Author
|
Topic: Review Wolverine Reels2Digital MovieMaker 8mm film digitizer
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mike Spice
Master Film Handler
Posts: 421
From: none of your business
Registered: Jun 2017
|
posted January 12, 2019 04:48 AM
KEV you are welcome. Not all the footage on my youtube is mine, quite a lot of it is from reels sent to me to scan for other Navy lads. Those reels are watermarked.
All the 8mm footage on my Utube has been made with the 720p Wolverine, with the exception of one DVD rip of cine film. Most of the examples at UTube are only 576p for ease of uploading
GARY yes I did serve in the RN. 1974-1986 A cook.
BILL Funny you mention that, over the xmas break I have gone through my reels and edited every Ship and flying shot down to two reels, around 600ft.
The Ark Royal footage most certainly deserves a professional scan, it is historical footage indeed.
I am now choosing which of two companies I am going to send the reels to for a proper scan.
I am almost certainly sending it for a 2.5K Retroscan here in the UK, but I am also considering the reels going to a company who use a Muller HD scanner.
I expect to pay between £100 and £200 but a few bills to pay, so it is coming in the next few months hopefully.
I wish I could afford to have all my reels scanned that way, I have some lovely shots of my late mum & family members and sisters kids growing up. [ January 12, 2019, 06:26 AM: Message edited by: Mike Spice ]
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Gary Schreffler
Film Handler
Posts: 33
From: North Potomac, MD, USA
Registered: Jun 2017
|
posted January 12, 2019 09:03 AM
Mike: I flew as a Seaking helicopter crewman in the U.S. Navy. We loved delivering mail to you guys. The bag was always returned with good food and generous amounts of beer!!!
Now to the Wolverine. Maybe what I'm going to say here is from Captain Obvious, but... When discussing image quality, one really must first consider the image on the film being scanned, as well as the condition of the film, etc. I see folks converting 'boxes of home movies' talking to folks who are converting professional home movies, as in feature films that were purchased. Needless to say, there is a world of difference there.
My point here is that if your 8mm film is grainy, or filmed in poor lighting, or over exposed, or on poor quality film stock (or developed overseas with substandard chemicals), etc., no scanner will make the film look like a broadcast quality video.
You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You can use a scanner on film of less than optimal quality. The quality of the image will remain less than optimal.
Again, I realize I am probably stating the obvious here, but there it is...
-------------------- My God; It's Full Of Stars!
| IP: Logged
|
|
Mike Spice
Master Film Handler
Posts: 421
From: none of your business
Registered: Jun 2017
|
posted January 12, 2019 09:42 AM
BILL My own films were all Super8 but I have scanned many hundreds of feet of Standard 8 for other folk.
An example of Standard 8mm from 1959
I found the standard 8 held it's colour up much better over the years, in some cases, looking quite beautiful.
Using a box to collect the film, yes, the film exits the scanner gate, goes over the top of the first roller, and then over the edge of the work surface to a box below.
Gauge films is one of the two I am considering, the other being Penny Lane who have a 2.5k Retroscan
GARY My films are in reasonable condition, as much as I enjoy the 720p scans, I do want to see what can be pulled off the film with a proper scan, hence only putting the Navy clips in to one reel to save costs.
I certainly am not looking for broadcast quality from S8 but it would nice to be able to see my Phantoms without so much pixelating in full screen and have the chance to see a full overscan of the frames
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
Werner Ruotsalainen
Film Handler
Posts: 97
From: Helsinki, Finland
Registered: Dec 2017
|
posted January 14, 2019 11:27 PM
quote: Did you serve in the Royal Navy?
Talking about the Navy / Army... Recently, I've purchased several rolls of private S8 footage; some of them having army-related stuff. I've scanned them all.
The most interesting are as follows: Vietnam, around 1970 (the films stock's manufacture date was between 03/1969 and 10/1969):
Roll 1: https://youtu.be/jXD1UQIGZtU Roll 2: https://youtu.be/N97tVjdF4RE Roll 3: https://youtu.be/CzeaFzNz1U8
(Note that Roll 2 and 3 have some 7 and 0.5 minutes (respectively) shot elsewhere (UK and Australia), when the soldier in question had a holiday there.)
Several Military Police companies have been filmed: 630th, T-3938, T-2090 etc.
This footage has never been scanned / published anywhere (I've looked thru the Vietnam-specific S8 archives).
Other, army-related stuff, which may also interest you: Marine Corp Days 1970 1971 1972 USMC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4WSAghq0TA
This film, among other things, has some kind of a celebration at Rock Creek & Potomac Parkway.
(Note that I've also purchased another roll of the same subject ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWwWHkDMfeo ) but it doesn't seem to have official stuff (celebrations etc.), "only" having a good time, presumably - based on the labels of the films) with other ex-Marine Corp members.)
Also, you may also want to check out my older but still VERY interesting uploads (I've previously posted these links to Page 13 of this thread so you may already have seen these):
Original 12p(!!!) versions:
In the German Army, 1964 - 1 https://youtu.be/xKidGxNgn14 In the German Army, 1964 - 2 https://youtu.be/ntez1LH-bYE
60p (processed) versions:
1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3XBthKlNPs 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBGSCtX4xo4
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Kevin R Sexton
Junior
Posts: 8
From: Littlerock, CA, USA
Registered: Dec 2018
|
posted February 02, 2019 07:13 PM
I had that thought about using a raspberry pi to modify this hardware. There are several projects with posts online that either use a raspberry pi with projector hardware or custom hardware. It should be possible with the camera in the wolverine, or a rpi camera, to get a silly high resolution capture that would show all the film grain. I think that's actually something that the manufacturer intentionally is avoiding. What looks like compression seems to be they are smoothing the grain out, and then running a sharpen filter on the image. On low sharpness the sharpen filter is barely noticeable, the variations that look like compression and sharpening appear to be originating from the grain. The newer firmware goes back to high sharpness setting after power off/on, but displays the sharpness setting you had it on. I've been turning sharpness to high, then back to low each time I start, so that's a bug they need to fix.
But again, I don't think it's really compression that's the issue, since I've looked at the same frames through a projector, and it really doesn't look sharper and even put the film across a microscope and seen how big the grains really are. Better could be done with true high res images, that could be lined up to remove jitter in software, along with making corrections in color, contrast etc frame by frame. Some of those RPI projects appear to do this, but it seems like it would be a lot of work getting from what's posted to a working setup.
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|