DIY scanner cuts out the hassle, keeps the fun of Super 8 film scanning
By Donald Melanson 
posted January 25th 2010 11:02PM
posted January 25th 2010 11:02PM
Looking to speed up your Super 8 film scanning but not ready to step up to a pricey, professional rig? Then might want to take after Flickr user Photobsen, who rigged up this system that relies on an old floppy drive, a flatbed scanner, some parts from a vintage Super 8 viewer, and a good bit of know-how. Unfortunately, there's no detailed plans for building your own, but the rig is apparently able to scan Super 8 film at a rate of 80 seconds of film per hour completely unattended -- although we wouldn't blame you if you sat and admired your handiwork for a while after piecing one of these together.
I dont want to be mean, or dis a creative mod, but: those pointy screws look treacherous near film emulsion.
And if you have ever scanned film with a flatbed, it isnt very pretty.
Probably get a similar or better result by projecting onto a screen and shooting on video. Simple, cheap, and 45x faster.
@choco
Buying a projector and camcorder is cheap? A decent HD camcorder and projector still cost a pretty penny last time i check.
Then borrow one.
@choco
I scan all my film on a flatbed and the results are quite good actually
@Information Central
Nerds don't have friends :P
@max1001
Check again.
projector:
@max1001
Check again.
projector: about $30 on ebay.
(you need one for parts for this build anyway,no?)
and most little compact cameras do video thats better than super 8
save yourself many many hours of post production collating and rendering hundreds of scans. cmon. seriously...
I guess this gives him more free time to spend with his blow up doll.
@kj4gr any pimp who came up with this can get any blowup doll he wants. hell he is probably with yours right now!
@kojo87
I guess you didn't look at his flickr page. A man who takes a simpsons doll places and takes pictures if it ain't no fucking pimp. He might be in your would.
Pretty fucking cool.
How does this relate to the Apple Tablet? I mean this is appletablet.com right?
@John Doe
Where do you think all these wires go... duah...
Hmmm nice work, but if someone really had memories worth converting on fragile film like that would they really risk running it through some home spun dingle for scanning? Probably not!
As opposed to leaving it with some flunkie running a shitty projector/video-camera setup? Or MAILING it somewhere?
The best thing to do is try your homemade rig with some non-essential footage.
This is a pretty worthless post. No article. No details. No plans.
Engadget, you're scraping here.
@Information Central And you're bitching. Engadget tries okay? Don't hurt their feelings. If you're really trying to accuse Engadget of scraping non-newsworthy articles, go read Gizmodo. That's all they cover. You'll be back....
@Information Central
Look at the picture, it's obvious how it works, he uses the floppy's stepper motor via some reduction gears to move the film in precise increments, and it just rolls into view on a flatbedscanner guided by some book he propped against it, the rest is scripting, advance the film a bit, scan, advance some more.
It's funny how he just hacked a hole in the drive to access the drive motor (one of them) of the floppy and uses a plastic/rubber band to steal the rotations
@Wwhat
The book is a Langensheidt French German dictionary
http://www.langenscheidt.de/katalog/titel_langenscheidt_taschenwoerterbuch_franzoesisch_4421_13.html
Tweet pulled from the Internet by German electronics chain Media Markt(but screenied before it disappeared) shows the pricing and name of the new Apple tablet.. iPad actually and 499e with contract and 899 without!
http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/market-mayhem/news/643-breaking-news-apple-ipad-it-is
I call BS
I'll tell you a few reasons why: any product like that would take months after the US to be released in europe, and if it requires a contract it could be a year, then there's the detail that media markt isn't exactly cutting edge and it will be a month at least after it's available in europe before they start to sell it.
So apple would never give them advance information.
And any idiot can fake a tweet picture, or in fact a tweet.
@Wwhat
While I agree that this tweet is either an error by Media Markt or simply a mockup I disagree with your reasoning:
1) The product release in europe doen´t necesseraly have to be delayed, look at the iPhone for example: the first gen iPhone was released in Europe about 3 Months later then in the US. The iPhone 3G altough was released simultaniously in the US and Europe. Same with all Mac products btw.
2) Media Markt is the single biggest retailer for Apple products in germany so if anybody apart from T-Mobile (official iPhone Carrier in Germany) knows about this product it would be Media Markt.
That said,Ii still think its a fake (or at least a mistake)
@bnutzinger
I've been to media markt, and they do take a while to get the latest stuff, they aren't the 'next day available' kind of outfit.
Is 80 seconds per hour a good rate?
@Mark Larson
Well, those films are like 18 frames a sec? Or what is it? so that's 18*80=1440 scans p/h, so I guess that's a decent speed.
But when you are waiting for it it would seem it's superslow.