Need advice for DIY 8mm telecine

[Phuttiphong]

Hi all,

My name is Phuttiphong from Thailand. I am a new shooting 8mm. So, Could you please give me some advice about DIY home telecine?

1. What is the best projector model for home telecine? I have read some posts that I need variable speed. But can you suggest me some model?

2. What kind of telecine box I should buy? I found one in Ebay. Has anyone used it before?http://cgi.ebay.com/VIDEO-TRANSFER-TELE ... tsupported

or I should spend for Moviestuff's products?

I live in the pal country and my video camera is 25p. I was wondering about the result of capturing 24fps projector into 25p camera.

Thank you for every suggestion,
Phutti

[MovieStuff]

Hi!

If you are on a budget and can't afford to buy a telecine unit, you can get terrific results by using a variable speed projector and copying off an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of non-glossy ink jet paper. Epson Photo Quality Ink Jet Paper comes in 100 sheet packs, has no grain and no sheen. Works just terrific. Tape the paper to something smooth and put the projector as far away as you can. Use the zoom on the projector to reduce the image to fill the page. Put your video camera close to the projector to prevent distortion of the image. If you lock your PAL camera to 1/50th of a second, you can achieve flickerless results at 16.66fps with a 3 bladed shutter.

Good luck!

Roger

[Phuttiphong]

Thanks Roger,
Now I am reading your website.
Phutti

[JCook]

I too used to use the film off the wall technique for telecine. However I moved the projector and video capture camera close to the wall and used the short end of the projector lens. I was trying to capture a brighter average picture without capturing a hot spot in the middle of the image. This worked well for me however you'll have more off center keystone affect in your captured images.

I was able to setup the video camera within 6" laterally of my projectors lens, I turned both the projector and the camera in towards each other for a bright image on screen, becaue I zoomed into the projected image slightly with the camera no-one knew that the image wasn't asymetrical. The trade off was a very bright image, too bright in fact, I had to set my Elmo's projector to the low bulb setting to keep form saturating the image.

I must confess, I tried several distances from the screen when I first started out and found that up close worked for me, however I didn't try to use the exteeme far end distance as Roger suggested, given enough analog zoom in your video camera that technique may work better, I didn't test the farthest distance method I was more worried about image brightness and washout using my Sony D8 camcorder (best unit I had at the time.)

As Roger stated above attempt to use a shutter speed that's a multiple of your projected frame rate, you will not notice the flicker in the captured image. Also tape up some typed text or an image against your wall and set the focus of your video camera to manaul mode. Adjust focus on the camera as reuquired to discern the text of the sheet taped to the wall. Prior to capturing adjust the focus of your projector to see the finest details possible on the wall, you should then be ready to capture footage.

Good luck let us know hot it turns out, John

My point is that try both ends of the spectrum and see what works for you.

[Phuttiphong]

Thanks JCook. It's very helpful.

Hi Roger,
I have sent PM and email to Moviestuff's email. Could you check it?

Best,
Phuttiphong

[doug]

Hi Phutti
I've been using a good sheet of cream-coloured card, and projecting on that. It seems to reduce the contrast if you need it. Also it's a good idea to stop down the projector lens with a black card 'washer' so that the image is really sharp corner to corner. Dimmer yes, but no problem. And you can get a more even lighting usually with the old style projectors that use condensers. More info at http://www.filmcamblog.blogspot.com
"Telecine without tears... the cardboard way" It's a post right at the bottom of page.

Best of luck !
Doug