unsteady images at roll ends.

[John Salim]

A friend of mine recently commented that apparently it's common to expect slightly unsteady images from the front and end of 16mm rolls when scanned.

 

Has anybody heard of this - can’t see it myself !

 

 

John S :wacko:

 

[Prashantt Rai]

never heard of this.

[Dom Jaeger]

I have heard this from older cameramen about Arri SR1 and 2 transfers. Before the gate was re-designed for the SR3 Advanced, lateral weave in SRs was controlled by side rails that held the film steady at the top and bottom of the gate, but not at the gate aperture itself. Because (so I've been told) the film that is at the core of a roll can get a bit distorted and wavy along the edges, when it passes through an SR1 or 2 gate it can laterally weave at the point where the image is exposed, even though it's held steady above and below it. Once wound onto a take-up core, the same distortion might cause further unsteadiness in the telecine/scan at the other end of the footage.

 

Maybe someone else can explain exactly why film gets a bit distorted at the very inner layers of a roll. I guess it's something to do with the tighter coil and being connected to both the core and the heavy outer layers. Maybe it only happened with certain older stocks?