[Tig] Using an optical printer as a scanner?

[Steven Bradford]

Well, DSLRs aren't all that expensive anymore. The recommendation from
the JK guy is to also buy an extended warranty with the camera. :-) 
The thing is, our volume isn't that incredibly high, it's for effects
shots. For various boring accounting reasons, and crappy turnaround
times, we've not had great success sending things out.
 
We have a sony Cinealta. We could set it up to shoot the aperture of an
optical printer I suppose, and feed the output to a workstation for hard
drive recording.
 
Steve Bradford
Collins College
 

________________________________

From: adam berk [mailto:blumediaprojekt at nerdshack.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 6:10 PM
To: Steven Bradford
Cc: Telecine Internet Group
Subject: Re: [Tig] Using an optical printer as a scanner?


The problem with the JK Printer / DSLR combo is the life of the DSLR's
shutter.  Most of those things are only promised to work around 100 to
150 thousand times.  So, in a perfect world, we might say that every
DSLR body you buy lasts exactly 150,000 exposures.  At 40 frames per
foot for 16mm, that equates out to exactly 3,750 feet of film.  You'd
have to replace the DSLR body constantly.  At this cost, it WOULD
actually save money to send out your film for HD one-light scanning at a
facility that offers EDU discounts. 


thanks so much,

Adam Berk
BluMedia Projekt and Creative Technology
Smoke/Flame artist and C>me development team
T. +13303103950
E.  <http://www.blumediaprojekt.com> adam at blumediaprojekt.com
<mailto:adam at blumediaprojekt.com> 

www.blumediaprojekt.com <http://www.blumediaprojekt.com> 
www.creativetechnology.com <http://www.creativetechnology.com> 



On May 3, 2007, at 5:34 PM, Steven Bradford wrote:


	Thanks to Yuri Neyman (Gamma & Density) for support in 2007. 
	Guide to TIG Posting is at 
	http://tig.colorist.org/wiki3/index.php/Guide_to_TIG_Etiquette
	 ====



	 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

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