Scanning Super 8 with Flatbed Scanner or Similar

[perthskydiver]

Hello all,

As the topic title states, does anyone scan super 8 film using a flatbed scanner or 35mm still film scanner with a super 8 film adaptor attachment?

I realise this would be very time consuming for big quantities of super 8 but i've been considering it for some of my short projects. Can anyone give any advice on how to do it, what format to save it as? Etc etc...

[joaomontenegro]

Hi I'm also thinking in that!
I found this link: http://www.jiminger.com/s8/

This guy made a software that semi-automaticaly detects the frames and creates the AVI.

I didn't tried it yet, but I'm thinking in writing a similar program myself...

Regards,
Joao

[reedsturtevant]

Previous discussion threads about this subject:

viewtopic.php?t=6731
viewtopic.php?t=4593
viewtopic.php?t=3172

Resources for scanning movies on cheap flatbed scanners:

Project report for do-it-yourself film scanning
http://www.truetex.com/telecine.htm

Project report and Linux MMSUPER8 software for assembling scanned frames
http://www.michaelminn.com/?linux/mmsuper8/README.html

8mm2AVI Windows software to assemble frames
http://8mm2avi.netfirms.com/

Project description and image processing software discussion
http://www.jiminger.com/s8/

Musing about new scanners for 8mm
http://jl-site.com/Super8/NewS8telecine.html

Scanning 35mm slides on a modified flatbed scanner (self illuminated)
http://home.sci.fi/~animato/scanning/scanning2.html

Modifying a flatbed scanner to build a high resolution panoramic camera
http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-better-scanner-cam.html

8)

[reflex]

I'd guess it'd easily take about 4+ hours of your life to scan a single film using the flatbed approach.

Its probably a better bet to get someone who owns a handy dandy Workprinter to do it for you. I suspect the quality would be better, and you'll have time for more enjoyable things like watching paint dry or counting snowflakes.

[joaomontenegro]

Agree!

Anyway, writing a program that automaticaly cuts the frames and generates the AVI is still an interesting challenge...

Joao

[timdrage]

Modifying a flatbed scanner to build a high resolution panoramic camera

8O Wow!!!

... hmmm, reading more about that whole slit shutter thing, I had a flash of genius/stupidity:
How about covering your 8mm camera gate with a suitably narrow horizontal slit, (scalpel-cut foil?), removing your shutter and turning it 90 degrees (?) so that it covers the film when stationary and exposes it while moving past the slit!!!

Of course it'd be vertical rather than horizontal scanning which wouldn't neccessarily make any sense in terms of the usual scientfic/photo-finish applications of such cameras in the world of stills... though you could turn the camera sideways I suppse! or film things falling.

Anyway, I think you could get some crazy images if this worked, and that's all that matters to me!


That was the best idea I ever had, or just wouldn't work at all, or both. You be the judge!

[timdrage]

... agh, that site's giving me too many crazy ideas! see also:
http://www.rit.edu/~andpph/text-coffee.html
- developing Tri-X with coffee! 8O 8O

Interesting site, thanks for posting!

[mattias]

Its probably a better bet to get someone who owns a handy dandy Workprinter to do it for you. I suspect the quality would be better

i disagree. scanners are calibrated to scanning trasparencies, while cameras are calibrated to "scanning" the real world. while the sharpness of the flatbeds i've tried is far from what you can get from a digital still camera or even a video camera the contrast and colors were always much superior. (much superior? superior is superior i guess, but i felt i had to emphasize it a little) :-) why can't somebody just make a super 8 transport for a slide scanner? preferably one that uses a stationary ccd and a continuous film transport, since it would be faster and last longer. i believe such scanners exist.

/matt

[mattias]

i believe such scanners exist.

before somebody says "yeah, they're called spirits" let me clearify that i meant a cheap and diy friendly one.

/matt

[reflex]

why can't somebody just make a super 8 transport for a slide scanner? preferably one that uses a stationary ccd and a continuous film transport, since it would be faster and last longer. i believe such scanners exist.

Yes, that is the sixteen zillion dollar question, isn't it? Damn Kodak for not doing something about this at an affordable level. They have the analog film transport experience and also the CCD/digital technical expertise.

It can't be that hard to drag a strip of plastic between a light source and a CCD element with reasonable precision!

[mattias]

especially since it can easily be digitally registered by looking at the perfs.

/matt

[danpuddick]

here's one for you matt

http://kmpi.konicaminolta.us/eprise/mai ... ifications


I think it's give you the resolution you needed.

surely there's somone barve enough to butcher one of these.

[mattias]

interesting, aside from "moving film, fixed sensor" i especially like "continuous scanning for multiple frames", but i wonder how many. the "slide film holder" only takes four frames, and it doesn't look like there's room for takeup on the other side or inside the unit.

/matt

[mattias]

there's a roll film adapter for the various nikon coolscans that allows you to scan an entire 40 frame roll, which means if you can modify it to take super 8 would mean you could do an entire roll of super 8 in only 10 passes. not a good idea for scanning all your material of course, but if you rough edit a wp copy, neg cut it flash to flash, and then scan it like this for online conforming? maybe if you have that little material you can afford a real datacine though. i'm dreaming as usual, but the more we talk about it the more likely that somebody will come up with the solution, right? stranger things have happened. ;-)

/matt

[Andreas Wideroe]

Here are a few suggestions:

www.lasergraphics.com
www.kinetta.com
www.filmfabriek.nl
www.moviestuff.tv
www.mva-nova.de
www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Film-Scanner ... 4077634573
www.blackmagicdesign.com

and probably a few more I can't remember at the moment.

Best,
Andreas