History. A comparison between 35 mm and 15/70 mm negative areas. The IMAX film standard uses 70 mm film run through the projector horizontally. This technique produces an area that is about 8.3 times as large as the 35 mm format, and about 3.4 times as large as 70 mm film run through the projector vertically.
Not all Imax theatres are Imax 70mm theatres. Many use digital projection for a start. Each 70mm Imax frame is 8.3x bigger than 35mm. The film runs through the camera and projector horizontally, so the frames use 15 perforations of the film, making them 3.4x bigger than even 'standard' 70mm film.
What is the difference between IMAX laser and 70mm IMAX?
The new laser projectors remove the "digital haze." The laser projectors feature 4K resolution, which, it should be noted, is far less visual information than 70mm film. Visually translated, 70mm has 12K resolution (that is, 12,000 lines of visual information from top to bottom).
70mm was a very high quality film in the 1970s and was occasionally used to shoot high budget movies even though 35mm was the standard. However, instead of running the film vertically through the camera and projector, IMAX film was run horizontally which means each frame provides much more resolution.
The IMAX film standard uses 70 mm film run through the projector horizontally. This technique produces an area that is about 8.3 times as large as the 35 mm format, and about 3.4 times as large as 70 mm film run through the projector vertically. The desire to increase the visual impact of film has a long history.
IMAX 70mm explained by Christopher Nolan | Oppenheimer
What's so special about 70mm IMAX?
“[The] sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled. The headline, for me, is by shooting on IMAX 70mm film, you're really letting the screen disappear. You're getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You've got a huge screen and you're filling the peripheral vision of the audience.
How does the new technology impact 3D? Will I still need to wear glasses? A Laser light source provides substantially more brightness than a xenon bulb and allows IMAX to power its largest screens with even sharper and more lifelike images. This is significant for 3D because 3D glasses dim the image.
There are only 30 theaters worldwide, including 19 in the U.S., screening Oppenheimer in that format including the AMC Universal CityWalk in Los Angeles, the AMC Lincoln Square in New York, the Cinemark Dallas, the Regal King of Prussia near Philadelphia and the AutoNation IMAX in Fort Lauderdale.
70mm has a higher resolution than both 35mm and 4K DCP. It captures a bigger, brighter picture, complete with a broader color range and detailed, vibrant visuals. However, by the mid-'90s, showing films in 70mm began to die down, years before showing films on 35mm began to die down.
15/70mm refers to the physical characteristics of the film reel. The 15 indicates the number of perforations along the edge of the film and 70mm is the height. This full frame IMAX format produces images up to 18k resolution, far superior to the 4k images seen in most digital cinemas.
Is there a big difference between IMAX and regular?
The screen is massive and specifically tall, built to fit the unique way the movie is shot. It can be up to 40% larger than a standard movie screen. The seats are angled to open your field of view an average to 70 degrees, while speakers are positioned to immerse you in sound.
How Big Is an IMAX Screen? The average IMAX screen size is approximately 72' x 50' (22m x 16m), which is significantly larger than traditional movie screens of approximately 50' x 20' (16m x 6.1m).
Renowned director Christopher Nolan prefers to sit near the front, in the middle of the third row for cinemascope ratio, and slightly behind the center line for IMAX theaters. Experts suggest sitting in the center of the room, aligned with the screen, to centralize your field of vision and prevent strain.
Distinguishing itself from Oppenheimer, Dune: Part Two was shot digitally using the ARRI Alexa camera and later converted to IMAX 70mm film. While Oppenheimer was shot on 65mm film, the technical disparities might influence cinephiles' decisions on whether to experience Dune: Part Two in IMAX 70mm.
The whole film is shot using IMAX cameras, so watching it on a screen that supports the expanded aspect ratio and enhanced picture quality makes it a visual treat, and the sound design in the film is begging to be appreciated through a proper cinema sound system.
Some IMAX theaters do use traditional 3D with smaller glasses, so you'll want to contact your local IMAX theaters to see whether they use the larger glasses or not. For many people who wear glasses, bigger truly is better. Forget about those cheap plastic glasses the theater provides you.
70 mm film (or 65 mm film) is a wide high-resolution film gauge for motion picture photography, with a negative area nearly 3.5 times as large as the standard 35 mm motion picture film format. As used in cameras, the film is 65 mm (2.6 in) wide. For projection, the original 65 mm film is printed on 70 mm (2.8 in) film.
70mm film is a higher quality film than digital, providing a richer visual experience and extremely detailed images. However, the equipment to transport, store, and play 70mm film is expensive, bulky, and difficult to manipulate.
