Blackmagic introduces $30K 16/35mm film scanner

[Nicholas Kovats]

Not withstanding the leggy model strutting by the airbrushed wall mounted fixture...Blackmagic is attempting to generate interest in their recent acquisition of the famous historical UK Cintel scanner company. Thunderbolt II and HDMI ports, 16/35mm gates, optional pin registration, "super bright spherical RGB LED illumination", full DaVinci Resolve suite, 4x cleaning rollers, "Image Mill stabilization and grain reduction", etc.

Time will tell if the initial marketing hype for a non-existent product will come to fruition. Blackmagic digital camera owners appear to be a very patient lot considering how long it takes their products to ship AFTER the product announcement.

http://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/cintel

I am very interested in the convergence of digital tech with mechanical film.

[Will2]

I knew it. The BlackMagic guys LOVE film and I know they were wanting a decent film scanner.

Seems like its part of a 4K content push which I'm not exactly on-board with but I love the idea of a more affordable scanner. The 16mm gate is of course optional as well as pin registration.

Good point about it taking forever to become a reality. And if it does it will be missing some basic software piece like the "G" in RGB or something...then they'll say it will be out in a software update that will never happen.

The proof will be in the pudding. Haven't seen any sample scans yet.

[JeremyC]

"super bright spherical RGB LED illumination"

I've seen this thing about a spherical light chamber bandied about before, what advantage does it have when scanning film?

[Nicholas Kovats]

I do not have the knowledge you are seeking, Jeremy. Perhaps one of the "scanheads" will respond?

[Andreas Wideroe]

Here's a response from one scanhead 8)

A diffused lightsource (chamber/sphere) will greatly reduce visible scratches on the digital version of the film. While on a traditional lightsource all light goes in one direction towards the film and when it hits a scratch the photon changes direction and moves out of position and doesn't hit the sensor where it is supposed to leaving a black scratch (reversal or white for negative). When a diffused lightsource is used the inside of the sphere is indeed covered with silver coating and it now works as a mirror. Now the photons exit the chamber in all directions. This makes photons that are already in a wrong direction hit a scratch and can be sent towards the sensor covering the scratch. See attached sketch. Hope this quick example gives you some understanding. Not perfectly explained at all, but should hopefully be understandable.

sphere.jpg

/Andreas

[Paul Thrussell]

Hm, I don't even have my Retro-8 yet and yet what you just described, Andreas, has me wondering to myself if there would be some way to add a poor man's diffuser to the light source in order to reduce how visible scratches are with that unit. But I'm taking things off topic :lol:

[supa8]

Do you think there will be an 8mm gate as well?

[Andreas Wideroe]

If they don't make it. I will.

[Tscan]

I can't wait to get mine and mount it on the wall at the bottom of the stairs. It's a dream machine with 4K. $30K is very cheap but not exactly at a consumer price. I was hoping they would come out with something under $5K. Maybe a 2K 8/16mm version will come out later?

[Nicholas Kovats]

Thanks, Andreas, for your excellent diagram. Who do you contract your machining to?

[sportique]

apparently it's sprocketted so making an 8mm and or super8 gate may be very tricky to say the least.
also, from what I understand the sensor is in a fixed position and is windowed when scanning 16mm meaning 2k only.
with this in mind; if the machine was adapted for 8mm presumably the resolution would then halve again making it not much better then SD

when you also take into account the endless list of problems with their line of cameras I'd be very apprehensive about becoming an early adopter

[Andreas Wideroe]

Nicholas:
To my friend Mike. They guy on the left in this photo:

https://twitter.com/warreneagles/status ... 8869555200

/Andreas

[Nicholas Kovats]

Thanks. Where was this taken? NAB 2014?

Nicholas:
To my friend Mike. They guy on the left in this photo:

https://twitter.com/warreneagles/status ... 8869555200

/Andreas

[Andreas Wideroe]

See the date below. Must have been NAB 2013. I wasn't there.

Andreas

[Andreas Wideroe]

apparently it's sprocketted so making an 8mm and or super8 gate may be very tricky to say the least.

We've made a Quadra into a 9.5mm scanner and Reg8 scanner. New sporckets, new daughterboards, new programs in chips, fooling the machine and so on.

If you know your electronics and know how/where to make parts everything is possible, but ofcourse it is difficult.

when you also take into account the endless list of problems with their line of cameras I'd be very apprehensive about becoming an early adopter.

Do we know if they use the same sensors as in the cameras? I look forward to seeing some specs.

/Andreas