Wolverine MM Pro problem with Super-8 please help

[Tom Shirley]

I am a newbie to the forum and conversion to digital. I bought a Wolverine MM Pro to convert my grandmothers 8mm movies. She had close to 200 reels. About half are 7" with the others being 5". These films go back to 1936. I started with the older films and have learned a few things along the way. I am about half way through and I'm finding some wonderful content.

My problem: I am having trouble with some super-8 reels. The film is not pulling through evenly causing a jumpy video. This has happened with the last 2 super-8 reels. I have seen no problem with regular 8 and have done some regular 8 after the two problem reels of super-8. I have checked and cleaned the film path.

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of problem?


For info on my process: I am converting to SD and then importing to iMovie on my mac. I have encountered some variable framing but I have noticed that seems to be related to splicing done when my grandmother originally created the films. I have been able to split the clips and frame each segment as needed.

I hope it is appropriate to post an example. This is a short cut from one of the 1936 films.

[Stan Jelavic]

Tom, we all had our share of Wolverine jitter issues. The forum has quite a few discussions on this subject. You can do a search on "jitter". Here are a few thing that you can try:
- make sure the S8/R8 switch is pushed all the way to the end
- try this paper clip fix https://www.wolverinedata.com/assets..._Film_test.pdf
- make sure the reel is not wound up too tight. Maybe rewind it with the rewinder
- stop the takeup reel from moving for a bit during scan and see if this helps

[Gary Sayers]

Tom, that's pretty good footage from a wolverine. I don't know if it's because it's in black and white or because it's the pro model but it looks much better than other examples that I have seen online.

I expect there's some software that can be used to soften the slight rough edges but the usual artifacts seem to be absent, to my eyes at least.

You say that you converted the footage to SD. What is the reason for doing this if the wolverine captured in HD? Is this what has actually improved the picture quality?

Either way, I am impressed by the overall quality and am now tempted to purchase a wolverine pro.

[Janice Glesser]

Tom Shirley Great home movie footage to be treasured.

Gary Sayers when you enlarge the image the typical edge artifacts are visible, but not too distracting .

[Tom Shirley]

Thank you Stan Jelavic . I will read up on those tricks. I think knowing the proper search term will be helpful. I am new at this and do not know the lingo.

Gary Sayers I was referring to an SD card not Standard Definition. This is 720 not 1080. I have not figured out why but it is good enough for what I am trying to do. The big reason I went with the pro is the ability to handle 7" reels. My goal is to preserve my grandmother's work. I can tell you my relatives are loving it. Especially my two 80+ year old aunts who are featured in many of the films.

Does using an SD card cut down on the resolution?

so far I have uploaded over 280gb of video to Google Drive.

[Gary Sayers]

Ah, right Tom, I see. I have no idea if using an SD card cuts down on resolution. I only know of wolverine scanners and their clones from what I have seen on here and on youtube.

I was under the impression that using an SD card was the only option for recording the initial scans but others on here with much more knowledge about these things would be able to advise you better than I.

I only recently discovered that Goko used to produce a telecine device, which, like their motorised editors, uses a prism for flicker free transfers. This set me wondering whether I could adapt my Goko motorised sound editor (RM - 5000) to do telecine?

My plan is, after removing the back (with power disconnected), to place white paper or card over the large mirror and then remove the ground glass viewing screen and replace with clear glass. Then replace the bulb with a brighter modern LED or Halogen one. Replace the back, power up and then, have my camcorder pointing through the clear glass screen and record from the projected image on the paper / card. The image would be reversed but that's not a problem for sorting in post.

Now this is just an idea but I am going to give it a try. The original Goko telecine machines seem to give a reasonable result and my method would all be done in real time, 18 or 24 fps and with sound too if there is any.

The only drawback I can see is that the RM-5000 is Super 8 only.

[Tom Shirley]

I have done some experimenting and found that if I press down on the lid that covers the film advancing mechanism that the littering goes away. To avoid sitting there for hours holding the lid I used a piece of packing tape to hold the lid down and it seems to be working okay so far. Fingers crossed.

I don't know anything about any other telecine devices.

[Stan Jelavic]

Gary, that could work but the resolution will be lower than a direct to camera projection. The colors also may not be as vivid. The flicker free is never free of flicker but may be acceptable. It is worth a try anyways.
Tom, I forgot to mention the gate cover pressure. In another thread there is a more thorough discussion on flicker. I think I will start a separate thread on that. You can try adjusting the gate screws a bit. It could help.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

As far as I see the main difference between Goko film viewer/editor and the telecine editor - is that the editor uses translucent screen placed at the front, while the telecine version uses relay lens pointing to the rear (different optical arrangement inside as well). All else remains the same.

So yes, it should be possible to modify the Goko editor to Goko telecine - at least in the theory.

[Brian Fretwell]

I believe that was how aerial image optical printers worked, often used for putting cartoon characters in live action films by placing the cells on the lens, so a well proven technique.

[Tom Shirley]

This is what I had to end up doing to keep the lid tight enough to handle the Super 8 films

[David Brown]

Could you find a bigger clamp? !! Love that picture.

[Stan Jelavic]

Wow, this definitely beats my vise-grip solution used for capstan testing.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/W1sMwP7PXDMZDjKW8

[Stephen E. Davis]

I don't know about the super 8 film because I have not attempted to do a scan yet. On my Wolverine MM Pro, I have scanned over 2000 feet of Double 8 film on it that was of my mom and grandparents from the 40's and 50's. I had a similar problem with jittery clips and I tried running the film in reverse on my scanner and flipping it in post editing. I realized that some of this old film had some worn areas on the perfs where the projector claw would grab and over time, you could see a worn spot on this perf. When running the film in reverse the other side of the perf has a better(non worned) side to it. All scanning done now on my scanner, is done in reverse. It can be a little confusing. Using hand re-winds, I place the footage on a take up real to be scanned, I use a second take up reel to feed this film onto during the scan. When I am done, I re-wind it back to the first take up reel, and then eventually Wind it back to the original supply reel.

[Kamel Ikhlef]

Hello everybody,
I also have a GOKO RM5000 with 18/24 / 25fps quartz.
I will be very interested in your experiences of modifying for a real-time telecine.
Especially if we can integrate our TIS cameras into it.

Congratulations Tom. I am far from obtaining the quality of your images, especially on an original wolverine.
Has anyone tried the mersoco (5MP) (amazon) scanner?