Table of Content
- CineFrameCatcher - cinefilm digitalization (Super 8, Normal 8, Single 8, 16mm or Páthe 9.5mm with a digital microscope)
- CineToVidPro - cinefilm digitalization (Super 8, Normal 8, Single 8, 16mm or Páthe 9.5mm with a photo flatbed scanner)
- CineStripScanner - Programm to control the scanning of film strips with a flatbed scanner
- CineFrameCleaner - program to clean digitized images ( cinefilm frames) from dirt and fluff and to generate the video clip from the images.
- DiaCleaner - program to clean digitized images (transparencies) from dirt and fluff
CineFrameCatcher
The CineFrameCatcher is a program that can be used to digitize 8mm, 16mm and 9.5mm Páthe cine films exploiting a digital microscope.
The 9.5 mm format and the 16 mm format is implemented, but not yet tested, because I do not have the required hardware.
The CineFrameCatcher is a new development intended to replace CineToVidPro and it is recommended if you do not want to still work
with the (relatively slow) flatbed scanners.
The CineFilmCatcher gets the cine film frames more than double as fast as CineToVidPro.
The single frames of a cine film are retrieved using a digital recording device ( e.g. a digital microscope or a similar device) and stored with a consecutive frame number as an image in a folder called the frames folder. Later on you can generate a video clip from these images using a video-generation program (e. g. VirtualDub in conjunction with AviSynth). Normal resolutions are SD (576P) or HD (720P or 1080P). But also 4K videos can be generated, if the frames have an appropriate resolution.
In order to exploit the CineFrameCatcher you need a special hardware which must be able to move foreward the cine film frame by frame under
the image catching device (microscope) so that this device can record the images digitally.
You have to craft this hardware by yourself because it is not available in the marketplace. The manufacturing of this hardware is not very difficult,
and with some tinkering experiance it will be relatively easy. The various parts required to build the transport device are described in detail in the help document
of the product.
This 720P demo video clip shows the quality you can achieve with CineFrameCatcher and FrameCleaner. to the CineFrameCatcher help file - as of Fabruary 10, 2020
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CineToVidPro
CineToVidPro is a program that can extract the single frames of a 8 mm, 9.5 mm oder 16 mm cine film in order to generate a video clip from
these images. From 16 mm cine films with light sound the light sound track can also be digitized.
The cine film must be processed using a relatively good flatbed sanner (at least 2400 dpi resolution) in short strips (5cm to 20 cm in length).
The maximum strip length depends on the TPU width (transparency unit width) of the flatbed sacnner available for digitalization.
CineToVidPro extracts the single frames from this scanned cine film strips and stores them in the image folder with consecutive numbers.
Special features of the program are:
- a function, that allows to smoothen the transition from one frame to the next one (jumping borders) caused by a slight bending of the film strip which may not be exactly the same at both ends af a scnned strip.
- a function, that allows to almost eliminate the vertical projection scratches caused by a film projector.
To use CineToVidPro effectively, you need a special hardware that can transport a cine film stripwise through the flatbed scanner.
The flatbed sanner than scans the cine film in short sections (the strips). To do that automatically, you need an additional software, that can control this
stripwise scanning process. This software has to trigger the scanning process, and after the scanning of a strip and storing the scan result in a
special strip folder (as a JPG or PNG image), the cinefilm has to be transported foreward by one discrete strip length
and the whole process has to be started again.
As a flatbed scanner control software you can either use the ScanController fromSimon Bühler
or the a little newer CineStripScanner. Both softwares are provided in the download section.
The transport hardware you have to manufacture on your own, you cannot buy it. You need a little tinkering experiance to do that, but is
is really not very difficult.
The ScanController as well as the CineStripScanner control the transportation hardware via the PC using COM ports
(or virtual COM ports with FTDI drivers - USB connection).
The parameters, which provides the PC Software via the COM ports have to be processed by a script in order to make them available for the exploited
control boards (e.g Arduino or Raspberry Pi) in order to trigger the stepper motor to perform the amount of required moving steps.
Example for a manuale and an automated tranport device.
Hint:The cine film always must be inserted into the flatbed scanner along the short side of the scanner glas !
This about 7 minute long HD 720p video-clip (resolution: 960x720 Pixel), was created using CineToVidPro, VirtualDub with AviSynth and Deshaker. He shows the quality you can achieve with this approach.
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CineStripScanner
The CineStripScanner is a program that controls the automated, stripwise scanning of cine-films
with 8 mm, 9.5 mm (Pathé) or 16 mm format exploiting the transport device described under CineToVidPro.
Der CineStripScanner is a new development that can replace the ScanController, if there are problems with the
"ScanController" when using Windows operating systems (mainly Windows 10).
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CineFrameCleaner
Digitally captured images (frames of a cine film captured with CineFrameCatcher or with CineToVidPro in the image formates - JPG or PNG )
normally contain spots of dust and fluff.
This image distortions can be easily removed with the "CineFrameCleaner" tool. But a fully automatic removal of this distortions is not possible,
because there do not exist unique and sufficient criteria that allow the distinction between a dirt sport and a tiny valid image element.
As cinefilm frames are normally stored in a folder that contains thousands of images this tool is designed for batch cleaning. It uses
three images for the cleaning process. The image to be cleaned, the previous image in the cinefilm and the following image in the cinefilm.
The exact process is described in the help document for the tool.
The programm also supports the conversion of negative black and white images to positive black and white images and the generation of a high quality video clip (MP4, AVI, MKV and MOV) from the extracted (and cleaned) images. It uses the command line tool FFMPEG. CineFrameCleaner provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for FFMPEG that is designed especially to be used together with CineFrameCatcher and CineFrameCleaner.
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DiaCleaner
Digitally captured images (slides, negatives in the usual image formates - BMP, JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, or TIFF)
normally contain spots of dust and fluff.
This image distortions can be easily removed with the "DiaCleaner" tool. But a fully automatic removal of this distortions is not possible,
because there do not exist unique and sufficient criteria that allow the distinction between a dirt sport and a tiny valid image element.
If the images are stored in an image archive (image folder, image directory), than batch cleaning is supported by the "DiaClenaer". You can step through the archive foreward and backward. Of course you also can select a single image via the system file selection dialog.
A sample of an image segment before and after the cleaning with DIaCLeaner.
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