8mm film reversal

[fabiospark]

I want to capture many 8mm films (no audio) my father left me when he passed away.

I have a working projector with its own speed control and I have already done some tests. This is my set up:

- white sheet of photocopier paper A3 size glued on a piece of wood and hooked on to a wall
- projector placed at about 1mt from the wall
- picture about 30x20cm
- HV40 placed on a tripod just behind and aside the projector with the camera optics vertically aligned with the projector optics and closed in a bit
- as I am in the PAL side of the world, set the camera on Tv 1/50 or 1/25 and work on the projector speed dial to synchro the two to minimize flickering (you can see it live on the camera screen)
- as the films have many changes to scenes with very different light, I have to keep the camera auto exposure on

Problem:

- the auto exposure system tends to give overexposed highlights

Question:

- is there a way to introduce a minus compensation to the target of the camera auto exposure system? (-EV or similar)

Any other hint will be welcome.


Thanks for your attention.

[antman]

I would send the forum member" JANKE" A PM. He has a good amount of experience with film and projectors. You can also try the Moderator "Erik Bien" He too is very knowledgeable. Hope this helps some

[Janke]

JANKE here, listening... ;-)

I have done some successful transfers, with this little trick:

Yes, use auto exposure with some compensation towards darker, but keep the exposure time constant, camera changes aperture only.

To avoid the "pumping" of brightness between scenes, light the paper with some stray light, preferably an "enlarger" lamp. (A lamp used in old-type photo enlargers, it has a color temperature close to 3200K, as the projector lamp.) Or, you can use an ordinary household 60W bulb, reflected from a light blueish paper, to get the correct color of stray light. No fluorescents!

This will reduce the contrast, improve the blacks, and minimize pumping. If your stray light is too strong, you can crush the blacks a bit in edit.

See my "Disneyland 1976" 8 mm movie on Youtube, it was recorded with an older (non-HD) Canon DV camcorder:

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=AnimatoFinland#g/u

The quality isn't stellar, you can get better transfers professionally, but then, this cost me nothing. And, to be honest, I could have done much better with the HV30 than with the old DV camcorder...

[2Bdecided]

This is the way to do it:

http://www.super-8.be/s8_Eindex.htm

http://www.vimeo.com/user678523/videos/sort:newest

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=144271


or maybe...

http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/2...e-(8mm)-System

Cheers,
David.

[um3k]

If you're getting a rolling flicker artifact, I've written an Avisynth filter to remedy that. Let me know if you're interested.

[fabiospark]

Yes, use auto exposure with some compensation towards darker

Sorry but reading the HV manual I couldn't find a way to do the compensation: would you mind telling me how, please?

Thanks.

[Janke]

Sorry, it's not actually "compensation" - its manual override: Press joystick, click up or down till you get EXP, then click sideways to adjust.

What I meant was: let the camera choose automatic exposure for a normal scene, then go manual and reduce slightly. This will avoid blown-out highlights in overexposed scenes, and the stray light on the screen will help underexposed scenes.

If you have any form of auto exposure, you do get the "pumping" effect...


(Another reason for my mixup of the terms: I'm currently learning all the tricks with a T2i, which does have compensation during auto exposure...)

[fabiospark]

To avoid the "pumping" of brightness between scenes, light the paper with some stray light, preferably an "enlarger" lamp. (A lamp used in old-type photo enlargers, it has a color temperature close to 3200K, as the projector lamp.) Or, you can use an ordinary household 60W bulb, reflected from a light blueish paper, to get the correct color of stray light. No fluorescents!

This will reduce the contrast, improve the blacks, and minimize pumping. If your stray light is too strong, you can crush the blacks a bit in edit.

What do you mean with: "pumping of brightness between scenes?"

About the stray light.
Do you mean to have it on during capture or just on the empty paper when doing the custom white balance setting?

I will try the manual exposure and see what I get.

Thanks.

[Janke]

If you have a dark scene following a light one or vice versa, auto-exposure reacts slowly, and you get a brightness change, "pumping" up or down - looks bad!

The stray light shall be on during capture - it will lighten the shadows, which otherwise will be coal black. The color and amount of stray light is rather critical, so you'll have to experiment.

Color balance is best set from a neutral scene, not just the paper and projector light, Different film brands give totally different results - the eye adapts and doesn't notice it as strongly as the camera.

[someperson]

If you're getting a rolling flicker artifact, I've written an Avisynth filter to remedy that. Let me know if you're interested.

I'd be interested in that filter if you still have it?