Modding the Kodak Reels 8mm Film Digitizer (Firmware Hack)

rms337

New Tinkerer
Sep 7, 2025
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@0dan0 I was able to get the capture to work without the darkening that I experienced in the last version. I was able to adjust white balance to get peaks to line up, and then while capturing, adjusted the EV up to 0 as the default was at -7. It brightened it up! While I am no color expert, I feel like the capture looks flat. Can you tell me what you see in these two test clips? You should be able to download them.

Thank you again for your efforts on this!

Two test 8MM captures
 

0dan0

Active Tinkerer
Jan 13, 2025
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The default of -7 explains why some units went dark. Now that we can see the EV level it is easier to fix. I will find a way to reset any out of range value in the next build.

Those two clips look great, and well exposed. There is not flat or log curves in the Reels scanner, this is likely a standard 2.2 gamma curve. I have yet to find any way to modify the curves. The clips look a tad desaturated, I'm not sure if that is the film stock/age, or you have a negative tint setting.