You can digitize 16mm film (or other formats like 8mm film, Blu-rays, DVDs, or VHS tapes) at home with a digital camera, camcorder, or phone by recording the film as it plays through on the film projector. This creates digital files on your recording device that you can then transfer to an SD card, through email, or to a hard drive. It’s certainly easy and affordable, but the results are typically below average. Since you are recording a video of a video, it can show glares, record outside noises, and appear jittery because of the different framerate between the 16mm film format (24 frames per second) and modern cameras (30 frames per second).
Pros
- Affordable (if you already have a quality digital camera)
- Easy to do it yourself
Cons
- Poor quality that looks jittery, shows glares and may contain outside noise
- Time-consuming because it converts at a normal playback speed
- Recording area must be perfectly quiet, clean, flat, and uninterrupted