Jump to content

Quantel Domino and Solitaire Cine III


Recommended Posts

  • Site Sponsor
Can anyone tell me about the Quantel Domino and Solitaire Cine III systems? What are the pros and cons? What do you want to be aware of with these systems? B)

 

 

They make good pictures, they are very very slow...

 

 

-Rob-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
So it should get the job done for a small lab and post house that has more time than money, correct? :D

 

Hi,

 

Yes, if you can afford the electricity bill and any repairs if anything goes wrong. You will probably need an expensive air conditioning unit as well the heat output is huge.

 

Stephen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are looking at gear that is 12-15 years old. Domino was Quantel's first fully integrated DI system, harware based as with most Quantel products. The Solitaire Cine III was a very good CRT film recorder in its day, but a lot would depend on the age of the tube - they do have life spans, and if it's getting old, then its light output will be less, and less reliable. It takes camera negative (exposures would be minutes per frame on intermediate stock), and getting the contrast up enough (without causing image flare) to give good rich blacks was a problem.

 

Still for that money you probably woudn't expect anything different.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, it better work, I just bought one, a Domino 4x4 system with the Cine III and Oxberry camera built in. It seems to be a complete unit with pretty much everything. I was negotiating on another pair of units prior to this with a guy who just closed his post house in Burbank and was selling his Domino and a separate Cine III for 5 grand each. I offered him 5 grand for both but Crispen Glover beat me out with a higher offer, however in the meantime, he and I got along and talked about this equipment (I guess he's actually designing and building a scanner for the small posthouse market) and he told me though it was slow it was still capable of up to a 3 or 4K scan and film out. Well, time I got, denero, I no got, so after talking with you, David and some of the other guys, I decided it may be a good item to pursue what with color correction, nonlinear editing, VFX and such becoming available to one if one has one's own film scanner. He did tell me that the Cine II was notorious for flares but the Cine III was a vast improvement over it's predecessor.

 

One of the main reasons I was going to go with an all film workflow was because 35mm scanning was ENORMOUSLY expensive. The scan alone woulda ate up my entire budget, but now (assuming nothing breaks) it'll cost me intermediate stock and electricity....and of course maintenance which I hope will be able to be deferred until the film is completed. I'm hoping with careful cinematography, there won't be a need to completely digitizes the film for color correction but only the sections with titles, VFX, etc. The unit I eventually wound up with went for under 3 grand total at auction. I doubt if I'll find one much cheaper than that right now. Later on perhaps I can upgrade my film out to a better, more modern machine, or pick up a second and third to run in parallel with the other one. This should be the last piece of the puzzle to having a viable film lab.....I hope

 

As far as the heat goes, maybe I could cool a very small sealed room so I wouldn't need an enormous A/C unit, just one designed for a larger room. I have a 4 x 9 or so storage closet I could turn into the telecine room. B)

Edited by James Steven Beverly
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
As far as the heat goes, maybe I could cool a very small sealed room so I wouldn't need an enormous A/C unit, just one designed for a larger room. I have a 4 x 9 or so storage closet I could turn into the telecine room. B)

 

Hi,

 

You will need a very large air con for that small room, the heat output is enormous, possibly more than 1 unit!

 

Stephen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...