still printing with s8mm film

[AlexGfromUK]

Could anyone help me with this problem? For my final major project in college, I want project a very short S8mm film and also display large 12" x 16" stills as part of the dislpay. How can I enlarge the S8 film far enough to make this possible with maximum quality? I have considered enlarging the s8 (k40) onto 35mm still neg film before using this to enlarge it like a normal print (b+w). What is the best way to do this, I can't afford for anyone else to do it and I have quite a lot of experience with still darkroom practice. I know for a lot of people this is far from what you do, but can you suggest any films for this "duplication" job or if you can share any ideas at all I would really appreciate it.
Thanks

Alex

[eddie]

Id be interested in hearing what others have to say too.
I produced some screen shots once by capturing a video version, and saving a couple of individual frames, enhancing them a bit using a PC and then printing them to a high quality printer on 'photographic' type paper. It worked well, but only relevant if you have a video camera and a capture card.

[rollemfilm]

if you have a good enlarger then you need to make an 8mm mask. use black paper. you want to mask out as much stray light as you can. you'll need to find one of two things. either print film (don't know if they make color) or you can use Ilforchrome (used to be Cibachrome). If you have a color darkroom, then you should have no problem with the process. if you only do black and white, i would not try this. with the print film, you need to make a negative. it's best to make the same size negative but you want such a large print it may be better to make a smaller negative like 2X2 or 4X5. basicly, it's the same process as making a black & white print. make a few experiments to get the right size and contrast. kodak makes this film in 4X5, 8X10 and larger. this is how pro-mo pictures are produced. the other way is to project the frame on a white srface and re-photograph it as a negative. this is not the best process. you'll degrade the image...i guess it depends on how good you want it to be and what resorces you
have. i would go with the print film method if you can. if you have a slide copier you might be able to rig this to make a negative with. although, you won't get a full frame. and, if you have a great macro lens for your 35mm camera, you can use that to make a good copy. the best way with the camera method would be to use a bellows and a light box of some sort. the lens will have to be good enough to enlarge such a small frame. even if you get it to fill half a frame of 35mm, it might give you what you need. well, that's all i can think of at the moment....

[AlexGfromUK]

thanks very much I'll look into getting some of that film. the other posts are good ideas too but I want to print chemically so the rollemfilm's post is more the way I'd like to do it. Thanks to all, and Rollemfilm, if you can think of the exact name of that product, could you put a post in so I can look it up easier?

[Nigel]

I made some prints from a film I shot on Tri-X but they did not turn out so great. I know it can be done. I just don't know the best way. Good Luck.

[tripplezero]

The hard part is finding a good frame! I got lucky to find a good frame at the start of a rolle I useed a scaner to get 10 inch X 10mm
at 2400 dpi
in to my pc then I used photo softwhere to crop 1 frame it came out good, but just because it looks good on the projector does NoT mean there is no motion blur or a scrach.

[Alex]

If you ever do a high quality video transfer, I can make pretty decent 4-6 color prints from the video.

306 DPI.

The pictures look pretty good.

It's a lot less messy.

-Alex

[tripplezero]

Alex can you post those somewhere so we can see?

[Alex]

My scanners not hooked up...but I could mail you a postcard...(the printer uses glossy paper with a post card backing)

I have a special effects postcard I made that actually has 16 super-8 pictures on it, 4 across by 4 wide.

The 16 pictures all fit on one 4 x 6 sheet.

-Alex

[This message has been edited by Alex (edited April 13, 2001).]

[rollemfilm]

from what I've been able to find out it's called: Vericolor Print Film. But I don't think that's right. You might go on the Kodak sight and look at Kodalith or process film.