35mm Scanning: DIY vs A Professional Service

[Valeyard]

Sounds intriguing, are options for 16mm scanning being considered as well?

The Arri is a 35mm/16mm scanner.

[SiriusGen]

Going by SiriusGen's blog he had the T2 trailers scanned either in early 2014 or in 2013. I know the Arri has been improved upon by the company over the years adding more options like a sproketless film path etc, could you tell me why their Arri didn't handle prints well at that time?

For clarification, the blog was fist written late 2013, and I update occasionally with new stuff.

According to my receipts, the scans were done early 2016.

[poita]

I've spoken to the boss, we have decided to offer 3K and 4K for 35mm, we will be ready to go at the end of this month.
Dual flash scanning on the Arri, output to ProRes 4444 we will have a stabilisation option available.
Raw, uncompressed scans are available, but I would recommend against it, the storage is massive, and they are a pain to work with, but the option is there if you really want it. (Around 22TB for a 2 hour feature for Raw, around 4TB for ProRes4444)

We also have the 16mm gate, so we can do 16mm at 3K and 4K for the same price. It takes just as long to scan 16mm as 35mm as we scan at the same resolution, so the price will be the same.

PM me if anyone is interested, the scanning is in Europe, we are happy to take jobs from anywhere, but obviously freight/postage will be more expensive from outside of Europe.
If you are looking to scan and then sell your film, we can freight the film straight to your buyer.

[poita]

The Arri in the past had a different light source, and only had single flash capability. Also, scanning is only as good as the operator. There are some terrible operators out there. For example, Perry at gamma ray digital does great scans on his Scanstation, often scanning jobs that people have already had scanned at another provider that also uses a scanstation, but Perry gets far, far better results.
I would say most of the problem with those trailers, was the operator being used to scanning negs, and not understanding the issues with release prints.

However, the current Arri has a different sensor, different light source, different software and algorithms, the only thing shared with the older models is the transport, so the quality of the new unit is considerably better than the old one, particularly with prints.

Cinelabs' statement is somewhat true with the old Arri that they use. I'm am pretty sure they haven't updated their's since 2010 or so. The older model is more suited to negs than prints.

The current Arri will outperform anything other than the Director on prints, and honestly, both exceed the level of detail that a release print has.

[poita]

SiriusGen, if you still have that trailer, I will scan it for free, I'd like to see how our scan compares to the Spirit.

[Evit]

We are looking at opening up 2.5K scanning (which honestly exceeds most release prints resolution, and is way higher than 1080P, especially for scope prints) on the Arri for collectors for a flat rate, about an 80% reduction in the standard commercial rate. This would give far better results than single flash "4K" scans on bayer based equipment. We have just purchased another Arri and are commissioning it in early December, I'll keep everyone posted, but I have been working to having an option for print owners to get access to high end equipment.

Could this save me from building my own?

[poita]

Possibly. The price will be a little more than the US scanner and the Czech scanner, partially because I don't want to take away business from them, but also because this is a very different level of scanning. There is still room for mid-range level scanning on home-brew equipment, which can produce very good results.
We are trying to offer access to Pro level gear at a price that is affordable to collectors and the restoration community, we aren't really looking to make money from it, just to cover our costs really. That still puts the price higher than a home-brew operator can charge, so there are multiple options for people wanting scanning. I am passionate about preservation, and want it to be available to as many people as possible.

[Valeyard]

Going by SiriusGen's blog he had the T2 trailers scanned either in early 2014 or in 2013. I know the Arri has been improved upon by the company over the years adding more options like a sproketless film path etc, could you tell me why their Arri didn't handle prints well at that time?

For clarification, the blog was fist written late 2013, and I update occasionally with new stuff.

According to my receipts, the scans were done early 2016.

Are you sure? Your Youtube videos of the trailers are dated 9 Mar 2014.

[Evit]

I'm still planning to make my home-made scanner following your guides (once I find a projector, that is) but this is a great opportunity for FanRes and I hope to make use of it very soon. Fancy testing the equipment on any trailer?

[SiriusGen]

Going by SiriusGen's blog he had the T2 trailers scanned either in early 2014 or in 2013. I know the Arri has been improved upon by the company over the years adding more options like a sproketless film path etc, could you tell me why their Arri didn't handle prints well at that time?

For clarification, the blog was fist written late 2013, and I update occasionally with new stuff.

According to my receipts, the scans were done early 2016.

Are you sure? Your Youtube videos of the trailers are dated 9 Mar 2014.

Absolutely. The trailers linked on the blog are not the ones from the scans. They're just the versions I was talking about, and found whomever had the best versions.

The blog was written first, simply to compare the differences in shots that they used for the trailer versus ones in the feature. I then extended it to add screen grabs from various sources. Then the hunt for 35mm film came about. The trailers were purchased in 2016 and 2017.

At present, I have not uploaded the scanned trailers anywhere (but I may be shortly).