Resolution comparison
- Thread starter MDKfilms
- Start date
Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: Resolution comparison
35mm is typically scanned at either 2K res or 4K res, depending on the budget of the production. Kodak likes to state that in order to get the full resolution out of a 35mm frame you have to scan at 4000 dots per inch, which makes a 35mm frame approximately 4000 x 3000 (for the full 4:3 frame, for a 1.85:1 frame it'd be more like 4000 x 2200).
Super16 is approximately half the width of a 35mm frame. For a high-res scan of Super16, you'd want about 2000 x 1100, or (coincidentally) the high-definition frame size of 1920 x 1080 works out very nicely.
35mm is typically scanned at either 2K res or 4K res, depending on the budget of the production. Kodak likes to state that in order to get the full resolution out of a 35mm frame you have to scan at 4000 dots per inch, which makes a 35mm frame approximately 4000 x 3000 (for the full 4:3 frame, for a 1.85:1 frame it'd be more like 4000 x 2200).
Super16 is approximately half the width of a 35mm frame. For a high-res scan of Super16, you'd want about 2000 x 1100, or (coincidentally) the high-definition frame size of 1920 x 1080 works out very nicely.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Re: Resolution comparison
Well... that's what Kodak says...
I happen to think that while the RESOLVING POWER may be equivalent, HD footage looks a heck of a lot sharper than 16mm or S16.
It's like Super8mm advocates claim: theoretically a frame of S8 should be as high-res as a frame of DV, since S8 should theoretically be scanned at about 800x600 to deliver the full resolution. However, anyone who takes a glance at an S8 frame and then compares it to a DVX frame can easily tell that the DVX looks like it's resolving a lot more detail than the S8 frame does.
And so it goes with 16mm vs. video. Having blown up DVX/24P footage to 35mm, I can say it looks about like a 16mm blowup. S16 would be better, probably quite a bit. Having seen HD blown up to 35mm, it looks a lot sharper than S16 does.
So Kodak advocates that S16 = HD, but I think it's probably more likely that HD is somewhere between S16 and 35.
Well... that's what Kodak says...
I happen to think that while the RESOLVING POWER may be equivalent, HD footage looks a heck of a lot sharper than 16mm or S16.
It's like Super8mm advocates claim: theoretically a frame of S8 should be as high-res as a frame of DV, since S8 should theoretically be scanned at about 800x600 to deliver the full resolution. However, anyone who takes a glance at an S8 frame and then compares it to a DVX frame can easily tell that the DVX looks like it's resolving a lot more detail than the S8 frame does.
And so it goes with 16mm vs. video. Having blown up DVX/24P footage to 35mm, I can say it looks about like a 16mm blowup. S16 would be better, probably quite a bit. Having seen HD blown up to 35mm, it looks a lot sharper than S16 does.
So Kodak advocates that S16 = HD, but I think it's probably more likely that HD is somewhere between S16 and 35.