Scanning Super 8mm Movie Film to Digital
Anybody doing this themselves? If so, what do you use? I've been reading the $1,500 Reflecta scanner is one of the highest quality ways to do this, but it has a guide or pulley that goes right through the center of the film frame, putting a scratch right through the center of the picture area. Is there a home scanner, made by film leader Kodak or another company, that is gentler on the film?
I've been paying a company in Chandler, AZ called Video Conversion experts to do this. They use a $30,000+ scanner that can scan as high as 4K and it's sprocketless so very gently glides the film along on rollers. I've been having them scan my film at only 1080p, because, to my eyes, 1080p already mercilessly shows all the detail, including grain, that I remember seeing
in the film when it was projected.
Their scanner has an "auto color" feature which automatically adjusts for changes in brightness and color on the fly. It does a great job when the film was perfectly exposed and the color balance was set perfectly in the camera to begin with. However, sometimes I intentionally underexposed to make day seem night or did weird color effects, which their scanner attempts to compensate for when I don't want it to. This results in dark shots being way too bright revealing horrendous grain and colors looking flat or otherwise different than I remember them looking on projection. I want more shot-by-shot control.
With Super 8 seemingly making a comeback as a viable filmmaking alternative to digital HD, I thought maybe now the time has finally come for more home scanning products. Thanks in advance for any info.