Ultra 16 "health check"

[Paul Korver]

Telecine is the problem. Anyone can handle S16 but U16 is very limited. No Spirit other than Cinelicious' can handle it that I know of... they were dedicated to the format and do a great job supporting it. Bonolabs has been supporting it for a long time too.

 

I would keep your Bolex's unmodified and look into a reflex S16 camera. Prices are coming down fast.

 

Thanks for the plug Will. Yes we can do Ultra 16mm to HD from the Spirit. There are clips on our site in the "we love film" section. That mod took some doing and you won't likely find post houses willing to mess with their Spirit's 16mm gate to support the relatively small amount of U16mm work out there. We are very close to acquiring a new technology that can scan U16mm at 2K and 4K (of course it also scans S16mm and 35mm). More on that later when we're ready to officially announce.

 

As we've always said S16mm is the best option if it's affordable. But U16mm beats R16mm any day in the widescreen world we live in.

 

-Paul

[Will Montgomery]

...willing to mess with their Spirit's 16mm gate...

Exactly. Usually they're like, "Ummm...no." Which is what I usually hear about Super 8 on a Spirit or something like "Give us the 80k for the mod and we might do it."