Film Recorder,

6} Film Recorder: 

A Film Recorder is a graphical output device which is used for transferring digital image into a Photographic Film. In this mechanism the image is fed from a host computer as a roaster stream over a digital interface. It is used to generate master negatives for offsets and other bulk printing process they are also used to generate master copies of movies that use computer animation or other special effects based on digital image processing. For preview, archiving and small-value reproduction film recorders have been rendered obsolete by modern printers that produce photographic-quality hardcopies directly on plain paper but now largely met by video projectors that project images straight from a computer to a screen.

synchronous_magnetic_film_recorder

A film recorder exposes film through various mechanisms; flying spot (early recorders); photographing a high resolution video monitor; electron beam recorder (Sony HDVS); a CRT scanning dot (Celco); focused beam of light from a light valve technology (LVT) recorder; a scanning laser beam (Arrilaser); or recently, full-frame LCD array chips.

Sony HDC-1550 HDVS

For color image recording on a CRT film recorder, the red, green, and blue channels are separately displayed on the same gray scale CRT, and exposed to the same piece of film through a filter of the appropriate color. The three filters are usually mounted on a motor-driven wheel. The filter wheel, as well as the camera's shutter, aperture, and film motion mechanism are usually controlled by the recorder's electronics and/or the driving software.

CELCO The Science of Light  Digital Film recoder

Higher-quality LVT film recorders use a focused beam of light to write the image directly onto a film loaded spinning drum, one pixel at a time. The LVT will record pixel beyond grain. Some machines can burn 120-res or 120 lines per millimeter. The LVT is basically a reverse drum scanner. The exposed film is developed and printed by regular photographic chemical processing.

arrilaser-header

Film recorders were among the earliest computer graphics output devices; see, for example, the IBM 740 CRT Recorder was announced in 1954. Nowadays, film recorders are primarily used in the motion picture film-out process for the ever increasing amount of digital intermediate work being done.

There are at present three types of film recorder available:

1.     Terminal driven,

2.     Direct drive

3.     Optical-font imager.

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