Spirit 4K vs. Arri Scanner 4K

[Ben Brahem Ziryab]

What is the difference between these two machines, other than speed and image stability?

 

I know the Arri Scanner captures a broader density range, because it captures the image twice (once for the shadows and once for the highlights). The Spirit 4K is a "one light" so you chose where the density range will fall. What else?

[Robert Houllahan]

Arriscan has a 3K cmos chip that they "move" with pizeo motors to make "6k" and the Arri is pin registered, the 4K is slow. The Spirit 4k had 3 4k lines and a 700w Xenon light with continuous movement, no pins and is fast for a 4K machine.

[David Cunningham]

I know you asked for what is different... but most importantly... what is the same is they are both very old. Try the Director at MetroPost in NYC or the Xena at Cinelab. Both are excellent machines that can do HDR (multiflash) using a monochrome sensor and 3 separate flashes for each color. The results are far better.

[Bill DiPietra]

I know you asked for what is different... but most importantly... what is the same is they are both very old. Try the Director at MetroPost in NYC...

 

Agreed. I did some 16mm 2K/4K tests there and was very pleased with the results. Jack Rizzo occasionally posts in this forum, too.

[Robert Houllahan]

I would not describe the Spirit 4k as "old" necessarily.

 

And that isn't because I just got a Spirit 2K ;-)

 

The Xena Pin Registered machine just got an update to a 5K 14-bit Kodak monochrome Area CCD and is better than ever, the 5K sensor is used in Astrophotography and is essentially noiseless for film scanning applications.

[David Cunningham]

I would not describe the Spirit 4k as "old" necessarily.

 

And that isn't because I just got a Spirit 2K ;-)

 

The Xena Pin Registered machine just got an update to a 5K 14-bit Kodak monochrome Area CCD and is better than ever, the 5K sensor is used in Astrophotography and is essentially noiseless for film scanning applications.

 

 

HAHA! Why did you get Rob, quick and cheap daillies?

 

Ever seen how those old Spirit's deal with any frame instability or film warpage/imperfections? Crazy artifacts and warping. They were great for their time, and are/can be fast. But there are just so many draw backs to those old line sensors.

 

Ooooh... upgrades! :) What is your current flat scan Super 16 rate in 5K sampled out to 4K Prores 4444?

 

Dave

[Robert Houllahan]

This is a 2008 Spirit 2K so it is the newer machine, and yes I got it specifically for dailies. The newer generation Spirit 2K and 4K have three 4K CCDs and newer electronics compared to the original SDC 2000 machine. It's fast and good for sound synced timecode and keycode managed dailies for feature films. It is not a good machine for older, shrunken films.

 

We have the Xena 4K Dynamic Perf scanner which is sprocketless and uses a 4K area panel sensor with perf vision stabilization which does an excellent job for old materials.

 

Super-16mm to Xena true RGB Pin Reg 5K is $0.85/ft.

[Kenny N Suleimanagich]

I’ve been working with Jack at Metro in NYC lately – on the recommendation of a forum member here – and been very pleased with the scans with both 35mm and 16mm. His Lasergraphics Director has a nice way of handling grain. I’ve also had 3K s16 scans done through Cinelab with which I have been pleased. If I were you, I’d shoot 100 feet in various scenarios and have it scanned on various platforms.

Edited March 10, 2016 by Kenny N Suleimanagich