f/4L, and a 300mm f/4 with image stabilization.

Though some kayak-shooters use stubby monopods, Graham prefers the spontaneity of handholding. “If you’re comfortable moving around your kayak,” he says, “you can prop your elbows up on the sides of the boat for those precious eye-level shots of wildlife.”

Ask John

Q. I have reels of 8mm movies from the 1930s and ’40s. Any idea where I can get this film digitized?

A. Ed Stratmann, an expert on film conservation and restoration at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester, NY, provided the names of several outfits worth investigating: Cineric, Inc. in New York; ColorLab in New York and Maryland; in Los Angeles, Film Technology Company and Triage Motion Picture Services.

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