OFF TOPIC, Forget the RED camera things are about to get interesting
I don't know about this guys cheesy stock library esque "video" but its still pretty exciting reading.
dont tell me its that EOS 5D again! (i recognized the goddamn screen grab) i'm getting so sick of it.everybody's buying one from americal. it's good for a photo camera but it's not a video camera proper. i admit, resolution is almost 35mm film res, the lenses adapter'll allow you to obtain that depth of field, but you don't have enough space to store your files. besides, its only good for static shots, forget about camera moves. also, i think the recored files are .mov's only. this is NOT A FILM CAMERA. it's a photo camera only good for shooting skate videos. buy a hvx isntead
A) Approx $2,700 vs $4,000? for a hvx, that being entry point for semi pro HD.
B) Lenses!...hello... your choice from the Canon range versus a fixed piece of crud that means you keep having to move your tripod back or put another hunk of glass on the front to get "wide angle"
C) Storage? who cares buy more compact flash or whatever the hell it takes, shoot tethered I don't care this can be solved.
Who says you need a video camera to shoot moving images? Your reticence to see how radically this and whatever RED come up with in a DSLR will change things just shows how narrow mined you are about the potential of filmmaking.
sure, not all moving images have to be shot with a video camera, canon 5d will do just fine for stop motion. but i still think that your 5D MarkII is nothing but a photo camera with a built-in video device, only suitable for reportages of this sort i have yet to see a DP who shoots films with a fucking photo camera.
if you call this filmmaking, then im glad im narrow minded.
ps: have the creators of red come up with something to stop it from overheating? or is it still sweating like a pig?
I think that this looks pretty great for an uncolorected, non-manipulated image. With a proper grade and some post whiz this could come very close to professional grade imagery. I see this camera doing a lot more in 2nd Unit/Action Unit filmmaking. Throw this camera in crash housing and if the housing fails you are out ROUGHLY 3,500USD depending on lenses, etc, as opposed 10,000 or more, most deductables are in the 3500 to 5,000 range. Also think of the places you could put this camera as opposed to larger and more cumbersome cameras. I dont think this camera will make a dent in general 1st Unit film production but i feel it does have a place on every film set. If the body is 2700 to buy, imagine how cheap it will be to rent.
I see your point Legion and I agree most films created by this technique so far are by stills photographers and the technique isn’t there so the results are awkward and actually kinda weird in the case of the Vincent laforet one.
What I find exciting is this is another big step in the democratization and simplification of filmmaking that will allow more people access to what has for so long been viewed unjustly as a closed off specialist realm.
I sincerely think that most forms of filmmaking have inbreed in the last 20 or so years to the point of repetition and stagnation and the artful exploration of the 60's and 70's has been almost lost.
One of the key factors as far as I know in the neorealist film movement was the sudden availability of small, cheap, quiet 35mm cameras that allowed adaptability in location shooting. This camera could be the equivalent to that for a generation of filmmakers who previously had thought, " I can’t do that it’s too technical-expensive"
I’m excited about the live action potential of a camera like this that spence films points out but I’m also thinking about the animation/artistic potential of it and no im not just talking stop motion. I think Post/VFX and Design houses once they get there hands on something like this will start to show us images we have never seen before or even dreamed of being possible, in the right hands this tool could be a complete revelation.
Definitely exciting, and Nikon has a nice offering with the D90 around the corner too, but there are definitely some compression issues and a lack of framerate choices to think about. Still you can do some really neat stuff for less $.
Unbelievably there's already this load of clutter; www.redrockmicro.com for people determined to make life hard for themselves rather than shooting on film or a proper grown up digital format.
I've seen the video before but this time I watched it in decent resolution on Canon's website.
As a film shooter I'll say this:
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Nice depth of field.
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Great low-light capability
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This is not film res or even close and the footage looks very video(tm).
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I know it's quite cheap, comparatively, and that many more hopeful filmmakers can get their hands on this thing. So, if it's going to mean the difference between shooting something or not shooting something then I say get it and shoot. :) But a truly 'pro level' acquisition tool this is not (even if we're just talking visual quality and not the host of other issues that'll come up when using a DSLR as a motion capture camera). :(
K
P.S. - I'm surprised at all the fuss actually. The footage, even when viewed on Canon's website, looks kinda shite to me. The only interesting thing is that it's showing us NYC in a way we rarely get to see it - in extremely low light with no film crew added illumination. In fact, I'll wager that this thing looks far worse in daylight and that that's part of the reason the Dir/DP chose to shoot nights.
I think the low light capabilities alone are reason enough to pick this up. Reading Vincents blog he mentions the only lights he used were the "modeling" lights of off a profoto set, thats is very very little light.
still, there are lots of high speed films out there. b-sides, s16 mm is really cheap.
I have found that letely clients are moving further and further away from s16mm, and I'd be lying if i said i didnt see why. Clients are becoming more and more dependent on "seeing what they are getting". The still industry continues to kick motion pictures ass, technologically speaking. Every couple months there is some new evolutionary breakthrough in the still market. Again I dont feel like this camera is strong enough as a primary A unit camera. But the applications of it in B and 2nd unit (including FX units, Bubble Units and the like) look pretty promising, and the more the bean counters can save the more they are going to.
RED's "low-end" fixed zoom camera has spawned some footage we can now see online. Image quality looks great. $4,000 $2,500 buys you this:
The video autoplays.
Compare to HVX.
When I think my first digital SLR cost more than this (in 2000), it blows my mind.
