Film Scanning Workflows; Before You Begin; Load And Align The Film; Focus The Scanner - Blackmagicdesign Cintel Installation And Operation Manual

Film Scanning Workflows

The following sections describe how to scan film using DaVinci Resolve and to control the
Cintel scanner. Throughout, the features outlined in the previous section are presented in
the order in which you'll perform each step of the scanning process.

Before You Begin

Before turning your scanner on and loading film, you should first dust the gate to make sure
your scans are as clean as possible. This can be accomplished using compressed air, but if
the gate is extremely dirty, you can remove it to give it a more thorough cleaning. Once that's
finished, turn on the Cintel Scanner, open DaVinci Resolve and create the project you'll be
using to scan film, and then click the 'Cintel scan' button on the media page. Now click the 'Film
Scanner' tab to select DaVinci Resolve's film scanner panel.
Before you load film into the scanner or do anything else, click the 'calibrate' button at the
bottom left of the film scanner panel. While you should always dust the gate of the scanner
before loading a new reel of film, clicking the calibrate button eliminates any unremovable
blemishes in your scanner's optics from the scans you're about to make.

Load and Align the Film

Load the film you want to scan. In the presence of an image the scanner will automatically align a
frame. You should note that the image may be framed incorrectly if you first load blank film leader.
Next, choose the film type. If necessary, use the 'perf nudge' and 'frame' buttons to manually
improve the alignment of the framing bar to the scanner's sensor such that the bottom of the
previous frame and the top of the next frame are just visible at the top and bottom of the viewer,
and the current frame is centered vertically. It's important to make sure the image in the viewer
is not zoomed in when you do this.

Focus the Scanner

Just as you need to focus the lens on a camera, you'll need to focus the projected film image on
your scanner's sensor. To achieve perfect focus, turn on the Focus Assist checkbox in the Film
Scanner capture settings of DaVinci Resolve. This superimposes a focus peaking overlay over
the Ultra HD image that's output from the scanner's HDMI output, and is also displayed in
DaVinci Resolve's capture window. For the best results, connect an Ultra HD display to your
Cintel scanner so that you can monitor at the maximum available resolution while you focus.
With Focus Assist turned on, focus peaking will detect the film grain of the scanned image
whenever the film plane is in perfect focus. This enables the operator to focus the scanner even
if the film image is out of focus. Simply monitor the Ultra HD output of the scanner while you
turn the Cintel scanner's focus wheel. Your image will be in focus when the grain running
throughout the image displays peaking outlines.
TIP You can verify the focal adjustments you've made by checking the edges of your
film's perforations. When these are sharp, your film will be in focus.
Capturing from Cintel using DaVinci Resolve 26