Grainy scan

[Tony Bertone]

I have a Magnasonic FS81 and scanning Super 8 film with it. I video comes out to be very grainy, does anyone know how to get it to be less grainy?

[Janice Glesser]

I use Neat Video in post after capture.

http://neatvideo.com

[Tony Bertone]

Thanks Janice really appreciate it. I will give it a try.

[Terry Weaver]

If you are on a PC - I highly recommend the app Film9. It's free. Good info on Youtube about it. If you have deep pockets Topaz Video Enhancer is excellent as well, but I'd try film9 first.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

One small (but potentially important) question - is it really FILM grain, or actually DIGITAL grain? This type of scanner usually output in relatively low bit rate .mp4 files therefore LOTS of compression artifacts aka digital grain.
But if it is actual grain in original film, for me I'd leave it as-is. Better present it in the way it actually is rather than overly "restore" it to the point of being unrecognizable from the actual source.

[Robb Strycharz]

I have a Magnasonic FS81 and scanning Super 8 film with it. I video comes out to be very grainy, does anyone know how to get it to be less grainy?

I just bought a Magnasonic last week and noted how it had so much grain in some scans it could wash out the details of a face if they were, say, 20' from the camera. But I also noted from scans after the film ran out that instead of being pure white (or pure grey) from the light source, there's plenty of electronic noise from the system itself... and that contributes to the problem... atop of the fact I don't think it's a true 1080p scan... and the system is interpolating pixels, and the low bitrate of the final video.

Note random digital noise in this frame. It changes each frame and is added to each frame of video.

[Thomas Dafnides]

It seems like the quality has degraded from the earlier samples I have seen of these scanners. The Chinese may have done some cost cutting.

[Stan Jelavic]

That does look grainier that what I normally get from the Wolverine unit. Try the sharpness adjustment. If that fails then you will have to run a degrainer in the post. Many tools have that. I like the Video Fred scripts. The issue with that is the the actual film grain will be removed so the final video loses its 8mm look. Some of my tests years back show that the Wolverine and other similar models use an 8mm lens which results in 720x480 resolution roughly. They double the rez digitally and that, combined with heavy MP4 compression results in these digital artifacts.

[Tony Bertone]

I just bought a Magnasonic last week and noted how it had so much grain in some scans it could wash out the details of a face if they were, say, 20' from the camera. But I also noted from scans after the film ran out that instead of being pure white (or pure grey) from the light source, there's plenty of electronic noise from the system itself... and that contributes to the problem... atop of the fact I don't think it's a true 1080p scan... and the system is interpolating pixels, and the low bitrate of the final video.

Note random digital noise in this frame. It changes each frame and is added to each frame of video.

Hi Robb,

What did you do to resolve the grainy video? Or di you just leave it as is?

Did you contact Magnasonic to let them know what you found?

[Kim Trampus]

Thats one of the reasons that I passed on the Magnasonic / Kodak Reelz / Wolverine solutions. Also the low build quality I hear from people all the time that they are cheaply made and don't work after 6 months to a year. I instead opted for a real time transfer solution using a Sankyo Dualux 1000 and Panasonic Camera with close up lens adaptor.

[Alwyn Adkins]

Rob, could you attach a few seconds of a capture showing the noise? I have had success with NeatVideo in bad noise situations similar to that and would be interested to see how it handled your video.

I don't know what the attachment size limit for the forum is, but you should be OK less than 100mb.

[Janice Glesser]

Rob, I second Alwyns recommendation of NeatVideo. I've used it for several years to clean up my film captures and it can work miracles on grainy images. I think you can download a trial copy that has a watermark but you can still see the results. It's not free, but worth the price. I use it as a plug-in to Adobe Premiere Pro.

[Kim Trampus]

I use Neat Video in post after capture.

http://neatvideo.com

Hey Janice, This looks like a nice plugin. I use an old version of Final Cut on an old MacBook Pro and see that they only support newer versions.
But, I will file this info away for when I upgrade my Mac and Final Cut. It would be nice if you can give us a link to before and after examples.

[David Strelitz]

Neat Video is a great tool in the armoury! As well as grain removal it can sharpen and remove strobing. I don't need to use it much on telecine but on VHS transfers it can be quite impressive. Lots of tutorials from Neat too.

[Alwyn Adkins]

What is the video attachment size limit for the forum?