Super 8 film = what resolution?

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MotionMan

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We are watching a DVD of some converted Super 8 films and it made me wonder - What resolution is Super 8 film (Google has failed me.)

MotionMan
 

MotionMan

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Quote:
Originally Posted by MotionMan
We are watching a DVD of some converted Super 8 films and it made me wonder - What resolution is Super 8 film (Google has failed me.)

MotionMan
It's film, so there is no set resolution.

I guess what I meant was something like, when we convert the film to digital, how high of resolution should we expect to see?

MotionMan
 

MagnusTheBrewer

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I guess what I meant was something like, when we convert the film to digital, how high of resolution should we expect to see?

MotionMan

That would entirely depend on the resolution of the conversion. I would ask whomever is doing the conversion.
 

iGas

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Feb 7, 2009
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Super 8 film format is slightly better than 8 mm, and is slightly less than 16 mm film format.

IMHO, 16 mm film are tolerable, but 8 mm & super 8 mm are absolutely garbage by today standard.

Quality of film media vary greatly, but IMHO in 8 mm format, everything are grainy and the washout colour is very poor by today standard.

Super 8 = 7.41 mm x 4.01 mm
 

tyler811

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Can it be converted to an HD level? What is the best I can hope for?

MotionMan


You can convert it to whatever you want but do not expect it to look like a new movie. Given the quality of the original, unless you have the equipment, I do not think you will see a big difference. Unless you go through and edit every frame for color washout and grainy look I think the best you can hope for is something that will fit your screen like 16:9.

I did read though in PC Magazine about an editor that took out some of the grainyness (sp?) and eliminated some fading for around $100. Sorry I cannot recall the name of it though.
 

MagnusTheBrewer

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Can it be converted to an HD level? What is the best I can hope for?

MotionMan

The usual conversion used in many advertised "deals" at Walgreens and the like are quite low as in 800 x 600. However, many are now offering "High definition" but rarely define what that is. The thing to remember is that there are many different issues regarding digital conversion such as aspect ratios, noise reduction, color balancing etc. The question you're asking is really unanswerable because it's like asking, what is the best car I can get without giving an idea of budget, color, purpose or, style.
 

SunSamurai

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Depends highly in the film used and the glass in front of it.

If you're using really finely grained film superb glass its around 12000 pixel fidelity per MM regardless of the scanning power. Any more than that and you're your signal to noise ratio drops profoundly. If you're using shit its going to half that or less.

35mm slide film = roughly 10MP on a 35mm piece of CCD with quality hardware supporting rendering the final image with the same glass. Rough estimate but its in the right spot.

Black and white can have/has had higher resolutions than its color counterparts. I would say with Super8 you can get between 1/4 to 1/2 a MP of real resolution extracted by a quality (dedicated) scanner.

In other words from 640x400 to 800x464. Basically it was our grandparents version of YouTube for quality before the HD content. ~460p


You can convert it to -any- resolution you want. 1080 if you can find a place that will do it. That doesnt mean youre going to be able to have more fidelity, just a bigger image. Like going into photoshop and enlarging a picture. Its bigger, has more resolution, but its not 'real' resolution.
 
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iGas

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Can it be converted to an HD level? What is the best I can hope for?

MotionMan
You can convert everything to HD level but it just mean that you converts the grain & the washout colour to higher resolution (absolutely no gain in quality).

Beside film resolution, it also the depends on the contrast level of exposure on the film emulsion that affect the resolving power, along with camera lenses quality, processing chemical, and digital conversion.

Kodachrome resolving power were 50~100 lp/mm (line pairs per millimeter for low contrast ~ high contrast).

Line pairs aren't the same as pixels but for comparison sake we will stick to the standard 2 pixels per line pair.

HDTV, 1920 × 1080 = 2073600 pixels, or 1280 × 720 = 921600 pixels

Kodachrome at 100 lp/mm, (7.41 * 100 * 2) x (4.01 * 100 * 2) = 1482 x 802 = 1188564 pixels

Kodachrome at 50 lp/mm, (7.41 * 50 * 2) x (4.01 * 50 * 2) = 741 x 401 = 297141 pixels

That said, in real world test with the best of lenses & chemical that were use to test the actual resolving power for Kodachrome is some where around 40~80 lp/mm (if I remember correctly). Therefore HDTV format grain is at least 2X the quality of Super 8 mm format, and the sharpness of digital over that of film is unparallel so as the superb colour of digital.

PS. At one point (before the film/video on computer age) I owned two 8 mm cameras & two 16 mm cameras that I use for animation (cell & claymation).
 
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SunSamurai

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You can convert everything to HD level but it just mean that you converts the grain & the washout colour to higher resolution (absolutely no gain in quality).

Beside film resolution, it also the depends on the contrast level of exposure on the film emulsion that affect the resolving power, along with camera lenses quality, processing chemical, and digital conversion.

Kodachrome resolving power were 50~100 lp/mm (line pairs per millimeter for low contrast ~ high contrast).

Line pairs aren't the same as pixels but for comparison sake we will stick to the standard 2 pixels per line pair.

HDTV, 1920 × 1080 = 2073600 pixels, or 1280 × 720 = 921600 pixels

Kodachrome at 100 lp/mm, (7.41 * 100 * 2) x (4.01 * 100 * 2) = 1482 x 802 = 1188564 pixels

Kodachrome at 50 lp/mm, (7.41 * 50 * 2) x (4.01 * 50 * 2) = 741 x 401 = 297141 pixels

That said, in real world test with the best of lenses & chemical that were use to test the actual resolving power for Kodachrome is some where around 40~80 lp/mm (if I remember correctly). Therefore HDTV format grain is at least 2X the quality of Super 8 mm format, and the sharpness of digital over that of film is unparallel so as the superb colour of digital.

PS. At one point (before the film/video on computer age) I owned two 8 mm cameras & two 16 mm cameras that I use for animation (cell & claymation).

I approve of this answer, but I think you would be really hard pressed to get to the business end of 100lp.
 
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