This is an interesting item put up on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=deskto..._channel=pro8mm

I know there is a treatment to restore some colour back into film, though not proven how long it will last, I'm too sure what this application is not would I be convinced until a collector well know and trusted to us tried it.
Are they saying a single application to a faded film will make it all better? 🤣.
Pro 8mm California have (according to their website) been going since 1972, perhaps they genuinely do have the answer, but how come no one knew this all these years?

I'll bet the cost far exceeds the 400ft extract, and not that good an improvement anyway, how we got conned .......

I know the price is expensive, I think I read that someone had an optical print done and it cost around 300 in think if memory serves me right.
I think for me, once a films faded or fading thats the end, if it was something mega rare then that may be different but until we know how long the treatment will last it's something I'll watch in the background, after over 40 years of collecting I would prefer to continue to move fading films on and replace with good ones.
At least it can be done though, thats a plus for the hobby for many.

If I understood the youtube description properly, it sounds like they re-printed the film. So that would be a dupe of a Super 8 print. Yuck.
Might as well just make a new Super 8 print from a digitial source -- oh wait, that's been done already.

Fair point, revisiting the video, it does state this is a potential, i guess you could say that about any print, at least people are trying I guess. I still think the prices are just too much without knowing how long it was last before the fade starts again.
Until the film industry gives any restoration treatment a thumbs up it'll just be trial and error, as it stands, the fade process cannot be reversed, but it can be slowed and improved on with the process available if you think a print is worth it.

If we are talking about collectors restoring the color to their actual print, it would have to be some process where the whole film is treated of soaked in some solution that applies the correct colors that have faded -- I can't imagine that being possible other than to somehow dye the whole print with perhaps a light blue, like using a color filter. But it seems impossible to selectively add color to only parts of the image. I'm talking about the one individual print you have -- not scanning into digital, where color can be restored at a much finer detail, which is what is now done for blu-ray, etc.

To be fair Thomas, the company who do this do put the film through a heck of chemical process. As long as there are still fair colours in the print they can make a massive improvement to a print and bring it back to a good colour life. I cant recall the costings but with all the shipping that goes with it all, it wouldn't be something I would choose to do do, I've been collecting films for a very long time and got to an age where I just appreciate decent colour prints on low fade stocks, the films that are fading will either stay with me until I bin them or will sell them on, the later being the most likely option. If I sell a faded film it is listed as such and will have screenshots of my print not some pin sharp perfect colour image copied and pasted from the internet, I just do not get those sellers who do that, those images are nothing what so ever to do with the prints they list, but yes the process is out there and available in Italy.

I am to send a 1200’reel for treatment shortly, price for treatment is 60 Euro, so it should not be 300, unless it was a 16mm, which might be more than 60 Per reel. I will post some pictures when it’s done

Friendly guy too

This is basically a rhetorical question, but...
How can the chemicals restore color that has disappeared? If the chemicals have dye, then it would have to cover the whole image. If it added blue, then both the sky and your grass would be blue. It would have to know what colors were there to begin with to selectively dye the correct color, much like when a computer does it.

In any case, it would only be worth doing to one-of-a-kind prints, and certainly not a Ken Film's STAR WARS digest.

Actually I'd love to get some of my cutdowns redone like The Odessa File, Midnight Express and The Wild Geese. But it would have to be a rigorous recolouring process to get me to part with the dosh. If the result just ends up looking muted and grey, then it wouldn't be worth it.

Maybe they hand paint it like they did for the Melies shorts back in the early 20th century!

Unless the chemicals can somehow increase the stauration of any color, and it doesn't have to detect where on the film a specific color is. I'm just guessing here.

But that youtube description said that STAR WARS extract was printed on new film -- again that strongly implies to me that the original print was scanned and then a computer recolored it, then it was printed back to film.

Zitat

---

Test shows the potential to restore Magenta faded film materials. This was printed on the New Ektachrome 94 stock.

---

£60 for a 1200ft is actually pretty good, thanks for that Vidar, for some reason I thought it was that sort of price for a 200, I'm happy to be wrong on this.
I Agree with Martin, I would like to hear from others who have had the work done and perhaps any before and after screenshots, but NOT those who use a filter.

With printing from digital being so cheap, (and I will add to this later) it would be pointless doing the treatment to reprint a copy off film, the colours dont come back as they were when new, it is an improvement and the more fade your film has, the less it will work, if it faded to red or pink with no colour left, it cannot be done.

Those three titles you have Martin were among my favourites so having very good colours restored would be great but I'V a long way to go to be convinced that having new copies made would be better, or, simply project the blu-ray and save your cash for buying another film with good colours

Just got this price from him, so it is current price

Here is a Norwegian collectors Jaws, before and after pics. 16mm

I'd be interested in seeing the results Vidar, Mark

A definite improvement.

You're getting a dupe of your original film. I'm not saying that's good or bad, but it just confirms my suspicion that you can't restore color back to the original unique physical film print. The output of the process is a digital copy and a printed-on-film copy. The original faded film remains the same.

Now I'm curious if they handle adding a magnetic stripe with the soundtrack in-sync.

I couldn't find anything on their website about this process -- probably because I was looking for a process that physically restores the color on your original print. Now from their youtube I see that is not the case -- so their processes described on their website for digital scanning is what they offer.
https://www.pro8mm.com/collections/scan-...-8mm-to-digital
I can't find anything where it says they print back to film. In fact, they clearly say:

Zitat

---

We are unable to make prints of super 8 film. Most people will scan to digital and if needed, blow up the digital to 35mm at a post facility using the high-quality files we provide.

---

Found here: https://www.pro8mm.com/pages/faqs
Color me (pun intended) confused.

Zitat

---

One application for Pro8mm's new Film Out tool is to restore badly magenta faded Super 8 prints. Original Super 8 film can be scanned to digital then color and exposure corrected and then Film Out as a new colorful film print. This was an old Elmo promo film that had gone badly magenta and we scanned to digital , corrected and put back out to Super 8 Film.

---

Their website says they don't have the capability to print! What am I missing here????

Quote: Vidar Olavesen wrote in post #8

---

I am to send a 1200’reel for treatment shortly, price for treatment is 60 Euro, so it should not be 300, unless it was a 16mm, which might be more than 60 Per reel. I will post some pictures when it’s done

Friendly guy too

---

Quote: Vidar Olavesen wrote in post #13

---

Just got this price from him, so it is current price

---

No, his company is Movie Magnetic I believe and is Alberto Vangelisti.

Some info here : http://mimundoensuper-8.blogspot.com/201...ubstrative.html

You get your film back, no dupe or digital copy

Thanks, but I thought this thread was about Pro8mm and their process. When did it transition to a thread about another company and their process?


No wonder I've been going crazy. Still doesn't explain how Pro8mm says on youtube that they printed back to film from digital, yet their FAQ says they don't have the capability to print.

I'm too exhausted now to go through http://mimundoensuper-8.blogspot.com/201...ubstrative.html and get even more confused.

Probably my fault, thought it was the process of removing the magenta layer, never heard of anyone else doing it. My apologies

No problem, at least now I know I'm not crazy!

They must add some colors like blue to the film to have the same effect as a blue filter. I've never actually tried a blue filter, but I've heard it helps. The filter would be a lot cheaper soultion, too, and if my memory is correct, screenshots I've seen with a filter look a lot like those corrected pics of JAWS above.

Now the Pro8mm process, since they scan to computer, should have a much better result than what they've shown. Their result looks much like a blue filter, too.

All this reminds me of Ted Turner and his crayolas with B&W films! Remember how P-O'd Orson Welles was when he thought they would colorize CITIZEN KANE? And wasn't he on his death-bed when he said it?

Blue filters help, though you lose some light

My 16mm Man Called Horse, with and without filters

Oh, so that's the same blog that I linked to recently that had the 10 parts on various Super 8 projectors.

So, in short, the process is like Visine -- it gets the red out!


I'd be curious to compare a blue filter to the chemical process. From your screenshots, my gut feeling is that a color filter is probably good enough.

But my gut is often wrong.

I have very few color films, and they all have those darned lines from my old Elmo. It would be great if there were a process to remove the lines permanently, not like lubing a film to hide base scratches for awhile. My LPP Disney cartoon shorts I bought used from Derann could use it. Also, my LPP ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD from Red Fox, though I stopped projecting it for awhile until I eilminated the scratching problem, so it is not too bad.

I did use gels/filters for a very short while but while it obviously hides some of the red, it takes light away from the screen, (obviously), so the use of them was very short lived, I think I tried it on three short films and that was when I decided to start clearing out and aiming for better quality films instead. At the end of the day you cant polish a turd.

You can use dichroic glass filters for more light output, you may find them expensive though but worth a try if its a film you intent to keep, or have more than one with the problem, the coloured gels are for changing flood lights or colour balancing, so will absorb light from the lamp output, glass has better transmission and they don't fade through time and heat.....