J Van Auken

Alrighty! Finally got the rescan back, and all appears okay. Here are some screens to compare with the first set: https://imgur.com/a/5U2N43s The film's just naturally grainy, what with being expired 500T, even over exposed and no real color being done, but a new scan without the DVNR process clearly takes away the major issues.

That seems to be the major error here, and as disappointing as it is, they've agreed to rescan the neg without filtering and we'll see if that clears things up.

Which leads to the heart of why this has been so frustrating, as this is a 2k scan from a spirit, far from a cheap option, and the results are unacceptable.

That's what's confusing. It was scanned on a Spirit 2k, not one of the older telecine machines. This was the best-light color that was sent back, so I could bring the black levels down, but the specks in the shadows still show prominently. I'd prefer not to have to crush the bottom 10IRE just to get an acceptable picture. Maybe 'one-stop-shop' is a misnomer. Frankly, I'm looking for a place to go that provides a clean picture that doesn't require me to do full grain passes once they get back. When I worked as a colorist, that was a non-issue, but I'm in a very different line of work now and don't want to have to maintain the hardware suite just to shoot my personal stuff.

Thanks for your thoughts on SCREAM. I'm unfamiliar with it, and not in a terrific position to go through another full scan on all the footage. I've been making due this way in the past, but I'm just not entirely satisfied with the results regardless of the settings and mix of temporal and spatial reduction. I'm really after a one-stop solution that delivers acceptable results without requiring intensive post processes once they get back.

That looks just like the type of image I've been after. Just a clean, smooth picture, perhaps not of the highest resolution or 'truest' to the source medium, but at the very least watchable.

Do you have any experience/opinion on SCREAM grain management? That's other service offered at the lab (albeit on a different and costlier machine)

This set of scans was from a Spirit 2k with DVNR, straight output to ProRes4444. This particular lab advertises that the scanner outputs it directly, and no conversion done. DPX were offered, but I wan't in the position to store those kinds of file sizes. The grain that I'm seeing, specifically in the shadows, is typical of all the 16 and 35 I get back. Though its characteristics change from lab to lab, machine to machine, it's been a pervasive enough issue that I have to assume there's an error on my part. I have no problem with the grain in the upper midtones and highlights, as that's the whole reason I'm on film to begin with. It's just the shadows are so distracting, and anything but actual black. As I said, no scanner demos ever look this way, and I'm hoping to find a solution that looks acceptable right out of the gate.

I definitely understand and agree with getting the most 'true' scan possible under most circumstances, but for the purposes of the film I'm shooting now, I am really looking for a one-stop solution where I can be happy with the best-light scans straight from a lab. Not that I any longer have the machines to run them, but I'm curious which post-tools you would recommend that best tackle the kind of noise/grain I'm seeing? I've been a long time user of Resolve, and NeatVideo, but I've found the way they 'clean up' 16mm to produce some very strange results, irrespective of which settings and mix of temporal and spatial reductions I use. If you know of any better, accessible tools for the job, I'm all ears.

Yeah it was from stock I bought new in college and kept frozen/refrigerated since then.

The uploaded images are pretty true to what I'm seeing, but here are a few DPX pulls from the original prores444 from Da Vinci https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15QmKqvIKJbzEdPc9py6-rNCUOImSk5px?usp=sharing

I really don't. I pulled a few feet and took a look, and sure, I can see grain, but shadows are just clear bits of negative. Something I'm doing/ordering is resulting in these noisy/grainy scans from what are supposed to be top of the line machines. Obviously, there are a lot of steps between negative and final product for things like Fruitvale Station, Mother! and Black Swan, but I never see other 16mm with this kind of prominent grain and I want to know what step(s) I'm missing, short of booking a full DI at Fotokem.

I've been shooting around, testing an SR I just received, and just got the film scans back. I'm less than thrilled with the results after giving a new facility a try from the usual lab I go to. I'd hoped to find a place that could deliver a cleaner/smoother result, and not necessarily just the highest resolution. The scan sent back displayed the same very sharp, prominent grain across the image that I've seen in the scans I've gotten before. Notably, the bright and colored specks of grain in areas that should be totally black. Here are some screen grabs: https://imgur.com/a/D4X8c0Y That's Vision2 500T, rated at 250, and scanned on a Spirit 2k with DVNR applied. This is the second lab I've personally used, and the third scanner (Spirit 2k, ScanStation, and Xena) and in each case I get this prominent grain pattern in the blacks, even when overexposing, and even when ordering grain reduction and color passes from the lab. Scan samples from labs never have this overbearing texture, and I seriously have to wonder what I'm doing wrong.

Price drop! $11.5k and it's yours.

More pics: https://imgur.com/a/KzpKW4z

Moving out of the business and have to let it all go :( Package includes: - Raven Body EF mount & top handle - V-lock I/O expander - 4.7" touch screen w/ wooden camera screw adapter - 2x 120gb mini mags and reader - 4x V-lock batteries (150w each) plus chargers - wooden camera baseplate with 15mm rods Photos: https://imgur.com/a/80xmzIW $13k shipped or pickup Los Angeles buyers can also make an offer on the Pelican 1650 with trekpak dividers

It may come down to a lens-by-lens consideration.

Just a quick update for anyone curious. Still have not received the lens, which they had in stock, because it was shipped to the wrong address across the country. Luckily, I caught it in transit, and called in to have it rerouted. No problem, right? Huge problem. Apparently, to have it sent to me directly at my original address would incur further CA sales tax, which amounts to hundreds of dollars. I told my rep that I already paid said tax, and was notified that I hadn't, because my quote was modified with the wrong address, and was not shown a new quote with this address or new total before being ordered to wire the money. So, in short, RED completely failed to deliver after payment, and is forcing me to have my lens shipped twice, over a month after the purchase. This will not be forgotten.

<Initiate rant> My grandfather has seen a lot. Born in the depression, he grew up using horse and buggies. By his thirties, he saw man walk on the moon. He served in Korea, in both the US Navy, and then again in the Army. He ran a diner in the 50's, and managed to raise three successful children while going on to become an engineer. He did these things while battling lifelong narcolepsy and heart disease. This Thanksgiving, I wanted to sit with my old man for a few hours and get his story recorded with the hope that my kids would one day understand what a man is supposed to be. For the last few years, I owned and operated a film camera system, but as we all are painfully aware, super 16mm doesn't get the jobs it used to. I waited as long as I could to scrape together the money from its sale to roll into a digital system, but the deadline was drawing near, and I pulled the trigger just over two and a half weeks before I'd see my grandfather. All the components from all the manufacturers piled in over the following week; B&H, Redrock, an ebay sale. All but one. I went with a RED pro zoom, because the price/performance ratio was difficult to beat, and my budget is tight. I need good enough glass, and the pricetag seemed to fit. I'd never purchased from them before, but in spite of the horror stories from early RED One adpoters, I thought surely the company had ironed out the infrastructure long ago. Upon purchasing the RPZ, I didn't receive an order confirmation like most online stores do. I was contacted by a 'bomb squad representative' (really?) and asked to confirm by email the details of my purchase 24 hours later. "Okay," I thought, "It's a big purchase (for me, anyway). SOP, I'm sure." Well, unbeknownst to be, this BSR was having e-mail issues. 4 days passed since i responded with my confirmation before I got another e-mail asking if I did indeed want my lens. Apparently, the rep couldn't receive email, and to contact him, I needed to CC through another representative. Irritating, but fine, so long as I get my lens. More days go by with no contact before I'm informed that my card is declined. Odd, since I carefully budgeted everything, and a quick call to the bank confirmed that since I have a new account, there is a strict limit, and I cannot purchase the lens with the card. Fine. Makes sense. I ask my BSR if there's an alternative, such as paypal, or account transfer (since we use the same bank), or if I could physically drive up with cash. Time is a factor. No. Wire transfer is the only way. A $30 fee for the privilege of buying RED. Ouch. Not a deal breaker, but I really wasn't counting on it, plus another day's delay. Fine. I'm emailed the exact directions for the wire and follow through. A little hassle at the bank, but otherwise no big deal. Two days pass, before I email again asking if they received it. I'm notified that the directions were incorrect, and that I need to do ANOTHER transfer. Another $30, and a 3 day delay because of the weekend, for the honor of doing business with the coolest camera company in school. So I call a supervisor, as this is borderline Nigerian Prince territory. I'm scoffed at, and finally assured I'd receive a credit for the extra wire, only if I forward the entire email string to the super. I did so, and have not heard or seen anything from him since. Thoroughly defeated, I contact the BSR to confirm the shipping address and inform him that it'll be cutting it very close, when I am informed it'll be about 5 days processing from receipt of payment before they can rustle the lens out of the warehouse. Meaning it should arrive in my possession a solid week after I fly back to the west coast. Maybe $60 isn't a lot to you. Maybe airline tickets across the country don't phase you a bit. Maybe you can pick up an insurance cert. and walk into any rental house no problem and your checking account doesn't bat an eye. Mine does. And maybe a big 'small business' like RED doesn't put priority on one lens getting sold when Pete orders dozens of epics, and scarlets are more back ordered than tickets to Book of Mormon. Maybe it doesn't really matter to them. It does to me. I am a 20-something cameraman, scraping by, trying to do something that means a hell of a lot to me. I have rent. I have bills. My health insurance consists of prayer and stealing Purell from crafty. I don't expect handouts, but I also don't expect to have to wade through negligence, condescension, and ineptitude to enjoy the pleasure of completing a transaction in what I believe is a free market. I have (hopefully) decades of career ahead of me. Possibly thousands of hours of footage to shoot. As far as I'm concerned, RED has made it clear that it couldn't give less of a crap how many of those are on their equipment since I'm not Fincher or Soderberg. Is this a rant? Yes. Whiny and entitled? Possibly. But someone has to say something. If I'd read something similar before purchasing, maybe I'd have gone with that used Cooke, or the old Angie. Unfortunately, I've got no wallet left to vote with, and I'll be hypocritically be filming with RED equipment for the forseeable future. So that's it. My RED gripes will no longer be about dishonest marketing, workflow, debayering, rushed products or fanboys. Simply put; RED is run incorrectly, and I will never again support them in the future. May the market do with them what it will.

I've only run one successful kickstarter page, but we did triple what our threshold was. What might have worked was we reached out to every film blog and twitter with any number of followers. Tell them about the project and such, and sometimes they'll feature you on the blog, give you a retweet, whatever.

Looking for a 17-50mm in good condition. PM if you've got one available.

Price dropped to $7k shipped if you buy this week. email disasterfactory (at) gmail (dot) com. I've got some film and extra junk to toss in too.

Kodak is sending me two rolls to put against a '19 project we're doing this coming week. I'll gladly report on my findings as soon as the sans get back. As it's been explained to me, it's a hybrid of '19 and '18, which is great, because '18 was a favorite of mine, with more texture than the new stuff. We'll see. Grabs maybe.

Dropping the price to $10k shipped.

It's a shame to let her go. I named her Janusz, and never had an issue. I'm looking for $11k for everything plus ship. Package includes: XTR super16 body (Aaton, Bayonette, and Nikon mounts) 2 400 mags 1 800 mag 4x5 mattebox + filters (ND, 85, BPM, Tobacco) 2 12v Batteries 1 16v battery Color video tap + monitor + arm 2 x Front Rods and hand grip Charger and volt meter Extension Viewfinder Anvil Case 3 Zeiss super speed lenses (9.5, 12, 25) with caps, softcase Recently serviced by Bernie ODoherty. He can personally vouch for the condition of the cam. Custom marked groundglass for 1.66 and 2.35. I have some film I can throw in at no extra charge as well. I'd rather see it go here than ebay.