8mm & Super 8 Films Digitizer Converter, Film Scanner Converts Film Frame by Frame to Digital MP4 Files,with 2.4" Screen, Viewing, Sharing & Saving on SD Card(Included) for 3” and 5” Reels

I successfully digitised around 50 x 3" reels and even 3 x 7" reels (more about that later) without too much trouble but I had to watch over the process for the most part and be very patient. Was a little dubious before purchasing, due to what I now think were unwarranted negative comments on here.I had a box of 8mm reels from 1955 - 1965, precious memories of my stepmother who hasn't seen them for 60 years. I first checked over the reels and cleaned them by running them through a cloth moistened in film cleaner (Isopropyl alchohol) whilst the film ran onto another reel using an old 8mm projector to do this (this can be done by manual winding).Once cleaned, I fed the reels through. It soon became apparent that if the sprocket holes on the film were damaged in any way (eg if it has snagged in the projector), or if a splice is a bit wobbly, the machine jams - not the machine's fault. Just stop the machine, release the foot that hold the film in place and draw the damaged film through and reset the film on the next good section (obviously losing a few frames, but this shouldn't be a problem).For the 7" reels, I'm afraid my only solution requires a whole lot of patience! The reels were mounted on external posts and manually wound (every 10-15 seconds worked OK). I know this sounds like a whole lot of work and it's very tedious, BUT the footage content on these reels was priceless and in view of this, I thought it was definitely worth the effort.I hope this helps. Don't be too put off by other people's negative comments; the world is full of those who are too quick to blame their tools.

Initially I tried to feed the film as shown on the instructions book / diagram on the unit itself, but the film path on the unit was completely different.The film was jamming and juddering badly producing files which were useless. However, closer examination revealed that there are now a total of three tabs, one at each end of the front edge of the film guide (they are not marked in white) and one central tab (marked in white) nearest the machine. It’s a little tricky at first to feed the film in but once completed it feeds reliably and produces a pleasing result, worth persevering.The instructions and film path on the machine need updating, in fact the booklet makes quite entertaining reading with some of the translated descriptions.Overall, a useful unit which will digitize your home cine films, though at 30 minutes for a 3 minute film it’s not a speedy process - fortunately once it’s set in motion it can be left to its own devices as long as you don’t have too many bulky splices.The overall appearance of the unit is very plasticky and cheap looking but it functions well enough so I feel that can be forgiven. The output mp4 files have to be slowed down but there’s lots of free software out there which will accomplish this very speedily. Well worth considering.

Extremely disappointed with this purchase. Having read mixed reviews on this product I took a gamble and bought one. I wanted to transfer about 30 reels of super8 cine to digital and on paper this product was perfect if it worked. It most certainly didn't. Initial impression on unpacking was not reassuring - I immediately felt I'd made a mistake having paid £350 for what appeared to be little more than a plastic toy. But anyway, I thought as long as it works its' feel and appearance doesn't matter. Then spent what felt like the two most stressful hours of my life feeding various precious, irreplaceable family cine films into what proved to be little more than a mincing machine. All he film juddered, jarred, stuck and ultimately failed to progress through the mechanism no matter what I tried. The principle of this machine is great but it needs to be properly manufactured with quality materials even if that pushes the price up a bit as there is no real affordable alternative available if you want to digitise the film yourself at home and to a reasonable standard.

I bought this despite some of the rather negative comments on it from other people.I have been pleasantly surprised just how good it is. Most 8mm films I have copied are fine with the colour and sharpness better than I expected.It does take a while to copy the film, as it takes an image of each frame but the results are worth the wait.I have noticed in some places that there is a slight jitter and running that part of the film through a standard projector it isn’t as obvious but is still apparent.I think this is down to the fact that on the recording each frame is an image and playing back the recorded video on a TV screen reveals the poor registration that the cine camera has done.On a standard projector this ‘Jitter’ isn’t as obvious because we have persistance of vision which tends to hide it. I tried recording the same part with the frame set lower so I could see the top edge of the frame and that showed that it was the image that was jittering as the top bar remained still.I’m going to see if there is any software available that can correct this on the recorded video but I don’t hold out much hope.All round a very good buy but I will wait to see if the copier remains working after a few months. As some others have reported problems of reliability.If I could make one improvement it would be to have a white LED pointing down alongside the camera to light the area where the gate is, to make loading the film easier, probably down to my ageing vision but still worth doing IMHO. This could come on automatically when the gate is open and turn off when it’s closed.