Film School: Copying Films onto Video – Copy Factory or Glasscreen?

Horst and Gabi Blum (c) for Camcorder & Co

(This test report appeared in Camcorder & Co issue 8/2001.
Reprinted with friendly permission of Camcorder & Co.)

A year ago, we reported on our attempts to copy film onto digital video. Since then, we have received many calls from readers, which tells us there is continuing interest in the subject. Meanwhile, a new version of Glasscreen exists. This has caused us to take up again the topic of do-it-yourself copying or using a copy factory.

Many of our films are still outstanding in picture and sound after more than 20 years. Other films, dating from our novice times, are insufficiently reworked. Back then, we lacked the resources and experience. These films often have a high keepsake value for the memories they hold. It would certainly be delightful to preserve the old treasures on digital video to rework them with the technology of a Casablanca.

And so we began to send films to copy factories. But almost simultaneously, we tried to copy the films with our own 3 CCD digital camera, for three reasons. At times, there were compatibility problems. We had tracked some of our own films ourselves. Our Weberling machine might not be set completely in the standard range. Our own projector tolerates this, because its sound heads are used to it. The copy factory asked for our projector. That was the first reason. With other copies, we weren’t satisfied with the picture quality. Copy factories sometimes delivered a much lower picture quality than we achieved by simply recording from a white surface. That was a year ago.

New experiments have shown us that the copies delivered on digital video from one-and-the-same Super 8 film could vary in picture quality, depending on the copy factory. In some copies, the shutter control reacts very sluggishly. The result is pictures that are too dark or too light. The video processors used sometimes cause marked color distortions within a copy. It appears that the copying process is not continuously monitored. For that reason, even today, we wouldn’t give out a larger copying assignment without a sample copying first. According to our comparisons, the best digital video copies from Kodak Super 8 Film K40 are currently provided by AVP Video Transfer, Tegernseer Landstrasse 161, 81547 Munich.

Do-it-yourself copies as an alternative
With some investment of time and a willingness to experiment, quite good copies can be created from Super 8 films using a 3 CCD digital video camera. As recently as one year ago, we considered the best method to be filming off a fine-white, matte paper. We didn’t get good results using the glass screens with tilted mirrors available then. Now we copy our films using Glasscreen. In contrast to all other glass screens, Glasscreen consists of two thin blank-glass panes enclosing a wax- paraffin layer. The advantage is the absolute lack of grain and the even distribution of light. The hot spots experienced with other glass screens have disappeared; the light loss to the edge is so small, it can be ignored. The pane, which is not exactly cheap, is used in professional cameras, reproduction devices, and in the machines of many film copy factories. A mirror makes it possible to generate correctly sided, sharp pictures on the glass screen, which are in no way inferior to a direct projection. Once you’ve correctly set it up, you can record your films very easily and in consistent quality.

The set-up of the components projector, tilted mirror and the Glasscreen glass screen is made easier if you draw pencil lines running parallel to the edge of a table covered with paper. The lines for the mirror are drawn at a 45° angle (with a geometry triangle). The projector is aligned on one of the lines, and the glass screen is set up parallel to it. The tilted mirror is attached to the supplied mounting. The center of the mirror and of the projection lens must match. By moving the mirror and adjusting the projection optics, you can ensure that the mirror catches all the projection light. The supplied mounting for the Glasscreen can’t be adjusted in height. Do-it-yourselfers should do something here. If needed, putting something under it will do. When the set-up is done, you’re not completely ready to start. To achieve really good copying that will satisfy more sophisticated demands, you must still fine-tune all components to each other.

Adjustment of film projector - video camera
An initial test set-up provides information about the extent of brightness flickering of your own projector. The light of the projector, without film, is projected onto a white surface and the video camera is directed at it. Our camera is connected with a television set. The screen shows brightness flickering, which may be greater or weaker in strength. This has to do with the differences in picture frequency between the video camera and the film projector. A flicker-free transfer from Super 8 mm film recorded with 18 pictures is only possible if the projector runs at 162/3 pictures. We refit our Bauer T 610 with a motor regulator. We can now regulate the projector’s running speed between 162/3 and 25 pictures per second. Earlier, we had copied films with an old Eumig projector and hardly noticed any brightness flickering. Older projectors don’t always run with the right speed, and so we’d do a test run before conversion. When projecting films recorded at 24 pictures per second, we increase the projector speed to 25 pictures per second. Some projectors can do this without conversion. Still, brightness flickering remains in intervals of some pictures. With a little luck and the right camera, this can also be brought under control. We set our new Sony 2000 to 25 via SHUTTER SPEED. The flickering is gone. Try it with camera speeds divisible by 50. With a Sony 900, it works with 75. Otherwise, all you can do is convert the projector to a two-wing shutter, which can hardly be reversed. The next step is to adjust the camera’s white balance to the film light. It can be set to the white projection light, without film. But it should then be checked on a good television with a running film. The best connection to the television is a Hosiden cable. To be flexible with the camera, we use a five-meter S- VHS cable from e+p, order no. VCS 45. We can’t make a recommendation for the white balance. Cameras of different manufacturers react differently. This also holds for the shutter control. With the Panasonic DX1, it reacts somewhat sluggishly compared to the Sony 2000. When there’s a change in brightness, the shutter sometimes lags somewhat behind. If you plan to digitally reprocess the copy anyway, film pieces with extreme brightness contrasts can be recorded a second time, with a different manual setting of the shutter. For critical films, we adjust the shutter by hand during recording. The camera must be on a very sturdy stand. Video can play back less of a contrast range than film. Many of our film reports were recorded in inside rooms, with artificial light. Here, contrasts are especially high. The video camera’s automatic adjustment easily results in overexposed faces. Now you have to reduce the light and accept a compromise. We light up the face as the most important part of the picture, at the risk that parts of the room will fall into darkness. For other films, with many outdoor pictures and even brightness distribution, we can let the automatic shutter control settings do their work.

Picture quality and sound
Picture quality is a critical point. Two settings must be adjusted to each other. This works best with a film piece whose focus is absolutely sharp without any doubt. Once the sharpness is found, it should be permanently set on the camera, if possible. We have to readjust the sharpness during projection for some films on do-it-yourself-tracked and factory-tracked sound film. Direct control is only possible during copying, in a darkened room, on the connected screen of a good color television set.

Film sound is an important point. It is not quite true that, in the films recorded with 18 pictures, a waltz turns into a slow waltz due to reduction of the film speed. But a speaker who talks markedly slowly sounds somewhat sluggish. If several persons speak, they all talk somewhat faster anyway. We then don’t perceive the somewhat slower manner of speaking as disturbing. It’s more critical to get the sound onto the video tape in good quality. At first, because our Panasonic DX1 didn’t have a digital output, we played the films directly onto Casablanca during recording. With this method, the sound was played over in analog. If we want to record in digital, the only way is through the camera’s microphone input. This requires that a splitter be soldered into the connecting cable from the projector to the microphone input. One of our cables has meanwhile been soldered for the third time. With the new Sony VX 2000, that would be quite simple, we thought. Its microphone input can be switched over to linear input. We can get very clear sound from the film projector only with an amplifier audiomixer placed in between, with which we can even influence the timbre.

Conclusion:
Good-quality copying of film onto video can be achieved only if you really work at it and take a lot of time to fine-tune all components to each other. Here, Glasscreen is a good aid, which makes copying somewhat easier.