8mm Conversion to Digital Image

[muritai]

I haven't filmed with 8mm for years, but now I need to convert an about 30 year old film to digital images - accurately, at high resolution and frame by frame. Is there a commercially available scanner from which I can easily get and use or should I outsource this to a lab. If so, do you have any suggestions?

Any thoughts on how to handle old films or some resources I might review?

Thanks!

[Konton]

You should check out the info here on the Roger's Work Printer, or the Goko TC-20, or anyhting with the words telecine transfer on it.

John also has some ifo here: http://www.super8mmdirectory.com/Sup...eServices.html

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Konton the Grey

[muritai]

Thanks for the ideas. I checked out the Goko, Rogers Work Printer (clever scheme) and have looked at transfer services.

I am trying to get the highest resolution out of a film shot in the early 70's. It looks like most of these transfer methods employ a projection scheme where a camera films the projected image. That means the best resolution that I can hope for is the resolution of the digital camera - I believe about 600 lines or so.

What I was looking for, and don't know what it is called, is a scanner that would scan each and every frame of an 8mm film (frame by frame) at a resolution that was high enough to support the resolution that the original film had - ie figuratively speaking, no loss. The result of what I would walk away with would be a digital image of each frame that was of interest to me.

Any ideas?

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[Matt Pacini]

Go back and read posts about the Workprinter mentioning my setup (the Workprinter 3), and my name: Matt Pacini

The way I'm going to do it is, I'm NOT using a video camera to grab the frames.
I'm using a digital still camera to shoot frame by frame, in high res.

Matt Pacini

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[muritai]

Sorry to miss the detail.

Thanks for the pointer.

[mattias]

there's supposedly a super-8 gate available for the spirit datacine these days, so you might try to call any professional lab or post house and ask. is 2k enough for you?

/matt

[MovieStuff]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by mattias:
is 2k enough for you?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Is that their file size or their rate per hour?

Roger

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Roger Evans
MovieStuff http://www.afterimagephoto.tv/moviestuff.html

[This message has been edited by MovieStuff (edited November 15, 2001).]

[MovieStuff]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Courier, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by muritai:
I checked Rogers Work Printer (clever scheme)..... It looks like most of these transfer methods employ a projection scheme where a camera films the projected image.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi, Muritai!

Thanks for the kind words. However, only the WorkPrinter-1 model uses a projected image on a screen. The WorkPrinter-2 and WorkPrinter-3 use an aeriel image to allow your camera to shoot right off the film plane. Technically, using an aeriel image is still capturing a "projected" image out of thin air, but the quality is good enough to see the grain of the film (almost too good, actually, for super 8). I'm not sure what your plans are for the final frame captures, but the WorkPrinter-3 would let you use as high a resolution camera as you wanted and would not be capturing off a screen. Plus the gate has been widened so you can get the whole image. Anyway, thought I would clarify that for you.

Roger
http://www.afterimagephoto.tv/workprinter.html

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Roger Evans
MovieStuff
http://www.afterimagephoto.tv/moviestuff.html

[muritai]

I got the joke, just didn't understand what the 2k refers to.

What I need to accomplish is to get the highest resolution that is available from the film into a digital image. I don't know what the limits of 8mm film resolution are, since I work in pixels in digital images and am an engineer trying to do analysis on the image of on the frame - not a film maker. We can handle resolutions beyond what I believe 8mm will give us as I assume the film gets 'grainy' at some point.

I have been told that 8mm probably breaks down at about 300 lines. If that is true, then converting to DV-CAM will result in no image loss at all. If 8mm has more detail than DV-CAM will support, then I will need to find another method.

Am I showing too much of my naivety?

Thanks for all the help...

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[Konton]

Considering you just want to convert some 30 year old film to digital once and then you are done, I assume getting a service to do it would be better (and cheaper in the short term).

Where are you located? There might be a high quality transfer service in your areas for Super 8mm we could help you locate. What you need you need to ask yourself is how much you are willing to spend.

2k refers to the resolution of the image. For example at the digital studio I work at 2k in full aparture means 2048x1556dpi. 4k would then be 4096x3112. These are sizes used for transfer to 35mm film. When we digitize film just to watch on a monitor it's usually at 720x547.

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Konton the Grey