Magnasonic Super 8/8mm Film Scanner (FS81)

Fairly simple to get good results transcribing 8mm cine film to digital formats.

The media could not be loaded. There's a lot of mixed reviews for this device and other brands, including videos on YouTube.I bought this a few days ago and have transferred six 5" reels (though some were packed full with about 16 minutes worth).I found it easy to setup and start scanning with the default settings.So far, I have had no problems with feeding, reel pickup, or the quality of output. A couple of spliced films have broken at the splice, but they are 50+ years old and probably would have failed in a projector too. I found it was fairly easy to repair the splice without removing the reels if I let the machine output about 20" past the break. This way, I couldn't even see the join once I combined the resulting mp4s.It is important to keep an eye on the frame alignment if the film has several splices in it. Not sure why this is, but maybe there were different camera settings, or it is a result of different brands/batches of film. When you're scanning a bit of continuous footage, it doesn't drift out; it just happens occasionally and suddenly when you hit a new film section.The example film I've uploaded is of myself in 1967. It gives a good impression of the average quality. I have noticed that Super8 film is best in bright sunlight but the lower the light level, the more grainy it becomes. This example is mixed cloudy / hazy sunshine through cloud, judging from the original film, so I think it's a fair representation of what you can expect. Some of my scans are worse and some are better.A 15min 21sec film used 1.08GB of storage.Original Super8 used 18 frames per second but the output is 20 fps; I haven't found this noticeable enough to want to change it.Overall - very pleased with my purchase.

Product faulty, rumbling noise inside unit, film claw not functioning correctly.Product Returned

I bought this to convert a large collection of both Standard 8 and Super 8 films. I'm now 28 films (varying from 3 to 10 minutes) in and have had very few issues.The device was easy to set up. It does require an SD card, not included, to function. I had a spare to hand and once you've copied the files off through the supplied USB lead you can delete them so you'll only need one. I guess the reason for not including the SD card is that prices for cards are so changeable. Everything else you need is in the box.Some of my films are over sixty years old, and I have no other way of viewing them, so it is difficult to comment on the quality of the transferred video, but it is as least as good as I expected; if you have newer high quality films you might want to check other reviews. I have one or two later films that were shot with audio which the device doesn't transfer and doesn't claim to.I've had only one jam, but on inspection the sprockets were already pretty chewed up so that's unsurprising. The machine does continue to try to run though and I worry that james could damager the drive if running unattended.I've also had a few longer films 'break', but only where they have been spliced. Again, it is unsurprising that 40-60 year old glue might give out. It is a little difficult to wrap enough film round the take-up spool to get it running after a break and you inevitable loss a bit of footage this way; a spare take-up spool might be a good investment for these situations and I will probably try to find one before carrying on.Having looked at online services, I think I have easily covered the cost of the kit and I'm only around a quarter of the way through. I'm pretty sure there'll be a second hand market for it when I'm done.These films were shot by my late parents and I've been worrying about them degrading to the point of being lost.I selected this model after doing a fair amount of research. Many of the cheaper models seem to be plagued with issues so not all devices are created equal.I would highly recommend this machine for anyone in a similar situation to me.

Very good product as posted

This looked promising at first, but developed a squealing noise. And wouldn't copy the films properly. I sent it back and amazon gave me a full refund

I was replacing a worn out Wolverine transfer machine. which is still not the best of machines but got the job done. this thing is just not worth the hastle.I am well versed with how they work.loaded film. spent 2 hours just trying to do a minute of film. but it just skipped frames.Not wasting my time on it so sent it back.i am now going to develop my own transfer machine