Homegrown telecine

[David Terraso]

I'm looking to transfer some 16mm to miniDv at home. Nothing serious, just shots of my family and stuff. There's a guy on ebay who's been selling Elmo16mm projectors that he puts a 5 blade shutter on for people who want to transfer at home with their DVcam. Now, I realize that I'm going to get the most professional results by sending my film to a production house, but I'm wondering if anyone has tried this and has any comments for me. I'm not looking for perfect color, mainly as little flicker as possible. Would a projector with a 5 blade shutter work for me?

 

Cheers,

DT

[Adam Frisch FSF]

Yes, I think the 5-blade shutter is calculated to work with 30fps NTSC cameras. If

you're in Europe, I don't think it would work.

 

Haven't transferred that way, but I see no point in it not giving quite good results, since

that's basically how a telecine works. I'd probably aim the DV cam straight at the

gate (remove the proj optics), or do an aerial image. In the first case, you need to flip and

rotate the image in post. All these transfer boxes with those dodgy condenser

lenses they sell to super-8 home transferrers degrade the image horribly.

[David Terraso]

Thanks.