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In evaluating equipment, therefore, in relation to their
contributions to the deleterious effects on the feather we find that the worst
offender has been the camera which contributes many permanent errors due to its
inconsistency and due to the fact that it does not have a sufficiently wide
completely clear overlap particularly at the shortest focus distances and the
widest apertures. It is imperative that these conditions be corrected.
The second most serious offender is the projector system
which cannot maintain a perfectly balanced light on the screen in terms of both
color and brightness. It has been demonstrated that surprisingly minute (almost
immeasurable) differences between panels affect the appearance of the blend
line considerably. Actual panel changes are easily measurable.
The positive stock is an offender in a sense because its
characteristics predict certain changes in appearance, position and color with
changes in background. Some of these might be programmed out by increasing the
complexity of the printer considerably. The alternative is to live with it and
to avoid the situations which lead to trouble in photography.
The printer itself is capable of making rather fine blend
lines, accurately placed. Its major problem is the fact that both sides are
programmed together and that there are too few position steps too far apart.
These deficiencies are corrected in the second printer. The second problem with
it is that the degree of control required is rather close, so that the rapid
fading of filters requires constant critical control. In the second printer
this might be reduced somewhat by removing the filters to a cooler part of the
system where the light beam is not so dense. Most important of all, however, is
the fact that the printer would work even better with a wider feather which requires a change in camera standards to yield the required clear overlap.
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