New 2K film recorder claims 6x speed advantage

[krd]

A new 2K film recorder by Imagica (Imager HSR) claims a speed of 3 frames per second, or a 6x improvement over the current standard. The figure I've seen for the Arri Laser is a one frame per 1.7 seconds, which puts the advantage closer to 5x.

So far, there's one installed at LaserPacific. In their example, a 90 minute film takes 12 hours on their unit vs. 72 hours on current equipment. Maybe it will cut significantly the price of a film transfer(?)

And yes, they're working on a 4K version.

 

[M Most]

A new 2K film recorder by Imagica (Imager HSR) claims a speed of 3 frames per second, or a 6x improvement over the current standard. The figure I've seen for the Arri Laser is a one frame per 1.7 seconds, which puts the advantage closer to 5x.

So far, there's one installed at LaserPacific. In their example, a 90 minute film takes 12 hours on their unit vs. 72 hours on current equipment. Maybe it will cut significantly the price of a film transfer(?)

And yes, they're working on a 4K version.

I doubt it, although it will allow its owners to output more work in the same amount of time. That's the business advantage and the reason a facility would purchase one - the ability to turn around more revenue in the same time frame, partially justifying the higher cost of the equipment. This also permits them to meet tight turnarounds, and in some cases, to output multiple printing negatives while still meeting a delivery deadline.

For what it's worth, the Cinevator - which has been around for about a year or so - operates in real time. But it also costs almost $2 million. To justify these kind of machines and their attendant costs - especially given the commodity level pricing clients seem to expect and demand today - you basically have to run them at least 12-24 hours a day - every day. There aren't many places in the world with that amount of film recording work available. In fact, Los Angeles is the only one I can think of, and even there, it can be sporadic.

 

[RivaiC]

agree with mmost

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

we will be running some RED record out tests on this -

http://www.filmdatastorage.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=61

 

[M Most]

we will be running some RED record out tests on this -

http://www.filmdatastorage.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21&Itemid=61

Just curious:

If you're planning to purchase a film recorder, I can understand testing the Definity. However, if you're using a service provider for film recording - and frankly, it makes a lot of sense to do so unless you're also going to do service bureau work yourself to justify the cost of the machine - what differences do you actually expect to see? To me, all of these newer film recorders really should be all about speed, because the existing technology is already very accurate, very stable, and very reliable. You're really not likely to see "better" output than that provided by an ArriLaser, and even if you did, the difference is not going to be dramatic. And any gains are not likely to carry through to release prints in any case.

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

Just curious:

If you're planning to purchase a film recorder, I can understand testing the Definity. However, if you're using a service provider for film recording - and frankly, it makes a lot of sense to do so unless you're also going to do service bureau work yourself to justify the cost of the machine - what differences do you actually expect to see? To me, all of these newer film recorders really should be all about speed, because the existing technology is already very accurate, very stable, and very reliable. You're really not likely to see "better" output than that provided by an ArriLaser, and even if you did, the difference is not going to be dramatic. And any gains are not likely to carry through to release prints in any case.

mmost -

agree with you 100%. I am going to try hard to avoid purchasing a film recorder - however, there are a few multi-pic contracts with-in reach - and I like to know my options - and I often test things just to learn more. Defininy is $200K to my door. Hell of lot cheaper than Arrilaser.

 

[M Most]

mmost -

agree with you 100%. I am going to try hard to avoid purchasing a film recorder - however, there are a few multi-pic contracts with-in reach - and I like to know my options - and I often test things just to learn more. Defininy is $200K to my door. Hell of lot cheaper than Arrilaser.

Don't forget the maintenance contract (on both devices)...

PS - We've thought about this too, but it takes a hell of a lot of film recording business to justify even that purchase price when the service is practically being given away by a number of the current players. One more thing to beware of (and I think you've probably thought about this already) is client comfort and name recognition. These days, anything other than laser recording is a tough sell to some clients - especially studio clients - even when the quality can be demonstrated. This is true for CRT recorders, and it would be particularly true for an LCD based device.

 

[RivaiC]

We were trying out definity thru kine place last year. It turned out extremely good at first. But the machine had problem somewhere around this year June, and the german guy came down trying to see what's wrong, couldn't find anything, replacing the camera head and up until today, the way i see the latest test, it's not as good as when we first use it. There was 4 or 3 months ago that the result was horribble where the black and the highlights crushed until you don't see any midtones. The contrast is so out as compare to the original one. And they guy said that they didn't change any settings. It's a very weird experience and i can't find out what's wrong with operator or the machine, i don't know

The german guy came down before and having some workshop, i tried to ask him several questions and he seems to be very confident of the stability of the machine and the stability of the output. But the way i see the result were a bit different. I'm customer to definity and do not own and into tech of definity, i only judge based on outcome.

Regards