Agfa motion picture topics (Apr 1937-June 1940)

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made from production negative frames. This is by no means as easy as it seems, however, for inherent technical difficulties render it a very different proposition from the familiar matter of making enlargements from minicam negatives. Grain-size A Problem One of the chief problems is of course grain-size, which is in turn related to that of negative development. In comparison to the standard negative developers of only a few years ago, the solutions commonly used today in studio and commercial laboratories are rightfully considered as fine-grain developers. But in comparison to the ultra fine-grain solutions universally used for miniature camera negative development, these solutions are admittedly lacking in truly fine-grain characteristics. In addition, while the old silentpicture aperture is roughly half the size of the usual minicam frame, the present Academy Standard sound picture aperture has an area about one-third less than the silent picture aperture. Thus if equal-sized enlargements are made from a minicam frame and from a frame of modern studio production negative, the latter will be subjected to somewhat more than double the relative enlargement. An 11x14 inch print from a 35mm. production negative frame will magnify the image — and with it the grain-structure— considerably more than would be the case in a 26x33 inch enlargement from a Leica or Contax negative! These two factors place serious limitations on the definition obtainable in such cine frame enlargements for regardless of the optical quality of the original image, the coarser grain-structure and the greater relative enlargement will cause an apparent loss of definition. Further, the 35mm. negative is too small to permit retouching: and where a picture is subjected to the close and detailed inspection usually given a still, some retouching is almost inevitably necessary. W anger Experiments During the making of the recent Walter Wanger production. "Eternal Comparison of grain-structure of conventional single-frame enlargement (left) and threeframe enlargement (right) of detail from picture on opposite page. Reproduced actual size from 11x14 inch prints. 13