zombie84 said:
Puggo, maybe this was brought up in the 22 pages of this thread, but I haven't come across it on your website or in the recent pages. But I'm curious what sort of camera you have been using for the captures. My second question was if it isn't an HD camera, would you ever consider modding the workprinter to install one? Because I really think it could make a difference, especially ESB which looks like it has more detail than the Star Wars reels. The release needn't necessarily be in HD itself.
Yes, it has been discussed quite a bit on the thread. My WorkPrinter as configured won't keep up with an HD camera. The mods necessary are significant, and listed at www.moviestuff.tv.
The camera I use is a TRV-900, which is 3-chip but not HD. It's not the best camera in the world, but it does have manual focus, very good low-light performance, and decent white balance and aperature control. It is a popular camera for this sort of work. I have a good, dark room in which to do the captures. There would be a slight but not necessarily noticeable improvement if I switched to something like an XL2 or a VX2100. But it still wouldn't be an HD capture.
It is my opinion that the expense to upgrade to HD isn't warranted given the condition and other more important "issues" of the 16mm films. We're faking the scope capture in software. The cropping inherent in the film is horrendous (something like 15%). There are furballs fixed into the print. Most have varying degrees of red shift. There are many missing frames.
There will always be ways to make slight improvements. But in summary, I'm not willing to invest in the HD mods to upgrade a crap into a turd. :)
By the way, I did have the WorkPrinter modified to have the gate enlarged which is necessary for working with scope prints.