We often get the question of how much feet of film each standard sized reel holds. This is good information to have handy, especially if you’re planning for a film to DVD conversion in San Diego, Orange County or Los Angeles.
Film reels typically come in 3 different sizes, which are the three inch reels, five inch reels, and seven inch reels. The smallest (3 inch) reels will hold roughly 50 feet of film if it’s full, the medium sized reel (5 inch) holds about 200 feet, and the largest reel (7 inch) holds about 400 feet.
It is important to keep in mind also, that film runs at different speeds, depending on the type. 16mm film runs much faster than 8mm film does, so a 400ft reel of 16mm film will be much less “viewing time” than the same sized roll in 8mm. Trying to calculate all of this can be difficult if you’re planning a 8mm film transfer project, so feel free contact your local or Denver film to DVD technician for guidance and suggestions!
I have a box of mixed videos some 8mm some super 8, possibly some 16mm and who knows what. I know that some are good quality some are not, some are only partially recorded,. What is the best way for me to find out what I have on these old 40 year old tapes. If I get everything transfered to tape I could have 2 to 10 minutes of blank recordings, plus other stuff that I may not want. What can i do to preview and possibly edit these tapes to weed out the dead spaces and bad wasted material that I know is on some of them. I have about 25 small reels.
Pete