I recently purchased some 5217 short ends from Vic Alexander. They turned out to be pretty reliable. We have yet to notice any differences with some new cans we bought from Kodak. We started out with an Arri-II E, a bayonet mount and a nice set of Nikon lenses. However, the noise was too much when we went indoors, so we ended up renting a BL2, which did a nice job. The overall budget for this feature, before postproduction, will come to about $ 20,000, which in my opinion is better than going digital and never knowing when you can make that 35mm print.
