The Retro-8 scanner can handle most any regular 8mm film or super 8mm film of most any vintage, regardless of manufacturer (Kodak, Agfa, Fuji, etc). Ideally, all films should be in good condition, clean with neat splices and good sprocket holes. Due to the continuous, sprocketless feed drive of the Retro-8, film with less than ideal splices and bad sprocket holes will usually navigate the film path, however, some data may be lost in each instance. For example, splices that cover the sprocket holes will result in those specific frames being left out of the scan. Likewise, long stretches of missing sprocket holes will also mean lost frames. So while bad sprocket holes and bad splices may not jam and stop the transfer, you can expect some missing information on those frames. Of course, this can also work in your favor as regular adhesive tape can be used to splice films together without the need of a traditional splicing kit or any special edit tape. Also, regular adhesive tape can be used to tape over ancient, ugly splices that are too much trouble to remake or remove. In both instances, such splices where the sprocket holes are covered by adhesive tape will automatically be skipped by the unit during transfer. This unique feature will simplify later editing on your NLE since you won't have to scroll through the file to cut out "glitches".

It should be noted that the take up motor is very powerful. This allows the unit to pull through most any kind of splice but that same power is also enough to snap the film in the unlikely event of an aggressive jam. While the Retro-8 scanner has a built-in auto shutdown feature to help prevent film damage, only proper end-to-end splices should be used. Overlapping the film on splices or extra thick splices may jam and cause the unit to stop and/or damage the film. Also, please avoid splices that widen the film excessively, such as tape wrapped around the film multiple times, as theses splices may hang up on the gate and also cause a shut down and/or damage to the film. In short, the better the condition of the film, the less trouble you will have in your transfer session. Typically, if you prep the film properly, you can start a transfer and walk away, knowing that your entire 400 foot reel will run smoothly.




The Retro-8 does not have auto exposure. Experience has shown that auto exposure circuits can often be fooled by high contrast images or large areas of black or white. However, the wider latitude offered by the 24 bit scanning process of the Retro-8 means you can set a median exposure that should capture about 90% of all the information within a typical reel. While manual exposure can result in some segments slightly darker or lighter than intended, the look of the image can be easily adjusted on your NLE because the detail should still be there. On the other hand, auto exposure can result in the total loss of detail in black and white areas of the film and can not be adjusted afterwards. In short, there is no system that will make unattended aesthetic decisions you will always agree with. However, left to scan unattended, the number of unrecoverable exposure errors on the Retro-8's manual exposure is far less than the number of unrecoverable errors on auto exposure.