Robert Houllahan

The Vision3 stocks are designed to be inter-mixed so they all have similar grain and base character, I have found they can be inter-mixed in scanning without having to do a base re-calibration between stock.

Similar when printing them to film a one light can be pretty good with mixed V3 stocks, scene and lighting dependent of course.

I recently did a Digital to 7222 recording at Cinelab and I calibrated for one stop over and pulled 1/2 it had a nice contrastier look, it was for re-scan not a print.

We also tested a number of developers a number of years back before we ran a big well known 35mm B&W feature and found F76 developer to really work best and produce much nicer looking grain.

It is a negative so it will be a Log scan typically on a Scan Station or Arriscan and then as David said you can adjust contrast to your liking.

I have a Nucoda setup but don;t really do any stabilization, it is rare that any film comes out of the LaserGraphics or Arri scanners that need post stabilization.

IN scanner GPU stabilization works really well because it is done on the raw camera data before it is demosaiced so basically the machine looks at the monochrome info for contrast edges in a specific known general area where the perfs are supposed to be.

The LaserGraphics GPU stabilization is so good the scanner just has a encoder on the capstan and then the GPU stabilization, if you turn it off the film moves around quite a bit and then is locked amazingly steady when it is on.

I think Nucoda/Phoenix has better stabilization tools for film than Resolve does also.

I could potentially record to 100D Ektachrome and I am working on getting around to a test and calibration for the recorder and I have recorded to Tri-X reversal if you are just looking for a one off positive to project.

HI

We record to a negative and then print it, choices are 50D 250D 500T / 7222 for the recorded negative and we can print that to 16mm color or B&W print stock.

I am thinking about a direct to print stock recorder with sound using an Auricon but it is far down on the list due to the technical challenges of recording direct to print stock in real time like the Cinevator does.

The V4 (now) of the Cinelab Digital to 16mm recorder runs at about 2FPS to record digital files to 16mm film, pin registered.

On 10/13/2023 at 6:29 PM, Pablo Cruz Villalba said:

Yes, It comes out not very easily

This is unfortunately true.

Most of the film color timers learned by trial and error, Brad who was at Cinelab was an incredible color timer and did not like the hazeltine as he found it to be slow and cumbersome he timed on the bench with color cards and experience and made incredible timed prints.

Unfortunately he passed away a few years ago so much of the knowledge he had was lost except for the tools which are still at the lab.

For Di workflows on film you might reach out to Steve Shaw at Light Illusion as he has an extensive toolset for calibrating a Kodak digital LAD with a densitometer through the negative and print stages at a lab and building a matching 3D viewing LUT so the look of the print can be closely matched in the DI theater. 

For more controlled general printing you can use a Kodak LAD and measure the patches with the densitometer for ECN2 consistency and then print that LAD onto print stock and then measure the LAD patches on the print to get to a base printer light setup on the printer and process at the lab.

From there color timing is primary print lights +RGB = darker in all colors -RGB = Lighter in all colors +G = more magenta -G =less magenta etc.

On 9/4/2023 at 3:23 AM, Andrew Wise said:

What does the archival/shrunk film gate on the scanstation/archivist look like? And any feedback on how it performs? 

I think it has a metal plate system that "holds down" the film and makes it run flatter through the gate.

This probably really depends allot on the tolerance for being flattened by the presumably very shrunken film being scanned.

On 7/15/2023 at 5:01 AM, aapo lettinen said:

Were you able to check the gear ratio?

I will assemble the circuit boards in late August, probably between 20. and 25. of August.

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If someone else would like to order the 1-speed kit too, I am still accepting orders til August 10. The orders need to be paid for by August 15 so that I can ensure they stay on schedule

This is the CP I have

5 hours ago, aapo lettinen said:

Were you able to check the gear ratio?

I will assemble the circuit boards in late August, probably between 20. and 25. of August.

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If someone else would like to order the 1-speed kit too, I am still accepting orders til August 10. The orders need to be paid for by August 15 so that I can ensure they stay on schedule

Not yet let me take a look at the camera this weekend

Canon 11.5-138mm zoom.

Canon Super16 10.6-180mm T2.7 zoom.

On 1/21/2023 at 4:16 AM, Edith blazek said:

Yeah but here's the thing, no rental house in my area has 35mm motion picture film cameras, or any motion picture film cameras for that matter, I'd be the rental house in that case.

Colorlab does.

Give them a call.

On 7/31/2022 at 4:27 AM, Tyler Purcell said:

Correct, Kodak is already in financial trouble. "Film" product is the last big market they have. They've sold nearly everything else off.

Kodak did about 1.3B in sales last year and turned a bit of a profit, I think most of the sales volume was in advanced materials and inks etc. The MP products division and the still film division are both profitable I believe.

I would go for the Arriscan if you value color accuracy and DPX is really not that hard to deal with on a modern machine, just transcode it to ProRes4444XQ if the scan house won't offer that.

The Arriscan is a true RGB and true 16bit machine when run in 2-flash it is in another class of machine compared to the still excellent Scan Station.

The Arriscan is definitely superior in terms of color reproduction.

Can you post some pics?

Do you want to make prints with the Model C printers? Do they have tape readers?

4 minutes ago, Joerg Polzfusz said:

That smell is the result of putting camphor or paper with camphor oil into the film canisters/cans/boxes. This was done to keep the films flexible and to prevent vinegar syndrome. 

This also works to re-plasticize older films I have a seal-able lab chamber I put films into with camphor tablets and it works really well for films which are starting to turn.

I would definitely recommend us, but I am biased.

www.cinelab.com

We have two LaserGraphics Scan Staton scanners and an Arriscan and we run 16mm in ECN-2 / E6 Ektachrome / B&W Reversal and Negative all in their own individual linear processors.

If you want to email we can put a complete film and processing / scanning quote together.

1 hour ago, David Sekanina said:

Really impressive Robert!

Thanks the 16mm film recorder has really come along nicely if I can say so myself ?

I have more refinement to do on the software side but pretty decent now in Version 3

Working on a 35mm version now in addition to the aging Arrilaser(s) and the Imagica recorders I have.

13 hours ago, Phil Rhodes said:

That is some amazingly steady 16mm.

I built the 16mm recorder V3 around a Mitchell 16mm pin registered camera for best possible steadiness.

I am building a 35mm version which I hope to possibly use a 8K D-ILA (LcOS) imager for but will probably start with a Eizo medical imaging panel first.

HI

I put this academy standard countdown leader together and recorded it to 16mm.

I have both 2.5K and 5K scans of it freely available.

5K Scan: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nOw8Jga41eSlQvwgD7fA2-7xsXVH0QAJ/view?usp=share_link

2.5K Scan: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nU3RRve3KJe5nu6SBeAhPQiSlnVKVMhP/view?usp=share_link

On 4/30/2023 at 9:39 AM, aapo lettinen said:

great! I can deliver a conversion kit in July or August depending on how much other work there is in the Summer.

You will need to check the gear ratio between the motor drive and the camera mechanism, I assume the camera is with 24fps gears and I would want to double check the gear ratio so that I know the settings are correct in the software as there is no documentation of the gear ratio anywhere and the system has only been tested with 25fps gears so far. I takes 5min for me to update the software, just need the information to calculate the correct settings before shipping the main circuit board.

OK sounds good let me check the camera and let you know.

I would try new stock fresh from Kodak these stocks might be older and have built up some base fog.

Then I would opt for a higher res Log scan 3K 4K etc. on a new scanner like a Scan Station and grade the files from there.

I have a CP-16 at Cinelab would like to update it so consider that a order.

We have done plenty of digital to 16mm with an anamorphic squeeze, most for recording and re-scan.

It would not be a problem to make a squeezed 1.33 print with sound and de-squeeze it in projection with a anamorphic projection lens, there are plenty of them on eBay.

Just be aware of the very narrow sound on 16mm which is mono and frequency and DR limited.