Digital film scanner for 9.5

[Andrew Long]

Hi

Has anyone used a digital film scanner to digitise 9.5mm film?

I have tried a homemade version but think a shop bought one would be better. Problem is, nothing is made for 9.5!

One option is to use one designed for 35mm or super 8 and adapt it. Such as:
https://www.kenro.co.uk/products/pho..._film_scanner/

Or cheaper budget version on auction sites that only does 35mm or 110 film

Cheap ones have a 5mp camera, which I think is suitable for 100 year old b&w film!

There are many on the market, with the ability to continuously feed the film, so was wondering if anyone has tried this using the frame for 35mm and just hand feeding the 9.5 through and stopping at the right moment to capture the image.

I would edit the individual images when joining as a film in shotcut or similar editing program.

Does this sound feasible?

Thanks

Andy

[Lee Mannering]

Welcome Andrew. You can do it with a individual photo film scanner but it takes aeons. A few years ago I got a cheaply used 12mp scanner wanting to experiment with 35mm movie film scanning on 2.5 minutes of Nitrate film and this is what I did.

I glued the plastic film retainer film tray in place removing the internal plastic registration pins so film could move freely.
Drilled 4 holes to make new registration pins externally to receive 4 nails to fit/removable of course after each frame.

I actually have 2.5 minutes to transfer a frame at a time and to do that took a full day including frame assembly on the timeline.
Yes it will work if done with care and saved me a quoted transfer cost outside of £180. 35mm movie film scanning is very expensive.

The process will be much the same for you with 9.5 film. You can make a new tray from good art card with a little thought, glue and a Stanley knife. I've since made trays to hold 17.5, 28mm film as well.

I still use my little 35mm movie film scanner but only good for short runs unless you have a month to spare. Have fun.

[Andrew Long]

Hi Lee

Thanks for the reply. Never thought about making my own tray, a good idea!

It would take ages. But thought one of the stand alone scanners would be ideal, as I could pick it up from where I left off whenever I have some spare time.

Tried using one of those transfer boxes before, where you project in one side and film it on the other but I was never happy with the quality of the image, but that could be down to my ability!

Thinking of ordering the cheaper version and giving it a go

Thanks

Andy