Hacking the Kodak Reels 8mm Film Digitizer (New Thread)

Hey everyone,

I hope you dont mind helping me out with a few - possibly dumb - questions:

1) The 12mm lens for the mod has a fixed aperture of 2.8. I noticed someone say that they should have purchased the 5.6 version instead. Is there a 12mm with a 5.6 aperture? If so, thats TWO f-stops higher, and im worried it would have a huge impact on exposure, no? (what do you think?)

2) Is there a location on this forum that has all the files for the lens modification? 3d printed spacer, lock ring, lens offset, etc...

3) As I was reading all the forum posts, I think I remember someone mentioning they would post a tutorial for the lens mod - was it ever posted? if so, where can I find it?

4) lastly, I see that several people are wrapping the "posts" on the scanner with "pec pads". I got the idea in my mind to purchase "felt tape" from AMAZON and place it on the posts. What do you guys think of this option?

thank you very much in advance,

Maybe it is more of a support question rather than a hack, but how can I improve my capture?

I am trying to digitize old Super8 reels and the capture is jumping around like crazy. The footage to me is useless this way.

The result:

What is happening during capture:

Is my machine faulty? Or they all this bad? Can I do anything to improve?

I tried this with three reels (two sizes/types) and the film seems fine.

After reading and watching a ton, I started prodding the machine like a monkey, I tried: 1) creating slack in the take up reel, 2) no take up reel, 3) slack in the film reel, 4) different paths (this you see in the video), 5) toggled the selector switch to improve engagement with the film, 6) slide finger pressure on right side of the guide. Nothing has really improved my situation. Sometimes it seems like something is working until it doesn't.

Thanks!

The User Guide (and Version History) can now be found here as a Resource Article.

P-car said:

1) The 12mm lens for the mod has a fixed aperture of 2.8. I noticed someone say that they should have purchased the 5.6 version instead. Is there a 12mm with a 5.6 aperture? If so, thats TWO f-stops higher, and im worried it would have a huge impact on exposure, no? (what do you think?)

2) Is there a location on this forum that has all the files for the lens modification? 3d printed spacer, lock ring, lens offset, etc...

3) As I was reading all the forum posts, I think I remember someone mentioning they would post a tutorial for the lens mod - was it ever posted? if so, where can I find it?

4) lastly, I see that several people are wrapping the "posts" on the scanner with "pec pads". I got the idea in my mind to purchase "felt tape" from AMAZON and place it on the posts. What do you guys think of this option?

thank you very much in advance,

Click to expand...

1) stick with the the known lens 12mm at 2.8mm. I have three units running 2.8mm all work great. Use: https://www.rmaelectronics.com/azure-photonics-azure-1228mac/

2) Latest 3D spacers: https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads...-film-digitizer-firmware-hack.2897/post-42590
Locking rings: https://www.m12lenses.com/category-s/97.htm
Extension tube: https://www.m12lenses.com/7mm-Metal-Extension-Ring-for-M12-Mount-p/pt-erm12-700m.htm

3) I haven't seen one

4) Try it. Pec pads are working for me, haven't tried anything else.

ph4z said:

Maybe it is more of a support question rather than a hack, but how can I improve my capture?

Click to expand...

I would replace that unit.

0dan0 said:

1) stick with the the known lens 12mm at 2.8mm. I have three units running 2.8mm all work great. Use: https://www.rmaelectronics.com/azure-photonics-azure-1228mac/

2) Latest 3D spacers: https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads...-film-digitizer-firmware-hack.2897/post-42590
Locking rings: https://www.m12lenses.com/category-s/97.htm
Extension tube: https://www.m12lenses.com/7mm-Metal-Extension-Ring-for-M12-Mount-p/pt-erm12-700m.htm

3) I haven't seen one

4) Try it. Pec pads are working for me, haven't tried anything else.

Click to expand...

thank you very much

apologies if im being redundant, but what is the piece shown in the image? and where can I get the STL files, please.

P-car said:

apologies if im being redundant, but what is the piece shown in the image? and where can I get the STL files, please.

Click to expand...

That is the older design, use the STLs linked in https://tinkerdifferent.com/threads...-film-digitizer-firmware-hack.2897/post-42590

ok, that clears up my confusion. thank you

and lastly, how do I know how much to "cut out" and raise the camera unit?

P-car said:

ok, that clears up my confusion. thank you

and lastly, how do I know how much to "cut out" and raise the camera unit?

Click to expand...

My three units.

thank you.

Ok, I just came across this M12 12mm 2.8 lens on AMAZON for $9.99!!! (Please tell me, that, IT MIGHT work.

For $9.99 I've got nothing to loose, right?

0dan0 said:

The Picture setting still set the white balance like before, with has a maximum of 9 WB settings. Now during recording you can tweak red, green and blue, up and down as much as you like, it will remember any changes. Unfortunately I yet to implement a reset, to restore the defaults. The firmware update will reset RGB gains to there default offsets. If you change red or blue, off the defaults, the value will be odd, rather than even. I didn't do this with green, as I was just preserving the existing behavior with that channel.

WBAL (current defaults)
2.0 384,256,256
1.5 352,256,256
1.0 320,256,256
0.5 288,256,256
0.0 256,256,256
-0.5 256,256,288
-1.0 224,256,320
-1.5 96,256,448
-2.0 64,256,448

Click to expand...

Does this WB settings table take into affect the Red "Trim" you had where 496,256,256 was "default/white."

P-car said:

Ok, I just came across this M12 12mm 2.8 lens on AMAZON for $9.99!!! (Please tell me, that, IT MIGHT work.

For $9.99 I've got nothing to loose, right?

Click to expand...

It will not. Only the AZURE-1228MAC 2/3" 12mm F2.8. The lenses need to be designed as a macro.

ThePhage said:

Does this WB settings table take into affect the Red "Trim" you had where 496,256,256 was "default/white."

Click to expand...

Oopps, I had the red offset wrong:
Default values should be:

WBAL (current defaults)
2.0 592,256,256
1.5 560,256,256
1.0 528,256,256
0.5 496,256,256
0.0 464,256,256
-0.5 464,256,288
-1.0 432,256,320
-1.5 304,256,448
-2.0 256,256,448

0dan0 said:

View attachment 25351View attachment 25352View attachment 25353

Here is v7.5.

Additions:
- You can customize all the RGB gains for white balance, to deal with very blue (or red) film.
- The font has been increased in size for improve readability.
- FPS, EV, Qp and Frame count are now only during capture.
View attachment 25354
Bug fixes:
- Sometimes the ISO/Shutter wasn't displaying correctly.

Click to expand...

I see that the Qp level now ranges from 15 to 29 (instead of 39) and it no longer loops back to 20 when exceeding that range) = Good!

0dan0 said:

It will not. Only the AZURE-1228MAC 2/3" 12mm F2.8. The lenses need to be designed as a macro.

Click to expand...

yes, that was my worry - not a macro. thanks

Now for something not really firmware related, sensor read-out noise. Turns out the Reels has a lot of it. Any double-Es out there want to see if this can be improved?

On my darkest footage I would sometime notice chroma artifacts at the top and bottom of the image. I was thinking it was the firmware, but it is hardware, an A to D sampling error. The digital readout from the sensor, is generating noise that is being copied into the analog side of the sensor. I was able to see it in these heavily noise enhance black only captures (I just left the frame latch open).



The random noise is not the issue, it is the shapes in the noise that is.

This issue will be more apparent using the new 12mm lens, as the readout window is much larger. Larger window, is more data from the sensor, and more potential for interference. The interference is worst with the full overscan, but much goes away at a window crop of 1440x1080 (the still slightly larger than the Super8 frame.)

Here is the 1440x1080 crop, so still some overscan, but no chroma artifacts in shadows.


FYI: 1440x1080 is three steps in from maximum zoom out.

Now most of the time I do not see the artifact, although we did a short film a couple of weekends ago (7 rolls for Ektachrome,) and there was only one moment when I saw this error. But it reminded me to look into it.

I'm thinking of two firmware changes with this new insight.
1) displaying the current readout resolution. This will be sad for stock lens users, as you will see you resolution at around 672x504.
2) optionally encoding at the native readout window resolution (super depressing for a stock lens.) For 12mm users, at 1440x1080 native encode will eliminate any minor scaling artifacts.

Feedback on these ideas?

I think the unit NEEDS the 12mm lens I order to be considered a "viable" scanning option.

so, I just got my Kodak Reels and was able to get OdanO's firmware up and running. However, when I try to use the "framing" buttons, nothing happens. I try to zoom in and it does not respond, it also does not respond to left or right.

so, I shut it off and turned it back on, and when I did, the framing was zoomed in and to the left - as if it applied my adjustments .

I tried zooming out at this point and it did not respond.

has anyone else had this issue with framing?