Roger Evans

Oh I'm not that thin skinned. I understood your analogy. Not insulted at all. :)

I think this is not as complicated as some might make it seem. In my business, even though we have sold hundreds of Sniper-HD units over the years, the telecine shops buying them tell me that they mostly still sell regular DVDs to their customers and not BluRays. So, to be clear, there is always a difference between scanning at one resolution and the next just as there is always a difference between a picture shot with your iPhone 5 and a Nikon DSLR. But, relative to intended viewing size, not the mention the sophistication of the viewer, the end result may be a distinction without a difference. The Retro-8 does a good job at 720 and satisfies the market share that would never have a display big enough - nor the sophistication - to appreciate the difference between a 720 or 1080 scan. Why drive up the cost of the unit to accomodate the exception and make it unaffordable for everyone just to have technical bragging rights at 1080? And, realistically, anyone that has the budget to buy a Spirit isn't going to say, "Gee, I think I'll save myself a quarter million dollars and buy the Retro-8, instead." The Retro-8 has an intended market, which is for private use or small telecine shops that just need a clean, easy, dependable way to transfer to DVD or BluRay. In that sense, I think it's a good value. But, depending on your needs, your mileage may vary. :)

Hey, David! The stills look great! I saw you at work in Utopia several times. I have my shop (MovieStuff) in Utopia now right next door to the set for the antique shop you guys used. I was the one with the black 66 Fury convertible putting about town. I think it ended up in one of the shots, at least. Anyway, you guys could not have picked a hotter time to be in Utopia. Average daily temp was about 105 degrees and very, very little cloud cover. No humidity or mosquitoes, thank goodness, but you really had your work cut out for you. I've shot in both Texas and California and there is something about the Texas sun that is just really, really harsh, compared to the west coast. Dunno what it is but it can be brutal. I know you were under the gun to get the coverage you needed and it looked like you and your crew were moving fast and light. I bailed on the all-nighter at the rodeo arena. Had too much work to do the next day or I would have come down. But it looked like you had a good crowd. Still a few cars down at the old water plant production office but, for the most part, looks like most everyone has packed up and gone home. The locals are still all a-gog at having Mr. Duvall in their midst for a few days. Take care and I look forward to seeing the final film! PS: I wondered if you were going to be able to continue with the Fuji stock in the Texas sun. Smart move switching to the wider latitude Eastman, IMHO. ;) Roger Evans (MovieStuff)

In fact we do have the new 9.5mm Sniper units online but no plans for a 9.5mm WorkPrinter because the chassis are too rare. See: http://www.moviestuff.tv/95_series.html Roger

Hi, Tim! Generally speaking, the WorkPrinter is not going to be as good as a Rank transfer can potentially be simply because (due to budget) the camera being used with the WorkPrinter is usually single chip and the operator may not have the necessary color correction tools/skills. However, and this is very important to remember, most people shooting super 8 rarely go into a Rank session with enough money and, thus, often do not take advantage of the total potential that a Rank has to offer. The analogy I use is having access to a high performance race care with only a dollar for gas. You'll never get it up to speed, much less win any races. The WorkPrinter is an open architecture system. Much of the quality depends on the type of camera that is used as well as the skill of the user. Optically, you are really only limited by the resolution of the camera being used. If you use a really nice three chip camera with the WorkPrinter series, align it perfectly, and are diligent in your color correction with good tools like, say, the Matrox RTX100 or FCP, then the results off of reversal can be very close to Rank quality. Certainly, without having to watch the clock, you can work with the footage until you are satisfied creatively and that has intrinsic value that can not be estimated. Now, in-house, we use the DV8 Sniper-Pro mentioned in the PC Magazine article. These are the same units used by the Academy of Motion Pictures Film Archives. There is no condenser lens array and only a single precision machine vision lens between the camera and the film. We use broadcast grade 3CCD cameras heads with three 1/2 inch chips. The sharpness is quite stunning and, as seen in the PC Magazine comparison, very much on par with a typical Rank transfer off of reversal. Because we scan frame by frame, we can offer any type of playback speed you wish, 15, 18, 24 or 30fps. The custom software we use implements the exact same pulldown patterns used by the Rank units and we clean, prep and do scene to scene color and density correction on all cuts, whether it is pro footage or home movie footage. You are welcome to send if for a free test transfer. Just use this form: http://www.moviestuff.tv/transfers_freetest.html If you like, please feel free to contact me off list. My best, Roger Evans MovieStuff http://www.moviestuff.tv