Wolverine Movie Maker Pro 8mm to Digital Unboxing and Review - Transfer old 8mm movies to mpeg4 format. 1080 Version (Overkill): amzn.to/2Q36yjC 720 Version: amzn.to/2S2n3K4
Damn, Javi, this was great. I was on the fence but think you have pushed me off to the BUY side. Many thanks. Great presentation. FYI -- In 1972, I was 27.
I would call it a fun toy, but I've gotten so many memories digitaized at a high quality out of this for my family and friends that I have to call it a useful tool. I once sent these same reels to an archival company. Worse transfer ever! I think they were using a projector on a screen and a video camera. The light levels were all over the place. I'm so happy I bought this.
I have the 720 version, I got as a Christmas gift. I love it been converting both Reg. 8 and Super 8. I had a few on 7 inch reels, that I had to use a movie viewer to break them down to two 5 inch reels. To date I have converted about 80 movies in various size reels, 3 in.,5 in., and splitting into two reels a few 7 in. Reels. Does a good job. I plan on editing the FPS down to normal speed. One format runs at 16.67 FPS and the other runs at 18 FPS. It is well worth saving these movies so others can enjoy. Eventually the converted movies will be placed on DVD’s for other family members to enjoy.
Yup JB, I'm doing the same thing over here. Transferred all my old movies and gave a copy to my parents. Now I'm doing the favor for my friends as well. It's a great little tool. I only wish they invented a robot to edit all my current digital media!
I have the 720p version, works great...One note.. Back in 72' shorts in a wedding , let alone a church...wow.. , anyway nice video. save them memories..
Yup. I particularly like the ones that don't have a sprocket and automatically light balance and restore the film based on other frames, but I don't have an extra 100,000 to blow on one of those.
So after 2 years are you still happy with this purchase? What points can you give to someone like me looking to pull the trigger? I am a collector of 16 and 8 mil gilms from Ebay and had my 16 done professionally with the expensive slotless projector in hd and am really pleased. But with all my 8 mil I do realize the quality diff and surely do not need any done in hi def. Would you still get the 720? And any issues with the takeup motor? Would you also purchase a cheap way to rewind the reels by hand? Thanks for this vid and look forward to your comments.
To be completely honest, it’s been sitting for the past year and a half in a box with a few exceptions. After I’ve transferred all my videos, I don’t have much use for it except that every now and then A run across a family member or close friend who needs some videos transferred. I’m very happy with the quality, so if you have a bunch of 8 mm films (in good condition) that you wish to transfer, I think the 720 is a goodbye, and the 1080 is overkill, but I have no on hand experience with the 720 so I can’t truly speak to its quality. I will say one thing: there have been a few instances, where a family member brought me a film that was, how shall I say, slightly warped do to heat exposure (in an attic or something like that). In those instances, I had quite a number of skips and jams in the machine and was forced to spend as much time editing the film as scanning. But if the film is in good condition, it’s a sweet one shot transfer.
In regards to rewinding, I’m pretty patient and not in a hurry, so in retrospect, taking half an hour for a 50 foot reel to scan and then waiting three minutes for it to rewind it’s not a big deal. But yes, if there was an inexpensive apparatus to quickly rewind the film, I suppose it would be worth it since you must remove the reels to rewind them on the machine anyways.
Looks pretty easy to use! Nice review, thanks. Mine should be here tomorrow. I have 12 reels, each 7" diameter from the late 50's going into the 70's. My grandpa (who died last year) converted them all to VHS 20 years ago, but the conversion quality was absolutely horrible since he just set up the projector and recorded it with a camcorder. My grandma and I sat down to watch some of them the other night, and were so disappointed in the lighting issues and lack of detail. I'm hoping to get these re-transferred in high quality with the Wolverine for my family before they get too brittle to work with. Then I'll use VirtualDub to tweak the color/contrast/brightness. My grandpa's VHS transfers have the benefit of him narrating the footage though. I'm going to see if I can overdub his talking from the tapes onto these digital transfers, but I imagine it's going to be very hard to sync up because he was frequently adjusting the playback speed of the projector to make it look better on the camcorder.
Should be pretty simple (albeit time consuming) to edit and add audio to the digital movie. I think you'll definitely like the outcome. I did the same thing a few years back (transferring them to VHS) using a screen and a camera. The lighting was always changing and never quite right. I was very happy with the outcome of the machine.
Yeah, the quality of that video you showed was really good. You can see all of the details. Much better than any camera transfer. It's not quite as good as a professional transfer, but man it's definitely good enough and I'm not spending thousands on this so the Wolverine will work fine lol. I think I can handle the audio by slightly time stretching the narration with Cool Edit Pro in chunks of a few minutes each and make sure it all syncs up. Will take ages, but at least it's only a one-time process!
Nicely done! I would prefer to take the SD card out and use a card reader. Is there any reason to record from the machine thru their cord to the computer? Thanks again.
I’m not sure about any other options on different models, but with this model, it records direct to internal sd card reader only. No communication cable off any sort. Only way to get info in and out of an SD card. (Unless you to a ribbon cable somehow to act as an sd card and connect it to another device. But frankly, 2 32G SD cards are cheap and at 2 FPS, it’ll take you a long time to fill one. Also, as you change a reel, you can swap out the cards, work on one, edit, erase it, and still have time for a sandwich before the next reel is done. Fun stuff.
Just bought this and am having issues with the digital move jumping up and down continuously on playback. Did you have any issues like this? I‘ve tried changing X and Y values but to no avail.
I’m not exactly sure what you mean, but if there are saying that the playback jumps up and down: that has happened to me when I have a wrinkled or bad quality film. If I have bad spices, or the film is warped or REALLY worn, it will skip. 3 options at that point. 1. Place a thin cardboard behind the film and behind the sprocket (the thing that pulls the film through until it stops jamming out skipping. 2. Do the best you can and cut out out adjust the video with a digital movie editor. Or 3. Use a very expensive service that uses a machine that sees the frames digitally rather than mechanically and feeds the film at a constant speed. This product is fantastic for film in fair to good condition, but you really need to keep an eye on it for bad, old, or film that has multiple splices. I hope this helps.
I stuck with the factory settings. Lately, what I've been doing is, not using the machine to crop the frame. Rather, I scan the entire area with overlap and all. Later, a simple crop in iMovie or MovieMaker and I get exactly the size and contents I want. As far as the image quality, just make sure you blow any dust or dirt off te white diffuser. Keep it clean and you get the best image. (I had a hair on mine for one reel and had to rescan the reel as the hair showed up in every frame. Too funny.
Javi's Wood Shop I’ve had to use a few workarounds. The motor on the take up spool isn’t strong enough, so I have to bypass a couple of guideposts. For most of my film i set exposure to -1, and the least amount of sharpening, which is giving fairly good results. The only thing I’m finding challenging is stabilizing the film gate weave. Unfortunately on one reel of super 8 when it was shot in Camera it got the jitters about 45 years ago, so that’s going to take some work in After Effects to smooth out, although there is a tool I could use but it’s $300 for the year.
Great review. Thank you! Have you compared the conversion quality of the Wolverine Pro to that of a professional vendor/service? Curious what, if any differences there may be.
After over 100 reels scanned/transferred, I can honestly say this machine is well worth the money. I've gotten more than my money's worth out of it. And it still going strong. I've used transfer houses in the past and they've produced mixed results. Many so-called transfer houses use an old fashion film projector and a screen with a video camera. Horrible quality and light fluctuates drastically. You would have to pay major bucks for a true professionally digitized and remastered copy. This is (ALMOST) the best bang for your buck. My family is ecstatic over the quality of the videos. I say "ALMOST" because a buddy of mine purchased the 720P version. The output quality is very similar as most of these old films are grainier than 720 P. Had I to do over again, I would probably purchase the 720 version. But I'm glad I have this one regardless. There are some that use this same equipment, many that outsource to individuals with this equipment, and similarly, there are many professional services that have the $100,000 professional scanners. Frankly, the quality is in the original film for the most part. The only exception, is if you pay the BIG BUCKS to have your film professionally remastered. Someone will take specialized software and edit the colors frame by frame for a fee. In my honest opinion, if you have the money, go for the remastering, if not, this is the best option.(Unless you only have a couple reels, then it's not worth it.)
@@JaviUnboxed I have 50 reels stemming back from 1960, negatives & color. I am going to use post software by myself if I can manage. So many reviews i've viewe have various oppiniens & experiences, so i know its a gamble if the machine messes up. Some companies take 7 Euros a minute with the normal rate is 5, so this price i think its worth it. I hope everything works out. Precious footage you see. Thanks for the comment.
If you are using it for the long haul, then yes. The section that holds down the film wears a bit after a few thousand feet. I've had to use paper strips to make sure the film was reaching the sprockets after that. A warranty would have been good.
The blue in the shadow areas in the transfer: Is that just in the original film or is the Wolverine set to auto exposure and it's brightening up dark scenes? If so, does the Wolverine have manual exposure? I've got dark scenes in my films that I want to stay dark.
That was the original film. If you visually scan the film frame by frame, you will see lighter and darker blue patches and lighter and darker frames. The machine does a fantastic job of scanning the frames, but it does no digital video processing.If you visually scan the film frame by frame, you will see lighter and darker blue patches and lighter and darker frames. The machine does a fantastic job of scanning the frames, but it does no digital video processing. You would need some fancy additional software for that.
I've been thinking of doing this for some time now and your review was very informative. I have some 8mm film ( some of it quit old 50's or maybe even older) that has been in a flood. With no prior experience in doing this would you advise trying to use this machine to digitize it?
WTFFlipSide101 This Hass to be the easiest machine to operate ever. You pop an SD card in the back, formatted using the menu, put in the film, and press record.
WTFFlipSide101 And the number of minutes later, depending on the size of the film, you’ve got one or more MP4 files in your SD card ready to transfer to a computer. It was a great, easy and comfortable experience.
I used the same model to transfer my parents and in-laws home movies. It worked well. I still have the unit, but the screen isn't coming on..... luckily I'm done with it.
Thanks for the informative review, Javi. After nearly a year do you think this converter is worth the cost? I have family movies back to the early 1940s that need proper converting. Before I watched your unboxing and read some of the recent comments I saw someone call the Wolverine Movie Maker Pro "junk" because the motor burned out after only scanning a few movies. Is this person just a malcontent? I think the result you got was wonderful... so much better than shooting the movie against a screen or a wall and taking a video of it. I'm ready to buy the thing if it is worth it!
No. That’s a software issue. I use iMovie. Depending on the level of editing you need, anything from the free editors to the higher end ones will do the job.
8mm vs. Super 8. The sprocket holes on the 8mm is big and the picture frame is small. The sprocket holes on the Super 8 is small and the picture frame is large.
It has to go to the SD card. You can connect the computer and download from the card via the machine, but the digitizing process is built in and automatic straight to the card.
@@JaviUnboxed You can also remove the SD card and plug it into your computer if you have an SD slot. Considering the file size, probably best to plug the card into your computer, the usb port could be slow. Your computer treats the device as another hard drive, same file structure.
I apologize for not mentioning that. That's what I get for assuming.That's exactly the way I transfer all my videos. Pop the SD card into the computer and dump it to my hard drive. empty the card, and reuse. (I have a couple on hand that I swap between.
Thanks for the review. I noticed a couple of instances where the take up and feed reels speed up for an instant. Do you know what's happening there? Is it occurring when it encounters damaged sprocket holes?
I would say your take-up reel is bent, that happened to me too. I suppose you could spread the reel out overnight by sticking some pencil erasers in it or something. Better too loose in this case than too tight.
Agreed. Better to loose than too tight. One of the nice things about this machine is that it's a very light pull on the take-up reel. Unfortunately, that's about the only bad thing I see about the machine as well. When it comes to rewinding the reel, it's a bit too slow for my taste.
I wish I could say. I never used the other model. This one transfers at a rate of about 2 frames per second or a 50 foot reel in just under 30 minutes.
If you use iMovie, Final Cut and other editors with SATURATION controls, reduce the saturation slightly and it will tone down the yellows: this is needed only with KODACHROME film.
The machine scans photo by photo taking about half a second per scan and the built in program saves them to an mp4 in the original speed of 20fps which is standard for most movie cameras back then. If you wish to change the frame rate, you may easily do so with any software editing program, but the machine itself only has the one setting as anything else would speed up or slow down the movie and change its original format. Hope this helps.
Thank you for this! I have the exact same model. and I find the Manual to be terrible. What would the out to TV produce-only single frame advance advance, or "projector play"?
Only taking a guess here, if it's a super 8 film cartridge it needs to be exposed in a super 8 cine camera then sent off for processing. Then the film is returned to you on a 50ft. Reel. This reel of film is then ready for your digital conversion. If your referring to 8mm video tape (in its various formats). This is not for you. Note: film and tape are two totally different and incompatible formats.
It was very unusual to have an audio track on 8mm in those days. The film would be taken to a lab, a magnetic coating would be applied to the film and you could then do a voice-over, if you had the equipment, very very unlikely.
You can get cheap sound projectors on eBay still and play them through there just for the sound. Personally I have two sound reels and I used my real real player to output the sound. A little adjustments on the heads, and a little digital audio adjustments with the computer and I synced them back up perfectly. Takes a bit of work, but well worth it.
I have a couple of sound movie and are used my reel to real player to get the sound out. Another option is to go on eBay and find a sound projector strictly for the sound.
Then use a transfer house. I've used Video Conversion Experts and their scanner did a great job, although the auto color caused some unintentional color shifts trying to compensate for the color changes in the film. Plus you'll still spend a couple hundred bucks getting a few 50-foot reels transferred.
After over 100 reels scanned/transferred, I can honestly say this machine is well worth the money. I've gotten more than my money's worth out of it. And it still going strong. I've used transfer houses in the past and they've produced mixed results. Many so-called transfer houses use an old fashion film projector and a screen with a video camera. You would have to pay major bucks for a true professionally digitized and remastered copy. This is (ALMOST) the best bang for your buck. My family is ecstatic over the quality of the videos. I say "ALMOST" because a buddy of mine purchased the 720P version. The output quality is very similar as most of these old films are grainier than 720 P. Had I to do over again, I would probably purchase the 720 version. But I'm glad I have this one regardless.
Yes, some super 8 had audio. You can tell by a dark squiggly line running along the film edge if it does. This machine will not record that, but it will still do the video. To record the audio, you would need to run the film through an 8mm projector that has audio and record onto another medium. Then transfer to computer for synching...
I've transferred sound audio using an old sound projector. It's not good for transferring the video, but it works great for the sound. I've also use the real to reel with a modified head. I have five reels of Super8 with sound.
I have the 720p version and the movie frame rate gets played at 30 fps which is almost twice the frame rate of 8mm or Super 8. Looks like you adjusted the frame rate as I did back to the original frame rate? That's not exactly consumer friendly so I was wondering if they shipped any software with the 1080p version to handle that?
Amigo, boa noite, sou do Brasil, não falo inglês, mas estou iniciando a trabalhar com a conversão de videos super 8 e 8mm, voce poderia me dar mais informações dessa maquina. tipo: quanto custa. onde comprar e se possível algumas instruções de funcionamento. será de grande ajuda suas informações
Absolutely. What you see is what you get. The machine transfers about 50 feet of film in 30 minutes. It produces excellent output (depending on your original film of course.) I highly recommend it. Simple, yet very effective.
Absolutamente. O que você vê é o que você recebe. A máquina transfere cerca de 15 metros de filme em 30 minutos. Produz excelente saída (é claro, dependendo do filme original). Eu recomendo. Simples, mas muito eficaz.
Thanks for the video! Have you seen this comparison ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-vj9rApV_Yx4.html ? How do you think the 1080p compares to the professional service capture? Thanks!
It greatly depends on the professional service. I have been in a few of the "professional" shops and I will tell you that their equipment ranges from a projector/screen/video camera set up (where the light imbalance is off the charts)to a full blown hundred thousand dollar video transfer system with digital remastering included. I also found a couple shops using this very equipment. With a little bit of iMovie or movie maker experience, and amateur can pose as a professional and no one would be the wiser. The bottom line is, if you can amass enough film reels to justify this purchase, it's well worth it. If you only have a couple of real's here and there, then by all, means use a professional service. But do your research first. Buyer beware. Ask for samples of their work. Also, in the end, most professional services will, for a reasonable price, only scan the film, but not remaster it. That takes big bucks.
I completely disagree. This machine is absolutely fantastic. I've had it for over a year, have scanned over 100 reels of film, and not had a single problem.
Estoy en completo desacuerdo. Esta máquina es absolutamente fantástica. La he tenido durante más de un año, he escaneado más de 100 carretes de película y no he tenido un solo problema.
Just to warn you, this machine, this machine is a piece of junk. The biggest problem I see with it is the shuttle, if the door is closed all the way, the claw hits on the door and the frames don't advance. I had to play with the "flap" door, some times I would have to hold it down, just short of it snapping in place. In a real projector, the claw is normally set by the technician who repairs the projector. When I repaired projectors, I had a gage to set the claw depth. It makes an annoying noise every time it advances the frame, but I suppose if you go to bed, wake up the next morning, you won't hear the noise. I also have to wonder if there is a focus adjustment. Unless something improves here, I'd dive this a D grade, that is next to an F. Jim
I disagree. While it is true that this machine has trouble with warped or wrinkled film, every one of the films I had processed (well over 100 reels) have come through without jamming, or any issues whatsoever. I'm quite pleased with this machine. As to the focus, if the film was unfocused to begin with, well, focusing a blurry picture still gets you a blurry picture. Blame the original cameraman. No issues with the clarity on my end. I wholeheartedly disagree with your assessment. Now, close to a year later, I continue to process my friends' and family's reels with much success. I find that the only people unhappy about it are the 8mm to digital transfer companies losing money from DIYers.
