A dealer with whom I've done much business was kind enough to loan me his demo Schneider Cine-Digitar 1.33X and Kino-Linear slide to take home for an evening. I wanted to see if it would pass all the light of my C3X 1080 and, if so, how it compared to the Panamorph UH380 that I bought with the projector.
First, I'm happy to report that small as the lens seems, it will pass all the light, though it required a bit of fiddling and futzing to line up just right. More importantly, the image I got from the Schneider was, without question, superior to that rendered by the Panamorph. It's as if a haze had been lifted...what had been soft and slightly grainy was now crystal clear. It seemed like there was more contrast and brightness as well.
To be fair to Panamorph, the UH380 is a less expensive solution, and in the absence of comparison, it dazzels. Unfortunately, now that I've seen the Schneider, I'm toast. I've got to have it. Looks like the motorized slide and lens combined is going to set me back almost $7K. At least I can take heart in the savings this represents over an ISCO III/CineSlide ($12K?). From what I've read, the ISCO and the Schneider offer similar optical performance.
First, I'm happy to report that small as the lens seems, it will pass all the light, though it required a bit of fiddling and futzing to line up just right. More importantly, the image I got from the Schneider was, without question, superior to that rendered by the Panamorph. It's as if a haze had been lifted...what had been soft and slightly grainy was now crystal clear. It seemed like there was more contrast and brightness as well.
To be fair to Panamorph, the UH380 is a less expensive solution, and in the absence of comparison, it dazzels. Unfortunately, now that I've seen the Schneider, I'm toast. I've got to have it. Looks like the motorized slide and lens combined is going to set me back almost $7K. At least I can take heart in the savings this represents over an ISCO III/CineSlide ($12K?). From what I've read, the ISCO and the Schneider offer similar optical performance.