WorkPrinter from Moviestuff
 

Long story short...I am ready to shell out for a WorkPrinter from Roger at Moviestuff, and I plan to order it this week. I have potential business use coming up for such an item and I will not bore you with the many details that lead me to this solution. They also quote a 45-60 day turn around for the build-to-order items, and I have some projects that will make nice Christmas gifts, so now is the right time for me to order, and I finally have the financing to do so.

Using 'search' on these forums, I find numerous mentions of the Moviestuff equipment, including mentions of 'reviews', and I have even seen clips of footage transferred with their stuff from other sites. What I haven't read here yet are comments from anyone who actually owns and uses one of their transfer systems themselves.

I plan on purchasing the Workprinter Jr. and doing my transfer capturing with my Canon XL2. (I think the XL2 will do a really nice job of this.) From my own research, I am already pretty set with this and I plan on calling Moviestuff by midweek.

So this is just a last minute comment fishing trip from any users out there who can give me their experienced review.

If there is no one on this site, then I suppose I will be able to post a few short clips on my website in the fall, and then throw some links into the forums for folks to check out.
-Jon

Hello.

I suggest you go to www.filmshooting.com and there go to the Forum.
A lot of people there use the Workprinter.

Good luck

Hans

I have one but experienced some problems with the projector mechanism.
The projector used for the transfer system is an inexpensive one and the transport had problems feeding regular 8 film. It creased some footage right along the sprocket holes when the pull-down claw mis-tracked the sprocket holes. So to really be honest, a projector is really usable for either regular 8 or super 8 film. But not both. The size of the sproket holes are dramatically different.

These comments refer to the one that runs at normal speed. If you get one that runs at a much slower rate then it should be just fine. At a really slow speed, like 3 or 4 frames per second, the pull-down claw should be able to track the sprocket holes OK.

If you already have a projector then I'd suggest making some minor modifications to allow the use of a 40-watt bulb and then get just the mirror/lens assembly from Moviestuff. That optical assembly really is the heart of the imaging process.

That's what I'll end up doing as I have a Bell&Howell projector which has always run extremely well. I also have an Elmo ST 1200 which is just as reliable.

Please note that when the equipment does function well, the results are very good. I also noticed that Super 8 film has much more resolution than can be reproduced by DV video.

The best part: You can color correct and restore the footage you capture. Should make for some great Christmas surprises. But watch that thing like a hawk when you're using it.

Thanks all for the info...I called Roger yesterday and he was very generous to give me his time and lay out some important details about the features of the items, as well as what I will need on my end to make it all come together. He also advised me on the time consumption stats of the Workprinter Jr. model, which I was going to buy as it captures at 1 fps and is more suitable for non RAID 0 systems such as laptops - which I use primarily.

He ran the numbers for me and let me know how many hours it takes to run a 400 ft reel at 1 fps.....There just doesn't seem to be any way for me to meet deadlines at that rate...so I went for the Workprinter XP - running at 6 fps. It is still slow enough frame by frame scanning, but much quicker through each reel. Consequently, the processing requiring requirements are more substantial, as the computer must process the image capture, as well as the average of 360 automated mouse clicks per minute.

Roger gave me some great ideas to work out with my set-up, and I am very much looking forward to having some fun with the unit when it arrives.
-Jon