Convert Home Movies to 1080p Vids! Magnasonic FS81 Super 8/8mm Film Scanner

[@Mogerm52]

I just purchased this and it works great! Easy. I wish there was an affordable 16mm available just like it.

[@vidasgirskis9209]

Are there 16mm scanners?

[@rpm3605]

My wife inherited about 50 standard 8 mm films from her grandparents and I used this unit to digitize them. The videos had not been stored very well and were from maybe the early days of 8 mm (for home use) to the early 1960s. They were in somewhat rough shape. I had to deal with film breaks,splice breaks frequently and occasional sprocket hole damage. Every time I had to stop a recording pass to fix one of those problems the machine starts a new file even though it’s the same film. I used video editing software to splice together the electronic pieces, but it would have been nice if the FS81 had an option to continue the same recording. Also keep in mind that all the recording settings must be done at the beginning before you start recording. If there are changes in the film that might be helped by adjusting the exposure for example your only option is to stop the film, change the setting, then start recording to a new file (then video editing to combine the pieces later). Don’t get me wrong. The machine did a pretty good job of preserving some precious family history. The quirks I mention are just things you have to deal with when dealing with very old film Potentially adding a good bit of time to completing the overall job.

[@NYVoice]

Projectors with hot lamps (along with dirty sprockets can eat up up old films. Use a scanner with lid light. They are lifesavers.

[@AnthonyPtak]

The 8mm film looks incredible!

[@Quacks0]

Thank you so much for sharing this! How heartwarming to know that companies still make devices to preserve our old memories --- I'd had no idea that regular consumer-grade machines like this were available! And yes, the duplication quality is amazing! :D

[@WORTHITORNOT]

What a great way to save old family movies !

[@LostandFoundTravel]

Really decent machine. I've scanned a TON and it keeps on truckin'

[@ThriftyAV]

I will be scanning my mother's entire home movie archive so I can share it with the rest of the family. I think I'm gonna like this device!

[@mmsabre7931]

@@ThriftyAV I'm thinking about buying this scanner. How is it holding up?

[@PE4Doers]

William, if it had sound recording I would have immediately ordered it. I have a few hours of Super-8 that I recorded (as a young boy) in the late 60's and early 70's when I used every penny of my savings to buy a Bell & Howell movie kit.

[@ThriftyAV]

If you have a projector, you could record the sound from it, and sync it up in post production. None of the frame by frame scanners on Amazon offer sound transfer. When I worked in TV, one of the stations had a "telecine" machine that would convert sound film to video, but it worked with 16mm. A company called "Tobin" built real-time video scanners built onto Super8 Elmo sound projectors. I don't think they are still in business, and you will be looking at a price tag in the thousands.

[@f115Recs]

JITTER. there are comments here and elsewhere regarding jitter on these scanners. did you experience this and if so, did you find a remedy? i can't find the follow up video that you mention. maybe you covered it there but if not, that's an important issue that would definitely affect the conversion.

[@dmprdctns]

Thank you...! Very helpful... You know I think I'm seeing some compression in the output? I for one would like to see the film grain. What do you think? I might have to have it processed for me... unfortunately... Liked!

[@johnsaucerhunter]

I've actually been looking into these for a few years as I have many 8mm films in my family collection. Here's one of my main concerns (which I hope you add in an updated video). How does it react with splices? Back in the day, that's how we use to put in 'cut-scenes', by means of splicing in other footage. How will the machine act when it comes to these 'splices'? Just for the record I had narrowed down in my searches and research on these to he Magnasonic and the Kodak version (mostly because of Brand-name and it has a 5" monitor screen).

[@ThriftyAV]

The 5 inch reel I transferred has two splices that I noticed, and this unit advanced through the splices just fine. However, I have only tried it with spliced regular 8. I have not yet tried it with spliced Super8 with the smaller sprocket holes.

[@Quacks0]

It probably has largely to do with how good a job the person who spliced the films did (and whether he used actual film-splicing tape instead of just clear Scotch tape), how well cared-for the film was, and what type of splicing-method he used. Cement might tend to dry out and come apart after a while, and splicing-tape might stretch, tear, or become gummy.

[@johnmcconkey417]

Good video. You mention you will cover USB upload in a subsequent video. Have you done that? If so can you share the link? I can't figure out how it works. Is it a way of recording to a PC rather than the SD card or is it a transfer from SD card to PC? I get as far as a screen which says "USB UPLOAD" but I can't get the film to move.

[@KennethWorley-t6b]

Just curious if you ever compared the Magnasonic FS81to any other film scanner?

[@terryobright]

Thanks for this video. What is the light source? LED? easily changeable if it ever burns out?

[@craigbrendajohnson2133]

I have this unit and it works great. The only issue I've had is when a movie wasn't split excatly in the middle when the lab cut the 16mm in 'half'. I've had some 8mm films that won't go through. Is there a way to trim off the extra film? Through an edit deck with a knife or something? Appreciate any insight/tips you may have. Thank you.

[@herberar]

Hi, I 'm in the process of saving several hundreds of slides and super 8 films . In my country ( yes, "don't cry for me") Argentina, it is impossible to access to such an "advanced" technology. Anyways, I am doing quite well with the slides . My dad was a dedicated and well tasted and equiped photographer. I wander if it's you the baby on the carpet at the beginning of the film? I appreciate very much your dedication and quality of your videos. Thank you very much!!!

[@ThriftyAV]

The film I scanned was shot before I was born, so no, it is not me in the video. Thank you for the nice comment.

[@super8guy]

What "video capture device" is that? In addition to disabling the display screen, does it also prevent recording to the SD card? What are the advantages of using an external video capture device? TY. Jan 5, 2023

[@TVNostalgia]

Is this works for Super8 containing sound ?

[@hetsurimihondje3610]

there's no PART II - video ?

[@harrycallahan8573]

Very informative. Thank you!

[@Crikeys57]

14:28 thanks but what happened to part 2?

[@ThriftyAV]

It fell victim to the ole "round tuit". I still have the unit, so I will start working on Part 2 soon, not just for my viewers, but also for family members waiting for me to transfer home movies.

[@moow950]

All these film scanners look and do the same: Magnasonic, Wolverine Pro, Kodak etc. I guess the Chinese factory which makes this thing puts a different brand name on the same product.

[@mwomersley6636]

Can I follow up on cement splices, I used to edit my films with numerous cement splice in order to get a decent result . How do you think these would go through the Magnasonic?

[@scottsandquist5381]

How can you tell how much room is left on the card to keep loading film on to it? Im sorry but I'm an old man that doesn't really understand gigabyte etc.

[@razfilmstv]

How can you tell the difference between 8mm and Super 8?

[@pokepress]

Pretty decent resolution given the small film size. I’ve actually been looking into AI image up scaling and I wonder what you could do with digitized 8mm.

[@ThriftyAV]

I've seem ads for AI image upscaling, but I have not seen it applied to video yet. If you do this, I am curious about the results.

[@pokepress]

@@ThriftyAV I've gotten into training models for specific use cases, but there is general-purpose software out there for that purpose. Since this is 8mm film, you might get better results by shrinking the picture down to 720p or 480p, then upscaling it.

[@brad-fg9ss]

It says minimum windows 7.I don’t have windows 7.Can I put the film on a sd card and put the card in any computer

[@nononsenseBennett]

Great info!

[@artekmeister]

Is the SD card FAT32 formated? That would explain the limit of 32GB. Larger SD cards can be formatted in FAT32, but they require special handling to do the formatting.

[@worldsfairphotos]

The unit has a hardware limitation of 32GB so it's likely they didn't add FAT32 capabilities to their software. They reject anything over 32GB with an error.

[@frankscully]

A while back I sent dome of my super 8 films to a service which converted them to DVD. The issue I had was the frames were cropped so as to fit into the format for video. Are the dimensions of the super 8 to video still facing these challenges?

[@ThriftyAV]

This scans 4:3 aspect ratio, which is correct for 8mm and Super 8 film. In the menu, you can adjust the frame to avoid cropping the image. I go into detail on how to do this at 11:51

[@alastairferris247]

impressive man

[@jacobotz]

Wich one will be: Wolverine or Magnasonic?

[@ThriftyAV]

I prefer the Magnasonic.

[@fiendishthingy1630]

@@ThriftyAV - Thank you for confirming the one I was leaning toward.

[@eriksnel6461]

I have had horrible experiences with this machine. Sometimes the reels just fall off. The scans are very jittery and needed a lot of post production. In my opinion, just pay a company who has invested in a real scanner. There is a very good reason their scanner cost about 15000 dollars. If you want scratched films, this thing is perfect! This machine it too expensive for what it does.

[@Super8Rescue]

this machine does not produce a geniune 1080p quality, the frame size may be 1080p the resolution is digitally upscaled to 1080p

[@ThriftyAV]

My mother's home movies tend to have a soft focus. With such content, it becomes hard to tell if the 1080 is upscaled or genuine. I purchased a professionally shot Super8 reel to test devices like this, but the one I received had very bad reddening, so I did not use it.

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

I always wanted one but to expensive

[@ThriftyAV]

I can see how this might be cost prohibitive. However, depending on how many reels you have to transfer, it may be less expensive than paying to have this service done. My family put our money together and paid to have these movies transferred to VHS in the 1990s. I'm getting better results at a lower price with this unit.

[@leonjohnsonjr3331]

@@ThriftyAV how long does ot take to transfer

[@fiendishthingy1630]

@@leonjohnsonjr3331 - Depending on the reel/movie size, it can take 30 minutes or so for 50 ft of film, or hours for larger reels.

[@thanikachalam5133]

Tank u sir

[@mwomersley6636]

Should have said standard 8

[@jackphoton]

"It did a better job with that regular 8 film than my other scanner which will remain unnamed." Not naming your other scanner isn't going to save that company's feelings from being hurt. And if their scanner already has a bad rap, your naming them isn't going to make things worse for them. If your personal experience shows the magnasonic in your opinion is qualitatively better than another, please specify so we can become more informed ourselves. Folks watching this video are likely researching a $300+ purchase and looking for names and advice. It appears the side-by-side review you promised in this video has not taken place as of 8 months after posting. Searching your videos, I can only guess you are saying this is better than your Wolverine? Or maybe it's the Ambico? This magnasonic doesn't appear able to hold a 9" reel that the Wolverine does. Is this Magnasonic output so much better than the Wolverine that the 9" reel option is not worth it? I have 9" reels to scan, but if the output is lesser quality, then the Wolverine is wasted money. I can't afford to guess which is the better machine. The general youtube consensus seems to be that all the machines are roughly equivalent except for the Kodak Reels which appears to be the worst of several. Thank you for your videos.

[@ThriftyAV]

I am way overdue for the followup on this unit. I was comparing it to the lower cost Wolverine which is smaller, lacks the extension arm, and will NOT accept 9" reels. I did not mention the Wolverine by name as part of the Review Policy that I have with vendors. thriftyav.com/review-policy I may modify this policy in the future to better serve my viewers. I have already modified it for webcam reviews, but I may change it for other A/V gear as well. Thank you for your comment.

[@jackphoton]

@@ThriftyAV Thank you for your reply. My 1k Wolverine arrived today. Sold on ebay as an 'open box', there's an awful lot of dust in the transport suggesting it's been used. :( Still, if it works then I saved ~$100. If it doesn't, it\s' going back to the seller. Thanks again for your review and time. I hope to surprise my folks with some footage they haven't seen in 70years or more.