Robert Houllahan

Here is a Super-16mm job we processed and scanned on the Xena 6.5K this week:

As with all digital things scanning motion picture film was technically complex and expensive and with newer progression of tech like sensors and GPUs scanning is largely becoming a commodity with minor differences between new scanners. The Scannity can make a good scan but it is locked into the older linear CCDs from Dalsa and machines like Scan Station, Xena, Kinetta etc. can just pop out the older area scan camera and drop in the newest sensor for relatively little cost.

With the $9K 6.5K sony Pregius sensor camera probably $50K depending on gates. Call and ask.

They actually had it on the LG Web site as an option for the Archivist but they evidently decided not to make it available and it is gone. It was going to be basically like the Scan Station "Personal" I have with a fixed camera / lens and 35mm 16mm and 8mm gates at 5K 2.5K and 1.2K respectively. They told me it was to be $65K or so. But no longer going to be available evidently. If BMD put a decent sensor into a Cintel3 then that would be a good option for $30K Or have DCS Build a Xena 6.5K for ya, the scans are very top shelf. For example I just developed and scanned a major music video (S16mm) Monday for an artist named CJ the song has 333,000,000 plays on Spotify and the clients could not be happier the DP says the Xena 6.5K looks better than the Scannity.

This is what they told me on pricing: It also has the latest Sony 5.3K sensor, so scan quality is improved over the previous 5K camera as well. The 16/8mm Archivist is $40K with software Optical sound and the 5.3K 16/S16mm gate. The 2.5K 8/S8mm gate is $2500. The mag sound base is $2500. Each mag head is $2500. HDR is $2500.

The Archivist has Mag heads for 16mm and 8mm The "Liquid gate" on that other machine has yet to really be proven as working, it is alcohol based and not full immersion.

Actually they will sell you everything from a board kit and software up to a turnkey system either in a Cintel Y-Front - DSX or C-Reality chassis (these were million dollar machines and have better film transports than most new machines) or a fully new scanner. DCS only uses the chassis and film transport from a Cintel machine no other electronics or optics etc. are used. DCS Also offers full immersion liquid gates from 8mm through 70mm (I have 8mm 16mm and 35mm) and you can select your camera (4k through 14K now) It is a more technical system than the LG but has all the advanced features www.digitalcinemasystems.net

Well I talked to the Reps for laserGraphics. The new Archivist scanner uses a newer 5.3K Sony sensor not the junk JAI 5K they used previously. It appears they are only offering the Archivist as a 16mm/8mm scanner now but still if I were you I would cancel that order for the machine you bought and order an Archivist from LaserGraphics, it has 2-flash and the Scan Station does machine vision pin registration which works extremely well and that other scanner does neither of those. Same price the LaserGraphics is vastly superior.

That is a really cool camera.

Global shutter has an appeal. The Red is smaller and can be kitted with a small lens and minimal power for a smaller footprint. People who have a Red eco system or other Red cameras for workflow streamlining.

No I think LG is only offering the 6.5K Pregius sensor on the "Full" scan station.

Looks exactly like the Scan Station "personal" I have (I paid $60K) but with 2-flash.

I think true sequential RGB does manage to get more accurate and separated color especially in the hilites of negative, more accurate individual R,G and B illumination and without the channel cross-talk of a Bayer sensor and it's photo-site color dyes. But this is often at the expense of speed complexity and sub optimal Nyquist oversampling. We have been doing allot of 2K S16mm scans on the Xena 6.5K which images the full 16mm gauge width at 6464 Pixels and then down samples to 2K in GPU. The scans look fantastic and color accuracy and grain rendering are both excellent.

It would have to be a intermittent transport for a monochrome sensor so either actually mechanically pin registered like an Arriscan or it would have to have precise transport control and advanced RGB GPU Perf registration like the Director. I am sure it is a Pregius 4K cmos sensor and continuous movement, I also thought it was not GPU "pin" registered. Also there are not many newer 4K CCDs there are 3.3K and 5K Ex-Kodak CCDs which will get you about 12fps in 4-tap mode also those CCD Machine vision cameras are now "legacy" and becoming limited in availability.

Yes both Xena machines got new Sony Pregius sensors but they replaced Kodak CCDs and I never had any issues with fixed pattern noise with those, they were just slower 3.3K and 5K sensors. Are you sure you didin't get a scan from the Scan Station?

There is no FPN issue with the 4K Pregius sensor (Same one that HDS uses) and the 4K and 6.5K sensors are from the same family of Sony Pregius global shutter cmos sensors. I also have a Scan Station P 5K which uses a JAI 5K CMOS sensor and that does have FPN issues. LaserGraphics offers the 4K and 6.5K Sony Pregius sensors as updates to the Scan Station now also.

I helped to Co-Develop the DCS Xena which we use and I have three of, 4K 6.5K and one that will take a 12k or 14K + sensor soon, I have actual full immersion liquid gates for them and the Xena has very advanced machine vision perforation based pin registration so I think I am good.

Did they impliment Machine Vision perforation registration on that scanner? Like Xena Kinetta Scan Station?

Scannity is about $1M for the scanner. Xena has full immersion liquid gates for 8mm 16mm 35mm and 56/70mm for far far less.

I would seek out the best automotive paint shop there and see what they say.

There is not a 2048x1556 DCP it has to fit into the 2048x1080 or 4096x2160 height of a 2K or 4K DCP so there will be matte/bars left and right for a DCP projector presentation. You can play a 4:3 on Vimeo or YouTube but all the DCI Theaters are set resolution. Resolution is only one factor in scanning, noise (fixed pattern or other) in the scan, color accuracy and fidelity and dynamic range are all as or more important. So a 2K scan on a BMD Cintel will be pretty poor compared to a 2k scan on Xena 6.5K or Scan Station 6.5K or a Scannity scan even thought the resolution may be the same or similar. A good 2K scan for a 2K DCP would be my goto recommendation for 1.33 4:3 finish.

RemJet removal on continuous linear processors for ECN2 is the prebath tank then followed by a rotary buffer / water jet stack to make sure ALL the RemJet backing is fully removed and washed away before going into the developer tank. There is also a air knife between the backing removal tank and the buffer jet stack and then an air knife between the buffer jet stack and the developer tank.

It is very good piece of kit for the money and he is in New Jersey so Michael could probably go check it out in person.

I have a Seven-Jib and it is really nice and well thought out especially for the price, I have done some mods to it but overall happy with this. https://www.longvalleyequip.com/sevenjib.php

I would recommend refrigeration not freezing. I feel that freezing can cause the carbon backing to stick to the emulsion.