[Frameworks] DSLR telecine on a JK printer

Sat Dec 11 00:16:37 CST 2010

I'd love to see photos of what you guys have rigged. 

As far as the bulb goes wouldn't it make more sense to replace the JK light with 
an LED source? Where you using the original JK bulb? A 10 hour life seems to 
short for any sort of serious optical printing (of course at Cineworks with 
fingers crossed we're still using an ancient, yellowing bulb in our Oxberry 
printer).

As far as the post flow goes, do you import the images as a Tiff sequence and 
then export it (after cropping) as ProRes or another format? Or is FCP able to 
handle it without a conversion? 

John Woods

________________________________
From: Mike Maryniuk WFG <mike at winnipegfilmgroup.com>
To: Experimental Film Discussion List <frameworks at jonasmekasfilms.com>
Sent: Fri, December 10, 2010 4:05:30 PM
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] DSLR telecine on a JK printer

At the Winnipeg Film Group we have modified our JK to transfer film using a 
DSLR.  Originally we just tested it by hand, one frame at a time.  But now we’ve 
built a mechanism that auto-fires the camera so the process is automated and you 
can walk away for a while.  To automate the shutter release on our Canon DSLR, 
we’ve created a mechanism that locks into the original piece that fired the 
Bolex one frame at a time.  On the original setup, the JK bolex “motor” would 
turn 360 degrees to fire one 16mm shot.  Now, we have it hooked up to a 
mechanism that completes a circuit with a remote shutter cable (wired, not 
wireless).  If anyone is interested I can send some photos around next week if 
you want to see closer how this mechanism works… it’s kind of hard to describe.

A couple problems with this method though:

1)      I’ve had to replace the shutter on my 40D after transferring a few 
films.  It was just over $100 to fix the shutter I believe, so that’s nothing 
compared to the costs of HD transfers.
2)      The bulb in the JK light that we have only lasts for something like 10 
hours, so we’ve gone through countless bulbs.  That was, until I realized that 
we could just use a 300 watt Arri instead, which seems to have a longer bulb 
life.  And since we’re working digital and the light doesn’t have to be 
measurable this method has worked great.

The benefits:

1)      Upwards of 5K image on your transfer.  FCP kind of freaks when you throw 
all the photos into it at first, but it gives you a great quality image to work 
with, and export as video.
2)      You can capture the FULL frame of film and decide yourself how to frame 
it, which often is not the case when getting traditional transfers.
3)      Cheap as borsht.

If anyone has questions, feel free to ask.  I’ll try to upload photos of our 
automated mechanism on Monday.

-Aaron Zeghers-

From:frameworks-bounces at jonasmekasfilms.com 
[mailto:frameworks-bounces at jonasmekasfilms.com] On Behalf Of George Monteleone
Sent: December 8, 2010 4:07 PM
To: Experimental Film Discussion List
Subject: Re: [Frameworks] DSLR telecine on a JK printer

I can't speak for JK to DSLR, but and friend and I built a variant of the 
workprinter, but with better optics.  We capture directly off the frame, and the 
only glass in the optical path is a high-resolution rodenstock apo-rodagon 
enlarging lens to Sony EX1 camera with an HD-SDI out, uncompressed 1080 signal 
to blackmagic caputre card.  It's basically a Moviestuff workprinter setup with 
better optics.

Our transport is just a modified Eiki with a adjustable speed control, 
low-wattage bulb, and variable aperture electronically controlled.  We capture 
using CaptureMate, the same thing the workprinter is designed to use, frame 
captures triggered with an opto-resistor triggered by the motor rotation.  It's 
quite reliable; the only thing to watch for is dust or occasional jump if the 
film has bad splices or damaged sprockets.  A JK transport would be ideal, or 
some kind of pin-registered transport, though registration on the Eiki at 8fps 
is ok.  Theoretically, and upgrade to higher quality capture mechanisms (i.e. 
Red cameras) wouldn't be too tough, as long as the optics are appropriate for 
the chip size.    

The quality is better than the workprinter.  We've been running it as and 
affordable DIY telecine business, but might be planning to sell the system in 
the near future.  Email me if you're interested in hearing more, arranging to 
see some samples, a quick cheap demo transfer, etc.

-George
georgemonteleone at gmail.com

On Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 4:04 AM, <paul at krimmer.at> wrote:
 i have done that several times a longer time ago, but you never know
 when the shutter rips off, so if you calculate yourself after 20000
 clicks about the possibility the in the middle of the project it kills
 itself you can do that very easily. you have to have a replace-camera in
 your repertoire and looking forward for replacement costs of 100-200
 bucks each time ... and a lot of nerves ;)  but then it works. of course
 a 5d will stay longer as a 500d, but i would rather use the cheap one
 for that job ... nowadays i only use that for making telecine of
 finished works and not for production process anymore...

 On Sun, 5 Dec 2010 22:36:41 -0700, jeanne LIOTTA <jeanli515 at gmail.com>
 wrote:
> they are doing that at my school. But you have to watch
> out--perhpasreplace the camera fairly regularly since they werent
> really made for that kind of frame-clicking volume. Its tedious, just
> like any optical printing, no?  but with a controller interface you
> trust maybe you can just go out for coffee or take  a nap.
>  another one of the million workflows....
>
> On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 6:04 PM, John Woods  wrote:
>  Anyone doing film transfers on a JK optical printer with a DSLR?
> Particularly of
>  S8 or 16mm colour negative? Seems like the most tedious way to
>
>  transfer film but the potential quality it presents intrigues me.
> Thx.
>
>  John Woods
>
>  _______________________________________________
>  FrameWorks mailing list
>  FrameWorks at jonasmekasfilms.com [2]
>  http://mailman-mail5.webfaction.com/listinfo/frameworks [3]

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