Does home telecine transfer to DV still look like film?

angelspushing · Post by **angelspushing** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 6:12 pm

i was wondering if even though the footage was shot on S8 does one still get that original film-look after doing an at-home, simple off the wall telecine to DV? Is the time and money wasted on shooting the original footage on S8 hoping to get a filmic look then wasted as it basicaly becomes just video? To a video camera, whats the difference in the subject its shooting between real life and real life projected on the wall from film?
thanks for any input

Post by **sunrise** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 7:23 pm

For the digital camera there's a difference between filming real objects in the real world and filming objects as they are represented on screen. Those two are simply not the same, and therefore will not look the same.

It will still preserve the filmic quality, only loose quality (sharpness, contrast, grain, resolution etc.)

michael

Post by **angelspushing** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 4:41 am

michael,

thanks for the reply. i guess im so used to viewing crappy consumer-grade dv footage and viewing it on the computer in FCP that i assumed anything passing through the dv camera chip would end up looking the same regardless of the source. so basically i was debating the two alternatives i have for shooting on 8mm while keeping costs CHEAP.
1 . Either shoot color reversal and rent 3-chip dv camera for $75.
2 . Shoot color neg. and pay $150 for pro telecine.
3. shoot color reversal and use my 1 chip dv camera.

the second method costs twice as much (too much for me) as the first and the third costs nothing (after developing).
so my thought was: is the image i would get using a 3-chip prosumer camera for off the wall transfer to dv that much better than doing the same with my little one chip sony dv cam?

any ideas on the end results and comparisons of the methods here?
thanks.

Post by **sunrise** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 9:24 am

$75 is a lot for nothing much gained. 3 chip cameras would only come in handy when using the work printer.

So your best option could be a work printer transfer of negative (although it also has issues). Try to ask if there's anyone in your area.

If going for the home telecine, you should think of getting a projecter with variable speed. Do a search on the forum, a lot of people have had some nice results.

michael

Post by **angelspushing** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:32 pm

sunrise,

yeah, i do have a functioning s8 projector with variable speed so i at least got that part down. so i understand you to be saying that as far as a home telecine a one chip will record just about as well as a higher end dv cam?
mike

Post by **sunrise** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 12:57 am

Home telecines with a small consumer minidvcam. These where practically all handheld filming of a white piece of A4 paper. No tampering with the images except for aspect ratio correction. I believe you can find some moving examples of these on the ftp section if this site:

I'm not a big digital freak, but I don't really see much advantage in paying $75 for a 3chip camera for this kind of telecine. Colours can be changed in post, you won't gain much in sharpness or contrast.

michael

Post by **RenÃƒÂ©** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 1:04 pm

I just got my first roll of K40 back from Kodak. I transfered it using my Chinon DS-300 projector (no variable speed) and my Sony TRV-18E (1ccd, no variable shutter). When I move my camera a litte more away from the screen (a built-in tv like screen), the hotspot doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. I used to have a problem with flickering, but setting my camera to flash mode got rid of it.
Remember that all of this was shot using a pretty crappy camera (bell & howell 1223) without any control over exposure. The screen has scratches and I haven't taken the time to do a better transfer yet.

So your transfer would probably look a lot better than this:
ftp://ftp.filmshooting.com/upload/video ... skate2.mp4

Hope this is of any help.

RenÃƒÂ©.

Post by **mattias** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 1:46 pm

very cool clip. i like the dreamy quality you get from those transfers. you should ditch the rear projection screen though and project normally on a piece of paper, and most importantly lock the focus on the video camera. you can do this on even the crappiest ones.

if anyone's interested i have a clip which was transferred the same way but even with flicker to create the visual style i wanted. it turned out kind of cool i think.

http://www.mattias.nu/student/

/matt

Post by **RenÃƒÂ©** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 2:56 pm

Thanks, Mattias. At the time I was unable to preview the output on a tv, so it was done through the viewfinder, with pretty poor focus.
Though this quality is acceptable for me now, I'd like to get rid of the frame blending, but I don't think that's possible with my setup.

BTW, I liked that clip a lot. Especially the slowmotion stuff. I agree the flicker isn't very obvious and certainly not annoying. Is this K40 too?

RenÃƒÂ©.

Post by **mattias** » Fri Sep 17, 2004 4:36 pm

RenÃƒÂ© wrote:I'd like to get rid of the frame blending, but I don't think that's possible with my setup.

unfortunately not without a variable speed projector. there may be less if you set the camera shutter back to normal, but it will increase flicker instead.

BTW, I liked that clip a lot. Especially the slowmotion stuff. I agree the flicker isn't very obvious and certainly not annoying. Is this K40 too?

thanks. yes, it's k40.

/matt

Post by **angelspushing** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 1:55 am

this is from off the wall telecine i did couple years ago. the film is plus-x using a one chip consumer dv cam. took a couple attempts but almost all flickering is gone. i actually do like the peripheral bluring around the edges of the frame from the projector.

http://hello-video.com/videos/01-Caruso.html

Post by **angelspushing** » Sat Sep 18, 2004 2:00 am

oops, i see that only episodes 8 and beyond are playable on that site.