50D looks great!

[nikonr10]

I've only used the V3 200T so far and it was still finer grain than 100D, not to mention a whole lot sharper. If you want grain there's still 500T and TriX. 3 awsome negs in Super 8 is pretty cool, now all we need is Roger and his people to get that new scanner doing neg stocks and order will be restored to the universe!

Yes Roger the fate of super 8 and order , a heavy burden for one man and his scanner !

Well done Roger , Thank's , nice to be able to keep it DIY ,

[MitchPerkins]

http://www.moviestuff.tv/

Looks like they did it! Don't think i'll be sparing on ordering up some 50D for my trip in 2 weeks! Then when i get back i'm going to construct a statue of Roger Evans in the town square!

Congratulations! Remember though it isn't one piece of gear that's going to "do it" for you with the negs - you need to set parameters and you'll want manual control of those parameters. And without some sort of wetgate you will likely have base scratches and dust.

There isn't any neg anywhere that comes off any scanner "finished" - the initial "milky", or low-contrast image isn't an artefact of a lesser xfer; it's simply the best platform to proceed toward the particular look you want. Because it's generally easier to add contrast to an existing image than to remove it.

Have a great trip and happy shooting!

Mitch

[MitchPerkins]

I've only used the V3 200T so far and it was still finer grain than 100D, not to mention a whole lot sharper. If you want grain there's still 500T and TriX. 3 awsome negs in Super 8 is pretty cool, now all we need is Roger and his people to get that new scanner doing neg stocks and order will be restored to the universe!

Yes Roger the fate of super 8 and order , a heavy burden for one man and his scanner !

Well done Roger , Thank's , nice to be able to keep it DIY ,

Given that there are no sample clips of neg on the site, or any information in the text as to what has been changed on the unit to handle negs, could the raising of the statue be just a tad premature?

I can't help contrasting your reception of this news, which amounts empirically to a banner being added to a photograph, to the reception given here to José Luis Sanz, who posted a sample clip, and an outstanding one....and was called a fake.

Mitch

[MovieStuff]

Congratulations! Remember though it isn't one piece of gear that's going to "do it" for you with the negs - you need to set parameters and you'll want manual control of those parameters. And without some sort of wetgate you will likely have base scratches and dust. There isn't any neg anywhere that comes off any scanner "finished" - the initial "milky", or low-contrast image isn't an artefact of a lesser xfer; it's simply the best platform to proceed toward the particular look you want. Because it's generally easier to add contrast to an existing image than to remove it.

Correct. The goal of adding color neg capability was to give people working with neg a reasonable starting point of a positive image good enough to then work with using normal CC tools found in a typical NLE. Obviously, we do not have a DaVinci hooked up to the Retro-8 unit. And you are quite correct about the advantage of wetgate. We do not (yet) offer a wetgate solution but the unit will have threaded utility holes for anyone that wants to mount a DIY wetgate thingy to the side before it enters the gate. I figured we would try to accommodate the users' ingenuity if they want to have a go at adding a wetgate or film cleaner to the unit without having to drill holes in the cabinet!

Given that there are no sample clips of neg on the site, or any information in the text as to what has been changed on the unit to handle negs, could the raising of the statue be just a tad premature?

I certainly don't require a statue but for what it's worth, we have added firmware updates to reset the color values at the actual camera head to help negate the orange masking before capture. Downstream, we have added RGB and gamma controls to help fine tune the virtual PC image before it is written to the drive. This goes a long way towards getting a usable image that can then be finessed in the NLE of choice using basic CC tools. I hope to have some updated pos and neg footage on the website soon. But we've had over 100 orders so far and I'm beat trying to get all these improvements worked into the unit before we ship the first batch.

I can't help contrasting your reception of this news, which amounts empirically to a banner being added to a photograph, to the reception given here to José Luis Sanz, who posted a sample clip, and an outstanding one....and was called a fake.

Fair enough. But the clip did look suspicious because how the sprocket hole area appeared; not how good the image looked. Once he explained it, I understood. But I don't think questioning it was out of line. Film making isn't a religion and when something comes along that seems miraculous in nature, inquiring minds want to know. I had seen terrific results from Video Fred and his AV Synth stuff but I had not seen anything look similar from Neat Video, which I think was being used. Pretty cool stuff.

Roger

[MitchPerkins]

Thanks Roger for a detailed and judiciously humourous reply!

Sounds like it will be a great little unit for the negs, reasonably priced, and looks waaay cool to boot. Maybe a slot between light and chip for a "neg filter"? You could even provide the "correct" colour to remove the orange mask?...God only knows what I'm using - a combination of green and blue swatches based on experimentation - but there must be a true, correct hue for this, no?

Nice work.

Mitch

[MovieStuff]

Thanks Roger for a detailed and judiciously humourous reply!

Sounds like it will be a great little unit for the negs, reasonably priced, and looks waaay cool to boot.

Thanks. I purposely went for the retro look, hence the name. People that remember having Akai and Teac units on their shelf have responded to it.

Maybe a slot between light and chip for a "neg filter"? You could even provide the "correct" colour to remove the orange mask?...God only knows what I'm using - a combination of green and blue swatches based on experimentation - but there must be a true, correct hue for this, no?

I played with that but, unfortunately, it robs the unit of too much light. We need a high shutter speed to freeze the film as it goes by. I don't want to raise the gain to compensate for the filter. So I'm using the camera's firmware to deal with it. Works pretty good, actually.

Nice work.

Thanks. I think people will have fun with it.

Roger

[MitchPerkins]

Maybe a slot between light and chip for a "neg filter"? You could even provide the "correct" colour to remove the orange mask?...God only knows what I'm using - a combination of green and blue swatches based on experimentation - but there must be a true, correct hue for this, no?

I played with that but, unfortunately, it robs the unit of too much light. We need a high shutter speed to freeze the film as it goes by. I don't want to raise the gain to compensate for the filter. So I'm using the camera's firmware to deal with it. Works pretty good, actually.

Nice work.

Thanks. I think people will have fun with it.

Roger

Ahh, well, the firmware probably works *better* than any kind of filter - I imagine that's how the big boys do it anyway...

Looking forward to some clips - aside from curiosity regarding your unit, there's not much properly CC'ed Super8 neg online just to look at for fun and reference, I'm finding. Myself, I'm going to try to get it looking like K-chrome with a lilac/blue bias....so wish me luck lol!

Mitch

[Tscan]

Correct. The goal of adding color neg capability was to give people working with neg a reasonable starting point of a positive image good enough to then work with using normal CC tools found in a typical NLE. Obviously, we do not have a DaVinci hooked up to the Retro-8 unit. And you are quite correct about the advantage of wetgate. We do not (yet) offer a wetgate solution but the unit will have threaded utility holes for anyone that wants to mount a DIY wetgate thingy to the side before it enters the gate. I figured we would try to accommodate the users' ingenuity if they want to have a go at adding a wetgate or film cleaner to the unit without having to drill holes in the cabinet!

Oh this will be plenty great! i use Sony Vegas 10 and the CC and image tools are amazing. I was able to get a pretty ok image before with the WP XP and orange mask on a particular scene, but it requird a lot various adjustments, heavy tweaking a band-width. Scene to scene was just way too much work, reversal was just a lot easier and prettier. Just starting with a positive image will eliminate 80% of the battle.

[speed]

It is easy to get a good neg scan: Correct light source and filter, good sensor (3 CCDs, not Bayern filter), and 10 bit 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 signal not compressed at any moment (forget about H264) and, of course, a person that knows what is doing with the scan and CC system and good direction of photography.

Salud!

José Luis "Speed" Sanz

[Will2]

Here's some V3 50D in 16mm shot recently as I was testing out an Arri SR1.

https://vimeo.com/64182099

[MitchPerkins]

Here's some V3 50D in 16mm shot recently as I was testing out an Arri SR1.

https://vimeo.com/64182099

Hey! That 50D........looks great!

~:?)

Mitch