Moviestuff RETRO'8 PRO 8mm/super8 Awesome Transfer Machine

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Timmovie
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Real name: Tim
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Moviestuff RETRO'8 PRO 8mm/super8 Awesome Transfer Machine

Post by Timmovie »

I must say, after years of research and waiting, and the wonderful advancements of computer and LED light, I am extremely happy with this machine. The RETRO'8 PRO. (moviestuff.tv) It transfers 8mm and Super8 movies to digital output by photographing every single frame into a jpg, tiff, bmp, png image of your choice.
Each frame photo is them reunited into a movie. The highest scan being 720 in size which can be made smaller or larger (HD).
It is brilliantly fast compared to all other layman priced machines.

But I am finding, :) these hand built machines (only made after ordering), come with one of the most rare benefits there is in the consumer market : That is, you have complete quick access to the Owner/Designer himself, Roger, who responds very quickly by email or by calling the customer. He knows his stuff. And does not hit and run, but gives excellent answers and detailed explanations of any question asked. He knows every part and every screw. He has been around the block for years and is patient and understands every angle of question... and.. is open to suggestions... and.. modifies to match any good idea.
My tests have been wonderful.

If you are a video software user, ie PremiereCC, you can take all the images and make your own movie.
This is the basics:
1. You scan the film and the software makes its own type of file including all information.
2. You choose how you want to save it : a movie, and/or, image folder .. as well as size that you want them. 720 is maximum scanning so HD size will only boost that is size but not in information. It pulls all this from the file in #1.
3. You do it again. :)

The learning curve is not complicated.. maybe a few hours.. And once it is learned, things can happen quickly to start scanning and archiving.

No surprises on the system. Roger sales the choice of scanner. The software is purchased through a link and is downloadable, with a 'serial number key' that comes after purchase. The software currently is under 190.00. So add that to your budget when choosing a machine.

Other than that, if your computer is at least 2.5ghz, Intel i7, and recommended 8gb of RAM, You are set to go.
If you have a powerful pc with RAID for example.. you can save images in the uncompressed BMP format and then use your own software to make postproduction movie.

Roger explained that the JPG is at its highest level, no compression added, and works wonderfully in postproduction or with the purchased Retro software.
He also said to turn off the Auto-Exposure and play with the manual some. It has wonderful setting choices that tell the exposure to only alter where you want it to. For example, only boost dark, but not bright parts of the film. And the Enhance button gives their choice of auto settings for the whole software. READ all instructions and tutorials on the website. Roger explains most everything there.
Remember, these old films look 'grainy' compared to what we are all used to with the new digital cameras. Some people like to keep it that way. Others like to put it in their own software and add 'take away grain' addons that softens everything, then they boost the sharpening. Great results either way.

I can now take old 8mm/Super8 films, scan them, and use them inside other Film work I might be doing.

Great machine. Great Service from the owner himself, Roger.
Five stars on this one.
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MovieStuff
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Real name: Roger Evans
Location: Kerrville, Texas
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Re: Moviestuff RETRO'8 PRO 8mm/super8 Awesome Transfer Machi

Post by MovieStuff »

Wow, Tim. Thanks for the kind words. I am really glad you are enjoying your unit. To clarify the JPEGs used for capture in the compressed mode, obviously JPEG by its very nature is compressed. We capture at about the 80% quality to keep the files small for faster writing speed to the drive during capture. Any level above that really does nothing to increase visual quality but does increase the size of the file exponentially. Readers can try this in Photoshop and see what I mean. But when files are then exported from this 80% JPEG image sequence as more JPEGs for use in NLE systems, we do export at the 100% quality just for the sake of minimizing any additional compression to a point of being irrelevant. Of course, uncompressed options for export are PNG, BMP and TIF. Most people these days are exporting PNG for uncompressed since it is generally about half the size of a BMP with the same quality.
cloclosurfilm2014
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Real name: Claude Boily
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Re: Moviestuff RETRO'8 PRO 8mm/super8 Awesome Transfer Machi

Post by cloclosurfilm2014 »

I do agree with TIMMOVIE the retro-8 pro machine is great I bought one last December 2014 and it did a very good job, thanks M Roger for your work on this unit, and I do not hesitate to tell about it
to the people I meet and I always recommand it
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