Ted Langdell

Dave, Video Conversion Experts can do 8, Super8, 9.5mm and 16mm on their flashtransfer Choice2K+™ which we usually just call the Choice2K+™. I'll be in LA and the SF Bay Area later this month (May) doing demos with the16/35 Vario2K+™. We introduced a the new frame-accurate "Timeline" feature at NAB. It's a software module applicable to either 2K+™ system—allows marking in-points, making adjustments to a bunch of parameters including black/gamma/white levels and color balances. We had fun with this at NAB by really, really mucking up the color intentionally on a shot, and then watching it pop to properly graded it at the first frame of the next shot. Ted Ted

Hi, Matthew, Hmmm... I'm about 45 minutes north of downtown Sacramento. Used to shoot around the capital and Capitol with a CP16 seen in your avatar picture back when Jerry Brown and I both had hair. Have been occasionally transferring some of my old film from then on my 16/35 MWA Nova VarioHD demo unit. RE: VideoFilm Solutions... as I mentioned in another post just now: Tom Aschenbach is the son of the co-founder of archiving's highly regarded Colorlab, which is located next door to VideoFilm Soutions. Not sure about any business connection, but here's a Washington Post article from Sept. 4, 2012 that tells about Colorlab and mentions Tom as an "in house solution" to a problem mentioned in the article. http://articles.wash...wick-colorlab/2 They are nice folks. Chatted with Russ at the AMIA Conference in Seattle last month. Hope this is helpful. Ted Like This Quote MultiQuote

Tom Aschenbach is the son of the co-founder of archiving's highly regarded Colorlab, which is located next door to VideoFilm Soutions. Not sure about any business connection, but here's a Washington Post article from Sept. 4, 2012 that tells about Colorlab and mentions Tom as an "in house solution" to a problem mentioned in the article. http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-09-04/lifestyle/35496741_1_film-prints-suniewick-colorlab/2 They are nice folks. Chatted with Russ at the AMIA Conference in Seattle last month. Hope this is helpful. Ted

May have "cross-circuited to B" when posting. My apologies, and thanks to Charles for catching that. In addition to V210 codec AVI's, the 2K+ workstation's DPX files come in two versions: 10-bit or 12-bit packed into 16-bits. Hope that's clearer and smoother :) Ted

May have "cross-circuted to B" when posting. My apologies. In addition to V210 codec AVI's, the 2K+ workstation is also able to write DPX files in two versions: 10-bit or 12-bit packed into 16-bits. Also TIFF files. Motion JPEG is in the hopper.

You might want to check with Brad Hinkle at Video Conversion Experts in the Phoenix, AZ suburb of Chandler. He has both the MWA Nova flashscanHD with native 1280 x 720p/50 sensor and the new Choice2K+™ with native 2336 x 1752 sensor. Both machines handle 8mm & Super8, with magnetic sound from both stripes should you have that. Variable R-G-B LED light sources, laser-based perf and splice detection that can handle damaged or missing perfs, shrunken film and no sprockets or claws in the film path. If the Vietnam combat footage is well shot, it might be worth preserving at 2K+™ for use as stock footage. Hope this is helpful. Disclosure: I'm the North American distributor for MWA products.

FYI: The MWA Nova Choice2K+™ uses a 2336 x 1752 sensor that can scan the full super8 frame at native 4:3 aspect ratio, or do a full-width scan if you want to see perfs and film edges. Or optically zoom/pan/re-frame if you want to blow up sections of the film image without any digital involvement. The frame size that's output is 2336 x 1732 (or other sizes as a user chooses.) It happens in real time to DPX, TIFF and 10-bit or 12-bit "uncompressed" v210 codec AVI files to the workstation's RAID. More codecs and file wrapper options are in the pipeline. Other codec/file wrapper combinations can be created using the live HDSDI output and another capture device, like a computer with card. Disclosure: I'm the North American representative. Hope this is helpful.

Hi, Mark, Thank you for taking the time to have some film transferred on the flashscanHD. Sorry to hear that your test scan results weren't all you'd have liked. Not knowing more about the circumstances of the transfer or the film used, and based only on your comments, it sounds like things weren't set up well prior to transferring your film. I know the equipment can do quite well. I'd urge you to give it another test. Especially if you're considering a purchase. Since you're in Germany, I can recommend a Berlin transfer house that has worked closely with the factory on the flashscanHD. That longtime flashscan owner (and now flashscanHD user recently transferred a prospective customer's film. I saw none of the problems you describe. This was somewhat challenging amateur film to transfer, but was done using the auto color/auto level mode with parameters set up by someone who cares about how things look. That test film resulted in the purchase of a flashscanHD, which our US customer will use replace four lesser products that are projector-based. As for what the flashscanHD outputs: In my May 26 post replying in part to your question, I correctly stated that the unit outputs 576i, 720p and 1080i. That's 1080i, not 1080p. The camera uses three 1/2" CMOS chips, and is native 720p. Why 720p? Several things, among them the cost and availability of suitable cameras. They need to be small, make excellent pictures and have the triggering and external control capability needed to be used with the flashscanHD concept. The chosen camera runs 720p at 50 video fps, which allows silent film to be transferred at 50fps for a 1:1 capture at more than 3x the original shooting speed of the film. 1080 line cameras that meet the necessary criteria are either not available, or are considerably more expensive than the camera chosen for the flashscanHD. Also consider whether one sees a significant difference in most 8mm or Super8 film if transferred at 1080... and whether that difference justifies the considerably higher cost of a native 1080 (i or p) three-chip camera that has what's needed for use on the flashscanHD. Properly set up and operated, I think you'll find that a flashscanHD can extract high quality, HD moving pictures from a wide range of films at a per-foot cost that consumers can afford. The camera chosen provides productivity features that allow transfer houses to get more film transferred in an hour, and so can keep their retail prices from escalating with a new equipment purchase. Mark, if you want to take another look, MWA Nova is showing the flashscanHD and other equipment in stand 7.J31at IBC in Amsterdam Sept. 11-15. I anticipate there will be something new on the stand, as well. The factory can supply a free exhibit registration code, good through the close of the show. If you happen to be in Berlin between Sept. 28th and Oct. 3, I'd be happy to say hello, as I will be visiting the factory in the Charlottenburg district. Again, Mark, give it another shot. I hope this is helpful. Ted flashscan8.us (US/Canadian distributor for MWA Nova)

Here are UK flashscan users from a partial list received just recently. There may be more UK users. London Widescreen Centre Middlesbrough Northern Regional Film & Telev'n Archive, Univ. of Teesside 3 Units Shoeburyness Essex In5 Broadcast Ltd Spalding Lincolnshire Lincolnshire Film Archive Weston Cheshire Images4life York Yorkshire Film Archive, York St John University The Archives likely don't take in private transfer business (you should ask), and you might ask whether In5's is for hire as it appears to be a production and equipment hire facility. OB in particular. Tell them you saw it on Cinematography.com. Ted

576i, 720p and 1080i. I should have a downloadable product info sheet with more details and photos up on the website late this week. Working on it now. It's a combination of the flash of the LED's and the electronic shutter of the camera. Exactly what the fraction of a second numbers are, I don't know. Suffice to say, it works! (Gotta leave some magic here to wonder about :) ) QUOTE (Adrian Sierkowski @ Apr 8 2009, 09:49 PM) Out of curiosity, how much do these scanners run for? Looking at the Cinematography.com TOS, I think it would be best to not do that here, but if you contact me off-list, I'd be able to tell you more. Not being coy here... trying to be informational, and not violate the forum's policies... which I hope I haven't done with previous replies to people's questions or posts. Question for—off-list—repeat, off-list reply: I'm thinking about advertising to the right... Do you read the ads and click? Ted ted at flashscan8.us

Hi Karel, I understand the question you're posing, as it relates to consistent light level output from flash to flash. Xenon strobes used by still photographers may be have that inconsistent problem. I've not seen it in the SD flashscan or SD flashtransfer when stepping through files made from stable images on film. The flashscanHD uses a new, brighter LED array. I can ask the factory and get back to you about what enables consistency.

from the website, I believe the cineonvideo folks use the services of VIDEOSTATION in Basildon, Essex, which has both a flashscan and a Bosch FDL. http://www.videostation.co.uk/freedvd.asp VIDEOSTATION doesn't say whether it's an FDL 60 or 90, but they've had respected "big iron" telecine engineer Mike Waldie build a special gate for their Bosch to handle 8, Super8 and 9.5. Not exactly. On the flashscan (SD) you can make quite sophisticated adjustments for color correction and light levels, and store them in up to 25 different memory registers using the flashremote.. There is no facility to trigger the memory changes in relation to, say time code or footage, so you can push buttons to recall the settings manually, or stop and start to capture clips and assemble in an NLE. The new flashscanHD DOES have the ability to go through the reel, stop, make adjustments, store, move on, adjust, store, etc., and then have the software make the changes automatically during transfer. At up to 50fps. So it has elements of big iron telecine and big iron color corrector built in. And can work with a third-party panel to control the color correction software. The other significant difference between the two models is that there are NO sprockets used on the flashscanHD. It's capstan driven. Lasers are used to read the sprocket hole position and control triggering the flash, camera and framestore. There's been a lot of R&D engineering involved, from mechanical, electronic and software perspectives. Hope this provides some clarity. Ted

I'll ask the factory and get back to you. A new rep for the UK is being appointed. He may have a demo unit or can get one easily. Ted

As previous posts in this thread illustrate, you can get differing results from the same transfer house. I highly encourage flashscan and flashtransfer users to use (and supply as part of a package) industry standard waveform monitors and vectorscopes for proper level and color adjustment before and during transfer. When training users, we show them how to do so and how the flashremote controls interact visibly on the scopes. It makes it easier for them to get good transfers, and with practice they can do so pretty quickly. Kent, thanks for being supportive of the flashscan when others seem intent on bashing. I refer potential customers to your site and SuperSens for a look-see at how good transfers can be when a flashscan is used. As you say, the operator (or in your case flashscanist?) that makes the difference. Ted

The ratio is changing as more units are shipped. Perhaps I should have retained a portion of Kai's comments in the earlier reply. He said: I would add that there are monitors that support 10-bit SD-SDI and HD-SDI. The consideration is what happens internally... which is a whole 'nuther thread. Ted