There was an article on a magazine about a guy called Nico Beyer. He shots mainly commercials and uses Leica SLR-cameras for f/x-shots and a Vistavision-camera with Leica-R-lenses. He claimed that he wanted almost-65mm-quality with lower costs and more flexibility!?
I am pretty amazed that Paramount still have a VistaVision projector in a viewing theatre you sure wont find another place in the world with the same . VistaVision is almost as good as 65mm , but its only used for VFX stuff so if you do shoot with it will have to be printed to 2.40 or 1.85 or [waste of time here i am afraid ] to 70mm as nobody seems to interested in showing 5 perf 70mm anymore .
I am pretty amazed that Paramount still have a VistaVision projector in a viewing theatre you sure wont find another place in the world with the same . VistaVision is almost as good as 65mm , but its only used for VFX stuff so if you do shoot with it will have to be printed to 2.40 or 1.85 or [waste of time here i am afraid ] to 70mm as nobody seems to interested in showing 5 perf 70mm anymore .
Yes, they still have VV prints in the archive just a few hundred yards away from that room. Alas, there's only one projector, so no changeovers.
The theatre at Paramount where I used to view VV prints was the GARY COOPER THEATER. It had a single Century projector, about 4 moth-eaten seats, an old standard lamp and smelled like a pre-war European train. However the screen image was steady enough.
Technicolor did an optical 70MM blow up from my VV neg, no intermediates. They similarly could do a direct reduction to 1.85:1 4 perf 35. Intermediates would be just as easy.
However the world turns and maybe the gear is now full of rust or cobwebs. Or perhaps there is no one there who knows how to operate it. I sure hope that the Technicolor management has changed...
... The VistaVision format is the same size as the 35mm still camera format, so most VistaVision cameras use converted Nikons or medium format lenses. ...
Which makes me wonder what lenses will be used with Red's upcoming Epic, which will have a 35mm SLR full size sensor.
I've always assumed that cine lenses could fill a 36 X 24 negative, but the fall off would be significant, so the smaller negative size uses the sweetest spot of the lens. But perhaps I'm mistaken.
Which makes me wonder what lenses will be used with Red's upcoming Epic, which will have a 35mm SLR full size sensor.
I've always assumed that cine lenses could fill a 36 X 24 negative, but the fall off would be significant, so the smaller negative size uses the sweetest spot of the lens. But perhaps I'm mistaken.
I need to find the absolute fastest 300mm or greater lens around 1.4
US$ 29.000 back then - and made on special order only. Weighs about 19 lbs. and should work nicely with the Wilcam VV cameras or the Actionflex 8-perf...
Edited by Christian Appelt, 31 July 2008 - 06:25 AM.
That 8-plate KEM is a sight for sore eyes. Academy, 'Scope and VV on one bed. Wow. If I had 5000 bucks and a container, I'd buy it just to look at. It makes my Steenbeck look like a toy.
US$ 29.000 back then - and made on special order only. Weighs about 19 lbs. and should work nicely with the Wilcam VV cameras or the Actionflex 8-perf...
Yes I found about this one today but can't find anyone in Los Angeles who has one to rent, I checked Samy's, Calumet, some smaller shops.
Any ideas?
Do you have it?
What about a massive wide, super-killer fast lens? like a 1.4 20mm ?
The only update I have is that Paramount shut down their camera department late last year. Don't know where the VV gear went, or whether they kept the projector in that upstairs room in the Fields Bldg.
Thanks John for that update, though most unfortunate...
I do have an update.. maybe its already known... But I sent an email to Fotokem.. their large format technical director Vince Roth was wonderful enough to get back to me.. here is what he sent me...
"We are currently only able to do 6K scans of Vistavison at this time, which could go into a DI process, and we could film out to 65mm neg if required. We can also make 70mm optical prints. We are also able to telecine the material which we would be able to do in one of our telecine bays. As a side note the aspect ratio of the vistavision frame is 1.5:1 while the 70mm 5 perf frame is 2.2:1, so you would either be losing image on top and bottom, or would have a window boxed image in the 70mm frame."
So it looks like Fotokem is the place for vistavision post... also Clairmont Cameras have put their Vistavision cameras out to pasture of the sales department..
Thanks John for that update, though most unfortunate...
I do have an update.. maybe its already known... But I sent an email to Fotokem.. their large format technical director Vince Roth was wonderful enough to get back to me.. here is what he sent me...
"We are currently only able to do 6K scans of Vistavison at this time, which could go into a DI process, and we could film out to 65mm neg if required. We can also make 70mm optical prints. We are also able to telecine the material which we would be able to do in one of our telecine bays. As a side note the aspect ratio of the vistavision frame is 1.5:1 while the 70mm 5 perf frame is 2.2:1, so you would either be losing image on top and bottom, or would have a window boxed image in the 70mm frame."
So it looks like Fotokem is the place for vistavision post... also Clairmont Cameras have put their Vistavision cameras out to pasture of the sales department..
I'll report as I learn more.
Of course I know Vince. Call the sales dept and ask for Rik, get a quote for DI scanning. The best they could do is $0.50 per frame. Which would have cost about $25,000.
This is not for the feint of heart.
You need to be a Matlab, Labview, and C/C++ guru. I built my own hardware and wrote software to scan it myself at 78 lp/mm for about $1400USD.
here's what you need Nikon scanner Motor with an encoder 2 or 4 gang 35mm film gang Labview Nikon SDK MS compiler
Write code that interfaces to scanner, calibrates, scans image. It will take about 3 weeks at 24x7 to scan 50,000 frames of VV with quality control.
For processing full 16-bit uncompressed images, color correction, image stabilization, etc.
Matlab
When the cash flow is more positive, I intend to buy two or three VV cameras and I'll modify them for a Leica mount for my next film, a feature.
Of course I know Vince. Call the sales dept and ask for Rik, get a quote for DI scanning. The best they could do is $0.50 per frame. Which would have cost about $25,000.
This is not for the feint of heart.
You need to be a Matlab, Labview, and C/C++ guru. I built my own hardware and wrote software to scan it myself at 78 lp/mm for about $1400USD.
here's what you need Nikon scanner Motor with an encoder 2 or 4 gang 35mm film gang Labview Nikon SDK MS compiler
Write code that interfaces to scanner, calibrates, scans image. It will take about 3 weeks at 24x7 to scan 50,000 frames of VV with quality control.
For processing full 16-bit uncompressed images, color correction, image stabilization, etc.
Matlab
When the cash flow is more positive, I intend to buy two or three VV cameras and I'll modify them for a Leica mount for my next film, a feature.
Have you built this unit? What is your VV resolution Height and Width? What is your scan time per frame? DIYers are always interested to hear about other's achievements.
