The whole reason for transferring the 8mm films to digital format was to preserve our family history and memories, you can't put a value on such items because they are inherently priceless. After finely getting a transfer procedure and process that work for me at home, I decided that I need to transfer a number of films in the highest possible resolution and quality available.
This led me to commercial transfer companies; the qualifier for this quality of course is "what I can afford." Economics play a large roll, you must balance what you can afford -vs- the number of films you need to have transferred. For me this turned out to be one 300 foot reel and a 50 foot reel; these I deteremend were the most valuable to me.
I spent vast hours researching companies who did transfers first looking to local companies who offered these services. Even Costco offers transfer service but it was no better than what I could do at home, they simply transfer the film by shooting it in to a condenser box then to a digital video camera (CCD), one of the same processes I tried myself.
Eventually I had gone though all of the local resources which ether would not tell me how they transferred, transferred the same way I did at home or were priced why outside what I could afford.
After about two weeks of canvassing the internet looking for a company I could trust with films that are irreplaceable. I settled on a company called GotMemories (http://www.gotmemories.com/)
I could not be more pleased with my decision to go with GotMemories as my choice; I could not be happier with the transfer quality and the care that was given to me and my film by their staff . I would most definitely use them again and can, without hesitation recommend their services to anyone looking for a quality transfer company.
It is not often that you will find a company who cares about making sure you the customer is 100% satisfied. Phil the owner personally called me to help me when I had questions, but more importantly Phill's wonderful staff at GotMemories called me at each step of the process!
When they received my film FedEX they called me to let me know they got there safe, they called me post process to let me know the completed the transfer and they called me after I received my films and DVD's from them FedEX; where are you going to find that kind of service?
Here is a sample of the results GotMemroies -vs- home transfer. Although the home method is acceptable, the GotMemories is just 100% better.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM3yRwA5wUk
Check out the whole story on my blog at;
http://usabaker.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/transferring-8mm-film-to-digital-format-dvd/