8mm Forum: The Eastman 350

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Topic: The Eastman 350

Jim Latendorf
Junior
Posts: 13
From: Sacramento, CA.
Registered: Dec 2005

posted August 01, 2006 03:48 PM

For all of you out there who are into transferring 16 mm film to video (telecine), I think I have found a great machine for this purpose.

The Eastman model 350.

Wish could find one of these machines to play with. Very interesting. Anyone ever used one of these gems ??

NO shutter or Intermittent pulldown.

Here is the brochure scanned in "PDF" format. Check it out.

ftp://jimhome.hopto.org/pub/16mm_projectors/eastman_350.pdf

Jim L.

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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 01, 2006 06:43 PM

I really don't think they ever made any of these. It's interesting that it uses a similar rotating mirror system to one IAV (which sold Eiki in the US at the time) was developing as their "freeway" projector.

I would guess these "new designs" just came at the wrong time. The IAV projector was targeted at the school market which dried up and went totally video in about five years.

The Eastman projector was targeted as a film chain replacement. Thirty years earlier DuMont had a similar projector (albet with a rotating prism) as a flying spot scanner for NTSC black and white. Eastman's machine was done in (along with computer pull down RCA 16mm and 35mm machines) by the Rank Flying spot scanner which was successful in the NTSC world as soon as frame stores became a reality.

If you every find one of these, by all means tell us.

John

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Jim Latendorf
Junior
Posts: 13
From: Sacramento, CA.
Registered: Dec 2005

posted August 02, 2006 12:50 PM

The brochure was printed in 1961. Long before video tape took things over in videoland. Telecine was still king in those days.
As John pointed out, Kodak may have never gotton around to build these things or they may have had other issues. Hard to tell. Looks like a sound idea and a neat machine, though.

Jim L.

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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 04, 2006 09:51 AM

quote:
The brochure was printed in 1961.

That predates the IAV Freeway projector by a good fifteen years.

Kodak did "update" the 25/250 Eastman projector into a high tech computerized machine in the late 1970s at the same time that RCA was introducing their computer pull down telecine 16 and 35mm projectors. I've seen both the Kodak 16mm and the RCA 35mm machines, so I know those were produced and they were head on competition for the Rank. The offered the same "shuttle" film handling that you could do with the Rank.

If anyone can find one of the Eastman 350s, let us know. Kodak had produced some remarkable products over the years like the Super8 Flying spot film scanner.

John

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Michael De Angelis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1261
From: USA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted August 04, 2006 01:05 PM

John,

This is remarkable news,
and it brings me to wonder
for us that wish to create
our own 'in house' at home
'Rank' style telecine process,
if we are able to place a magnet
on the shutter of an 8mm projector,
and have it close to a reed switch
that would generate a pulse to
a mouse as a one click for each frame
film capture?
Or is this overkill, and should high end
software such as Final Cut and Premiere
be used to reduce the strobe from
projectors that are not 5 bladed?

Michael

--------------------
Isn't it great that we can all communicate about this great
hobby that we love!

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John Whittle
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 791
From: Northridge, CA USA
Registered: Jun 2003

posted August 07, 2006 09:17 AM

quote:
if we are able to place a magnet
on the shutter of an 8mm projector,
and have it close to a reed switch
that would generate a pulse to
a mouse as a one click for each frame
film capture?

I've been thinking about a different way of doing this. If you get a camera that can record at 24 frames (like the Panasonic), you could take a projector and remove all the blades except one which would cover the film during pull down.

Thus you'd get maximum light output, set the camera to 24 frames and the shutter speed of the camera to 1/60 or 1/120 or a second.

Next, rather than the magnet trigger, you'd build a feed back speed control for the motor with a fine touch trim pot that you could adjust by watching the camera monitor.

The film transfer would be recorded onto the camera's DV tape and you could import that directly into the computer with the firewire output.

What the camera outputs from the tape is a NTSC signal at 30 fps with a 3-2 pull down.

The advantage is you'll get full frames, not interlaced or blended fields like you get with a fire blade shutter.

Now the drawback (and what's kept me from experimenting) the camera is rather expensive. Last I checked it was between $2500 adn $3000 plus the mechanical work and optical set up you'd have to do yourself.

Once you have the DV tape, most DVD programs will perform the necessary compression and give you excellent professional results. You won't have the color depth you'd get off a rank, but the film will be sharp and have good contrast. You still need an aerial image set up for the transfer.

John

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