Quote:
Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs  Won't the quality on the relatively modern Spielberg film be because of improvements in filming and cameras?
I know it's black and white but you can't judge a modern (ish) film with one from the thirties or forties. Even by the sixties filming and cameras had improved drastically from the forties.
I don't know, perhaps i'm wrong. When you watch It's a Wonderful Life in 4K you'll have to tell us if it's the same image quality as Schindler's List. |
The vast majority of films, even those from the earliest days of cinema, were filmed in 35mm. Therefore everything theoretically filmed in 35mm should generate the same amount of pixels depending on the level of the scan. As I understand it 35mm bottoms out at around 20 megapixels. Often in the modern era though 70mm was used and I understand theoretically this would have twice the resolution in megapixels. Given this, a Hollywood film from the 1930/40s should have the same resolution as Schindlers List which was filmed in 35mm.
This all assumes that the transfers would be coming from the original negatives. For many old movies the OCN might not exist or may have been stored in poor conditions. Also I'm guessing, silver nitrate stock had its own challenges in regard to preservation? Also down the years I guess the quality of the manufacture of the stock comes into play. I remember hearing that James Cameron was very disappointed in the quality of the film stock used for Aliens even though it was 70mm and filmed in the 80s.