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I was looking for just that -- that cartoon look, but I must say, it wasn't there -- I saw flesh tones and the detail in hair and skin. Question is, is this fine-tuning of each shot to balance detail with grain reduction done by the program itself (unlikely) or by a human making qualitative decisions as the process is in progress (probably). If the former is the case, then the second question is, what are the labor costs involved and once they get into a full production, doing conversions for releases in quantity, will they pull back the human intervention and set the thing on auto-pilot? It's easy to take pains and time to produce a single output that represents the very best a system can produce, it's in the mass production that the quality invariably suffers. After all, there is no reason we couldn't make every 35mm release print an EK print....no reason except time and money.

The one thing IMAX has going for it is that they seem to have a corporate culture of quality going for them in their favor. If they can maintain the quality I saw with APOLLO 13, I think we will all benefit. I know, you hate to think that some computer is deciding what detail to leave and what to delete, but I just looked at the image and it was by far a stunning presentation. Your concerns about it pretty much obliterating 70mm is quite valid; if you are going to go through that cost of convertion -- and it certainly isn't cheap by any stretch of the imagination -- why not just start with 65mm neg? The IMAX conversion wouldn't have to fudge detail that isn't there and you would get awesome looking 35mm reduction prints.

But hey, we aren't running the world, and the ones who are aren't asking us!

John said, > Since that theatre shows 3D too, it's likely they have a high gain screen, which could account for the "hot spot" from some seats.<

I think the Sony IMAX uses alternating Left/Right eye projection with the LCD glasses. No reason to have a silver screen with that process since there is no polarization involved. Although since the alternating frame system is a newer vintage than the original IMAX 3D which did use double projectors with polarization, perhaps they did put in a silver screen and never removed it....it sure had that "silver" look to it. I should have gotten closer and taken a better look at it.

If mainstream Hollywood productions can get past the current (and arguably low quality) of CGI and digital intermediate production being set at 2048 X 1536 (2K) and upping it to at least 4096 X 3072 (4K) levels or better, then 5/70 stuff would work really well on large stadium seated screens.

With a high resolution scan and digital intermediate process done at 4K and/or 6K levels, 35mm/70mm blowups would look pretty darned sharp, especially if the 4K or 6K output is laser recorded directly to things like a 65mm interpositive for direct 70mm contact printing.

I hope they decide to use DMR on some of the classic films originally shot on 65mm negative film too.

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