Retro-8 Film Scanner Review

[Colin Anderton]

Roger, I'm 100% sympathetic to your position, but all I ask is that I'm kept informed of how my order is progressing.
It was suggested recently that my order may be about to ship, but since then I've heard nothing.
I'm sure you're doing the best you possibly can, and I'm prepared to wait as long as it takes - I just need a date I can realistically expect delivery.

I think most here would agree that they'd rather be told it will actually be another three months, rather than having dates that keep slipping into the future.

But like others here, I greatly admire what you do, and I wouldn't want the points I've raised to come across too negatively. In general, you're doing a grand job!

Colin.

[Colin Anderton]

Hi. I received my Retro-8 machine on Christmas Eve, took a break for a couple of days along with most other people, and got the machine set up and running yesterday. First impression is simply: WOW!

I'm gonna take the next month or so to learn how to use it properly (enjoying in the process seeing some old family movies that haven't been seen for nearly forty years), but I think I can already say to anyone thinking about getting one - GO FOR IT!

Roger, you have produced a marvellous piece of kit. And sorry again for any earlier negative comments. It was worth the wait.

If this should produce some opportunities for business (as I'm hoping), you will certainly be hearing from me again.
Next up will be an order for a second Retro-8.

Thanks again.
Colin.

[MovieStuff]

Roger, you have produced a marvellous piece of kit. And sorry again for any earlier negative comments. It was worth the wait.

I'm glad you're enjoying it and no need to apologize. Due to the economy, sales in 2012 were so dismal that we were really caught off guard with the demand for the Retro-8 at the beginning of the year. After a decade of building one unit at a time based on existing projectors, gearing up for mass production on a scratch built unit came with a bit a learning curve. We've received over 250 orders so far and we are pretty close to getting caught up. We're using the holidays to revamp our production line for greater efficiency and better QC now that we're out of crisis mode. We start shipping the Retro-16 and Retro-9.5 in January, so that's very exciting for us. I'm in the process of overhauling the website, too. All our previous line has been discontinued. In fact, we just shipped the very last WorkPrinter from our shop this month. I have to say, after hand building more than 8000 units, it feels weird not making them any more. The WorkPrinter is where it all started. Anyway, hope 2014 is good for you and yours and post some Retro-8 samples!

Roger

[Will2]

We start shipping the Retro-16 and Retro-9.5 in January, so that's very exciting for us.

Excited for the Retro-16. Hoping this will have the ability to take larger reels and maybe some sort of core adapter? Everything I have is on cores. I think I have a split reel somewhere though...

Any chance for a 2k camera? I'd love to be able to re-capture my 16mm negative and reversal stocks in full 2k even if it takes a while...

[MovieStuff]

We start shipping the Retro-16 and Retro-9.5 in January, so that's very exciting for us.

Excited for the Retro-16. Hoping this will have the ability to take larger reels and maybe some sort of core adapter? Everything I have is on cores. I think I have a split reel somewhere though...

The Retro-16 units have a 1600 foot reel capacity but, in reality, a 1600 foot reel can easily hold 1800 feet. You can put split reels on it with no problem.

Any chance for a 2k camera? I'd love to be able to re-capture my 16mm negative and reversal stocks in full 2k even if it takes a while...

Probably no 2K in the near future unless we just made a totally different unit.

Roger

[Tscan]

Will the Retro16 crop for Super16 as well?

[MovieStuff]

Will the Retro16 crop for Super16 as well?

Yep. If fact, if you go download the latest version of the software, you will see 16 and S16 in the drop down menu.

Roger

[Nicholas Kovats]

Roger,

Would be prohibitive to implement both UltraPan8 2.8/3.1 crops in your software?

[MovieStuff]

Roger,

Would be prohibitive to implement both UltraPan8 2.8/3.1 crops in your software?

At this point it would not work.

Roger

[cinecymru]

Received my Retro 8 and scanning well - captured results from Regular 8 looking great when played back on the Retroscan software.
I'm running thru Windows 7 64 bit on imac with bootcamp.
Problem is that I can't successfully export the captured files. Just end up with empty folders! Am exporting as movie (jpeg only option selected in drop down menu) and want to find .mov files.
If anyone can offer advice?

[MovieStuff]

Received my Retro 8 and scanning well - captured results from Regular 8 looking great when played back on the Retroscan software.
I'm running thru Windows 7 64 bit on imac with bootcamp.
Problem is that I can't successfully export the captured files. Just end up with empty folders! Am exporting as movie (jpeg only option selected in drop down menu) and want to find .mov files.
If anyone can offer advice?

Hi!

Make sure that you have the latest version of QuickTime on your Windows system. You don't need Quicktime-Pro, just the free version. If you're still having issues exporting .MOV files, please contact me off list or call and I'll help you sort out the problem.

EDIT: had a thought. If you're on a Mac, then it is likely you don't have drives formatted NTFS. So you'd be able to export JPEG sequences with no problem but .MOV files would be too big and that would cause the problem you're having. Try exporting .MOV files to an external hard drive that's formatted NTFS.


Roger

[Colin Anderton]

I'm having the time of my life with my new Retro-8. If anyone thinks they are having a problem, you might learn from my experience....

Two days ago, I made a slight adjustment, thinking the machine needed a little realignment. I turned the screw a bit one way, then a bit the other way. But somewhere during the process, the captures stopped. I tried everything (or thought I had).

Yesterday, I ended up wiping my computer, and reloading everything. Result - same problem. I could see the image when I calibrated in the "Setup" mode, but it just wouldn't capture.

A few minutes ago, in desperation, I ran a film through it, and turned the alignment screw a little further than normal; I found to my surprise that it captured a few frames.

I had been trying to align the RIGHT side of the sprocket hole to the red line in the Setup window. This had put the machine way out of alignment! No wonder it couldn't capture anything!

At least I can console myself in the knowledge that I certainly won't be making the same mistake again.

Simple advice - but if you experience any problems, GO BACK AND READ THE INSTRUCTIONS RIGHT THROUGH AGAIN!
It would certainly have saved me two days of hassle.

Colin.

[MovieStuff]

I'm having the time of my life with my new Retro-8.....

Awesome! It's always nice to hear that kind of feedback.

Simple advice - but if you experience any problems, GO BACK AND READ THE INSTRUCTIONS RIGHT THROUGH AGAIN!
It would certainly have saved me two days of hassle.

Yeah, at least you read the instructions. What's funny is that when we send out the email with the tracking number, we make it clear there is a link for the instructions online and we provide that link, the software, the registration key, etc. Then we get an angry email from some customers complaining that we didn't send any instructions. Of course, the very email that they hit "reply" to still has the instructions link clearly visible so it's always kind of funny in a frustrating way. But the best part is, later, when they're having problems and they call and it becomes perfectly clear they never bothered to read the instructions they bitched about not initially having. Oh the joys of owning one's own business..... :roll:

PS: Sorry I didn't get back to you. Half my staff is out with the flu, including me, and it is getting harder and harder to respond, energy wise. There is some kind of really mean flu bug going around our area and a janitor that works at my daughter's school died from it just over the weekend.

[Colin Anderton]

Sorry to hear about the flu bug in your area, Roger - hope you're on the mend now. I managed - for the first time ever - to get through the entire year of 2013 without so much as a single cold! I still can't believe it! (Should I be superstitious about posting that comment???)

Am I right in thinking that - in general - the exposure knob on the Retro-8 should be set down near its lowest point? That's where I'm getting the best results so far.

I do have one film I shot in 1976 on an extremely dull day, so I'm gonna try scanning that twice, including a higher exposure.
(It was hilarious at the time; an uncle from Canada was making a once-in-a-lifetime visit, and we'd had a long hot summer, water shortages etc. It was a really extreme summer for us here in Britain - but the drought broke on the day we went to the coast for the day! At one point we couldn't see through the windscreen for the rain. My Aunt and I looked at each other, and just fell apart laughing!)

Later today I'm going to feed the images out through a TV monitor, and I'll post here what the pictures look like.

Again I have to say I'm absolutely delighted with the results so far.

Colin.

[MovieStuff]

Am I right in thinking that - in general - the exposure knob on the Retro-8 should be set down near its lowest point? That's where I'm getting the best results so far.

Not necessarily the lowest point. You just want to set the exposure to protect the highlights. Turn down the knob until you can see the grain in the highlights and then use the gamma/brightness control to bring up detail in the darker areas, if necessary. This will let you retain both shadow and highlight detail for most of the scenes in question. Some scenes will come out flatter but that is preferable because you can then adjust as desired in post on your NLE.

Again I have to say I'm absolutely delighted with the results so far.

We just put up the latest version of the software which now allows for totally uncompressed captures. The files are bigger by a factor of 10x but the results are terrific. If you export as PNG, BMP or TIF then you can stay uncompressed the whole way. Even if your NLE doesn't handle uncompressed, making your video file on your timeline from an uncompressed image sequence looks awesome. The only artifacts you will get are what your NLE produces.

Roger