Wolverine 8mm and Super 8 Movie Reels to Digital MovieMaker

[grainy]

I think this is brand new from Wolverine, the plastic merchants for those who want iffy quality at 780p, but, for only 300$ USD
8mm and Super 8!
http://secure.mm5server.com/merchant.mv ... Quantity=1

There's also a very laconic instructional video (but no samples...) of how the machine works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jzXrR1 ... e=youtu.be

I have to admit I'm kind of intrigued at this price point. it might have its place in the world...

G

[Pj]

It's the same as the 'consumer' scanner that was discussed here a few months ago. I can see this being popular, it seems pretty easy to use, wonder what the final quality is like and if it scans in real time.

Pav

[Will2]

I could see taking that to a parent's or grandparent's house and doing an initial scan to see what they had. Then you could choose which reels are worth getting scanned for real.

For some people it would probably be all they would need, although that would be sad...

[Tscan]

This is perfect for all those people who had horrid VHS transfers done 30yrs ago and now the tapes have decayed... as long as they didn't chuck the original films in the trash

[Will2]

Here's a slide version of one of their machines...

https://www.amazon.com/Wolverine-Mighty ... B00O46B7TY

Take JPEG snapshots from your 8mm and Super 8 Reels and recompile into a video. UNIQUE Speed-Load adapters for fast loading of slides & Negatives.

[grainy]

Well this is interesting. Wolverine's youtube page now contains a link to this dropbox "sample", which you can actually simply watch (don't need to download) here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x1n4m8k0ot7p3 ... e.mp4?dl=0

I'd say it looks as good as could possibly be expected, and worth the price for many.
I'm guessing the margin for error is very slight with this, but still. Interesting!

Not sure why this is apparently only available through their site - maybe they're trying to gauge interest.

G

[Will2]

Not a good sign when the compression artifacts are that bad. Yuck. But for a reference as to what you have on film (if you don't have a projector or viewer) it's ok.

[Pj]

I agree that it's interesting, it looks very cute and and just because of that I'm really tempted to buy one, but when looking at the specs and the online video sample [which is awefall] it's pretty obvious that this machine is quite limited. It's most likely got a poor plastic lens, terrible backlight and cheap camera. The build quality is probably poor too as the gate and the claw seem to be the main cause for the unsteady and jumpy imagery, I  think they could have had a better shot clip, but at such a low price we can't complain, my only fear is i hope it doesn't scratch the film.

Pav

[aj]

It is about the same thing as discussed half a year ago.

These slide scanners with S8 are offered by the sea-container load at Alibaba.
Mind the prices there! Even at small quantities. And there are other such devices.

[aj]

BTW curious how filmers spend some Euro 10 on a minute of filming super-8 but want the equipment for doing that at fleamarket prices. I.e a camera at Euro 50 is ough! A projector at Euro 35 even more ough!
It makes one wonder how Kodak is going to sell these Euro 1000 cameras

[Gabe Agoado]

Just discovered this little machine on youtube today. Was curious to know if anyone has had experience with it yet as it seems to be on back order until the fall...The example footage does kind of suck, I don't get why they didn't take the 5 minutes to convert it back to 24 or 18 fps(which makes me wonder why the machine only does a 30 fps scan in the first place...). The scan itself also seems kind of crappy, very pixelated and only 720p. Their response to a comment as to why it's not at least 1080p was also pretty sketchy...

While it does seem to be geared more towards a casual market, if they took up the challenge of making an upgraded version with better transport system, 24 fps and 2k scan with ProRes or H.264, even if they had to sell it for $900 I think it would be worth it.

[Andreas Wideroe]

BTW curious how filmers spend some Euro 10 on a minute of filming super-8 but want the equipment for doing that at fleamarket prices. I.e a camera at Euro 50 is ough! A projector at Euro 35 even more ough!
It makes one wonder how Kodak is going to sell these Euro 1000 cameras

I hope Kodak will have success, but I don't think they've managed to keep the hype up since CES. It was really hot then, but it's almost forgotten by now.. and if things get delayed I'm afraid it will loose even more interest. Still, hope I'm wrong.

[Angus]

720p would be OK if the quality was a lot better. The compression artefacts on the sample are awful. The actual hardware of the scanner might be acceptable, though obviously several rungs down from professional equipment.

[Toff]

I'm seriously considering buying one, but am interested in knowing if there are better options out there at present? ( http://moviestuff.tv/moviestuff_home.html looks better - but also too expensive for me.)

I inherited a number of home movies from my grandmother ranging in date from the 1930s to the 1970s. It's mostly family stuff, but some things which might be of interest to some others for local history - old St. Louis Veiled Prophet Parade, 1939 World's Fair, etc.

Having them all professionally transferred would cost more than this device costs. I've experimented with merely shooting digital video off a projector screen, but haven't had particularly satisfactory results due to issues of getting the projector and camera at reasonably good angles to the screen, getting an image without glare, etc. I suppose some kind of telecine might be an option e.g. http://www.rakuten.com/prod/diy-movie-t ... 72507.html but I'm not sure if I'd find that very satisfactory either. It seems like the best option for a good image would be from what the Wolverine does - scanning the still frames rather than taking video of the moving filmstrip?

Results look reasonably good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Vrh3o6RUx0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WN44a0l5g8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJS13zKEvP4

Could whatever jitter the Wolverine might cause (hopefully not always an issue) perhaps be fixed with software that's used for image stabilization caused by shaky cameras?

[MadMikey]

I bought one of these units about a month ago. Here's a link to the first 8mm film from 1957 I scanned. No post processing other than correcting the speed of playback and adding the title and credits. You be the judge.

https://youtu.be/JmVBPLZtdJ0