DIY 16mm Film to 4K Digital Transfer System | Part 3 

Thanks so much!

This is good advice. On point one: Assuming you wan to keep two drivers for the current requirements (looks like you have a fairly large motor there) you can wire the step and direction pins from one speed controller to both stepper drivers so they are receiving the same signal. This will ensure they are driven at the same speed. You would wire the step pin in parallel to each controller. This is assuming both motors have the same step angle. Not all motors are created alike. It will be labeled on the bottom of the motor. The most common is 1.8 degrees, but even if you send the same pulses to motors with different step angles, they will move differently. On point two: I agree that a simple microcontroller here would do wonders. You could program whatever ratio you would like. For example, two step pulses on one driver would trigger one on the other. 2 to 1 ratio. This is very simple. Feel free to reach out if you want more advice on this.

On the Lumix S5, 640 is the native low ISO - meaning the dynamic range scale above and below medium grey is equal. I could choose a lower ISO and get slightly less noise, but this also moves the dynamic range so there is less information in the highlights, and more in the shadows. By using 640, I can also stop the lens down to F5.6 to f8 for maximum depth of field and sharpness. Thanks for watching!

That's great - thanks for watching!

There used to be a company in the 1970s and 80s that made the exact optical printer you're describing - I think it was JK Cinema, or JK Camera? I looked for one, but was never successful.

Thanks - I did consider that!

Thanks - we'll see what happens!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching! I did not stabilize any of the footage. If you look closely on the few static shots, there's some jitter up and down, but I think it was mostly from the camera itself. 16mm is so small, that any movement in the best system is magnified. My goal overall was to not use any digital stabilization. I used different cameras over the years, and there's a slight difference in the amount of jitter, but it's hard to say whether it's unique to the mechanical condition of that particular camera, or to the design in general.

The "Scrubs" series has been shot on 16-mm first to last season, with the same Aaton camera. They released a single HD episode for season 5, then starting from season 8 they released it in HD. 16-mm film was originally considered not good enough for HD programming, but most broadcasters have since relaxed their requirements, while the HD version of "Scrubs" as well as this build show that 16-mm can very well be used for HD shows.

@@ConsumerDV interesting! I watched scrubs. I remember it was grainy now and then, but it fitted the vibe

Yes, I think 16, especially Super 16 easily can meet HD requirements. One of the key things I'm not sure I mentioned was the quality of the lens used - I shot all my footage with primes, mostly Mark 1 Zeiss Superspeeds - not the best ever made, but better than most. Some of the zooms from the 60s and 70s were pretty bad.

I watched your number 1 and 2 build and the effort you put in has paid dividends. This episode has convinced me to consider a 16 transfer machine, after I have finished my dual 8 machine. Excellent production Fresh Ground! 😊

@@brianmuhlingBUM Thanks! Depending on the footage you have, using a projector as the base would also work - maybe not quite as stable, but the camera mounting and LED light source are the most critical.

Yes, that's why I used the Arri parts. On my channel you'll see I also made a Super 8 device from a projector - that was fairly easy. Then I made a 35mm transfer device using an old Arri X-Ray camera - again, that wasn't too difficult because of the built-in sync. Thanks for the input, I just need to study-up on Arduino, as that seems the best solution.

@@FreshGroundPictures I also just did my first ever project with an aduino. Turned out to be pretty easy. Excellent help from the aduino forum. Go for it.

Always nice to see another great RU-vid channel in the comments @RotarySMP . Glad to see it’s not just planes and lathes that tickle your fancy 😂

Thank you very much!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it - as did I!

Thanks again!

It's possible to convert a 16mm projector like I did for the Super 8 transfer machine - maybe not as steady, but much simpler in theory. Thanks for watching!

Yes, because Resolve doesn't support raw still images as a sequence. The Topaz software does wonders with image sharpness and clarity, but it does tend to reduce the grain, which can be good or bad depending on your preference. I found that processing 4K all the way through did not substantially improve the image beyond 2K. With Topaz however, you can make a susbstantial difference in clarity from 2K to 4K, without the computer-intensive 4K processing all the way through.

@@FreshGroundPicturesMy yt channel is pd films,mostly old sd transfers. I haven't had good luck with the Standard Def interlaced transfers in Topaz. I will try it again on the Resolve output prores files. Maybe starting with the interlace already removed will improve the output. I built a scanner about 10 years ago. If you have questions,please reach out.

@@VintageFilmChannel I checked out and subscribed to your channel - looks very interesting! If you have interlaced masters, standard def, and if they were transferred on a fairly good machine - like a Rank or similar telecine, you can remove the interlacing and return the file to a 23.976 cadence simply by loading the file into After Effects, then right click on it and go to "interpolation". It should allow you to choose "Guess 24P 3:2 pulldown" , which will remove the interlacing and produce 24P frames. This only works if the 3:2 pulldown is consistent throughout the file, and I don't think it works if the movie was transferred on some old projector-type telecines. If you can get the file back to 24P, Topaz will work the best that way. You can even reduce, or dehalo excessive sharpening done in Standard Def. If you can't return a file to 24P, Topaz has a couple of deinterlacing codecs that create 60p files, which can the be reduced to 30p. I've found the deinterlacing to 60p, 1080 looks pretty good provided you tell the software if the dominant field is top or bottom. Of course there are many issues which could arise depending on how the initial video was edited, converted or otherwise altered.

Great video, if you convert the RAW files to DNG RAW files with Adobe DNG converter you can import them to Resolve and skip the destructive step to ProRes.

I've considered that - thank you!

Glad you like them!

That sounds like it might work, however the Arri gate mechanism I used requires a 360 degree rotation to place each frame. If you could time the take-up reel to move after the shutter snapped, that might work, however the amount of film taken up changes consistently as the reel rotates, as more film is accumulated. Thanks for watching!

I use Topaz AI to uprez a 2K file to 4K. You have to experiment a bit with the settings - use the algorith that allows manual input of progressive frames. I usually tweek the sharpness up to around 30, and apply a lower number noise reduction. You could output a 4K file directly color corrected from Resolve, but as I demonstrate, it's sometimes not worth the extra processing time - I use Topaz on a Mac M1 for the AI uprez and it's pretty fast.

As in most film production, sound is recorded on a separate recorder - digital recorders today usually all work fine as they run at constant speed. The key to recording sound is having a film camera that has a crystal-sync motor system - the film then runs at a very exact speed, so it can be matched to the audio recording. A slate is film at the front of a sound take, and the clapper image is synced up with the audio "clap" sound in an edit system. Most digital edit systems have simple ways to then lock the image and sound together as a clip. Years ago, when 16mm (and some Super 8 film) was used for news recording, there was actually a magnetic stripe on the film edge, and the sound was recorded in the camera, thus synced with the picture. This allowed fast editing, but the quality was not as good, and it created flexibility issues in the edit - to my knowledge, you can no longer buy 16 or Super 8 film with a magnetic stripe.

@@FreshGroundPictures thanks, that's very helpful. I'm constantly amazed by the quality of video you make with 16mm.

It's a 25mm Macro lens from Laowa - you can buy in different mounts through BH Photo, Adorama, etc.