[MacDV] Problem converting 8mm film

[Steven Rogers]

On Sunday, December 22, 2002, at 05:05 PM, Maurice Kay wrote:

> The film image reflected in the CopyKit 2 looks good; however, the 
> image which shows up on the camcorder's LCD screen has a pulsing light 
> flare in the center of the picture.

That's one of the problems with the copy box - less expensive 
projectors tend to be dim around the edges, and particularly close up, 
will have a "hot spot" in the center. The cure for this is to get the 
copy box out of the loop and project a larger image (like two feet 
across) on a smooth white surface. The image will probably still be 
somewhat brighter in the center than the edges, but the effect is 
*much* less pronounced when you move the screen further away from the 
lens.

Manual focus is *very* important. If you don't have a big monitor to 
check the focus, put something like a sheet of newsprint on the screen 
and let the camera auto-focus on it, then lock the focus when its done. 
I haven't had good luck with manual exposure, because most home movie 
film is not uniformly exposed and requires constant adjustment if you 
use a manual setting.

SR