My real-time telecine project

[Fred Hess]

I am embarking on the journey of creating my own system for transferring R8 and S8 film to digital. I purchased a Sankyo Dualux 1000 projector and a Wollensak Sunray 107 lens for the project. The lens seems to have some dust on the inside and I'd like to clean it. Can you disassemble this lens to get to the inside of the lens? I thought perhaps the wide end would unscrew but it seems very secure and I don't want to risk damaging the lens. I'd also like to know the best cleaning solution to use on the lens. Any advice for a newbie??

[Ed Gordon]

You will need special tools to disassemble a lens.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_fro...tools&_sacat=0

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Can you post a pic (or a few pics) of your macro lens? I may help to figure it out.

[Fred Hess]

Here are a couple pics. Thanks.

[Ed Gordon]

A close-up looking directly at the front of the lens would be helpful, but looking at the first photo you can see the two indents in the black inner ring. This is were you need the tool to unscrew this inner ring to disassemble it. Here is a video showing different tools to work on lenses:

Go to about the 6 minute mark to see the tools

[Nantawat Kittiwarakul]

Ok that should be fairy straightforward.

Not only the front, but there should be a similar retaining screw on the rear too. I'm guessing that to be just 2 group 4 element lens. Nothing much that can go wrong then - just the front & rear lens group, and that's it. If the optic is still clean then it's just a matter of blowing/brushing those loose dirt off then reassemble, and that's it.

[Kim Trampus]

I really recommend getting a 50mm raspberry pi lens. I started with the 16mm lens but was not happy with the barrel distortion on the edges of the frame.
If you purchase the Raspberry Pi Lens you have to remove all the outer shell to make it fit in the cavity. Stan Jelavic was kind enough to print me a custom Sankyo mount for the 50mm. This setup works great with my Panasonic HDC-SD9 3 CCD hd camera.

https://www.seeedstudio.com/8MP-50mm...ra-p-4624.html

[Fred Hess]

Thanks, Kim. I am new to all this so any information is welcome and appreciated! I will certainly look into purchasing this lens. How hard is it to remove the entire outer shell from the projector?

[Stan Jelavic]

Hi Fred. Kim meant the outer shell of the lens. Not very hard. A bit messy because it has some grease on it.

[Fred Hess]

Ah, I see. With the mount that you are printing, do I have to remove the lens mount from the projector also?

[Stan Jelavic]

Yes, it is very easy. I finished the mount. Do you want me to ship you the modified lens also. I have one here?

[Stan Jelavic]

Will post the lens mod instructions here today.

[Fred Hess]

Thanks, Stan. I purchased the 50mm raspberry pi lens and have removed all the outer shell. And I have removed the mount from the projector. Once I get your printed mount installed I should be ready to go, right?

[Stan Jelavic]

Yes, that will work.

[Fred Hess]

Okay, I'm nearly done with the assembly of my project. I'm using a Sankyo Dualux 1000 projector with a Panasonic HDC-HS9 camera. I swapped the light source to LED and will replace the lens with a Raspberry Pi. I'll post a pic or two once I get it painted up nice. I also removed the gate mask as well as the glass so there's nothing between the film and the camera. I began testing and here come the questions...

I should mention that I have been using an old Tobin Systems setup. I really like using this for several reasons. Everything is self-contained, 1 electrical plug in, S-Video output and everything is calibrated so I can achieve near frame by frame transfer. However, the system uses a SD circuit board camera and the projector has always been a touch jumpy (jittery,shaky,etc.). So my goal is to achieve a smoother playback with a better camera for better colors and picture quality. Once I have a viable test result from the new system I will post some comparison videos between the two.

I am able to get a good focus and so far the colors are looking pretty realistic so I'm glad about that. I intend to capture directly to computer using the HDMI port on the camera.

So the initial test had a ton of flickering. I found that by adjusting the projector speed to the slowest possible and putting the projector in Forward/Lamp mode, the flicker is virtually gone, however the result is a very slow video. I don't know the actual FPS rate any longer. If I were to speed it up in software, how do I know when it's moving at the speed it was recorded? It seems to me that I would have to guess unless there is a way to calculate my capture speed. At this speed, I'm also getting multiple duplicate frames. So how do you guys achieve near 16 or 18 FPS with no flicker??

2nd question is what software are you using to capture and edit? I used Virtual Dub (lossless) for this test, but I'm hoping to find a program that has lossless capture, scene detection, ability to include multiple reels in 1 video, some basic transitions and ability to add music under the video. I've been using good ol' Pinnacle Systems 12, but it won't import the .avi files that Virtual Dub produces and won't capture lossless. I've read about OBS Studio, which might be what I'm looking for, but as always, I need other opinions and recommendations...please!