From what I remember from mechanical studies at college, the force (tension in our case) required to keep an object that is subject to friction moving is independent of the speed the object is moving. This is providing the coefficient of friction does not change as a result of the change in speed (usually caused by a subsequent change in temperature - like with disc brakes on a car).
As long as the tension in Kinograph is provided by friction alone (from wherever), then it should remain constant regardless of the film speed. I cant imagine that there would be any significant changes in temperature here. If there was, I would be somewhat concerned!
Jeff
Is it possible to relate to existing proven film transport technology’s in terms of how they have overcome all these hurdles like the Cintel scanners? I love hearing how everyone is trying to work out how to do it from scratch but surely we can say " well in the case of the …(say Cintel scanner) they employ many spring tension rollers and I think they do this because…and I think we could do something similar by doing… You know what I mean. Let’s refer to current best practice engineering and maybe do a little reverse engineering adding optional solutions from a DIY perspective(I know we are doing this mostly) but always in reference to the latest model machine on the market. We can do it!
@anthony I love that. Let’s do it. Could you start a new thread and maybe start us off with one? It could even be a bullet list of specific parts to look at, each one with a little image highlighting the area to be discussed.
M
The thing that concerns me about this kind of mechanism is the tortuous film path for delicate vintage film, and the fact that contact is made on both sides of the film. In the version that I am working on there are a minimum number of rollers, each being reasonably large and having a minimum wrap-around angle, and there will be no contact whatsoever with the emulsion side, even when passing through the gate. Frame-rate and tension control will all be handled electronically without any need for contact sensor devices.
I have not seen any commercial machines that operate like this, which may be because their machines are generally used to digitise large format films that are less than about 40 years old, primarily for TV or DVD. In my case I am dealing with small format (primarily 9.5mm) amateur films that are nearly 100 years old and definitely need the ‘kid glove’ treatment, and where high-speed conversion is not a primary (or sensible) goal.
The British Film Institute have an archiving division that is dedicated to processing and archiving delicate vintage stock, and I believe they build their own machines to do it but there are very few technical details available on the web other than a fleeting glimpse of their setups on YouTube or Vimeo.
Jeff
Hi Jeff
Are we trying to build the most advanced film scanner that will handle any type of film whether new or completely unusable and at greater than real-time capture? 
I wish! With your help Jeff anything is possible!
Imagine if a specification was created to complete Kinograph version 1. Create version one, test and share successes failures.
Specify Kinograph version 2. Create version 2.
In my case I have a lot of old 16mm films to scan. They would stand up to a heavy handed transport. I would just like to build a scanner that functions and scans at least 1080p. If Kinograph can just get to this point reliably then this would be a great foundation to launch from to a better model.
Everybody’s needs are different on this forum. The worlds best scanner probably would suit everyone’s needs here but we cant wait until we perfect that scanner. Perfecting Kinograph version 1 will be a huge inspiration to everyone and the fallout will be more people getting a Kinograph version 1 built and films scanned. More people would join the quest and the community would grow.
