Telecines & Film Recording

With ITK now absorbed into Cintel (if you can't beat'em, re-join 'em) and buzz that Sony might cease furtherdevelopment of the Vialta, the telecine scene at NAB was one ofconsolidation amidst measured optimism, as the digital intermediatephenomenon gathers commercial momentum.

For its C-Reality and DSX scanners, Cintel introduced GRACE, a grainreduction system that draws upon technologies developed for OLIVER(originally called OSCAR), Cintel's unique semi-optical, front-end dirtand scratch removal system (no frame stores). For its newly acquiredMillennium scanner, Cintel introduced new lenses for 16mm, 35mm, and65/70mm (designed by Stuart Hunt), plus new software to improveaperture correction, color tracking, and transfer speeds. And mostsignificantly, an enhanced CRT design by Cintel's sister company,Brimar.

Thomson/Grass Valley introduced its long-anticipated Spirit4K DataCine scanner module, which hikes DataCine performance to 2K inrealtime and 4K at 6-8fps. Internal 4K processing runs at 16-bit depthand includes shading correction, RGB primary color correction, andaperture correction. Optional plug-ins add secondary color correction,4K "Scream" grain reduction, and digital oversampling of images at 4Kfor output at 2K.

FilmLight, disentangled from ITK, showcased its highlyrespected 35/65mm Northlight flatbed scanner and took square aim at theweakest link in digital intermediaries with an impressive introductionof its Truelight precision color management and monitor calibrationsystem.

Celco debuted its newest product, Firestorm, a significantlylower-cost CRT film recorder that nevertheless outputs near-2K HDimages onto 5245 camera neg at 2.5 seconds per frame. Celco alsoannounced enhanced performance for its flagship, Fury, including 1second per frame for HD to 5245 and less than 2 seconds per frame for afull 2K DPX image onto Kodak intermediate 2242 stock.

Film recorder newcomer MetaFilm introduced an altogetherdifferent approach, giving up laser and CRT sources in favor ofhigh-resolution LCDs at near-4K resolution (3840x2400 pixels). Based onnewly developed German technology, MetaFilm's Flash outputs to 5245 at1 second per frame at either 2K or 4K (all images are scaled to theLCDs' full resolution, regardless of original resolution), requiresvirtually no maintenance (estimated 50,000-hour LCD life), and at$245K, competes in cost with the low end of CRT film recorders, minusthe costs of tube replacement or service contracts.