I am a hobbyist 8mm and super 8 film collector, and like many, I have more film in my study than is good for me (that's what she said, anyway).
After reading all the discussions about the Wolverine first generation MovieMaker, I took the plunge and bought this when the Pro became available on Amazon.
To recap, the internet consensus was that the version 1 (a) was OK at conversions, not great, (b) could only handle 5" reels, (c) did not do too well with old splices, (d) earlier versions were prone to overheating, (e) were not recommended for rewinding, due to a small motor, (e) took video in only 720p, (f) converted everything to 30fps.
After about 5 days to evaluate the Moviemaker Pro, here are my thoughts
(a) Resolution- Better: Yes, it takes 1080p video. That is probably more than enough for most of the footage I have. There is some charm to having non-perfect video.
(b) Exposure and sharpness- Adequate: It has an exposure compensation option. However, at each setting there is still an auto-exposure that you can see "adjust" the darker frames up, or the lighter frames down. Thus, the end result is a lot of compression artifacts in dark frames, and sometimes back-and-forth exposure hunting in scenes with an intermediate level of brightness. But overall, I like it. Most of the video I have does not justify 1080p, and it is easy enough to crunch the artefacts out in dark scenes (which will leave them rather dark, but then, that is the nature of the source object).
An additional item is automatic white balance, which seemed to change the color tone if the footage zoomed in on an object. I had a "golden hour" evening scene, where a building was orange from the setting sun as long as the sky covered half the frame, but as the scene zoomed in, it became less orangy. This is not how film behaves.
(c) File Size- Good: My calculations showed a consistent 9.47-9.48 Mbits/sec, which comes to about 71.00 MBytes/min. This does quite well in the well-light daytime outdoor scenes.
(d) Film path- Good: The source side has one knob for the film to go under, and then there is the light bed with a slide-off cover (which is where thick splices get stuck), after which there is a single claw mechanism to advance the film. After that there are four knobs for the film to zig-zag around. The two bottom ones have a different texture. This is where my old splices broke (sometimes). However, this is needed to make sure that the take-up reel tension is killed to minimal levels to ensure that frames are positioned consistently. I tried different combinations of the knobs, and they all make the video shudder to different degrees.
(f) Frame rate (acceptable): A frame rate of 20fps is clearly better than 30 fps, and I can see the logic of picking a value between 18 and 24, closer to 18. about 10% faster changes the action, but moderately, and if you are post processing, that is easy to handle. It would have been marginally better if they had gone with 18, but as I mentioned, 20 is acceptable, particularly if you are not too keen on learning how to use a video editing app.
Finally, a couple of points
1. In addition to the inevitable splice-stuck and splice-broke, there were a couple of instances where the processor froze, but the film advancer kept working till the machine was switched off. My guess is that the electronics is sensitive to small surges, possibly caused by the heat pump turning on (winter). I moved the MovieMaker to the Uninterrupted Power Supply I have, and so far it has not happenned.
2. As others have said, keep the sharpness to low- this helps prevent unnatural edges, and this is something that can be done in post processing if you need it.
3. I have had a few more issues with 8mm film than super 8, which I attribute mostly to the greater age of 8mm. In fact, some of the Super 8 footage I have from the mid-80s is quite gorgeous, probably due to better cameras and technique.
4. I prefer zooming out to capture the sprocket holes, as well as have adjoining frames in the top and bottom of the picture. This captures the rest of the image outside the "standard" area, particularly for 8mm. This also helps in case the position of the frames drifts from reel to reel in a long session. I keep the "W" parameter at 1 (0 is the most zoomed out). Again, my workflow includes post processing for the footage I am interested in, and in casual viewing is a great aesthetic to remind us of the actual nature of the source material.
Cheers, and enjoy your footage. This are the things that someone at some time thought was important for them to capture, and put in a lot of time, effort, learning and money to create. Birthdays, Weddings, Vacations, Christmas, Thanksgiving, family visits, road trips, service deployments, drag races, cruises, backyard picnics-- it is all there. I love it, and thank Wolverine for creating this machine.
I have now converted about 10 hours of 8mm and super 8mm film. When I started, I did get some problems with the film path getting jammed. But the solution is to simply bypass the path and have the film go directly via the 3rd (of four) spindles to the take-up reel (see attached image). Since I made this change I can scan 7 inch reels without any problem. I like that one can over-scan by adjusting the scan and then edit to a 16x9 version. Importantly, I do not have to sit around watching the reels (since 7 inches will take several hours). It works quite well
A unit that transfers 8mm and super 8 film to digital format? One I can afford to buy for myself? A great idea. Film transfer runs anywhere from $5 to $40 for a 50 foot reel, the size that came from a home movie camera. If you have a bunch of films, that adds up fast to a point where you leave your precious memories sitting in a drawer. Odds are you don't have a projector or the bulb burnt out or you just don't have the patience to try to set it up.
OK $500 isn't nothing. That's the same cost as sending out 15-25 films. But it does offer you control over your eventual expenditures. Maybe you can offer to do some for other family members or friends, too.
The Wolverine Pro unit offers some real benefits over the standard model, so I am reviewing the Pro model after extensive use.
FEATURES - Scans high res 1080 frame by frame scans. Pro model accepts up to 400 foot reels. Pro version records file at about 20 frames a second (compared to the original film speed of 15-16 frames per second and the other unit's 30 frames per second). Machine creates MP4 file on SD card up to 32 gb (card not included) which can be viewed on any computer. Machine also offers USB cable and feed for transferring finished movies and Video out minijack at 480 dpi for input to other devices. There are adjustments for contrast, sharpness, and frame capture length and width positioning, and an ability to zoom in or out a bit. The latter helps in cases where the film recording may have strayed from the standard or if you have a reason for recording the periphery or showing some of the slot movement. Easy to navigate menus and a color display show you the film frames as they are being read.
TIME REQUIRED - To scan each frame, a 50 foot reel takes about 30 minutes. The resulting file size is about 200K.
QUALITY - The MP4 quality isn't the greatest, to be honest. Lots of grain shows up on the videos but that's partly because you are scanning a tiny piece of film in relatively high resolution. But the MP4 compression used is visually noisy and visually distracting with even modest blowups of the video. It would have been nice to include several user-selectable compression options The way to fix this is to import the MP4 file into an editing program with capabilities of cleaning up the video (not included and at an additional cost if you don't already own such software) or upload it to YouTube (Free). Uploading it puts it through a different compression which actually cleans up the artifacts and grain. You can even download it back to your computer after to archive the file. So while it would be nice to have it all in one step, it is easily turned into a better quality movie. I can;t state with certainty that the higher resolution is actually a lot better than the non-pro machine resolution because of the limitations of the original film. But the slower file speed (20 frames per second for the pro vs 30 frames per second for the non-pro) make a huge difference in viewing pleasure.
CHALLENGES - Poor quality film sprockets will put the machine to a standstill. It really should be babysat in the background throughout the recording process. My original unit stopped a lot for seemingly fine film. I returned it for warranty work. See support below.
SUPPORT - Five stars. I was having trouble with the feeding of films. One call to the very nice people at the manufacturer and they issued an RMA, fixed and returned the machine. They paid postage both ways. The machine I got back had a lot fewer feeding problems. Not flawless but honestly, few things are. It works well.
I give it FIVE STARS despite any weak areas. That's because it gives you a alternative capability at a price few other things ever will. Used with the right expectations, I recommend this without reservation.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE: After running over 400 films through the unit, I thought an update might help others.
OUTPUT QUALITY: Fair to good. This won't replace having your films done by a professional system, but don;t fret over that. The compression scheme used to compress the movies to a relatively small size introduces a lot of artifacts. There is no way to adjust it. They can be minimized a bit by blurring the original image through the focus setting but...that really is trading one weakness for another. Uploading the file to YouTube forces a second compression to it which, miraculously, smooths out a reat deal of the artifacting. There are also third party solutions for filters which work with popular video editing suites. The challenge is that applying them takes time, as does uploading to YouTube. But it does fix some of the most serious quality issues.
RELIABILITY: Depends somewhat on the quality of the film. Damaged sprockets through it a curve it can;t deal with well. Misaligned sprockets can occur when different films are spliced together onto larger reels (which in many cases was common). It means that you really need to watch the machine as it runs or different portions of your film will have misaligned film (the top showing at the bottom of the frame etc). Or you can view it after and then rescan parts of the film. Not fun from a time standpoint, but there's no way around it.
It was having all sorts of problems tracking correctly and I thought it was at the end of it's life. Then I put a new roll of film in months later and...it suddenly works again. Not that I should have complained after running 400 rolls of various size films through it. That would have cost me several thousand dollars to digitize professionally.
RESOLUTION: Given the large amount of artifacting, I'm not sure I would buy the pro version for the higher resolution. I would absolutely buy it because the resulting film play speed is closer to the original without editing and for the larger reel capacity.
SAMPLE SCANS: if you visit the channel Other People's Families on YouTube you can see some films I ran with different settings and the results.
I still offer this five stars.
Some observations after two months of using my Wolverine Pro.
It does a pretty decent job with film that's in good condition. If there are bad sprocket holes, thick splices, film warping due to age, etc, then you may experience problems.
Although it can accommodate larger reels than its predecessor, I don't recommend using large reels. A 50ft reel takes about 30min. A 400ft reel takes 2hrs. A larger reel takes a lot longer. Problems are more likely to arise with longer reels. Sometimes a large reel may unravel itself during scanning because there's hardly any friction on the source reel side and it spins quite freely.
If you can, inspect your reels first before scanning. Clean and repair them with new splices as needed. Slice-tape may help with areas of damaged sprocket holes.
Note that your warranty will expire after the 200 count is reached. That may be fine if you have a small collection. But you will run up the counter by experimenting with settings for each reel, or rerecording a reel if something went wrong, like a break. Some of my reels, I zoom to fill the 4:3 screen AND a 2nd time to get more of the film (with sprocket holes and all) to make a 16:9 version, this eats 2 counts towards your 200 limit. It all ads up quick.
Using it for professional work or modifying the unit in any way will also void your warranty.
It has higher resolution than its predecessor. 1440x1080p rather than 720p. The MP4s are now recorded in 20fps rather than 30fps. This is closer to 8mm (16fps) & Super8 (18fps) playback rates but still fast and you may want to adjust in your edit software using an interpret-playback-rate-as option when you import the videos. An option to set the meta-date in the MP4 for 16fps or 18fps would be nice, even if the hardware capture is actually done at 20fps.
Use a monitor (with overscan if possible, or full screen LCD) to get accurate framing, not the tiny Wolverine LCD screen. Test a few different sections of your film. Good framing early in the reel, might be off later. Maybe zoom in another step or two.
Exposure and Sharpness are usually best at the default settings.
Clean with compressed air after each reel processed, the little brush included doesn't do much. Wipe off the spindles from time to time too.
There's always room for improvement and you can see them doing that between the first Wolverine and the new Wolverine Pro. I'd like to see a little more robust handling of finicky film reels (improved feed/pull mechanism). Adjustable video compression settings and frame-rates would be nice. For the price, the Wolverine Pro is pretty good.
Great machine for copying old 8mm and Super 8 movies. It does much better than any other method I have used (including filming off the gate). I just have two complaints:
First, the scanner needs a pause! When feeding spliced and or damaged films, the scanner stops frequently. This is to be expected, however, each time you restart after a bad splice, etc. the film count advances. The problem is, the film counter is used to measure how much warranty you have left. The warranty is for one year OR 200 reels of film. I just finished doing about 15 rolls of very old film - but the counter is already in the 60's due to frequent stops. So my warranty is already one third used up after 15 reels!
The second complaint is - the warranty can be vastly different for different users. One person could run 200 7" reels (providing none of them stopped while recording, advancing the count prematurely) while another person might run 200 3" reels (again providing none of them stopped). The first person with the 7" reels has run 80,000 feet of film through the machine, while the person with 3" reels only ran 10,000 feet. Yet both have used up their warranty.
A counter that calculates feet would be a much more fair way of gauging how much warranty is left. That way it doesn't matter how many times you have to start and stop it on a single reel of film - it doesn't affect the warranty. Also - everyone gets the same amount of warranty no matter what size reels they are running. Other than counter advancing every time you stop the machine, this is a great device!
Feature Product
- A fully automated apparatus to digitize 8 and Super 8 movie Reels (no sound and no split 16mm). Frame-by-Frame digitizing for high-quality digital conversion.
- Stand-alone machine, no computer, no software or Drivers are required. Scans and directly saves digital movies into SD/SDHC cards (32GB max, not included)
- Converts 8 and Super 8 movies into 1080P mjpeg-4 (MP4) digital video files.
- Compatible with all windows, Mac and Linux operating systems.
- Playback direct to tv's using the included TV cable.
Description
Fully Automated Digitizer to Convert Old 8mm and Super 8 Movie Reels Into Digital Videos. Support up to 9" reels and 1080P Your old reel-to-reel 8mm and Super 8 films are degrading. Worse, the memories are fading and the film is becoming more brittle just sitting in the box. Convert your Film into digital now before the memories are lost forever! Introducing the Wolverine Reels2Digital Moviemaker-Pro. A very simple to use device that will convert your movie reels into digital movies (no sound) with few strokes. Works like a typical projector where you mount up to 9 inch reel, insert a memory card, press few buttons and the apparatus will pull the film and scan frame-by-frame to create a digital MP4 movie file that you can play on any computer, you can edit, upload to the internet or burn to DVD's. The Wolverine Reels2Digital Moviemaker-Pro pays for itself taking into consideration that photo Labs are charging more than a dollar to digitize a single foot of film!
Cleaning out attic and found family 8mm films for 3 generations. To send them in to be converted to video would have cost many times what the Wolverine MovieMaker Pro cost.
It is not speedy, but it doesn't have to be. (and actually, it allows you to do other things while it works) It processes 8mm or Super 8 at about 2 frames per second. I have processed over 200 reels without even a hick-up. I would only add a couple of things to their manual. 1-If you are going to do any post processing to adjust the speed or stabilize any flutter, you will want to "zoom out" and record they entire frame and even some pin feed hole. This will give you "wiggle room" when post processing. The stabilization to remove and jitters and flutter will usually end up "cropping" some of this away. In most cases I have not needed to do any additional cropping.
Super 8 takes a bit more to juggle as the supplied takeup reel is 8mm center hub so you have to move reel adapters with the Super 8 reel.
I have both the MovieMaker and the MovieMaker Pro and can say that they both do a splendid job with 50 foot reels (3") but if you have any 5" or 7" reels you will want the pro model. The standard model has a hard time with the larger reel. Also, only a 5" take-up reel comes with. If you have 7" reels you will need to get a 7" take-up.
This frame-by-frame film digitiser did a great job on my more than 1800 feet of Super8 movie reels (2 large reels with multiple small films spliced together and 13 small 50'- 3 minute reels). Many of the films were almost 40 years old.
I do recommend that you "tend" the process as I had a few of instances where a reel stopped feeding and the same frame was scanned repeatedly (opening/ closing the flap door corrected the feed) (post edited or rescanned those). Note that the scanning for my larger reels was over 41/2 hours each.
All films were scanned using default settings. Despite that some originals were shot indoors with fairly low light and were grainy and not the proper colour balance, the Wolverine's results were very acceptable!
Alot better than i thought it would be easy to use works well used it for 16 hrs.straight no problems excellent item
I purchased this to convert Super 8 videos that are nearly 50 years old. This works great. It took a few moments to get it set up properly. It chugs away one frame at a time. I only had issues when the original video had splicing tape and had to manually pull that part. I adjusted the exposure +5 and set the sharpness to high.
It may look very grainy if you just view the mp4 file on a computer or stream to a TV. However, once you import it into software like iMovie, it looks great, so don't be discouraged. It also looks great when uploaded to YouTube. If you do view it from the original file on a computer, just shrink the size of the window for the video and it will sharpen and become much less grainy and pixelated.
I am very happy with this product. Be careful with the little plastic inserts for the reels or else you will have to make sure the reel doesn't fall off the arm if you break or lose one.
I got this for Christmas and have spent every other weekend digitizing 8mm and Super 8mm movies from the 1940's through the 70's. I was super happy at first and then got a little dejected when I ran into some issues with the film having issues advancing properly. But I jumped on the troubleshooting website and after buying a can of compressed air and following the guidance for cleaning, it's working like a champ again! I'd definitely recommend this item!
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