Westinghouse K840CK15 Restoration

[old_tv_nut]

Originally Posted by etype2

Thanks for the correction. It’s a shame that we don’t have three strip Technicolor anymore. Having invested in equipment with WCG, HDR and all the latest BluRay movie releases seem to be filmed in dark moody color space. I understand the Producer wants it that way for the atmosphere of the movie, but enough is enough. Some films look almost b/w. Some really good films look like all the scenes were purposely shot in dark locations so they can show off HDR. There are still some gems out there, though.

The three strip cameras became obsolete when wide-screen processes came out. Anamorphic lenses/adaptors were not available for a camera that required special lenses with a long back throw to image through the color-splitting optics. Another thing that killed three strip was the poor sensitivity and resulting lighting needs compared to single strip color negative. In the early 50s, Technicolor came out with a true color splitting prism that sent the right colors to the green and red/blue strips instead of just wasting half the light in each, but in a short time widescreen killed it anyway.

The good news is that electronic restoration and re-registration of the three strips is producing images better than anyone ever saw in the theaters. Robin Hood is a prime example - Maid Marian's costumes had gold threads sewn in, which no one realized until they became clearly visible in the restored HD video. The Wizard of Oz is another example, going through a series of improved transfers, from early DVDs that looked like pure mud to better transfers from sources closer to the original, to the perfectly registered version we have now.