On Thu, Aug 27, 2015 at 07:36:47AM +0100, Malcolm Smith wrote: > John Francis wrote: > > > While later film recorders may well have used lasers, that's not how > > the original models worked. Back in the 1980s I had access to a film > > recorder where I worked (Apollo); we used it to make slides for images > > that we were submitting to SIGGRAPH. > > > > Inside was a small monochrome high-resolution CRT, and a rotating > > filter wheel. > > Each of the three colours would be exposed in turn (the camera shutter > > would be open for the whole time). We had multiple interchangeable > > "backs" for the unit; one with a modified 35mm SLR camera, two Polaroid > > backs (one 4x5, one 8x10), and even an Oxberry animation camera > > (basically a 35mm movie camera). > > > > The Polaroid backs were single-frame only, but the SLR had a motor > > drive, so you could expose an entire roll of film sequentially. The > > movie camera, of course, also had motorized film advance. > > Thanks John, very interesting. I've clearly got lots to learn about these. > > Malcolm I've dredged a few more details out of my memory. The unit we had was a Matrix QCR, and the camera body used was a Pentax A3000. Horizontal resolution was either 2k or 4k pixels (selectable). It came with a GPIB interface, and it took several minutes to complete a single exposure.
Somebody is selling a slightly later model than the one we had, complete with camera, at http://www.recycledgoods.com/matrix-instruments-pcr-film-recorder-vintage-collectable-pn-60-23-0012.html Image quality was pretty good by today's standards (and excellent for the 1980s). I've got a couple of 4' x 4' images (printed onto hardboard) that were created (from slides made on the film recorder) by Raster Technologies - sponsor of the art show at SIGGRAPH. I'm pretty sure that we were using the lower resolution setting (1365 x 2048), so these will have been created from 1280 x 1280 images. (I picked them up at the auction when Alliant Computer Systems folded in 1992; Alliant had purchased Raster Technologies, and a lot of artwork from SIGGRAPH found its way into the Raster Technologies corridors after the show was over). While they don't look that sharp when you stick your nose on them, that's still better resolution than HDTV, and they look fine on the wall in my living room. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
