8mm Forum: Questions about 8mm to digital

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Posted by Jeff Harris (Member # 6294) on January 24, 2018, 04:54 PM:

Let me apologize first if this has been covered here before. I have read past posts enthusiastically, but haven't seen an answer to my question.

I've been converting my grandfather's 8mm family videos from the 50's and 60's. I'm using a Bell&Howell 8mm projector that I converted to LED with a 100 watt LED array that barely fit in the bulb housing. I'm using a Canon digital camera that has manual video focus and records in 1080p. I projected the image at 5' onto a semi-gloss white posterboard. The B&H projector has speed adjustment (mechanical I believe), and I was able to get fairly flicker-free video.

My question concerns continuing my project with my father's Super8 movies from the 70's. My Super8 projector is a Kodak, with almost no manual controls at all. My recordings so far are full of flicker, and not acceptable.

I've read recommendations here on what brand/model to get in Super8 with manual speed control. Looks like the Sankyo Dualux 2000H is popular recommendation because of quality & affordability. I have found several for sale, as well as others that have been recommended.

My main question is, the "adjustable" speeds I've seen aren't infinite adjustments. They're 18 fps & 24 fps, with small adjustments at those speeds. My digital camera records at 30 fps, with no settings for fps. I'd rather not buy another camera, as it's a high quality camera and works well so far.

Will the "24 fps" adjustable speed projectors adjust up to 30 fps? Or will I need to find a Super8 projector that doesn't have pre-set speed settings, more of an 'infinite' adjustment.

Thank you,
Jeff

Posted by Werner Ruotsalainen (Member # 6217) on January 24, 2018, 06:05 PM:

You might also want to consider getting the Wolverine Pro / Somikon scanners. I've been having excellent results with them and they're pretty inexpensive. Just some examples of my scans from the last few days:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4_1cuziVtq_fGwM1vN-iV97M8As94hqP (some East German Standard8 DEFA films from the early 60's. Note that the image quality of the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFStUZvz2cM film ("087 Fahrt durch Indien (Reisefilm)") is sigificantly lower than those of the others. This particular film may be a copy of another 8mm film or the source material (the one that was copied some 50 years ago) was already low-quality; for example, it has been shot with a 8mm camera. Also note that the explanatory (German language) leaflets coming with the videos are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/33448355@N07/albums/72157692569177485 . Their filename has the same DEFA number as the related videos.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpBsiEiDoIA - a color Super8 scan (1984)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JrKBbItx_M - Hungarian std8mm shots. The first film (up to 01:54) may have been shot in the mid-late sixties; the following ones significantly later.

(Note that I used significant overscan for all the scans to, among other things, account for some slight "dancing" of the film during scanning and also make the factory text visible between the sprocket holes - for example, AGFA / ORWO with the earlier / later GDR films.)

NOTE: as your footage is mostly Standard8mm most probably based on Double8, you may end up needing to find some CNC folks or manually widen the film channel by about 0.2mm. The factory channel is 8.05mm, which isn't sufficient for a lot of slit Double8 films with comparatively high tolerance during slitting. After my widening the channel of my Somikon to 8.23mm, almost all my previous "Std8mm film is constantly getting stuck" problems are gone.

Also see the dedicated two threads here in the same forum.

[ January 25, 2018, 07:29 PM: Message edited by: Werner Ruotsalainen ]

Posted by Janice Glesser (Member # 2758) on January 24, 2018, 06:18 PM:

Hi Jeff and welcome to the forum. You will definitely need a variable speed Super 8mm projector. A 3-blade projector only needs to run at 20fps to sync up with your camera (3x20=60). If you are using the projection method...then the Sanyko 2000H is an excellent choice for a variable speed silent projector. If well maintained it will give you very good flicker free results.

Posted by Will Trenfield (Member # 5321) on January 24, 2018, 06:50 PM:

I can endorse Janice's comments. Well-made projectors with cheap bulbs which are easy to maintain. They also have still frame and slow motion functions.

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