Reflecta Super 8 - Normal 8 - Reviews

(4.4)

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13.6.2019

This little gadget has enabled me to view and digitise my complete Super 8 sound film collection (8 hours or 7200ft in total), which I had been hoarding for 40 years. However, in digitising the 7200ft I had to run most reels through the scanner at least twice to achieve an acceptable result (of which more below). My final frame count (as displayed on the Reflecta screen) was 990 000 frames, equating to 13 750ft – or almost twice the actual length of film to be scanned. I took delivery of the scanner in February 2019 and completed the scanning campaign over a period of three monthsProblems encountered included framing shift (between consecutive reels); fluttering (jittering); and focus shift,in order of increasing severity. The first was infrequent and easily corrected in the scanner’s menu, although the problem was unfortunately not always detectable before the affected reel of film had already gone through the scanner. Fluttering was only occasionally encountered and usually limited to just one run of the affected reel, the next run usually producing an acceptable result: it cannot be detected by watching the built-in monitor during the scan as it is generated in the digitisation process. I can’t comment on the scanner’s rewind performance as I used my film editor for that function.The focus issue was a real problem: it manifested itself as a slight but noticeable and very annoying repetitive and rapid flaring in and out of the image, which simultaneously moved in and out of focus – and it occurred in nearly every run to at least some extent despite conscientious winding, cleaning and rewinding of the film prior to scanning. Eventually I hit on a solution (unfortunately not before I had already scanned nearly all my film). I did away with the supply reel altogether and pulled off the complete length of film from the reel over the edge of my desk and into a supply box, leading the film over the post on the supply side of the scanner. The take-up side remained as designed. Result: near flawless scans every time. So I put nearly all my reels through a second scan, this time with the new setup. Of course, this arrangement meant that I had to continuously monitor the film as it entered the scanner so as to avoid kinks and tangles, but as I’m retired (which status I recommend as a prerequisite to embarking on any serious scanning campaign) this wasn’t too onerous – and fortunately (or unfortunately – see below) most of my films are on 50ft reels. The longer reels I cut to 100ft lengths or around one hour of scanning each, which I found to be quite long enough for one session.It turns out that the secret to preventing the focus problem occurring is to keep the two inch length of film between the supply-side deflection post and the camera window as straight as possible: this can be difficult to achieve given the standard setup, particularly with the relatively tight film loop imparted by the inner turns on a 50ft reel that have been wound on the latter for 40 years. Because there is no control over the supply reel it tends to rotate in a random fashion as the film is pulled along, alternately holding back the film and then pushing it forward into the camera gate, the “push” stroke all too often causing the film to lift almost imperceptibly in the gate but sufficiently to throw the image in and out of focus.Despite the focus issue described above I am impressed by the Reflecta scanner. It is generally well thought out, obviously well-built and unexpectedly durable (as of today I have put more than a million frames through it and it’s ready for more). I am very happy with the quality of the results eventually obtained once I cracked the focus problem – especially since without this scanner I probably never would have got around to rediscovering all those long-forgotten memories otherwise permanently consigned to a dark cupboard. Nevertheless, in my opinion the focus problem does constitute a design flaw that the manufacturer could easily and cost-effectively have avoided by imposing some sort of braking mechanism on the supply reel stub shaft in order to maintain a constant light tension on the film as it enters the camera gate.

10.8.2017

I've been waiting so long for an affordable cine film scanner to become available, and now it's here!The quality of this unit is great. I've scanned over a thousand feet of super 8 film so far and all's well. I noticed early on that a couple of my films suffered from a jittering/jumping issue, but a second scan through fixed this. I have since spooled all my films back and forth a couple of times using my old cine film editor to 'loosen' the film a little, which seems to have solved it. The unit itself is solid, has vents on the back and barely gets warm during use.It takes approx. 30 minutes to scan a 50ft (3min) reel of film, scanning at 2 frames a second.It saves the resulting mp4 file to an SD card inserted into the unit which you can instantly play back, either through the small lcd screen or to a tv/monitor connected to the back of the unit.You can scan super 8 and normal 8mm film. Films are saved in mp4 format at a resolution of 1440x1080 at 30 frames per second. It's not quite 1080p but it's much better than some other similar units that only produce 960x720 resolution files. This is one of the main reasons I chose the Reflecta over one of the other brands.You can adjust the exposure amount. I found the default '0' to be way too high and completely washed out bright areas of the image. '-1.5' seems to work best for me. You can also adjust the frame area (left, right, up, down, zoom in, out) which is fantastic meaning you can scan the entire film frame, even the sprocket holes if you wish!The unit will only scan reels up to 200ft in size, so if you have any 400ft reels (like I do) you'll need to splice the film onto smaller reels. This is the only real downside to the unit and it's a pity they didn't add fold out spool arms.The box claims you don't need a computer to scan and watch your films, which is true to a point but you will need a computer if you want to watch them at the correct speed. 30fps is way too fast for cine films as most home made super 8 film is shot at 18fps. Not only will you need to adjust the film speed, but other settings will need tweaking such as brightness, contrast, exposure etc, to get it just right. I've only done a little editing so far as I'm still in the process of scanning but even at this early stage the results are stunning!If you have a stack of old cine films and don't want to pay out thousands to have them scanned I highly recommend this unit. It will take time and patience to get them all done, and you will need video editing software if you want them to look just right, but the resulting quality is fantastic. I can see detail in my films that I never noticed watching on a projector and being able to see the whole frame is a big plus as projectors crop the image considerably. 5 stars!

15.1.2020

Reflecta Film Scanner arrived much earlier than advertised which was great.Some feedback on the product:Pros- Works as described. Quite an efficient little scanner.- Scans are of acceptable quality. After pushing the digital footage through Adobe Premier Pro CC I managed to clean-up the dust and bring back the faded colour of my old cine film.Cons- You need to watch the film being scanned. The reason is that if you have joining/splicing tape on the film it can cause the scanner to jam and stop scanning. The way around this is to wind forward the cine film so the lead-in tape (white/coloured) is beyond the scanning plate.- The scanner wheels that the cine film wraps around are plastic that don't rotate.

24.1.2018

Surprisingly quieter in use than I expected. I have so far digitised 3 standard 8 films and the result has been good. I have not yet found the perfect setting for brightness. My first film was well exposed and I found 1.5 to produce a good result. My other two films were slightly less well exposed and 1.5 was a little too dark. I suppose there is no one setting that is perfect although 0 and 1.5 should be appropriate for most reasonably well exposed movies. The menu is very easy to access and should you need to adjust your settings for each movie you digitise then this can be done easily. Obviously the digitised copies are not as good as telecine produced ones, but for the price the results are surprisingly good.

30.10.2019

I'm copying my Dad's old cine films from 1961 onwards so we can watch them whenever we want. It takes a while to do 200ft but its well worth it. I'm using a video editing program on my laptop to add music and the results are very clear and look as good as when he first filmed them. Sadly he isn't here to see them but I know he would love it. It is bringing back lots of happy memories for my Mum, my brother and I, and for my cousins who are all on the films.The only negative comment is that it only holds 200ft reels and Dad joined all the films together for each each so they are around 800ft which means I have to cut the joins. It's a shame it doesn't take bigger reels.

16.11.2019

I bought this product after having spent a lot of money having a commercial company digitise some 8mm films and getting terrible quality. I figured this couldn't be worse. So far it has chugged sweetly through 20 or so rolls of film and produced good MP4 files. I'm not in a position to judge the quality of the digitising against other methods, but I find it perfectly acceptable for old family films. It is slow, but I just have it working while I'm doing something else in the room. There are a few little niggles, like the rewinding being a bit tricky, but once you've got the hang of it, it's fine. Overall, so far I'm happy.

28.2.2020

Whilst fairly easy to use I was initially disappointed with the output. My opinion was changed when a friend who has digitised film on much more expensive equipment pointed out that the issue was more likely the quality of the original camera, processing and storage over last 50 years. He was impressed and wanted to run some of his film through. Expectations lowered slightly I continued and family members have been thrilled at the subsequent MP4 files arriving in their emails. Second disappointment was the fiddly process of rewinding by taking reels off and swapping, just a shame there wasn't a rewind button.

6.1.2020

This only scans about two frames a second. It does not do any sound tracks - you could record separately and match using a NLE. There are jitter issues not too severe. The scans are very sharp, I was impressed with the detail revealed. The auto expose works well with correctly exposed film, it tends to over expose dark scenes, there is some stop up/down setting to minimise this. I would of liked to see some options regarding scan quality.Overall, for the price this is an excellent film scanner.

8.1.2018

Very impressed, so far have scanned about 1000 ft of Std & Super 8 film, the results are good considering the oldest film is 55 years old and therefore faded. It stalled on a couple of very old splices, so I needed to be on hand, but again considering the condition of the film I can forgive it.At 2 frames per sec it is a slow job, so I leave it chattering away in the office while doing other things. The MP4 files do need to be put through an editor to slow down the play back speed.

17.3.2018

As per another review - it works well but a pity it did not take larger reels and you have to cut down larger reels. You also have to keep a check on the frame size. BUT there is no alternative to this somewhat slow and laborious frame-by-frame scanning if you want to optimize image quality from old films.

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