Looking for a cheap automatic 8mm film scanner feeder. Maybe a DIY Wolverine scanner.

D

Deer Film

Well-known member
About 10 years ago, I transferred my 8mm film by using a mobile projection screen and filmed it with my DV camera. I tried many different 8mm transfer units, but I found that was the best quality I could get. I am not looking for perfection, but just a way to play back my 8mm on dvd. Now I want to redo it all using a hmc150 1080 setting.
Would I use 1080 60i or 30p or 24. I am using 8mm and super 8mm.

But this takes to much time.

Now the big question, do they sell an automatic 8mm film scanner that is a few hundred dollars?

They sell a Wolverine 20MP 4-In-1 Film to Digital Converter for around 120.00$
http://www.amazon.com/Wolverine-4-I...=1410918141&sr=8-17&keywords=8mm+film+scanner
It has an optional tray to scan 8mm, but I think it would take forever to scan 8mm film by hand. But this is the type of unit and quality I am after. Not something as spendy as the Reflex film Scanner.
Lets face it, when most of us showed our 8mm family films, it was either on the living room wall or front of the refrigerator. Most of the time the projector was out of focus, dust particles flying around, and sometimes the film got caught and burnt and you had to fix it. I think most people like me that want to transfer the film, is just to see it again in decent quality on our tv or computers. Being a video guy, I am always trying to push for better quality. I would rather use a automatic 8mm feeder scanner then a projector + Camera + dark basement + tranfer unit.
I should add that I would take all the scanned 8mm files into Vegas and covert to avi.

If someone could make something using the wolverine Super F2D with an automatic feeder, I am buying it.
http://www.wolverinedata.com/index.php/site/quicklinks/C72/
 
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It has been said, "Good, cheap, fast - pick any two." That seems to apply to transferring 8mm and Super 8 to video. We had a lot of old film to scan and acquired a Moviestuff scanner. It does a very good job, but somewhat above the category of "a few hundred dollars." The difference in frame rates between film and video make real-time conversion difficult for any system. Add to that the fact that older small-guage film may need cleaning, splice repairs, or even mold-removal often makes good-quality conversion a multi-step process. (While it was never our intention, converting film to video, then enhancing it, adding titles and even music has turned into a steady sideline business for us.)

For a very short time probably, in the 70s or 80s, Kodak made a simple-to-use desktop transfer machine. But it wasn't very high quality, nor was it especially inexpensive. Wouldn't surprise me to see one on eBay. Depending on the amount of film you have, you may find it cheaper to have it done for you, rather than purchasing a system. It is quicker (therefore cheaper) to do one large reel than numerous small reels. You can get good quality 400-ft reel transfer-only for about $100.


Jim
 
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