8mm film thru EUMIG P8 lens to Panasonic HDC-HS700

[Magnus Agnvik]

I am a beginner in the field and gratefully accept all links and suggestions for a flexible solution.

I will transfer old 8mm films to digital using my Panasonic HDC-HS700 which has Ø46mm in lens ring.

I will film the 8mm film thru EUMIG P8 lens and film directly against the 8mm film using a macro filter.

Is it understood that I can use Raynox DCR 250 with adapter RA4346A?
Is the HD-6600PRO-46 a good alternative?

What is the best solution for cleaning the lens on the Eumig P8?
Which LED lamp do you think can replace the one in the Eumig P8?

Do you have any experience of transferring 8mm film in this way with a digital camcorder?

Grateful for all the answers!

Thanks!

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Another possible option is to use standard 16mm projection lens as a "loupe", to magnify the image large enough for the camera to comfortably work with. That conventional 50mm 1:1.6 would work more than well enough.

Regarding the light source, most small LED panel with diffuser should work quite OK. Just use the daylight/pure white led and not the warm white ones, you're then good to go.

[Magnus Agnvik]

Thanks for your reply - it was kind! A good start for my project!

The lens has a Ø24mm (screw thread) on the EUMIG P8.
Which screw thread has the standard 16mm projection lens? Where can I get it?

As I understand it, the LED lamp must be about 3200K - how many Watts (Lumen) you use.
The current is 12Volt - are you using the power from the projector or are you using something external?
In your photos, it looks like you are using the power from the projector?

Have you posted a film sample on Youtube, for example?

Is the Panasonic HDC-SD700 similar to your camera performance? Something I need to consider?

[Tom Fales]

I've done a lot of these conversions with a number of different projectors.
For "lens to lens" capture, you'll need a 16mm lens that will fit the barrel of the projector. The Bell & Howell Super Proval 2 inch f/1.6 lens has a one inch diameter. A higher quality 16mm lens is the Sunray 107 (Wollansak) lens. Both are available on eBay.
If you plan to use a macro lens for direct film gate capture, you'll probably need to add one or more macro extension tubes/rings between the camcorder and film gate in order to get close enough to the gate.

However, in my opinion, the most important element of this type of film capture is the camcorder. I'd highly recommend you find a 3CCD Prosumer camcorder, ideally with manual ring controls. I have four Canon XHA1 camcorders and love them. The only issue with this camcorder is the size - difficult to get close enough to the lens without the sound bar interfering with the feed reel.

A couple of examples of direct film gate capture units using macro lenses on two different camcorders.



Tom

[Tom Fales]

Just looked at my Eumig Eupronet-zoom lens and see that it has a 32mm barrel size. This opens up additional options for 16mm lenses that might fit with a bit of electrical tape.

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

That Panny HS700 will definitely do the job. Provided that you set it in full manual mode. Here's what I can think of at the moment.
- Focus: manual
- Shutter speed: 1/50 second
- White balance: depends on the LED used. Best set it to manual setting, then "balance" it with LED in use (no film in the gate).
- Record format: 50p - this will get you best possible motion smoothness & least frame blending.

The LED in use is of generic 12v 3w daylight (pure white) ones. Most camcorders should have no problem white balancint to this. Any 12vdc power supply would have no problem driving it too.
Actually I've found out(by accident) that it will even work well on 12vac supply from projector's transformer output. No separate psu required!

Most early 16mm projector lens would be around 30mm in diameter. If the lens barrel of your Eumig is 32mm as Tom said, it will be then dead easy to retrofit that lens.

[Magnus Agnvik]

Thank you for your suggestions!
I will now start cleaning the EUMIG P8 and try to find a suitable LED lamp of about 3200K.

My dad was a great filmmaker of both simple 8mm film and super 8mm film from 1958 to 1983.
He spent a lot of time filming and also cutting the film into a story.
All our travels, holidays, birthdays, seasons are on film.

Is there a difference in quality between Wolverine MovieMaker Pro and telecine do you think?

Will be back when I have something new to tell!

[Magnus Agnvik]

Failed to check the distance of this distance protruding plate with its two wide teeth.
When you apply the lens to the film, these two teeth should receive so that the pressure is not too great against the film, I guess.

How far should it be? A film is 0.145 - 0.150mm thick.

Maybe they're just to direct the 8mm film?

IF I attach the lens to the film path, I could tighten the screws after that, as the contact surface of the lens against the film is spring loaded.

How do I solve this?

UPDATE: The problem was solved when I had taken a picture that shows how the plate should be!

[Magnus Agnvik]

Nantawat: How many Watts was your lamp in the projector before LED? Did you keep the glass lens in front of the lamp?

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

The original lamp was those garden-variety EFP 12V 100W, the most common ones you can find. That's of course wayyy overkill for the task - 3W LED was already almost too much for my need.

And no condenser optics need for this lamp as it already had reflector built-in. However when using LED for telecine/scanner work you'd need some diffuser between the lamp and the film. You probably need very diffused light source, rather than the very collimated ones.

[Magnus Agnvik]

I bought this lamp - am I on the right track? Thinks it may give a little bad with light,
but you may not need more, for this purpose.

I'm not going to use it against a projector screen .... so maybe this one works perfectly?

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

As previously said, even 3w LED was almost overkill in my case. 4w would be more than enough for this job.
In other words - possibly too much. You may have to find means to attenuate its light output instead.