No doubt you are serious about Frame By Frame Film transfer technology and techniques. you will have done some research and quite a bit of reading.
Much of what you will have read about frame by frame film transfer can be categorised as the whole truth, semi-fiction, fiction, and in some cases outright marketing hype - nonsense or lies.
We thought we would clarify a few issues especially if you are comparing service providers and price, since price is not an indication of what you actually get, and of course we wanted to dispel a few myths about frame by frame scanning and the various techniques involved which depend heavily on equipment and operator ability plus experience as well as captial investment along with appropriate hardware.
You might be interested to learn that there are several types of so called frame by frame film capture equipment levels and what may seem really good on the surface may actually not be what it seems at all, I think you might call it the smokes and mirrors marketing hype with some provider web sites.
I will start with explaining what type of equipment is available and can be used plus how it works and the possible implications which may rightly affect your decision about who actually does your film transfer for you and your family.
But, just before we begin, let's get one thing straight right up front.
A service provider who criticises or knocks other service providers without facts or substance deserves a high level of condemnation especially those that do not disclose the equipment or method that they use themselves ( I hate hypocrites too).
An excuse often used by some providers who refuse to reveal their equipment and technology claim to do so for commercial interest reasons and they will tell you they don't want their competitors knowing what they are doing which is pretty much the same as treating you the same because they don't want you to know what they are doing or using either.
Frame by Frame Equipment
Comes in several levels of equipment sophistication and investment required reflects the resultant method variation that includes a re shoot semi projected
type of gear known as the Work Printer XP ( we started our with one a long while back) and these are fine units for the cost, but the downside is a separate video camera needs to be used as the image is reflected onto a mirror and then via a convex lens out into the view of the camera which in reality is a re shoot method.
The video camera needs to be positioned precisely and consistency is near impossible without a jig or stable platform camera mount. The camera also needs a 12x zoom for framing to be close and this is the major downside, also the quality of the camera has a big bearing on the final outcome. There are some issues with extraneous light or reflections being visible in the transfer even when used in a darkened room. Our experience suggested this method was not suitable and left a lot to be desired.
Non Frame by Frame transfer methods claiming to be Frame by Frame
There are now several flavours of modified projectors or highly modified projection
machines made in the USA and Australia that produce nice enough transfers so long as you don't pay a lot of money since they are still only projector based transfers and have no ability to discriminate between frames and also rely on the mirror and convex lens and separate video camera, these machines can only transfer at 16.6 fps otherwise flicker and strobe effect will be evident so don't be misled even if you see that a 3 CCD camera is used this method is a re shoot and can not cope with original exposure speed variations and any speed change is only possible in editing, these methods sound attractive and are usually quite cheap but again all sorts of factors and down right luck are involved with operator ability and experience. We are aware of claims that some are making that this is as good as frame by frame stop motion capture. Trust me it is not even close.
"True Frame by Frame" Telecine Equipment
The last item is the ultimate in frame by frame super 8 and 8mm film scanning telecine known as the DV8Sniper and DV8Sniper Pro.
The DV8 transfer has been compared with a RANK Turbo wet gate transfer in a PC News magazine article comparing a similar transfer of the 2 systems in the USA and the differences are almost indiscernible with the exception of the wet gate system can fill minor scratch marks.
The cost difference of the two transfers is worthy of note, the RANK system is used for commercial 35mm movie transfers by the major Hollywood production companies and professional film production houses.
Transfers using the DV8Sniper series is affordable and provides the best quality
image transfer from super 8 and 8mm home movie films at an affordable cost.
True Frame by Frame captures one frame of film at a time and is independant of the exposed spped of the original film, compiled images can be set to play back at any frame rate from 7 fps through to 24 fps (frames per second).
