8mm & Super 8 Film to Digital Converter, Film Scanner Digitizer with 2.4" Screen, Convert 3” 5” 7” 9” Reels into 1080P Digital MP4 Files,Sharing & Saving on 32GB SD Card

Someone else wrote to put the instruction manual under the front of the device - and I agree that helps when pushing the buttons. Some other tips I have for Novice 8mm Home Movie Converters: * SD card - tape down the locking tab on the SD card. my first time trying to record I got the message that the SD Card was not available. I formatted and tried again. I ejected the SD card - and realized the SD card tab was in the "locked" position. Flipped to unlocked, reinserted and tried again - Same message. Ejected the card to replace with another I had - and noticed the tab was in the lock position again. So I applied a piece of cellophane tape over the notch tightly so that the tab could not move - reinserted the card, and was able to start recording. * Clean the foot the film runs through after running each reel. Dust and particles will need to be cleaned off the foot that holds the film in place as it passes to capture the images. A cloth and a "puff brush" are provided and are helpful, but I also used cotton buds (make sure they are the tight, hard tip type, so as not to introduce loose fibers) to wipe the path clean. They also come in handy to help feed the film under the clips in the foot mechanism. * Use the mechanism to open AND close the foot over the film - don't just click closed. It's only plastic, you'll wear out the clip. * If you have a shorter reel - use that one first - I ran my first reel a few times to get the hang of positioning * This takes long. It's taking a individual image of each frame. A three minute reel will take 30 minutes to complete. I included a video clip to show how s-l-o-w this runs. It is taking a shot of each frame - and these films in a projector would run at 15 frames per second. * You will need to babysit and stay with the device during the process. You can't walk away for a while and expect to come back when it's near done. I had a leader (the white part that feeds through before the film starts) break off as it was going into the foot, and had spliced film get stuck a few times because it was not spliced well. Plus just checking on your home movies while running thru gives you a chance to figure out how you want to edit once you have it in it's digital format, jot notes of what music would be great in the background. These YOUR family memories, and the advantage of doing yourself is putting correct period music (or sound effects) to your family stories. Something that would not happen if you send off to get processed. After Processing Once I had the reel processed - I left the SD Card in and opted to use the USB transfer cable to copy over to my Windows laptop. Once on my laptop, I was going to use the highly recommended OSB Studio (free) - but found it a little too much of a learning curve for my use. I was able to get great results using Microsoft's ClipChamp (free version) that has an easy and pretty intuitive interface to drag and drop my clips and then add titles, transitions, sound, and other effects. Exporting to 720p was plenty of resolution to enjoy up on my 50" TV at home. I was fortunate that my old movies were stored in a cool (and dry) back corner of a garage. My 8mm reels were in pretty good condition and the film itself did not show cracks, splits or broken sprocket holes. If your film has issues - the conversion may not go as smoothly as mine did. Hope this info is helpful to someone who wants to convert those old home movies!

I had a box of '60s 8mm home movies and a projector, but the bulb burned out and the replacement was over $200 if available. I decided to give this digitizer a try before contracting with one of the many commercial ventures that digitize. Given that these were amateur-shot, quality was not that good to begin with, so a low cost alternative was inviting. I have to say that this machine did a fairly decent job digitizing them. If you are in a hurry, this is not the choice for you. I never officially timed it, but I estimate it takes at least 30 minutes for a single 3-4 minute film. That said, the scanning output quality is adequate for what my movies are. I left most settings at default. I did try the higher quality scan, but I actually thought it looked grainier than the standard. I did have to make adjustments to the framing a few times, but that is expected. Cons as I see them: Loading film through the scan path is challenging as there are 3 tabs the film must be slid under. There are pricier ones on the market that appear to have a better loading path. Take-up side sometimes wouldn't hold the reel tightly, sometimes coming loose. Supply reel has no braking so my film would unravel if I didn't set a piece of cardboard against it to brake slightly. Rewind function is slow and suffers from the loose reels. In my case, I just used my old projector to rewind and I could scan another reel while rewinding. The supplied air duster was nearly useless. Fortunately, I had my own. It is rather noisy. Not a problem for me as I worked in a separate room. All in all, I am glad I bought it. I'll digitize all my film then resell to someone who wants to do the same and recoup some of my investment.

I have given this product a one star because it never worked as promised right out of the box and I expect more for the price I paid. I am familiar with the "sister" Converter "Wolverine" which worked most of the time. But too often I had to digitize the same footage several time to get a good picture. I say "sister" machine, although the first one was called "Wolverine" and this digitizer goes by "Eyesen" the two machines are identical in design! Then the Eyesen 8MM to digital came out and I eventually bought that in hope it would be a better machine. By better I mean this digitizer allowed larger reels and bosted a 1080p picture quality. I have only used SD cards on both machines so I cannot comment on the other functions. I set up the "Eyesen" digitizer, plugged it in, adjusted the frame and started to copy a Super 8MM movie! After running the machine for about 10 minutes it stopped! The light went off. The machine was dead! The first thing I did was to change the power supply , That did not do anything! So I let the machine sit over night, thinking that a good night rest would do the machine good! But the following morning the machine was still dead. I had read the Amazon Help page and the manual is useless. So I changed the power supply out with the power supply from my first machine. Not believing my eyes, the machine lit up. But now it would not accept the SD card that came with the machine. I tried to format it in the machine, But that never happened, so I formatted the SD card in my computer and now it worked. In conclusion. I have a hard time recommending this product. A power supply that last for 10 minutes that is just beyond what you expect for $259.-. I have power supply for external hard drives that have lasted for 20 years working 24 hours a day! Make sure if you buy this product you put it through all the set up functions to make sure they work properly and if not you can return it.