IMAX vs non-IMAX scenes

[Afrobean]

Originally Posted by Suntory_Times

The imax scenes, firstly as they don't have artificial sharpening etc everywhere and there shot on 70mm film, which is a lot more detailed then 35mm film.

It's actually a little bigger than you give it credit for.

First, 35 mm has the audio track on the film. This cuts into the 35 mm available for visual information. IMAX has the audio separate, so IMAX actually has over 2x the space for visual information available just for that.

But that's not all. Traditional 35 mm is oriented with the notches on the left/right of the picture. The picture's widest side is represented by the width of the 35 mm film. IMAX is oriented the other way. Notches for running the film are on the other side of the picture. This produces an image on the IMAX film which is 2x as tall as 35mm is wide, meaning that it's even MORE wider.

It's the difference between landscape and portrait orientation.

See this:


When 70 mm film is oriented in the same way 35 mm is, it's not QUITE as impressive technically as IMAX, and again, because of the built-in audio strip, it's often called 65 mm. I'd love to see movies move towards traditional 70 mm filmmaking though, since it'd give higher quality than 35 mm without introducing the ridiculous technology and cost hurdles that full-on IMAX introduces. But either way, I contend that 35 mm doesn't need to be processed as it is to be displayed on IMAX screens. Wish they'd just let it be a little grainy and relatively soft than process the hell out of everything.