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Interesting 70mm Specs

Quality Differences:

70mm is approximately
3 times bigger than 35mm Anamorphic 1 : 2.35 (CinemaScope)

70mm is approximately
3½ times bigger than 35mm Academy 1 : 1.33

70mm is approximately
4½ times bigger than the European standard cropped wide screen on 35mm film, namely 1 : 1.66

70mm is approximately
5 times! bigger than the American standard cropped wide screen on 35mm film, namely 1 : 1.85.
Technically, that translates to roughly 5 times the quality!!!

Of the horizontal formats ............. 70mm is approximately
1¼ times bigger than Vistavision.

But 70mm is approximately 3 times smaller than Imax/Omnimax.

(Note: Unlike 70mm, Imax/Omnimax is not a wide-screen system. Its aspect ratio is 1 : 1.33 similar to analogue television and standard 16mm. But it is without a doubt, a big screen format .... Imax screens are typically as high as a 5 or 6 story building.)

Running times and lengths

65/70mm runs at 24 frames per second, or 112½ feet a minute or 22½ inches per second (57.15 cm per second).

There are 12.8 frames per foot.

A camera load of 122 meters (or 400 feet) of 65/70mm film runs 3 minutes 33 seconds approximately.

A camera load of 300 meters (or 1000 feet) of 65/70mm film runs 8 minutes 53 seconds approximately.

A 9 minute release print in 70mm is 1012½ feet long or (308½ meters approximately).

A 15 minute release print in 70mm is 1687½ feet long or (514½ meters approximately).

A 90 minute release print in 70mm is 10125 feet long or (3085 meters approximately).

Peter Gray
(near Los Angeles)
P.O. Box 5132
Pine Mountain Club, CA 93222
United States of America
telephone: +1(661) 242-1234

dp@petergray.org