A Coup for DIY Telecines

Browsing on the web today, I came across a 2004 PC Magazine article on video conversion quality, which places side by side stills from CinePost and MovieStuff, two transfer houses I profiled in an earlier post this month. Quite suprisingly, MovieStuff’s DV8 Sniper Pro unit, an affordable telecine manufactured in-house by MovieStuff, really stands up to CinePost’s “wet-gate” Rank Turbo transfer, a top of the line telecine machine combined with a transfer process that reduces the appearance of scratches by coating film with a liquid before the transfer. Though I think most would agree the Rank Turbo is, in the end, a superior transfer, the quality of the Sniper stills is a coup for DIY telecines.

I also read that the Academy of Motion Picture Film Archives purchased some Sniper units from MovieStuff and has been pleased with the results they are able to get transferring home movies in-house (not to mention the cost savings!) Read about it here.

If you’re intrigued by the idea of transfering film yourself, for a mere $2690 plus shipping and handling, you, too, can have your own Sniper. Here’s to all the DIY-ers out there.