Jump to content

Kodak NY film lab scanning, HD or 2K? Quality difference


Manu Delpech

Recommended Posts

Hey there,

I got the rates from the Kodak NY lab, and there's a small but still significant price difference, 4 additional cents between a HD scan and a 2K scan. Now, they only do scanning, so the HD one is not a telecine (which I would have assumed) but simply labeled at HD. 

Does anyone know how significant the quality difference would be? I've looked at HD telecine or 2K scan threads here before, but I've never seen an HD scan and wonder what the difference could be? They use a BlackMagic scanner, I'm guessing  the Cintel? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you should be able to ask them which scanner is which. I havent dealt with NYC but Atlanta has always been super helpful with answering questions. its possible the HD scan is on their blackmagic cintel scanner, which is actually less than 1080p. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member

Lots of different opinions on the Blackmagic scanner. I believe it's fine for dailies, if you're looking for something you'd finish with you may consider some other options but perhaps best if you just do a test to make sure it's what you need.

Blackmagic Scanner: UHD for 35mm, 2k for 16mm. The camera doesn't move so the sensor is basically cropped in for 16mm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Premium Member
4 hours ago, Will Montgomery said:

Blackmagic Scanner: UHD for 35mm, 2k for 16mm.

1903 x 1143 for Super 16. So basically 1080p. ?

Plus the imager is SO NOISY, when you crop it, damn thing looks like crap even if the resolution isn't great. 

For 35mm, it's OK, pretty decent in HDR mode. 

Edited by Tyler Purcell
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the answers, I assumed HD is telecine, but they don't do telecine and Kodak works with Metropolitan in NY for the scan. So yeah, a bit odd. Was just told the 2K is slightly higher resolution which is obvious. I guess the best option is to simply go with 2K scanning for all rather than do an HD for all dailies (going for a 5 to 6:1 ratio) and then scan the selects at a higher resolution which would be dumb and waste money.

It's a shame they don't offer telecine but their rates (0.22/ft for scanning for 2 perf) seem pretty good.

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...