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Custom DIY Telecine


Stephen Hargreaves

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Hi Frank,

 

Thanks for the detailed info, do you know roughly how much this camera sells for? I've tried to google but my searches reveal POA..

Ideally in a perfect world I'd love to do Super16 neg and S8 on the side.

 

I have a small bm resolve setup so if I could colour in that app from the files from the camera that would be Stella.

 

Cheers

Sean

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Guest Christopher Sheneman

Hi all,

 

This thread has been a good read..

 

Recently i picked up a 2nd hand jk optical printer with 16/35 gates, I've been looking at the vast array of machine cameras on the market, and it's quite a headache, specs are hard to find and prices are staggering... I feel this rabbit hole has no end.

 

I've thought about a continuous light source but noticed all the frame by frame scanners on the market use a strobe style light source..

 

Thoughts?

 

 

Cheers,

Sean

 

Northwest film forum, a non-profit film making center, has had a DIY telecine for years now. It consists of a JK optical printer and a XL canon camera.

 

Here's a link:

http://www.nwfilmforum.org/live/collection/equipment/218

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There's also only so much information you will get out of an S8 frame and at the risk of starting yet another useless debate on the subject, HD1 (1280x960) if cropped is probably about it. A 1920x1080 with side borders to maintain the original format is also about right.

 

I agree. HD1 is more than enough for 8mm film. It's not all about resolution. A good 1280x720 transfer will look much better than a bad 1920x1080 transfer. Also, modern HD TV flatscreens are having very good internal upscaling systems. Even a good 720x576 filmtransfer will still look very good in full HD on one of those modern flatscreen TV's.

 

It also depends on what the end target is. HD TV? Computer? Digital projector perhaps? On a HD computerscreen, you will see any artefact. But when watched the same file from a distance on a HD TV for example, those artefacts are barely visible and not disturbing at all.

 

And then there is the aspect ratio problem. To keep 4:3, we need to add black borders. So 1280x720 is actualy 960x720 with two 160 pixels black borders. However, it is possible to crop the 4:3 picture to 16:9 as you can see here:

https://vimeo.com/37394781

 

As you will see, I'm limited with my current 1024x768 camera. With Frank's camera it is possible to crop straight to 1280x720.

 

PS: as for the wetgate: the Film-O-Clean used with Filmguard should do the trick.

 

many greetings from Belgium,

Fred.

 

 

 

 

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I like this thread. Im sick of these scum bag post houses Quoting me by the frame to scan my neg. What we need is a nice Spirit Datacine thats been skipped. We save it, get the DIY dons like Frank on the case and setup our own Datacine community. Everyone chips in say 200 euros a month. IT pays frank, bish bash Bosh. Frank? What you saying? Lets make this happen. Lets make shooting 35mm as easy as an iPhone vid.

 

Who's in?

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Haha i feel your pain, that's why I purchased an old jk optical printer, I got sick of paying stupid fees to go to hd tape then back to QuickTime files and so on etc..

 

Cheers

Sean

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While I don't know the specifics of this machine,

I suspect it isn't much more than a rotary prism

flat-bed editor/viewer with a video tap.

You won't have the optics, image stabilization or

illumination controls of an actual telecine.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm building a telecine rig based on Frank Vine's lighting system, for 16mm to transfer some films, using a Point Grey 2.8MP mono camera, catpuring each frame three times, once for each R, G and B channel in uncompressed 16bit.

 

When I'm done capturing my stuff, I'd be happy to do anyone's captures just based on a cheap hourly rate to cover my time, if it was for their own film projects. I'm not sure if that is of any interest to anyone, but I thought I'd throw it out there, I would love people to still be able to shoot on film!

I can do Super8 as well using the same camera, but I don't know if anyone uses that any more at all?

 

I'm looking to build a 35mm unit in a year or so, I have a bunch of 35mm stuff to transfer as well.

 

A big thanks to all of the Franks and everyone else that has helped me out over the years, it has been wonderful to pick everyone's brains and to be finally getting close to having the rig finished at the quality level I needed.

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I'm building a telecine rig based on Frank Vine's lighting system, for 16mm to transfer some films, using a Point Grey 2.8MP mono camera, catpuring each frame three times, once for each R, G and B channel in uncompressed 16bit.

 

Hi Peter,

 

I would love to see some (color) frames, is this possible?

 

I assume you you are capturing image sequenses , right?

And how do you merge the R, G and B ?

 

Fred.

Edited by Freddy Van de Putte
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