16mm is hardly just for penny-pinching film students anymore. In fact, it hasn't been for quite a while, especially since the advent of Super 16, which can achieve remarkable HD quality these days (as long as it provides that required 16:9 aspect ratio). Upgrades to Kodak's Super 16mm film system--designed for HD and SD television--will be on display at the NAB show. The Kodak Vision2 HD System uses a new type of film with an advanced hybrid motion-imaging processing technology that takes advantage of proprietary Kodak coloring techniques. High-profile Kodak Super 16 HD motion pictures already aired have included "The Dale Earnhardt Story" last December on ESPN, and the mini-series "The Reagans" for CBS (which aired only on Showtime after a political firestorm over its portrayal of the former president).
Kodak said its new HD-worthy film system is designed to take advantage of breakthroughs in emulsion and film scanning technologies, enabling cinematographers to maximize production values and the "superior quality of a film look" with the flexibility of using 16 mm cameras. The system combines the Kodak Vision2 HD Color Scan Film 7299 with Kodak's HD Digital Processor, which is a post production tool used to adjust digital files of scanned film to imitate the imaging of any Kodak negative--including "film elements" of grain, contrast and colors.
