Wolverine and dark footage - Is there a way to make the backlight brighter?

[Andrew Lubman]

Hi everybody. First time posting here. I bought a Wolverine MovieMaker Pro about a month ago. I know it has some shortcomings, but overall, I'm happy with it. A big thank you to this forum for providing some helpful tips before I even did my first capture.
I have an old reel from 1938 that has some dark footage. Increasing the exposure setting on the Wolverine doesn't really help (as you might guess). It just results in a washed-out image. I know that with many dark still photos, I can bring out details in Photoshop fairly easily. Not having as much luck with these films in my video editing software (Final Cut Pro X). I'm wondering if I could get better results (more image content to "work with") if the original capture could be done with a brighter light. Is it possible (with a mod perhaps) to increase the brightness of the LED backlight? Even if I could increase the brightness of the backlight, would that help with the dark footage?

Thanks,
Andrew

[Stan Jelavic]

I had a similar issue Andrew. Here is the example.

It was filmed in very low light. This was scanned with Wolverine. I also tried it with different Hawkeye cameras and did not see any improvement.
Try a very bright flashlight and a microscope if you have one.
If you do not see the details then no point in looking any further and it is what it is.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

I second Stan's comment.

If there's no detail to retrieve in the first place, no scanner in the world can help on that.

[Andrew Lubman]

Thanks for the replies. I'll have to try that. But, if there is some detail there, then what? Is there some way to make the backlight brighter?

[Stan Jelavic]

How much footage do you have? If it is not very big you can rig up something with an old projector LED light and the camera with macro capability. Modifying the Wolverine is possible but a pretty big project. Can send you more details if interested in going that way.

[Andrew Lubman]

I think there is roughly 5 minutes of dark footage. I might have a USB microscope that I can try to use for capturing. I also have an old film editor (hand-cranked), that I could try to use for keeping the reels in place. What kind of projector LED light were you referring to?

[Stan Jelavic]

You can put together your own. For testing you can try using a super bright flashlight. Something like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Flashlight-Re.../dp/B08NVSQCM9
You also need a diffuser. Possibly a piece of white translucent plastic will do. Again this is just to test.

[Andrew Lubman]

I took a quick look, using a USB microscope and the light from a digital projector (just used the projector to show an all-white image). I don't know if there is enough material in the footage to make it worth the time that would be needed. The biggest issue would be coming up with some sort of way to keep the film steady, and consistently positioned between frames. Not to mention that there are approximately 1,000 frames in a minute of film (960), and it would take at least 3 or 4 seconds to scan each frame. So that's about an hour for 1 minute of film. I would be willing to put in the time if I had a better way to guide the film and position the USB microscope (which is why it would be much better if there was just a way to increase the brightness of the Wolverine's backlight--because all of those issues are taken care of).
Thanks again for your thoughts on this.

[Stan Jelavic]

Did your test show any additional details?

[Andrew Lubman]

Maybe a little, but as I mentioned, I don't really have a way to keep the film and the USB microscope aligned and positioned. There would be too much variation from one frame to another that I would have to fix in editing after the scan. It didn't look like a tremendous amount of additional detail would be gained (at least not enough to warrant struggling with my makeshift setup).

[Stan Jelavic]

I anticipated that there would not be much more detail based on my own experience but one never knows. Good work Andrew.