Jake Emmerson

Thank you very much for your response mmost. Very informative. Of course, every answer leads to more questions... I guess my question then is does Dmin to Dmax on a Spirit 2/4k go as high into the brights and and as low into the darks as an Arriscan (with it's 2-light system)? Or am I drinking Arri's PR? Also: Obviously I wouldn't want to use that flat image for final, I'd color-grade it to be more contrasty. Now, if I take an image into photoshop and look at the histogram I'll get a nice full curve of information. (follow me here...) I then lower the contrast in the image using level. Then I open the levels adjustment and increase the contrast again to make it look the same. When I look at the histogram, the curve is the same, but now it's full of gaps. Now, I can't tell the difference with my eye between the image I started out with and the 'processed' image, but it looks like I'm losing shades of 'color'? 'luminance'?. Isn't the same thing happening if I scan Dmin-Dmax and then boost the contrast in the colorgrade? Or is this information that doesn't really affect the image quality? (like I said, I can't see the difference).

(I make a lot of assumptions on the way to my questions... Feel free to correct me on any of them.) We just completed shooting a feature on Super16mm. Our plan is to do a poor-man?s DI by telecine-ing to HDCAM-SR 4:4:4 RGB 10-bit log, 1920 x1080, 24p fps. It sounds like Spirit is the best Telecine DI option out there (the next step up would be a frame-by-frame scanner...too expensive). So I had a few questions about the Spirit systems... I hear a lot about new vs. old Spirit scanners and how the new ones are so much better. What do I go by? What question can I ask to know if the Spirit is ?new? or ?old?? When people say a Spirit DataCine. Is that a system older than 2k and 4k? Or is that the full name that?s rarely used and they just haven?t specified what "k"? Ie Spirit DataCine 4k. I?ve read Marc Wielage say in these forums that Spirit 2k is 12bit linear, Spirit 4k is 16bit linear. Is there a mathematical difference (as opposed to debatable visible difference) between the two once they?re collapsed into 10-bit log? Since we?re working with 16mm, grain reduction is going to be important. The Spirit 2k has a built in grain reduction system. (correct me if i?m wrong) There?s also ?software? grain reduction in the color correction systems. What is the best way to deal with grain reduction? Is it good to use the Spirit grain reduction or wait for the end to deal with that. Or just a combination of Spirit and grading software? My post supervisor says we?re going to telecine/scan for ?full information?. It is my understanding that film negative has 15 stops of latitude from whitest white to blackest black. A film print is something like 9 stops. An Arriscan (thanks to its 2-light system) supposedly captures ALL the information (ie. All 15 stops). What range of that does a Spirit 2k capture if it's set up to scan for ?full information?. If I do final color correction tape-tape in a daVinci...I?ve heard that?s not as good as a ?real? DI box. In what way? Thanks for your help. Cycad