It's not a stupid question, but I don't think I fully understand.

I'll take a stab at it anyway.

The Canon uses videotape not film. Most theaters still show their movies on film
though more and more are equipped to project from digital video. If you shoot
a movie with the Canon you will need to transfer to 35mm film, or an acceptable
digital projection format.

Did I get close to answering?

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The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.
Joseph Joubert, essayist (1754-1824)

Hello,

that is exactly what I was looking for. What does the conversion from tape or harddisk to 35mm mean for the picture quality ? Is this a standard process ? I would tend to think so, since a lot of filmmakers use the Canon cameras, and their movies can be seen in theaters.
Thanks again for your help.

Regards,

Georg Pauwen

Recently i attended a seminar releasing the Red One cameras in the UK. They showed a comparison of equivalent resolutions between various formats. 1080 HD is very slightly 'smaller' in resolution than 35mm. Incidentally, the res the Red records is very close to IMAX. Anyhoo, your 1080 footage isn't going to look blocky when transferred to 35mm. Look at 28 Days Later, shot on XL2's mostly and transferred from SD to film, 'looked' fine, the motion was very different of course, and unique.

If you're going for a large scale theatrical release, you'll have to budget for the film transfer, as CI says, as not all cinemas are using digital projectors yet.

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