I am beginning to do some film to video transfer work and was wondering if any one knew exactly the modification that are made to create a telecine projector. Right now I am using one of those cheap reflector box things with the condenser lens, but I'm not really happy with the way it is turning out. So I was wondering if anyone has any specific know how in this area. Thanks again.

Mitch

Check out

http://www.moviestuff.tv/

For some good solutions. The 'do it yourself' aim it at a screen and shoot it is okay, if you correct for parralax, get a good exposure, and 'tune' the projector for the right exposure. But a real telecine projector has a five bladed shutter... you're not likely to find one in a thriftstore.

Movie Stuff in houston sells a good product.

I've taken a look at that site, and really don't want to shell out the money for one of those. I have a bunch of old projectors and wanted to see if I could modify one myself. Does anyone know what is changed in them? I know it is a 5 blade shutter and not a projection lamp, but is there anything else? Any input would be great.

Anything? Nothing? Something?

A google search on "5-blade shutter" turned up several ebay offerings around $500, and this article

http://www.videomaker.com/article/11239/

Kinda thin on content though. We used to buy Bell and Howell film chain projectors for installs on film islands, but that was about 30 years ago; even then, IIRC a single 16mm projector ran about $1400 or so.

If you're a dedicated geek, you can futz around with shutters and motors but it's gonna be hit/miss unless you can find a way to fine-tune motor speed... Steve

Since I don't plan to do mass-production, I decided to go the frame-by-frame way. This should give me the best quality options. I just got a projector from eBay that can do 3fps. I will modify the light source, modify a mouse, and get the CineCap software from http://www.alternaware.com/ ($70, there is a trial version). A little optical path experimentation and that should do it. The whole method is decribed in http://homepage.mac.com/onsuper8/diytelecine/index.html

Hope it works out. Maybe this is something for you too.

Louis

True telecine machines will create one frame of video for one frame of film at 24fps. The film and video frame rates are synced, so they transfer correctly. If you film a projection there is no sync, so it a different type of transfer. If you want the best quality and frame-to-frame accuracy then have a lab do the transfer on their expensive machines. For general use I've taped the projection with decent results, but nothing has compared to a professionally telecined 16mm to 10bit uncompressed.