DIY super8 datacine 2K

[filman]

i was experimenting a system to transfer in HD, searching in internet i found this Sony DKC ST5 camera. It is a new old-stock digital photo camera 2/3 inch progressive scan 3CCD, with resolution of 2546X2048 pixel. It output data via SCSI each frame at 15Mb uncompressed TIFF that i store progressively in a folder onto hard disk. Then via photoshop i scale down each frame at whatever resolution 1920x1080, 1280x720 ecc and can correct , if necessary, also many parameters like chroma,contrast,retouch images ecc.. Finally in FinalCutPro i import the folder of frames and make the final editing. So simple (you could say) ? unfortunately there are some problems:
first of all the camera can stores automatically only up to 9(nine!) frames in its internal memory (we are speaking about a 1997 technology),at one frame per second speed, then i stop the projector and manually select all 9 frames and transfer them to hard disk on PC, and it takes about 120 seconds to do it, then another 9 frames and so on.
secondarily, in this camera there isn't the negative inverse function, so only reversal film
Dulcis in fundo it takes 15 hours to record 15 meters of Super 8 film, although at 2k resolution. it may be considered like a digital blow-up. I have tried with Super 16 and Ultra 16 film format and the images are perfect, with super8 the single images are very grainy, but when the frames run,let say at 25fp/sec. the grain becomes less visible, and the resolution improves . All this after scale down to uncompressed 768x576 , my Mac isn't able to run those 2K giant files. I made another experiment: i shoot and digitized at 50fp/sec.and the look is smooth like interlaced video, but with the quality of film .
Here you can download an example. obviously, to upload on internet, i had to resize such monster file and compress to 677x480p H264.mov file, it is only for estimating the quality.

http://www.maraclub.it/aeromodellismo.html

and here are some stills at full uncompressed .tiff resolution 2560x1650 12,1 Mb.
the pictures have been cropped up and down to fit the SuperDuper(Max8) film frame

http://www.maraclub.it/still1.html
http://www.maraclub.it/still2.html

Now the question is : could someone somewhere reprogramme the software of this camera to store the frames directly to hard disk? i could save hours.
Another question:
is there some digital (hard disk/tape or whatever) player that could run at 25fp/sec or faster the full resolution uncompressed 2k files to display via digital cinema projector?

regards

[CineGuerrilha]

man, that would be something i'd löve to do but scsi is not my cup of tea... but the stuff u uploaded is amasing!

[VideoFred]

and here are some stills at full uncompressed .tiff resolution 2560x1650 12,1 Mb.
the pictures have been cropped up and down to fit the SuperDuper(Max8) film frame

http://www.maraclub.it/still1.html
http://www.maraclub.it/still2.html

I am very impressed by this transfer, Filman!

Can you tell us some more about these pictures? Is this SuperDuper8? What filmstock and what camera was used?

Your telecine projector is very well made too!

Fred.

[filman]

hi Fred

this was shot with a widened gate Bolex DS8 camera. The film is Wittnerchrome 40. As you can see the film is not very steady as expected from a DS8 camera, the strange thing is that the other side, that i used tho shot underwater, is absolutely steady, like a 16mm camera. Perhaps i loaded wrong the film or whatelse.
regards
Roberto

[VideoFred]

As you can see the film is not very steady as expected from a DS8 camera,

Hello Roberto,

I am using a very old computer for the internet. :oops: To examine your mov.file I must be able to download it and watch it on another computer.

But again: I am very impressed by those stills!
PS: Avisynth could be a great help for you to batch process the stills.

Fred.

[thepelell]

Ciao roberto.
Impressive stuff. Maybe slightly overexposed but very cool.
You have done what i have been wanting to do in the last 6 months.....
May i suggest instead of trying to modify your existing camera, to consider machine vision USB cameras... try take a look at www.sumix.com They have cameras with c mount lenses and usb interface that easily do 2k resolution at relatively fast frame rates ... they aren't cheap but i think they are the best way for DIY HD frame by frame transfer.
One question, what kind of lens system do you have ? Do you focus directly on film plane? To test my method, i have dismantled a cheap 2Mp webcam and tried with a 80mm c mount lens, but quality of webcam is very bad, lots of noise and little control over image brightness so brigt scenes are captured overexposed ( no shutter speed control of webcam).

p.s. I'm from Italy too, so if you want to p.m. in our native language, you are welcome.

[filman]

ciao thepelell
yes, the film is intentionally a bit overexposed, to avoid the heavy contrasty look of kodachrome/wittnerchrome. I think that the main point is not only the number of pixel, i know very well usb/firewire machinevision cams, a 3ccd system outperforms always a single chip especially for color performance, that is the most concern in film transfer. I focus directly the film plane with a 75mm macro-gauss MVO lens from Edmund Scientific. This lens is stated to exceed 100 lp/mm, anyway i am always looking for a better lens(if any).
saluti
Roberto