Super 8 film scanner from Hammacher Schlemmer

[mazinz]

There are units of HS available on E-bay in the $330-340 price range. I have just ordered one. Due to arrive on Aug 23

For sake of argument are they actually true HS machines and not something similar? I saw similar decks but not HS. However about 2 weeks ago I returned my unit to them for a refund. In the short time that I had my machine (purchased in Feb), Woverine who seems to be the maker for the HS units already went through 2 pretty massive internal upgrades and have the machine as a "work in progress". The HS units are also reflecting these changes as they go. Some others are also trying to get more features added. Why would I then want to stick with the design flawed first version? Also since the changes seem to be pretty quick, it makes more sense to wait a good year or so before attempting to buy another machine. At that point they should have more of the kinks/design worked out... you know the way they should have done to begin with before releasing anything to the market. Product testing was not on their agenda

[wesmithdc]

Unfortunately I got one without a box, new for $275 but have had to send it back How Itt stuttered and jammed no matter how I tried. however it convinced me that this is a good model but should be a little better priced than $449.95 form H S.

[wesmithdc]

It seems to me that a spate of H-S models les were released on E-bay at the $330-340 range as I wrote my last but one entry. They were were probably the returns or models that had flaws or lacked upgrades. They have now disappeared from E-Bay.when

[bbwizard]

Hi. I have been looking at the Wolverine and had just one question which I didn't see addressed here. Could you tell me what the light source on the Wolverine is? Bulb or LED?

[bookemdano]

Hi. I have been looking at the Wolverine and had just one question which I didn't see addressed here. Could you tell me what the light source on the Wolverine is? Bulb or LED?

Its LED behind a diffuser. No bulbs thank goodness.

[johnmeyer]

I understand wanting to avoid the heat from a traditional bulb (although you should be using a low-power bulb, if traditional halogen or tungsten). However, LED is not necessarily better. If it is NOT a "high CRI" bulb, you may find that you get weird colors. Halogen and tungsten are "black box" radiators which is a fancy physics way of saying that they emit all the colors of the rainbow in equal intensity. LEDs have big gaps in the colors they reproduce, and this will most definitely alter the color you get. No way to correct it with a filter.

[krasnit]

johnmeyer:
You raise a very good point about LED CRI. Has anyone got a color meter to test the HS or Wolverine? A precision Sekonic C-700 costs close to $2,000 US, so that is beyond my means. You also have to wonder about DIY or even professional 8mm digitisers that use LED sources.
I am undecided about whether I should get a HS or Wolverine. The HS supporting 7" reels seems to be an older model no longer in production, since all the current production models sold at Alibaba now only support 5" reels. However, the Alibaba ones do scan at 1080, and I would rather down convert using high quality software than letting the non-configurable hardware do it as on the Wolverine.

[Shivakvh]

Reflecta sells a device that very much looks the same but a lot more expensive than the Wolverine.
https://reflecta.de/en/products/detail/~id.840/reflecta-Film-Scanner-Super-8-%E2%80%93-Normal-8.html
It has Resolution: 1440 x 1080 p @ 30fps (MP4). Anyone an idea if these are identical ?

[krasnit]

Both the Reflecta and Wolverine are the same units manufactured by Winait Technologies in China. The difference is that the Wolverine firmware has been modified for lower resolution because apparently the higher 1080p does not look as good with the high compression done by the firmware. You can order the 1080p directly from China in single quantities through Alibaba:

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/New-Film-Scanner-Film-Transfer-Converter_60619803499.html?

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2017-Popular-Film-Scanner-2-4_60658368694.html?...200.0.0.ba7sB3

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/factory-new-design-film-scanner-8mm_60535870884...697a8c3e8iEzaV

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/New-Film-Scanner-Film-Transfer-Converter_606198...697a8c3e8iEzaV

[wesmithdc]

That device did not work out. Stuttered and stuck. Had to send it back. Now going to buy the HS new version!

[Shivakvh]

Wolverine has a new model out "Moviemaker-Pro" which supports 9 inch reels now.
http://secure.mm5server.com/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=WD&Product_Code=F2DMM1...Category_Code=
I received a mail from Wolverine support very quick after I asked them about the compression level. They replied: "The current model and the Pro both been upgraded to use the least compression the system allows us to implement."

[dgjones10]

After some research I decided on a 'Reflecta 8mm scanner.' I ordered from Bristol Cameras in UK on 23rd October and received today the 24th. Extremely good service.
Now scanning a 5" reel so far so good. I paid £375, which I am happy with. Other suppliers were despatching form China with unknown additional import duty payable which I have seen quoted upto £140.

[tomwitmer]

I purchased a HS 8 / super 8 film scanner. I am having issues with the herky jerky conversion. I understand that this is a frame issue. I have no idea how to fix that problem.

[johnmeyer]

What do you mean by "herky jerky conversion?" Are you saying that the mechanism is not operating smoothly? Or, does the resulting video not play smoothly? If the latter, is that due to frames having been missed, or is the video file so large or the codec so CPU-intensive that the computer cannot keep up and play it smoothly?

[chris319]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RdexIsLD3o

When I was a teenager in the '60s I scraped together my pennies and bought a Kodak super 8 camera (the nice salesman threw in free alkaline batteries). That was only half the equation, though. I needed a way to view my movies so I got a Baia viewer with hand cranks. My family was not into this so a projector with, you know, a motor, was out of the question.

In the summer of oh, I guess, 1968 my parents shipped my brother and me off to summer camp and took my super 8 camera with them on vacation. They came back with some footage of Hearst Castle and my mother playing golf. All was well until the light bulb in my cheap viewer burnt out. That's when I discovered that the little light bulb was not replaceable. I tried to fashion a bulb holder out of scrap copper so I could replace it but it just wasn't happening. In those days my father was drinking his paychecks so funds were scarce for such necessities as film stock and processing.

The Hearst Castle footage is long gone.

[johnmeyer]

That video has nothing to do with anything.

[tomwitmer]

What do you mean by "herky jerky conversion?" Are you saying that the mechanism is not operating smoothly? Or, does the resulting video not play smoothly? If the latter, is that due to frames having been missed, or is the video file so large or the codec so CPU-intensive that the computer cannot keep up and play it smoothly?

So all of the film that I have scanned is jumpy and part of the bottom of a frame may be on top and visa versa. I have loaded the film different ways in an attempt to fix the frame issue. I have watched you tube videos using a Wolverine film scanner. to no avail.
The scanned file plays as it is recorded. I can pause the playing and i can see that the picture is not correct. Either a part of the top or part of the bottom is not were it belongs. It is like the picture was taken and the top was sliced off and placed on the bottom. This through the whole film.
I have adjusted the Frame ADJ per the manual with changing the Y setting to have the picture on the LCD display correctly. But when I start the scanner it goes back to the slit picture.

[johnmeyer]

That is a frame adjust problem during scanning. I don't know how your unit works, but I have a MovieStuff Workprinter, and I also have a 16mm conversion I did myself, made from a very nice Eidi projector. The key is that the unit must wait until the film comes to rest in the projector gate (or scanner gate) and then have the camera take a still photos. The better units have a timing cam or some other mechanism to ensure that the film image is always captured at the moment when perfect registration happens. This is easy when using a projector because the projector mechanism "pulls down" the film very quickly, and then lets it rest in the gate for most of the 1/24 of a second (for sound film) that the film is projected. Thus, there is a lot of slop as to when to capture the image. If yours is a continuous scan device, where the film does not start and stop as it does in a projector, then timing is very critical.

I'm sure there is an adjustment and you just need to play with that.

That's all the help I can give because I know nothing about your particular unit. You'll have to find a forum that specializes in that unit. I'd suggest one of the small gauge film forums.

https://www.filmshooting.com/scripts/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24531&p=210395

It looks like it is a Reflecta unit.

[JVRaines]

The later MovieStuff scanners employ continuous motion and use a high-speed shutter to take a series of stills, then locate the sprocket holes to decide where to crop the frame. I used one of them a few years ago and I can recommend the hardware, though I have reservations about MovieStuff's tech support. I reported a specific, repeatable bug with their software and all they did was blow smoke by asking me to perform unrelated tests.

[johnmeyer]

The later MovieStuff scanners employ continuous motion and use a high-speed shutter to take a series of stills, then locate the sprocket holes to decide where to crop the frame. I used one of them a few years ago and I can recommend the hardware, though I have reservations about MovieStuff's tech support. I reported a specific, repeatable bug with their software and all they did was blow smoke by asking me to perform unrelated tests.

I am sorry to hear that. I was fortunate enough to be one of Roger's first customers and have been able to deal directly with him. He always provide useful advice, and gave me a discount when I had my unit rebuilt and upgraded.

I've also provided a few technical ideas which found their way into his 2nd generation transfer units. He's now gone way beyond anything I ever did (or could do) with the unit you just described. I'd love to get one, but his pricing has gone way up as the quality of his transfer units have improved. I think I paid about $700 for my Workprinter, but many of his current products are 10x that price. However, his new units can now rival the quality of the Cintel and Spirit scanners ($100K+ price tags). As a result, a lot of Hollywood home movies and other secondary material is now being transferred with his units. Pretty impressive.