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Step by Step, Do It Yourself, Super 8 Telecine Super 8 film has a recognised beauty and quality all of its own. Now over 40 years old, this small gauge film has an almost cult following with film makers and artists alike. With today's digital video technology continually evolving, the combination of Super 8's celluloid images and the flexibility of non-linear digital editing truly provides the low/no budget filmmaker with the best of both worlds (see onSuper8.org for more on modern Super 8 filmmaking). But how do you get those film images into a digital form for editing, how can you undertake DIY Super 8 telecine? |
A Super 8 film and spool |
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Without question, professional telecine shows Super 8 off to its absolute
best, but can be a pricey option for the majority of amateur filmmakers. Other film chain
and film scanning options are available, but any commercial solution is
reliant on others to undertake the work, at a variety of costs and to
their particular timescales. What would be ideal is a high quality, reliable, home solution of good enough quality for most amateur or semi-professional applications. Utilising available technical information from a variety of internet resources (see links for further details) and some simple engineering, we set about creating a do it yourself telecine set-up to meet the following criteria: - must be cheap and reliable to use - to utilise easily available components - can be simply replicated by others |
A Super 8 still frame |
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The solution adopted uses a modified variable-speed Super 8 projector
to create an aerial image which is focused
using a plano-convex condenser
lens (sometimes called a field lens) in order for it to be automatically captured (single frame by
single frame) by a digital video camera. These single frames are assembled
into a standard .dv (or .avi) movie file and written to a computer hard
drive for editing in any commercial editing package. For those technically challenged or not confident to undertake this project, may we point you to the excellent MovieStuff site, where a wide variety of Super 8 telecine equipment can be purchased ready-made to satisfy commercial through to amateur needs. In addition, Tobin Cinema Systems produce standalone telecine units which have an in built video pick up device to be used independent of a computer system. We have deliberately used readily available components which can be easily be assembled with some patience, basic tools and (avoiding the pun) a little vision. Instructions are broken down into the component parts of the system: - the projector - the optical system - the control system and software - and, the system set-up Over the following pages you will learn to to set up your own Super 8 telecine system for no more than the cost of a projector and a few components. Disclaimer: It should be noted that the information contained in these pages is merely a suggestion as to how a system could be constructed, it is not definitive and some degree of experimentation will be required to construct a fully functioning system. |
The Eumig 610D projector |
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