drmike99 Loc: Fairfield Connecticut

I have a substantial number of regular 8 and super 8 movies on 200 foot (5 inch) reels that I'd like to digitize, before they degrade. Kodachromes seem to age well because Kodachrome ages well in the dark and the individual frames get very little light, even in the days that I projected them a lot. There are several modestly priced scanners available through Amazon and other sellers.There are two models by Wolverine (at $299 and $399) but I have heard some less than stellar (to be kind) reviews of these. Kodak has one now (REELZ) and there is one on Amazon called the eyesen. Price of each of those is in the same $299-$399 zone. Does anyone have any firsthand knowledge of or experience with any of these? Once I finish scanning, I could unload the scanner on eBay and recoup at least half of my money.

Second question: they seem to list scanning at either 20 fps or 30 fps (that's output, not speed of scanning). Regular 8 ran at 16 fps and super 8 at 18 fps so how would one correct the scanned output?

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

How does the price of the scanner (and your time) compare to having them professionally scanned?

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

'Regular 8 ran at 16 fps and super 8 at 18 fps so how would one correct the scanned output?'

If the scanner software doesn't fix it, video editing software like Premiere Elements or Premiere Pro will.

I think I would try the Kodak REELZ and buy it from somewhere like B&H that guarantees your satisfaction. There are 80+ reviews of it on Amazon and they are "pretty good" but not all "perfect".

BebuLamar

Are they really scanner? That is do they really scan individual frame?

drmike99 Loc: Fairfield Connecticut

#1 I am retired. Time is my cheapest commodity.
#2. I have a lot of film to scan. It would be prohibitive to scan commercially especially in view of #3 —
#3. I have a lot of my dad’s 16 mm movies. There are NO home scanners for those so I need to have money available to commercially scan those.

drmike99 Loc: Fairfield Connecticut

Bebu- they are real scanners, scanning each frame. Makes them ponderously slow to scan.

BebuLamar

I think they are OK. They digitize individual frame. I don't think it would take too long to do it even if you have like 100 rolls of film. I think they duplicate the frames to make it 30fps out of 18fps.

Steved3604

You raise interesting questions. My opinion after digitizing thousands of feet of R8, S8 and 16mm film is that the quality of the picture is the most important thing. In second place is the transport of the film past the scanning device. I have not used any of the devices mentioned. I have used Moviestuff, Goko, and other professional camera/projector rigs. Its kinda like the folks with slides and negs on UHH when they ask what scanner should I get. Get the best you can afford. And, yes, you can sell it when you're done. Using the slide scanning analogy I would get a professional device (lots o' bucks) and sell it when done. I would be happy to scan/transfer one small roll of R8/S8 film for you so you could compare it to one of the low priced models. I would also purchase the low priced scanner from a retailer where you could return it if not happy. My guess is that when compared to devices priced 10-20 times more than the cheap scanner you won't be happy. Anyone who splices the 50' movies into 200' and projects them is not a point and shoot kind of a guy. That's how I tell the extreme amateurs from the extreme hobbyists. Quantity of reels would be important -- also how you want to view the processed material.
Most transfer places would use professional equipment --I would be happy to answer any questions on UHH, via email or phone. PM me if you like.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Sounds like Steve (above) is a pro at this. One observation: the lowest cost way is to project them onto a screen while videoing the screen with a DSLR or MILC camera, but the quality ail of course not be in the league with a professional grade scanner (but it may be as good as a cheap scanner).

Steved3604

Sounds like Steve (above) is a pro at this. One observation: the lowest cost way is to project them onto a screen while videoing the screen with a DSLR or MILC camera, but the quality ail of course not be in the league with a professional grade scanner (but it may be as good as a cheap scanner).

Been there done that. Works because the DSLR is a high res device. Only issues are key stoning and getting the frame rate down to about 15 FPS which eliminates the rolling bar from frame rate mismatch. Done it with a piece of foam core, dark room, tripod and a projector with variable frame rate. Don't blow it up too big on a "clean" white board.
And if I had to guess --Yes (it maybe as good as a cheap scanner). Also, there is a bunch that can be done -- "fix it in Post" with Premiere (and others) and virtual dub.

therwol Loc: USA

It isn't so much a rolling bar due to the mismatch of frame rates. It's flicker where the camera doing the capture captures the dark screen between frames over and over again. Maybe you can get things synchronized, but will it stick over a 400 foot reel or drift off? I'm about to do some Super 8 sound by projection. (You can't scan the sound stripe. It has to be transferred in real time.). I'm going to experiment, but I think that 60 fps would be the place to start on my DSLR. A guess at this point.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I converted a lot of 8 and Super 8 using a projector and a screen. The results were acceptable. I bought the combo 8/Super 8 projector on eBay. Considering that you're starting with old 8mm film, the results won't be production quality.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

The photo lab at Tempe Camera does this sort of thing and probably reasonably. I've seen the results and they are very good.
https://www.tempecamera.biz/ select the lab. They do film to DVD transfer $.049/foot plus $15 for the master DVD. That is if I'm not mistaken. I haven't priced them in detail lately.
--Bob

Bobspez Loc: Southern NJ, USA

I have not scanned my large 8mm reel containing all my spliced reels because it and my projector were stolen years ago from the back seat of my car. However, if I were to do it I would set up a flat white piece of poster board on the wall, darken the room by covering the windows, and run the film on a projector and video it with a 4K camera on a tripod. This would allow you to scan in real time, rather than frame by frame. And you could easily improve the image and the speed in a video editor like Premiere Pro. And if there is a sound track you could tweak that as well with an audio editor like Adobe Audition which works together with Adobe Premiere Pro within the Premiere Pro timeline.

Everything I have read on film scanners has a lot of negatives, very long time to digitize a frame at a time, damaging the film, frequent stalls and need to watch the scanner during the entire process, unsatisfactory results.

I believe 16mm film runs at 24fps so there should be no frame rate mismatch there if you set the camera video to 24 fps. So I would start with the 16mm film. I would adjust the size of the projected image to get the clearest and best image with the naked eye.

This is just a guess but if you experiment with different shutter speeds and fps videoing the 8mm film you may be able to improve flicker due to mismatched frame rates. There are also youtube videos on techniques to remove light flicker in Premiere Pro that may work on frame rate mismatch flicker. But when you get the best techniques figured out, it should work for the rest of your project.

I wish I still had my 8mm reel to give this a try. Good luck.