Mike's Movie Machine - The AACA Library's DIY Film Scanner

[@BrockGunterSmith]

Easily one of the most useful, fascinating, and well produced DIY videos I’ve ever seen. Thanks so much!

[@foldinggreenstuff]

I was thinking about making a 16mm film scanner myself, and given the available options to my mind the easiest way of doing it was to convert a 16mm projector which already has all the film transport mechanism in place and which just required a different lighting method (adjustable LED), a slower motor (a stepper motor driven by Arduino board and config), a camera trigger mechanism (a fixed reed switch with a strong magnet attached to one of the shutter blades) and finally a fairly high end camera which takes single photos via electronic shutter. With some tweaking and fine tuning the end results are fantastic. I can do sound films too by running the film a second time normally through a fully working unmodified projector and taking the sound output into a PC to record the sound as MP3 which can then be synchronised to the compiled video on the PC to produce a perfect scanned archivable copy of the film which is most cases is better than the projector quality. As the Camera takes single photographs larger than UHD quality, I can create 4K scans, but I normally reduce it down to FHD as more devices are able to playback the file, PLUS the file sizes are much smaller. The whole setup probably cost me around £200.00 GBP including the £25.00 scrap projector for spares or repair as I only needed the film transport mechanism to be working as the motor, lamp, sound amplifier etc were all removed to make room for the stepper motor, circuit boards for Arduino and LED dimmer and power supply for Arduino and Stepper motor. I really must do a video of it to show how I did it :-) My next project is to do a similar thing on an old 8mm projector as I have the projector and so just need to replicate everything else into the projector chassis. Watch this space :-).

[@FramesPerSecondAnimation]

Well done, I made my own version (16mm only) based on your design. Works perfectly, thank you.

[@1tkman111]

Chris and Mike! I love this film, really detailed and fun. So impressed, innovative.

[@xpez9694]

I want to build one of these!

[@niknikktm]

Having already raised $5000 for a telecine unit, you could have purchased a Moviestuff Retroscan Universal 2K scanner for around $9000. It is exactly what you need for your particular application.

[@MasterObserver]

Just came across this and would love to see the "final" recordings run through some of those AI HD upscaling programs like Topaz Labs Video Enhance.

[@chandershekhar9103]

Hi Sir n want to know why not use machine vision camera insted of frame by frame scan process because from machine vision camera you can record real time video i.e. 16 frame or 18 frame per second because 2 to 3 frame per second is too slow process.

[@enigma7070]

Since you are using a stepper motor, I don't understand why you need protrusions on the roller and also why you would need the switch. Let's say there are 18 protrusions on the roller. You would simply step the motor 20 degrees, then have the arduino trigger the shutter at that point via a digital output. No need for anything else, right?

[@seanbatiz6620]

I’m thinking that you two oughta have a name added as a credit frame into each film that says, “Ritter-Reilly Remastering”

[@sebsus]

very cool! thank you!

[@kamranjon]

Could you just put the stepper motor before the take-up reel and use a magnetic slip clutch on the take-up reel so that it just slips if it gets too much tension?

[@TheAACALibrary]

I think you could. We had actually toyed with an idea similar to that, but found the method we went with simpler for our minds to grasp and cheaper as well.

[@homeboyradiopodcast3454]

Im almost do with my 35mm movie film scanner. Im thinking my budget to make 900 bucks. Most on the camera

[@kute940]

Verry good 😊

[@MisuqExcellence]

Nice video ;)

[@d0r4em0n]

How to buy this machine?

[@TheAACALibrary]

You'll have to build it yourself. You can find the original instructions on www.kinograph.cc/ and then contact us for the stepper motor upgrades and such if you are serious about building it.

[@MrWinn]

Why not buy a used Mekel or Sunrise Imaging off of ebay? Or at least study them for inspiration on design? Better yet, why not get a grant to have this scanned for yourself?

[@TheAACALibrary]

We went with this process mostly due to cost. Our rig cost us under 5K and over half of that was the camera. That also gave us portability cross use. We use the camera for various other projects in the library so that money wasn't just sunk into one project. This also gave us the insight to know how to fix something if it breaks, we won't sink cost into repairs or maintenance as we know the ins and outs of it. The other benefit of our rig was that it can be upgraded, as we can add a better camera in the future. We have close to 300 films and even if we secured a hefty grant it still wouldn't come close to doing most of our collection. We were looking into grants when we first started but as we came across this project, it seemed like fun. That was another determining factor as it simply looked like it would be a fun challenge. There are definitely other ways to get a project like this done, but this seemed like the right fit for us. It's the similar reasoning that some people do home repairs themselves and others pay people. We felt we had the right skills to tackle this and gave it a try.

[@MrPatdeeee]

Bah Humbug! Yes they ALL brag on your video. Yep two guys "staging" a video as though they are doing it for the first time. Not to mention their silly antics; as though they are comedians. Yeah right! Of course it took forever to "Cut to the chase". Sorry, but that is boring. Why not decide which of you are going do the talking and the other one run the camera. Then, from the very beginning of the video; show us what you did and how you did it. And keep the fake laughing rhetoric as little as you can; and let your hands teach us what you did. Like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/maHRg2SqrdODfa8 Yeah I know you've gotten zillions of brags below. And bless 'em (of course) for using the old adage: "If you 'caint' say something good, don't say anything". Bah Humbug. Truth is truth. Why fake it all the time to get a silly laugh? Huh? Oh well. I've put my "flame" suit on. But I stand on every word above. If you want to delete this post, be my guest. Truth is still the truth! And ALL will know this one day.

[@TheAACALibrary]

Your comment & intensity made me chuckle. I'm sorry it's taken me 9 months to find it. Thanks for watching. 😂

[@MrPatdeeee]

@@TheAACALibrary 🤠