Sad News Alert

Some fiddling with options seems to have fixed the issue. Hopefully😭

I thought i found a way to do this processing without having to convert all the dng files to tiff files, and subsequently no longer need 800gb space for a 3 min video.

I thought that using Adobe DNG Converter to "fix" the DNG files would help with that, and infact, save me some space. But i was just doing a comparison in photomatix between the tiff and the "fixed" dng files, and yeah nah... Shits not good.

This is the corner of the same frame, using the same settings, the only differance being one is the tiff input files, the other is the DNG input files.

Tiff Input, Looks fine.

DNG input... Looking fucking awful. I have no idea whats going on there.

Im going to fiddle around with the dng converter and see if this is fixable, if not, its back to the drawing board 😒

I was just installing Colorlab to see what thats like at color grading, and it needs fucking python 3.6 ... in 2025... 🙄

Ive been looking at Photomatix for doing the hdr / tonemapping. Im tired of pissing about with enfuse and what not.

This frame is from an 8mm film, the top images are the three photos that were captured using hdr brackets and the bottom image is the final output from Photomatix. I think it looks pretty fucking considering how dark the film is.

It did a reasonable job of filtering out the cracks visible in the sky from the emulsion (at least thats what i think they are) and the truck is actually visible now, not just a black rectangle.

I would say its worth the extra time and space needed to process the 'hdr' brackets.

Jesus christ.
So, i just changed the tolerances, and it did it again, which is weird.. I take a look at my code and Yeah... i forgot to use replace all the hardcoded tolerances with the ones from the config file😭

Which means it just so happens the previous reels of film ive been processing just so happens to work with the hardcoded values 🤷‍♂️

Im dubious about changing the tolerances because if i do, then the frames will end up further away from the sweet spot for the sprockets, which means more alignment later on.

Literally just as i posted the last post, it stopped again 😭

Im pretty sure there are plenty of bugs in the scanner code, but the only one that likes to make itself known is it just randomly stopping capture.

Every x number of captures (50 in my case) it will transfer the currently captured images to the network storage, most of the time it works without issue, but sometimes, and not with all films, it will finish the transfer and just end the capture, no errors, nothing looks out of place in the logs, it just decides that its finished and ends it 😂

I presume its sprocket hole related, as film ages, it stetches a little, so the sprocket holes will in some cases be further apart than 'usual'. If i remember, ill adjust the config file tolerances, and see how it goes from there.

oh, i was testing LuminanceHDR earlier and maybe im just simple, but when you are going through the "new HDR wizard", you have to uncheck the "preview hdr" checkbox in order to finish the wizard... Which just seems batshit insane to me.

When you uncheck the "Show HDR Preview" button, it then turns into a finish (wizard) button... wtf kinda shit is that? It aint like they have to pay to add a new button😭

Im not happy with the output images from enfuse. Ive been looking around and testing all sorts of different programs, and maybe i just dont understand what enfuse meant to actually output, but pretty much all other programs do a better job🤷‍♂️

Maybe ill eat my words at somepoint

Those are the cleaning strips in the wetgate after 2 50ft reels🤢

alright, i think im ok with how the films are turning out.
Im dropping to use 3 exposures, with +/-2 stops. ive tested the same frame using the same outputs on multiple different reels and with different scenes, and i couldn't see enough of a difference between 3 and 5 exposures to justify the extra time and space thats needed.

For a 50ft reel its taking up about 360gb for the raw photos when using 5 exposures, and only 180gb when using 3, and that increases 3x after converting to tiff.

The image on the left is the single exposure capture at 0EV.
The image on the right is the 3 bracket "hdr" exposure, +/-2EV.
None of the images have had post processing, the left is the tiff output from raw, and the right is created using exposure fusion using enfuse.

There isn't a massive difference, i was expecting more to be honest. But you can still see some improvements, the 3 exposure version has more detail in the curtains, and the person on the right of the image wearing the black shirt, on the left image its pure black, but on the right, i can kinda make out a fold in the shirt. Maybe im just imagining things🤷‍♂️

Anyway, im gonna start the rest of the process after converting all these files.

ive still gotta figure out the best way to post process these films, but i cant be bothered 😭

Im capturing my third reel at the moment, it appears to be the "Durham Miners' Gala", No idea what year its from.

Well... the capture finished without issue, which is great, now time to work out the post process steps😁

We have reached the half way mark (ish) for the capture. Currently at frame 1568, no hiccups or interventions needed so far🥰

Capture is on frame 420, and its been going for 1 and half hours. So ~13seconds per frame?
Yeah, i dont think its going be any quicker, which is unfortunate, i really thought some of the timing changes i made would have shaved at least 1 second per frame off, but apparently not😭

The film hasn't slipped yet, which is good. I think by this point in the film last time i had had to help it out 2 or 3 times. So hopefully that is more reliable now.

Ive started the capture again, Haven't changed a massive amount in the code, just the number of captures before it transfers to the nas and some delays inbetween shots.

This is the first test with the glued up gate that i mentioned earlier.

So far its got past the section in the film that was consistently slipping, so hopefully this just finishes with no hiccups.

If it does finish without issue, im gonna attempt to implement a resume feature, just incase something interrupts the process.

I have no idea what the best post processing steps are, ive gotta research that 😭

Regarding how long it takes to scan a 50ft reel... Well the answer is, To fucking long.

Ignoring the first 5 frames, which are REALLY slow and used as learning frames, I would say on average its taking about 10 seconds to capture the frame, That doesnt include moving / aligning the film.

So, assuming around 2900 frames per 3 minute (50ft) reel, it would take 8 FUCKING HOURS.

Heres the thing, Im not sure how much i can do to speed that up. Moving the film doesn't take a massive amount of time, so its not like i can cut the move time down a great deal. The main time hog is the capturing process.

I will admit, i think what im doing at the moment is probably overkill, but i would rather do to much than not enough and end up having to capture the whole reel again.

This is what im doing...

Each frame is captured using 5 HDR brackets: one at normal exposure (0EV), plus two overexposed (+1EV and +2EV) and two underexposed (-1EV and -2EV). I based that off some posts ive seen on the kinograph.cc forum, which seems to suggest that 8mm film has a pretty high dynamic range.

The biggest speed increase would be knocking it down to 3 exposures from 5.. i think.

I set the first film to digitize last night. It mostly worked, but there is some issues.

First of all, The gate, I had to take the gate apart this morning as there was just the tiniest gap inbetween from and back of the gate, the film would slightly slip into the gap and cause some unnecessary friction. Ive took it apart and put a tiny little bit of super glue along the bottom edge, put it back together and run some cardboard through the gate to make sure its a clear path for the film, I only just did that, so i haven't tested it yet.

Second thing is the rollers for advancing the film, it works most of the time, but sometimes it slips and isn't able to move the film, however, im hoping the modified gate will reduce that friction and give the rollers more of a chance to advance the film.

I changed the spring for the roller clamp arm thing to a tighter(?) spring, so now it puts more pressure on the film and should grip it better?🤷‍♂️

I havent actually done any of the take up reel side of things, im just letter the film gather for a little bit then manually rolling it on a reel. Primarily because the frame for the machine was only designed for a 3inch (50ft) reel, not the larger reels. I havent really decided what im going to do regarding larger reels, but i really dont wanna rebuild the entire thing again, so ill probably see if i can design an extender or something, which would give more room for larger reels.