I purchased the FS81 through Walmart.com two weeks ago. I am 100% satisfied with it. I have digitalized film dating back to 1956. If the image on the film is still good this unit will do a great job. Bear in mind the process is two frames a second so a little patience is needed. The quality of the finished product is well worth the time it takes for the scan.
I had an issue with an SD card. Rebecca in Customer Service listened and patiently walked me through the process of determining the problem. Exceptional product and exceptional customer service.

I was so excited to get this and get our old movies on to DVDs. It turned out to be a big disappointment and a waste of money. Unfortunately we have not had a chance till now to test out the product. The reel kinda skips and makes the video play back on the computer jumpy, not very good at all. My hubby had to hold down the reel button to stop it from jumping, he also tried an elastic band to help hold it together. Now I see our window of return is over so we are stuck with it. Would not recommend it if they are all like this.

We are so delighted with our machine and am really looking forward to putting all of our reel to reels dating back 50 years on to DVD.
The only thing I found, as it seems to norm with conversion equipment, is the film has landed up a tad faster than it should be. I am hoping my editing program will allow me to correct this.
It is a shame Magnasonic haven't got a dust cover for my FS81 as it would save me having to put the machine back in its box when not in use.
I would also like to mention Brent from the Magnasonic Customer Experience Team... he has been terrific with his help as well as emailing his prompt replies. Thanks Brent.

I transferred dozens of reels of super 8 and a few 8mm reels successfully with the MM100. But, I'm extremely demanding - and stubborn. [I swear a lot, but I keep plugging.] The quality of the results was fine, especially given that the source was just ~8mm home movies. But, the learning curve was long.There is only one reel motor. So, to rewind, you have to swap reels. [No big deal.] But, there is no mechanism to provide different torque values for play vs. fast-forward, such as a clutch, so the take-up tension is the same when 'rewinding' (fast forwarding with the reels reversed) or playing/transferring. So, when transferring, it pulls very hard on the film, which requires the pressure plate at the gate to press pretty hard on the film. This means that the sprockets will likely get damaged after a few tries. And, the pressure plate adjustment is very finicky, and there's a tendency for the framing to vary. I got around it by not using the take-up reel at all. I loosened the pressure plate at the gate to be very gentle on the film and just let the film fall into a clean bucket on the floor next to the table that the MM100 was on. Worked very well this way. [And, I often rewound by hand.] The framing was very stable when I skipped using the take-up reel.This thing transfers one frame of film to one frame of video. But the frame rate for video is normally 30fps, and for Super 8, it's 18fps; and, for 8mm, it's 16fps. So, if you want the video to run at the correct speed, you have to correct it with FFMPEG.Using FFMPEG is no picnic. Typical of software from the UNIX/POSIX/Linux world, to figure out how it behaves, you have to do a LOT of experimenting and/or read the source code. For example, I found that, when splicing two videos with the same frame rate and time scale ('video_track_timescale'), if I didn't specify the same time scale for the output file, FFMPEG would use some other value, which screwed up the running speed. I could find no documentation of any of this. It was all trial-and-error. [I posted some of this to an FFMPEG forum. and had people asking me what I had figured out.] If you abbreviate a time value in any way (leaving off zeroes), FFMPEG is almost guaranteed to misinterpret the value, do the wrong thing, and not report a problem.This could be a big opportunity for the Wolverine folks. I would guess that they're familiar with all of the things that I had to figure out by experimenting with FFMPEG. If they were to document it, it would make things a lot easier for people who buy this.I assumed from the start that splices wouldn't make it through the gate. So, I separated them and cleaned the goo off of the film. If appropriate (related scenes), I spliced the scenes back together digitally with FFMPEG.As I got better with this, I did more work in parallel. I'd transfer one film, take out the SD card, move the file to a PC that had FFMPEG, return the card to the MM100 to start another transfer, and then use FFMPEG to fix the running speed, split up unrelated scenes, etc, on the first video.I kept copies of all of the intermediate files (in case anything went wrong), and needed a fairly complex file naming scheme to keep track of it all.Using this is a LOT cheaper than having professionals do it. [And, this device is much less expensive than professional equipment.] And, I doubt that the quality is much, if any, worse - given the source. But, doing a good job requires a lot of patience and ingenuity.

Great machine already did approximately 1/2 mile of 8mm & super 8 film without any problems.

I have now scanned several reels of regular 8 (8mm) movie film. Mostly 5 inch reels and so far one 7 inch reel. This machine will do exactly as it is designed to do and that is transfer your old movie memories to digital. I have had no issues with scanning any of the films. I would recommend sitting with the machine as it does its thing, as bad splices can bind up and you will have to help the machine get past the splice. The small screen on the unit allows you to see what is being scanned. I left the settings for exposure, frame adjust and sharpness at default. You will want to ensure that your film is sitting under the 2 white tabs located under the film door, If the film is not properly seated it will run through the machine and scan but your scan will be jumpy and you may not notice it until you view your scan on a TV or computer. The end product that is your digital movie is only as good as the film you are working with, and how you placed the film under the film door.All in all I am pleased with this unit and how it is performing so far . I have not scanned any Super 8 film as of yet however can see no reason why it will not perform as well with those films.

I am so glad I have a Magnasonic film scanner! Our old family movies are finally available for everyone to watch whenever they want to. This device is super-easy to use. Well-worth the $$.

It was super simple to use. Copied a lifetime of film.

Esta perfecto

Your browser does not support HTML5 video.  FIRST IMPRESSIONS: Got the item yesterday. The machine was clearly refurbished despite the fact that I ordered a new one. It was particularly dusty and dirty, most probably used by a heavy smoker. Even tape and plastic wrapping were yellowish. Yuck. As each real is converted to video with a unique serial number, my first conversion was number 053, meaning the previous user converted fifty reels before returning it. Very disappointed to get a refurnished item for the price of a new item. Minus fifty points taken to Gryffindor (Magnasonic).The casing is cheap plastic, looks cheap, feels cheap. Reels scratch the casing when they rotate. There were reel scratches from the previous owner, but my own reel did some. I placed pieces of paper to protect the casing.As for scanning itself : it works, and it works more than okay. Operation is easy and result is satisfactory. But not much than that as the scan is grainy. I paid for some 8mm conversion in the past with professionals. They were expensive but definitely higher quality than these. I redid some of the same 8mm already converted. No debate possible: commercial services are much better. With this machine, it's grainy to a point that watching on a 55' tv is not pleasant. Yet, is tolerable considering they are old films and always be cheaper than commercial services. The more you do reels, cheaper per reel it will be. So, if you’re looking for a few happy memories and easy share of results with the family, perfect. If you are seeking significant history archiving, be advised, this is not the best solution.I still have to see if the machine will last. Twice while scanning, the machine made a worrying high-pitched noise of a spinning motor not working correctly (hear in video). It eventually faded out after 5 min. Humm. Should I worry ? As a said before, this is not a new machine I got, but a refurbished one. Still , after the ±50 reels, I wonder if the machine will last in the long run.Another quirk is jamming whenever it encounters splicing tape. The film just stuck. Either you have to stop and manually advance while it creates a new file (forcing you to edit later on), or you manually force a bypass (forcing you either way to edit later one with crazy jumping frames). In any case, it says the machine can't be let unattended.Another quirk is rewind which is lame a best. It's slow and lack tension. Film is slack on reel afterward.After scanning, you have a mp4 which can be watched immediately. But because scanning is grainy, you may prefer some postprocessing first. And because the film reel jams whenever it encounters splicing tape raccord, a by-frame cut editor is required. Unfortunately, no software of any kind is offered or referred.I personally use free Vidcutter to correct repetitive frame caused by splicing tape jams, but also the much more powerful commercial software VideoRedo. You can enhance slightly video quality with commercial Topaz Video Enhance or Topaz Gigapixel. The most interesting free software however is Dain-app which boosts 20fps 8mm to 40 or 80 fps, restoring the fluidity of frame-by-frame movement. Serious editing, long ovewrnight processing and specific GPU required, however. Completly optional.I am still test-driving the machine received less than 24h ago. I'll do some more reels and give soon an update.I am 70% happy with the machine but still 30% not sure if it's worth it, if it will last and if I will keep it.

Overall better than expected. Tiny screen sometimes hard to read settings (especially for frame adjustment). I’ve digitized several 7” reels (takes 3-4 hours/reel). Video editing software like Adobe Premiere can improve results considerably. Now it’s so easy to view the movies (on large tv) without projector& screen hassles. Happy with results!

Super 8/8mm Film Scanner - Nice machine, impressed with ease of use and quality of video file. Looks Good. Previously I had tried using my digital camera to record video from an image projected onto a screen with just ok results. This film scanner produces a much better quality reproduction. Only thing that I'd like to see is the ability to adjust Exposure, Sharpness, and Frame adjustment during recording without having to stop and restart in a new file. But, as far as I know that is not possible with any of the machines out there. Overall a positive experience with this product. I would recommend if you are planning on converting a bunch of your old films.

Seems to work just fine. Had it a couple days and transferred 10 reels, (3') that are 50yrs old. Color and brightness are better than expected. Loading and rewinding are a little tedious but not bad. Should pay for itself in no time.

Wonderful way to preserve our older movies and share them with family and friends. Easy to use and saved lots of money as compared to sending them out to a company for re-recording.

First off I would like to say I'm not sure how or why there were any negative reviews at all. As advertised, this product worked flawlessly for me. At first I was hesitant to buy this product because of the price tag, but I'm glad I did because it was soooooooooo worth it! The directions were easy to read and understand. I followed them exactly and had no problems at all. I converted 3,5, and 7' super 8 reels with ease. Altogether I digitized almost 2000 feet of footage without a single problem. It dose take some time to convert the film frame by frame but the results are amazing. Picture quality is stunning considering the film is over 40 years old. Being able to relive forgotten memories and seeing relatives who have long since past makes the price a bargain compared to companies offering the same service for much, much more. I wish I didn't wait so long to buy this fantastic machine. But now that I did, I made my parents an amazing wedding present just in time for their 48th wedding anniversary. Thank You! I couldn't be happier!