Daniel D. Teoli Jr.

So, I take it you are against making scanners more user-friendly and affordable Perry. OK, you tell me what Lasergraphics charges to fix your scanner in the field if it is not running Perry? (Not counting parts.) And what do they charge you for support, so they talk to you Perry? Can you imagine in the early days of the Xerox machine if they told customers, it is $11,500 for a field call Perry? No one is arguing that it takes money for a service call. It is just $11,500 for a service call is pretty steep. OBD2? That is why I raised the price 1200% for the diagnostic unit Perry. But forget the OBD2 for a second. If they can't sell a diagnostic unit for that price, then it should be very easy to have the computer run a diagnostic checkup to tell you what parts you need on the scanner. And if they want to charge $299.99 for diagnostic software that is fine as well. Kineograph? I think it is more for tinkerers. I don't want to build a scanner...I just want to use a scanner Perry.

A lot has been discussed on these forums about Lasergraphics not giving you an instruction manual for their expensive scanners. Or if they do give you a manual it is a crappy manual of little use. It would be nice if someone that has a copy the 'instructions' would post a copy of it at the Internet Archive to see what the verdict is. eBay Archive: Fair Use In the old days of early computing, they gave you a thick pack of floppy discs with the operating system on it as a backup. Then when CD's came out for storage, they gave you a thick pack of CD's. Then they cheapened up and you had to use like 30 CD's to make a backup off your computer yourself. Now they give you nothing, but I guess (?) you could get it online. Internet photo: Fair Use What Lasergraphics, and any scanner company for that matter, should do is give you an instructional DVD of how to use the scanner. Or if the company is too cheap to give you a DVD, then post instructional videos at their site. A few years ago, before the virus hit, Lasergraphics would charge you $7,500 for onsite setup and short instruction. So, I'm thinking that is why they didn't want to give you any sort of useful instructions. Lasergraphics wanted to get the setup fee. RPPC DDTJRAC DVD's / video and photo illustrations are great for instructional purposes. They can really breast feed you the scoop! The scanner company could post the instructions / videos online for prospective purchases to study beforehand. That would make a great sales tool in itself. That is what I like about the Retroscan. They breast feed it all to you upfront. https://www.moviestuff.tv/universal_mark-II_support_page.html When I discussed the Volkswagen above being the people's car, it underscores some of these scanner company's business practices of no useful instructions, not being user serviceable and high maintenance / support fees that makes their products more of a rich person's scanner than a 'people's scanner.'

https://archive.org/details/dvw-golden-eye-archive-scanner Uses 2 cameras. Anyone have experience with it? Cost?

Here is an interesting PDF on film scanners by Barbara Flueckiger and some others. Investigation Of Film Material Scanner Interaction B. Flueckiger D. D. Teoli Jr. A. C. : D.D.Teoli Jr. A.C. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Barbara is pretty knowledgeable with vintage cine' film. She is a Professor in Zurich. Tinted film base / Kodak Sonochrome | Timeline of Historical Film Colors I had written to her years ago with some questions about Kodak's tinted Sonochrome film. Never got a reply.

Over at the Large Format Forum they were discussing their dream 'want list' in a flatbed scanner. With cine' scanners, one thing I'd like is a diagnostic port. You pay the scanner company $299.99. You get a little computer you plug into the port, and it tells you what is wrong with the scanner. Then you call up the company and buy a part from the company for $399.99 + $15 shipping and boom, you are back scanning. And I'm being generous with the scanner companies since I know they mark everything up like hell. So, I marked up their diagnostic reader by 1200% Amazon.com: MOTOPOWER MP69033 Car OBD2 Scanner Code Reader Engine Fault Code Reader Scanner CAN Diagnostic Scan Tool for All OBD II Protocol Cars Since 1996, Yellow : Automotive Remember the Volkswagen Bug? Volkswagen means 'The People's Car.' That is how a cine' scanner should be approached, make them user friendly with repairs. You should not have to pay $11,500 to get a repair estimate on your scanner. As far as the rest of the dream list? As long as it scans sharp and produces quality scans, is easy to use, affordable, reliable and reads sound. I'm not too picky.

Thanks for the rundown Perry. Was this your first / early scanner you started with? I know you like Lasergraphics as you are a big promoter of them. I've had lots of experience with them myself, email experience. They never answer emails. After years of writing, I did eventually get a reply from their sales company that pushes the product. He could not answer tech questions, just made sales. I'd be very worried about giving them a chunk of money and I will never hear from them again unless I give them more money to answer questions. I know you pay them money for support to answer your questions Perry, but I don't have tens of thousands of $$ to spend to get questions answered. The Lasergraphics seems like a beautiful machine. I'd love to have one if I had the money. But the company has very poor support Perry...unless you pay them to answer you.

Thanks! You got to be very careful with scanners. I don't need or have room for a paperweight.

Here is an interesting ad from 1976 for stressed out execs... Look at that postage! Sometimes they ask for stamps for postage. Like 'send .10 cents in stamps.' Old advertising is fascinating stuff, but I still like film better.

Does it get the scanner all wet? Is it hard on the scanner dripping all over?

I was going to try the database software at Open Office freeware. But it said I needed Java. Not knowing much about computers or even having faith in my ability to use Open Office, other than as a word processor, I gave up with the Java quest. Today it hit me, I can just make a master folder for my film Archive. I can make text files within the master folder. Each film gets a text file made for it. I can make a text template to paste in each text folder to standardize the info. Now I have an easy-to-use database that is alphabetized and searchable. And If I want to get fancy, I can make the folders suitable for JPEGs and put a few screen shots of each film in each folder. That was what a film collector did with his collection. He would take photos off the screen as he projected the films and put a handful of photos in each film entry. (Although he used fancy database software of some sort for the rest of the work.) It is very easy to get screen shots when you scan a film. You just hit export on the scanner software and boom...you get 5,000 or 10,000 or 30,000 JPEG or TIFF stills. (Of course, if you want them from a scanning company, you pay a few hundred $$ extra for that service.) I can also use my system for the VHS Archive as well. Nearly a thousand VHS, VHS-C and Betamax tapes to organize. Will I do it and get it all computerized in 1990's tech?? (Or is it 1980s?) Don't know. Right now, my goal is to put all the films in the Archive in alphabetical order, label the cans and then write them down in a hand-written log. After than...who knows? But at least I'm excited I have the option if I want it. Even though I write a lot here, I'm not much for typing into the 'puter when it comes to filling out forms. But it is nice being able to search films for content; especially with the home movies that cover a multitude of content areas. <><><><> 16mm GB (Gaumont-British) Reel Selection from Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Reel & Can Archive Contributed to the DDTJRAC and photographed by: The Old Film Company

Thanks for the rundown Tyler! That would be great if you had photo samples of the cleaning at various stages. Yes, hand cleaning sometimes leaves streaks you can see when viewed in reflected light on the film. Looks like all the ultrasonic film cleaners are from Europe and very $$. Too bad they don't make some cheaper ones in the USA. What type of chemical cleaner does the ultrasonics use? If the films are too pink...turn them into B&W! B&W is better than nothing. Here was a pig in a poke film that was badly faded Anscochrome. I turned it B&W. The Segregated Swimming Hole D. D. Teoli Jr. A. C. : D. D. Teoli Jr. A. C. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Almost all my archival material is too far gone to be perfected with post work, although a wet gate would help. And sure, some post work could clean them up. But many are multi-generational dupes and the shadows and highlights are gone. There is not much there to HDR or contrast grade. Did you ever find the issue with your FilmFabriek lens? I thought you had said when you first bought it, it was producing subpar scans as far as sharpness.

Thanks for the rundown Todd. I guess I mixed you up with Tyler. Great for you! Glad you did good with your stocks. I got AEO Light, but I would prefer to use an optical reader if possible. There seems to be 2 ways to use AEO Light. You overscan with the optical tract and crop the image later to get rid of the tract. Or you scan the audio only, extract the audio and then marry the audio to the 2nd scan of just the image. Does your optical reader have issues with all films you have tried or just a few? I had heard about another person using the Diamant software. Knew nothing about it, but it sounded interesting. Now that I hear the price, I can see it will be way too high for me. Here is a guy out West doing cine' scanning. He has some interesting things at his site. Who knows, maybe he is a member here? Lasergraphics Scanstation Film Scanning and Restoration 2K 4K 6.5K HDR for 8mm Super8 16mm S16 35mm — Nicholas Coyle On a different note... After I sent in my previous rant this morning about people pestering me for a commercial license to use my films...what did I have in my inbox? 2/16/22 Hi, Daniel. My name is XX, I am a video producer who has been hired to create a marketing campaign for a client based around the XXX series. I came across some footage you had uploaded to the Internet Archive that would be perfect for the ad campaign we are working on, but it was uploaded with a CC Non-Commercial License. I was wondering if this was the correct license for this footage, and if so, if it would be possible to obtain a commercial license. Here is the video in question: Motorcycle Hill Climb 1945 D. D. Teoli Jr. A. C. : D. D. Teoli Jr. A. C. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide, and for all your work in preserving antique media! -- XX (xxx) xxx-xxx xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com The pestering is constant with these people. And even when you refuse them, they still pester you. God forbid you do ever agree to something, they never reply to your emails again like CBS did. The scum. If any of you deal in stock footage, send me your contact info and I will make a list of stock companies and send it out with my refusals, so they can contact you. Same as I said before that I don't like cleaning film, I don't like this constant email pestering crap from producers. I like digitizing films and I like putting them up on the net...and that is it.

I wasn't thinking scanning as a job to teach. I was thinking just for the additional education, learning about scanning and for the handling film onsite type of thing. Once graduated they may shoot film and need scans, so they learn from the bottom up. Yes, any fool can buy a scanner...as long as they are a rich fool!

I've got my film Archive stored all over. Rents keep going up like hell and I got rid of all my storage lockers I rented due to costs. I don't have a space big enough to store the film all in one place, so I break it up wherever I can find space. I'm just starting to alphabetize the film Archive into A,B,C, order. This section in the photo will hopefully be for films 'M through T.' If I was a good anal person, I would have them all bar coded, scanned and computerized. But not being a good anal person, I'd be thrilled with just having it in A,B,C, order and hand-written in a logbook. (I removed some items from the photo for privacy reasons.) Lately I've scaled back some with the film acquisitions. After nearly a decade of film acquisition only a negligible portion of the films have been scanned due to cost. As I've said before, if you are broke, scanning is the shitty part of cine' film work. The acquiring film can be done on a tight budget. Sometimes you can get films for a buck or two a reel. In fact, the vented plastic archival cans cost more than some reels! Other times it may be $35 a reel. But, whether it is $1 or $100 a reel, it is all miniscule peanuts compared to the cost of a scanner or paying companies to get scans. I got over a thousand reels, which is roughly a million feet of film. To get all that film scanned it is $300,000 to $500,000. Just depends on what kind of scans you want...cheap or good scans. So, I figured, no use adding more fuel to the fire with acquiring another million feet of film that will never get scanned. I've written to many philanthropists that work in all areas of interest from art to film to see if they would help with acquiring a cheap sound scanner and have never received a reply from any of them. Kickstarter said NO to me running a crowd funded 16mm scanner request. I asked the I.A. if they would help or at least loan me a 16mm sound scanner for a couple years. Nothing. In fact, they banned me for a time. I find it amusing how film production companies write me for use of my films for commercial projects and offer me $1 or £1 to sign a commercial use release. Why? Why would I stick my neck out for nothing? What is in it for me? I make nothing with open content work. Plus no one ever wants to help with scanning costs. I don't mind giving things away for free for educational and historical use, even if they won't help...but that is it. I tell them all the same thing...go to a stock footage company and PAY! Or go buy the film and you be responsible for using it commercially. There is no other area of my archival work that is as troublesome as cine' film. Take this 1910 ad of Aunt Jemima. I probably have the largest online, open content, highest quality (res) Aunt Jemima Archive in the world. This ad, which is part of my 1/4 million ad Advertising Archive, is my most expensive ad. I paid about $28 for it. But, it came in a 1910 magazine that had another 100+ ads in it. So, if you prorate the cost per ad to the Advertising Archive, the cost is negligible. And sometimes I can buy vintage mags at a swap meet or yard sale for .25 or .50 cents and get the same 100+ ads in them. And it is the same with most of the other areas of collection. They are not that $$ to deal with. And even if certain items are somewhat higher to acquire; once you acquire the material you are pretty much done with costs. The material can easily be scanned or photographed or in the case of audio and VHS, digitized at home for next to no cost. But, not so with film. Even the video hosting sites have gone downhill over the years. I hadn't put up anything in years at Vimeo due to censorship, but tried one upload this Xmas. I got lots of followers at Vimeo and feel bad I never give them anything, but it is not that I don't want to, it is censorship that is the issue. Boom...an hour after I uploaded the film, Vimeo shut it down and sent me this notice. I'm surprised they leave up the old films I uploaded... NSFW 1928 Cine Art short Hollywood Sand Witches scanned with the $6,000 Retroscan. Well, that is the state of affairs for the Daniel D. Teoli Jr. Small Gauge Film Archive on February 16, 2022. Life can change on a dime...for better or worse. Hopefully things get better for the Film Archive. I have many fantastic films in the Archive, but they do no good unless they get digitized.

Is there anything you don't like about your scanner. Have any issues with it?

I was going to start a thread asking just that...are film schools still shooting film? I wonder why the film school does not offer scanning experience as well. Just as they used to and maybe still do, teach the wet darkroom with photography.

You can put up the whole film and put a split second counter on it. That is what Periscope Films does. Then people buy the film 'by the second' that they want. He puts films all over the place.

That is good! Glad things are booming for you. You got a beautiful operation and I know it take a lot of $$ for overhead to run it.

That is interesting. I think Tyler said his FF didn't work out of the box and he had trouble with it. How was yours getting it to operate? Did you get any help from the instructions? I do the same thing as you, except it is all open content. No $$ for me. And Getty won't have anything to do with me and the I.A. can hardly stand me! If all a person seeks is $$, they will pass up on things that do not produce $$. Or they will not do things if it affects their $$. I have no such issues. BUT...it takes money to deal with the money sucking cine' film! My VHS Archive is much more affordable. But I prefer cine' film. Yes, Prelinger is the King! He got started early and had a good bankroll. Lobster in France is another fantastic Archive. Here is Prelinger's wife... Interview of archivist Megan Prelinger RWM : D.D. Teoli Jr. as archivist : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Kinetta never got anywhere, did they? Aren't they defunct? And $60k is way too high for that machine me thinks. http://www.kinetta.com/images/clipboard.jpg?crc=3888319758 Perry said the Retroscan is a toy. That Kinetta looks like a kid's toy. It may scan great, but it still looks like a toy. "But I mostly use the FF because it's a few feet from my bedroom door...' Jeeesus, that is what I need. A cine' scanner in my bedroom! You live in cine' scanning paradise.

That is not true. As an open content Archive, I have no business plan other than I buy lotto tickets all the time. But since Lasergraphics plans to raise the prices, I will have to double my lotto ticket purchases! I write Lasergraphics all the time for sponsorship for my film Archive...never got one reply. They must love money over the love of film. OK, they are a biz and need profit, but still if you love something it overrides profit.

What are they scanning? You had said Cintel is no good for archival 16mm. Are they doing indie dailies or their own stuff? If Cintel made a 16mm unit with a good 4K sensor and a warped film gate that read optical sound for $20K...then they would have something. But, you know the deal with 'if'...if grandma had balls, she would be grandpa!

If they don't use them, tell them to loan me one for 2 years and I'll add their name to all my productions. May not do them any good, but I get millions of eyeballs over the year viewing with my stuff. If it is just sitting, might as well put it to use. As I've said many a time. The film acquisition (archival) is not the issue. It can be acquired very cheap, somewhat cheap or not too expensive most of the time. The scanning $$ is the issue, not the film acquisition.

Sure, operation is a big deal. Can't say about ScanStations though, no experience there. But when I tried auto exposure vs. manual exposure, it made a world of difference which setting I was using. Had to stop the auto and go with manual exposure for scans. Even then, manual / best light won't cut it all the time. Many of the films have to be timed for the exposure on each section. So, lots to learn about film scanning.

Thanks for the rundown Tyler. I'm hoping to get back to some of these scanner threads I started so I can digest what has unfolded. Just no time. I've got about 18 PDF's to download, so am trying to read and answer a few posts today as I download the PDF's. That is how I gotta work, sad, but that is it. Never thought about a clean room. But makes sense. Exactly what do you do to clean each frame? What sort of wipes and cleaner? Yes, it sounds terrible if you have to clean each frame. I can hardly stand to clean the roll...as fast as I can run it through the rewinds. I hate it. All I want is the scan, not the rest of the hassle. Slow, methodical cleaning is not good if you got ADD. The ADD'er does not like repetitive, slow work. Now, I don't mind scanning that much, it is kinda fascinating, especially if you have not previewed the film in the editor. You see it all unfold, which can be very fascinating if you got a 'pig in a poke' film and have no idea what you got. I always run the film through the rewinds to see the condition of the film before scanning. But I don't run through the editor much anymore. Again...time problems. I may loupe the film here or there, but content is 98% blind many times. It is mainly the cleaning I don't like, as slow drying cleaner takes many passes to dry up. If I don't have the time, I can wipe it pretty clean and let it sit not perfectly dry for a few hours to evaporate before scanning. But I prefer to dry it properly. I wish I had one of the hypersonic film cleaners. Slow drying cleaner does a better job that fast-drying cleaner (Edwal) at getting the dirt off, but slow drying cleaner is a pain to actually get dry in a hurry. This thread was started Tyler, to get a better idea of where the scanning biz is headed for those that may want to buy a new or used scanner in the future. It is an inquiry into the questions of... Will the use of film keep dwindling and as well as the demand for archival scans? Are major companies going to stop making scanners / go out of biz? Will they make cheaper scanners to broaden their market of ever decreasing or stagnant customers? Are the people that thought they can charge $300 to scan a small roll of film going to be short on biz and start selling their scanners? Things like that.