What digital cameras can you enlarge to film?

Many filmmakers dream of having their digital videos displayed on the big screen. However, for this to happen you first have to first do a “digital to film transfer”. This is the process of taking your digital image and transferring it to film format. This process takes time (about 2-4 weeks for a feature length film) and is quite expensive. A digital to film transfer for a short film usually costs about $300 – $400 / minute of footage. For a feature length film, this price usually falls to around $250 / minute.

How much does it cost to do a digital to film transfer?

The price of a digital to film transfer will also vary depending on which film format you want to transfer to. Transferring a 75 minute feature length film to 35mm will cost as little as $20,000 while transferring the same 75 minute feature to 16mm film will cost around $13,000.

This is important to take into considering because many filmmakers shoot digital to save money in the production phase. The cost of film and camera rentals greatly increase the cost the film. That being said, these cost savings could quickly be offset by the cost of a digital to film transfer. So while you managed to save money in production, you’re now spending more in post production.

That being said, there are many reasons why converting your digital video to film makes sense. It is the point of this article to help you navigate through the information on making the right video camera purchasing decision. Some cameras are simply better suited to being transferred to film. What technical characteristics do these cameras have?

3CCD chips

For starters a good pro-sumer level camera should have 3CCD chip sensors. CCD is short for “Charge-Coupled-Device” and by having three chips rather than one your camera will make less visual compromises especially as it relates to color and light. With a single CCD chip camera all of the color and image information runs through 1 chip. On a 3CCD chip camera however each of the colors red, green and blue have their own chip.  A prism separates the color entering the camera and they are processed separately before being combined into the final image. This makes the colors brighter and more realistic looking. It also makes it easier for the company doing your digital to film transfer.

Another factor to consider is the size of the CCD chip. In general, the larger the better. Because the size of the chip affects how much light is taken in. This is particularly important for low light shooting situations. For those of you with pro-sumer or consumer camcorders that appear incredibly grainy at night this should start to make sense to you now.

However, CCD chip size also increases the price of the camera but it becomes well worth it when you have crisp night shooting footage. Generally the better camcorders have ½ inch to 2/3 inch CCD’s while entry level video cameras have 1/6 inch to 1/3 inch CCD’s. The difference may not seem like much but it makes a huge difference in your final image.

The reason this is so important because when you enlarge your video image to a large screen any distortion caused by a 1 chip or small chip camera becomes increasingly more noticeable.

Ensure 16:9 shooting ratio

Besides a 3CCD chip camera with at least  ½ inch chips, you should also ensure the camera has 16:9 shooting ratio (widescreen). This is because this format is more compatible with film screens. If you shoot 4:3 you’ll have your image cropped in unfavorable ways.

I’ll end by saying their exceptions to every rule. The documentary “My Date With Drew” was shot on a cheap $1000 hand held camera (total cost of film was $1,100) and the film was picked up and has made over $200,000 in sales. The filmmaker also used the in camera mic and my the looks of the camera is was a 1CCD chip. I saw this film in the movie theatre and it wasn’t bad looking but just because you can enlarge it for the big screen it doesn’t mean you should.

Popularity: 1% [?]