Maximum Resolution and Stability

Self-adjusting optical magnification delivers maximum resolution for all film gauges and formats.

35mm

16mm

8mm

65/70mm

VistaVision

IMAX

Maximum Stability

High Dynamic Range Scanning

Single-pass color and B&W 2 and 3-flash HDR scanning for the best capture of print film shadow detail.

Often, part or all of the original negative is missing when it comes time for an older film to be scanned. This requires that print film be scanned for the missing portions. Whereas the highest density on negative film is about 2.0, the highest density on print film is 4.0 or more. Thus, scanning print film requires up to 1,000 times more dynamic range than negative film.

Conventional film scanners are optimized to scan negative and not print film, resulting in shadow detail loss or noise.

In contrast, the Director's 3-flash scanning capability can easily capture shadow details on print film at densities well beyond 5.0.

Below are scan comparisons between the ARRISCAN, the dft Scanity, and the Director from the same print film using 2-flash and 3-flash scanning. Images have been digitally brightened 1,000 times to reveal detail in the shadow (i.e. high density) regions. Notice the vertical artifacts, excessive noise, and loss of detail in the ARRISCAN and dft images.

Damaged and Warped Film Scanning

Optical Pin Registration (no edge guiding)

For the best stability of shrunk and damaged film.

Lasergraphics' proprietary 2D optical pin registration system locates up to 8 perforations and is able to register the frame even if only one of the perforations is usable. The frame is stabilized in the X, Y, and rotation axes. Therefore, shrunken film can be effectively stabilized with no mechanical or software adjustments. All optical pin registration is performed during the scanning process, eliminating the need for any post-processing.

Lasergraphics scanners are highly immune to perforation damage and splices while maintaining registration. Lasergraphics' 2D optical pin registration detects the location of all of the holes and then determines which ones are damaged. The damaged ones are ignored while the undamaged ones are used to align the image.

• Optical pin registration is superior to:
• Mechanical pin registration, which engages the film in only two perforations and is only effective on undamaged and unshrunken film.
• Edge guiding, which weaves laterally because it entirely ignores the holes and is highly intolerant of splices.

Sprocketless Film Transport

Continuous motion sprocketless capstan servo drive for constant film tension and safe film handling.

Software-controlled adjustable film tension.

Each frame held motionless in gate for optimal imaging of damaged and warped film.

Stable Ultra-diffuse Light Source

Stable low-heat LED light source protects film from heat damage and ultra-diffuse uniform illumination from the integrating sphere reduces the appearance of scratches in the film base and emulsion (that do not damage the dye layers) without softening, blurring, or altering the image.

	On-axis light passes through undamaged film and reaches lens
	On-axis light passes through scratch which deflects it away from the lens
	Off-axis light from diffuse source passes through scratch but nevertheless reaches lens

Warped film scanning

Warped film can't naturally lay flat in the gate causing the center to appear shrunk compared to the edges and the resulting output will have a ripple or “potato chip” effect.

Film Gauge, Format and Type Versatility

Infrared Dust/Scratch Detection and Reduction

Infrared dust and scratch detection works during scanning to detect and reduce dust and surface scratches without softening, blurring, or altering the image. A defect matte is generated, depicting pixels that have been automatically corrected and defects that require additional attention (if any). The defect matte allows the uncorrected defects to be easily located and addressed in post.

The Director's infrared dust/scratch detection and reduction is superior to conventional (dry gate) scanning and better than scanning with a wet gate. Less messy and less costly too!

DPX files containing the defect mattes generated by Lasergraphics scanners have been certified compatible with following systems:

Dye Fade Correction and Intelligent Noise Reduction

Built-in color grading tools for easy dye fade correction, applied during scan, eliminates secondary post-processing step.

Intelligent Noise Reduction

Dramatically reduces noise in high density print and negative film.

Soundtrack and KeyKode Reading

• Simultaneous image scanning and soundtrack/KeyKode reading



• Synchronized audio and image output to ProRes and H.264 (no post-processing or third-party tools required)
• Variable scan speed for fragile film (no requirement to read in real-time)
• Optical soundtrack extraction from scanned image
• Automatic continuous alignment of track to edge of film (no need for constant manual adjustment e.g. thumbscrews)
• Noise reduction processing reduces noise dramatically compared to conventional slit-based readers
• • Optical reader:
  • 35/16/8mm soundtrack reading
  • 65/35/16mm KeyKode reading
  • Silver and cyan
  • Positive and negative
  • Diffuse light-source for scratch and fingerprint reduction, minimizing ticks and pops
  • Automatic continuous alignment of track to edge of film
• SoundView visual soundtrack position control
  SoundView allows visual and interactive control of the soundtrack position and size for each audio channel. ☒

  
• • Variable-density optical soundtrack reading from negative film
  • Conventional optical soundtrack readers are designed to read the soundtrack from print and NOT negative film, which results in distorted audio, pops, clicks, and static.
  • Lasergraphics optical soundtrack reading technology is able to read the soundtrack from both print AND negative film, which results in undistorted audio and no pops, clicks, or static.
  
  Listen to the difference
  ☒

JPEG 2000 and FFV1

Archiving scanned images losslessly has always been the gold standard but results in very large files. Using lossless compression can reduce the storage requirement by 50%.

• Significant reduction in storage space and bandwidth requirements
• Encoding during scanning (not a post-process)
• 8, 10, 12, or 16 bits per color

Complete Film Scanning System

• Rack-mounted host computer ready-to-use and pre-configured with Microsoft Windows and Lasergraphics Motion Picture Film Scanning System software featuring:
• Full transport and scanning control
• Adjustable horizontal and vertical framing with visual selection of scan area
• Aperture and shading correction
• Automatic or manual DMin calibration
• Self-calibrating intensity, focus, and film base
• Fast interactive gray balance and base calibration
• Shuttling from 1 to 100 frames/second (200 frames/second for 16mm) with image preview and KeyKode recognition.
• Selectable scanning speed
• Adjustable film tension
• KeyKode-based job management
• Multiple simultaneous output resolutions and data formats including DPX, TIFF, and ProRes.
• Fast ProRes and and H.264 proxies/dailies
• Per-clip color correction
• RollView™ with thumbnail preview and automatic clip/splice detection
• Seamless and easy integration with popular restoration systems including support for a secondary (reference) monitor and popular color grading panels.

• Storage options:
• PCIe slot available for customer-supplied adapter to connect to NAS, DAS, or SAN systems.
• Internal 16TB SSD or 32TB HDD SATA RAID

• Clean Scanning

Enclosed cabinet with positive pressure HEPA filtration avoids dust contamination from normal office environments.

• Other:
• Meticulously calibrated, aligned and tested at the factory.
• Power requirements similar to a standard PC workstation
• Operates in normal office environment (no special cooling required)
• Full one year warranty (parts and labor)
• Extended warranty available

Trade Up

Lasergraphics offers an extremely generous trade up program that can increase the capability of your scanning system as your requirements grow over time without losing your existing investment.