Home 16mm Transfering

[Evan Ferrario]

I would like to begin this thread by stating an obvious fact: No home telecine will come close to the quality and resolution of a professional transfer. This is not an argument that a DIY transfer could replace a professional transfer, but instead I'd like to hear tricks and tips that anyone has come across so we could all learn from each other.

 

A telecine will cost a minimum of $100 if not more. This is not always a good option for say: students, home filmmakers and experimenting.

 

Short ends can be found cheaply, processing is about $20 for a 100 foot roll so filmmaking can be had on the cheap.

 

However getting the film into a digital form is costly. I have been projecting my 16mm footage and video taping it for about 3 years and have improved my techniques greatly over this time. I would like to hear from anyone else who has done their own transfers and the details of their setup. I have seen some great results on vimeo and youtube and lots of terrible footage as well.

 

I would argue that a nice home telecine can make excellent results for broadcast on youtube or vimeo. I believe this should be the ultimate destination of footage transfered this way. If you even have a remote chance of theater or television release, a professional transfer should fit into the budget.

 

My setup is an elmo 5 blade projector to elliminate the flicker. I project it onto a piece of oaktag making the image about 2 feet wide. I have a sony HDR-FX7 HDV camcorder which I bypass the HDV with a blackmagic intensity card which captures into prores on my mac pro.

All the film I have shot and transfered has been negative. To get a better idea of the footage, I invert the screen on my mac while I am watching it (cntl, option, apple, 8) Then I compensate for exposure problems using the exposure control on the HDV cam.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jk5d8Mq3gU...re=channel_page

 

This is an example of what I can do with my setup.

 

The upgrade I made to the intensity card did add a bit of quality as far as the motion was concerned but I don't feel like that is the bottleneck.

 

Would a nicer lens for the projector add to the transfer? Also I still have a line going up the screen in my transfer from the projector being slightly out of sync. I have used the projector with a variAC and it corrected the problem. Unfortunately I do not own one yet.

 

I have shot a roll of reversal and the results were much nicer with this setup than with the negative. I think it must have something to do with the fact that negative wasn't meant to be projected. I find that it's hard to get the color right. I spend a lot of time in final cut color correcting. Even then it isn't as vibrant as reversal.

 

I think the biggest issues with my footage is color and sharpness. If anyone else has experience with transfering their own footage for personal use, I'd love to hear about it.

[Oliver Gläser]

Every piece of glass you put between the film and the sensor will reduce your sharpness. Any single pole dimmer from a home depot or the like, wired into your AC at or after your 'on' switch is a VARIAC and will eliminate the scan line. The vignetting is the result of both the lens on the projector and the light source you are using. I believe if you want the best quality possible, then you are approaching this in the wrong way. I would recommend looking at a 'Workprinter' (although there are many issues I have with them also) and you will be well on your way to better quality.

Here is an example of super16 and ultra16mm material off of my Film scanner. I can tell you, I have compared the quality to that of the local labs (same footage scanned twice - once on a RANK and once by me) and the image is easily comparable.

Newsreel Productions Super16mm scanning reel

Good luck in your future endevours.