[Tig] Using an optical printer as a scanner?

[Steven Bradford]

 I had posted this over at CML before realizing that this group is
likely going to give me a better, or at least more informed and
interesting response!

I had been intending to buy a J-K Digital Printer 
 http://www.jkcamera.com/digital_printer.htm this month as a way for my
visual fx students to make hi resolution scans of Super16 so they'd
have very large file size image sequences to get experience working
with,  and the problems entailed etc. This is a slow printer that uses a
digital SLR in place of the bolex in the the basic JK optical setup
that's been around for a long time. I liked it because it was under 10k
dollars but was a ready to go all in one solution that results in 
 large full res files, depending on the DSLR used.

 But they don't respond to emails, and when I tracked them down today,
I gathered he's not making them anymore. He hinted that he might
eventually if enough orders build up, but he didn't seem too enthused by
that idea.


 So now I'm looking for alternates. I know there are wonderful solutions
out there but I'm not looking to spend a few  hundred thousand dollars,
I'd have to plan years in advance to make  that happen, so if that's
your suggestion, I'll ignore it. ;-) I'm  wondering how difficult it
would be to do this on our own, with a used  optical printer and a DSLR
with a macro lens. There seem to be a lot  of them (optical printers)
just sitting around out there. I just don't  know how involved or
difficult the automation neccesary would be to  synchronize the taking
camera, and the optical printer and for  recording off to a computer and
hard drive. (Though simply recording  to compact flash is an acceptable
option and might be faster.) Speed is not a concern. Our volume is low,
this is just to scan in short shots, not whole feature films.

 Steven Bradford
 Director, School of Film
 Collins College
 Tempe Arizona