Kodak reelz digital scanner, any good?

[Winbert Hutahaean]

The 8mm scanner machine becomes so various in brand but I am afraid they are made by few manufacturea (in China).

Now I found the big name of Kodak is entering the same pool with its own scanner Kodak Reelz Digital Scanner. The price is becoming cheaper and cheaper nowadays.

Now, any good or bad with this machine compared to the older name like Wolverine?

Ps: ok for those who are using more profesional machine like movistuff/retro-8 and kind of, I am not going to compare with them.

Cheers

[Paul Adsett]

Winbert, the general consensus on the web seems to be that the Kodak Reelz is at best no better than the Wolverine and other brand scanners of this design. It exhibits all the same problems of the others - take up not working properly, frequent stoppages and hang ups, excessive digital artifacts etc.
I was tempted to get one of these scanners but from what I have seen and read I am staying with video recording off a small screen which can produce good results if done with care. At least you have no digital artifacts and the color is close to the original film.

[Gregory Oliver]

You get what you pay for. If your goal is to view your films on your computer or TV and make a back up copy that's fine. If you want more than that you're going to have to pay for it one way or another.

[Paul Adsett]

I think a lot of people were hoping that the prestige of the Kodak name would mean a big step up in performance and quality over the Wolverine clones, but it looks like they just licensed their brand name for a few bucks. What a shame!

[Joerg Polzfusz]

All these S8-/N8-scanners from Wolverine/reflecta/Somikon/Kodak/… look the same and have the same features because they’re all produced by a Chinese company called Winait. The only difference is whether you are buying an older or a current version of the scanner.

[Joerg Polzfusz]

BTW: When reading the fine print at the end of this webpage, then you’ll see that the scanner isn’t even sold by Kodak, but by C&A:
https://eu.kodakphotoplus.com/products/rodreels
“Copyright © 2023 C&A IP Holdings, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The Kodak trademark, logo and trade dress are used under license from Kodak.“

[John Bakker]

The Kodak Reels (or Reelz) is not a Winait machine or perhaps Kodak have ordered a custom model from them.
The Wolverine/Reflecta/Somikon machines use a 3.53MP sensor while the Kodak Reels has an 8.08MP sensor.
I've seen side by side transfers of both machines and the Kodak definitely shows more detail. Aside from that though, the software still doesn't offer manual control and is clearly aimed at people who want to auto pilot their way through transfering their films.

[Lou Rosenberg]

hello, I m new to this forum but have shot Super8 for many years.
I too was looking carefully at the specs for the Kodak Reelz with its 8.08MP sensor and its ability to do some exposure correction.
Like most of all gear, you get what you pay for. These units are marketed to the family with many films in the closet which they want on their devices.

I have a rear screen fold-out tabletop design I purchased in the 1980s. I also kept my ELMO SM-120 silent camera with a good still function.
Since 1989 I ve had many video cameras, the last two being a SONY NX 5U along with the A7rii mirrorless camera.
I plan to experiment with shooting with the rear screen first, does anyone have a good setup for shooting from a screen or wall
without too much keystone aberration?

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

hello, I m new to this forum but have shot Super8 for many years.
I too was looking carefully at the specs for the Kodak Reelz with its 8.08MP sensor and its ability to do some exposure correction.
Like most of all gear, you get what you pay for. These units are marketed to the family with many films in the closet which they want on their devices.

I have a rear screen fold-out tabletop design I purchased in the 1980s. I also kept my ELMO SM-120 silent camera with a good still function.
Since 1989 I ve had many video cameras, the last two being a SONY NX 5U along with the A7rii mirrorless camera.
I plan to experiment with shooting with the rear screen first, does anyone have a good setup for shooting from a screen or wall
without too much keystone aberration?

Although not Super 8, but the principle remains exactly the same. So you might find this video useful.

https://youtu.be/owBH-xPQwy8

Another two major keys to get decent result from this real-time, off-the-screen capture setup.
- A variable speed projector, or a camera with variable shutter speed (sometimes called SynchroScan or so) to get flicker-free transfer.
- Manual settings everything, and I mean everything - manual focus/shutter speed/exposure/white balance/everything else.