February 10, 2009
By Jay Holben
I recently had the privilege, for the second time, of hosting the Digital Cinematography Supersession (DCS) at Digital Video Expo. The intention behind the DCS is to gather interested Expo attendees into a single place to learn about the latest in camera technology from a variety of manufacturers.
To give each camera a level playing field, I always provide a live model, small lighting setup and technical charts. This year, pretty much replicating the same setup from last year, I had model Amanda Evans sitting in front of a background made up of three seamless rolls of white, medium gray and black paper. In front of her was a C-stand arm with a Gamma & Density Gamma2U chart, a FotoKem grayscale chip chart and an X-Rite ColorChecker (MacBeth) chart. All were lit with two tungsten balanced 4' 4-bank KinoFlo fixtures (provided courtesy of Your Half Media Group) and set off to one side of the room.
On the opposite side of the room was a 7.5' x 14' front-projection screen. Each camera had a live image fed out via HD-SDI to a Barco HD 18 1920x1080 projector for all the attendees to see the images.
It's not every day that one gets the opportunity to experience the virtues and benefits of a number of different camera systems all in one place in one day; that's what we strive to offer with the DCS. The idea is not to create a shoot-out situation; not to directly compare one camera to the next, but rather to provide a neutral platform for different companies to present their latest technology.
This year, the morning started with veteran cinematographer Robert Primes, ASC bringing in his Sony PMW-EX3 (on extended loan to him from Sony) along with his PMW-EX1. When I ran into Bob at NAB last April, he was practically jumping up and down with excitement about the EX3, so I was very pleased when he was able to come to the DCS and share his thoughts and experiences with the camera.
This small camcorder has three full-raster 1/2" Exmor CMOS 1920 x 1080 chips and records onto SxS cards in MPEG-2 Long GOP format. The camera has over and undercranking abilities from 2 to 64 fps. Bob was keen to show off the camera's ability to deliver a clean picture in low light and, as any cinematographer is won't to do, relit the set I provided by bringing out a China ball and demonstrating very little light on Amanda as well as showing shots of the audience itself lit only by the bounced light from the projection screen. Primes also spoke, in detail, about the camera's various gamma curves and image controls.
In addition, the cinematographer brought with him an adapter to convert the EX3's proprietary lens mount to an industry standard PL mount and he attached a Zeiss DigiPrime, with an aperture of T1.5. This lens (the cost of which is just over three times the purchase price of the camera itself) renders a crisp, beautiful image with an extremely wide aperture for stunning low-light shooting. This is one of the extraordinary benefits of the EX3; the ability to interchange lenses and work with a wide range of 1/2" lenses without requiring an optical adapter.
Next up, returning to present again this year, was Panasonic's Product Line Business Manager for P2 systems, Steven Cooperman, with the new Panasonic AJ-HPX3700 VariCam. Panasonic, who was the first to introduce variable frame rates in a digital camera with their VariCam, now continues their line of extraordinary digital cinematography tools with the HPX3700. The camera features three full-raster 1920 x 1080 2/3" CCDs capable of recording 4:2:2 AVC-Intra 100 to the camera's P2 cards or output 4:4:4 via dual link RGB output.
Cooperman also brought along cinematographer Graham Futerfas, who was one of the first to work with Panasonic's AJ-HPX3000, their first full-raster 1920x1080 AVC-I camera, on Sam Wasserman's short film The Journal. Futerfas screened some selected scenes from the dailies of The Journal to demonstrate the abilities of the HPX3700's little brother and discuss the advantages that the 3700 has over the 3000. One of the key advantages is the incorporation of the VariCam CineGamma, which was a favorite feature of many users of the original VariCam. Although the variable frame rates of the 3700 are slightly truncated from the original version, the new VariCam can shoot from 1 to 30 fps natively, in single-frame steps.
Following the VariCam was Thomson Grass Valley's Infinity DMC. Although not necessarily a newcomer to the camera scene, most digital cinematographers are more familiar with Thomson's Viper camera system than the Infinity. Presenting the Infinity was Thomson representative Ken Yas, who invited veteran cinematographer David Stump, ASC to assist him. Stump, who is also the chair of the Digital Camera subcommittee of the American Society of Cinematographer's Technology Committee, is one of the leading experts in digital camera technology in the industry.
The Infinity DMC is a three 2/3" CMOS (Xensium) camera which records 1920 x 1080 to solid-state media. The Infinity stands out among its counterparts in the digital cinematography community by taking a slightly different format approach. The Infinity DMC records in JPEG2000 intraframe compression onto REV PRO media. The REV PRO media offer all the same advantages of CompactFlash in a larger sized, more inexpensive form.
Yas played a demo reel of footage shot with the Infinity DMC of serene babbling brooks and the ocean lapping at the shore. The footage displayed was shot 30fps (as 24fps functionality was finalized in the camera just after the Expo), but the image clarity was fantastic.
Stump educated the attendees on the virtues of a 2/3" imager and the differences between 1920 x 1080 resolution as recorded by varying sized chips.
Closing out the day, owner/operator Brad Hagen from Video Resources, Inc. brought in his RED One camera, serial number 0016. Hagen was an early adopter of the RED system and, along with Cooperman from Panasonic, the only other returning presenter to this year's DCS. This year, however, Hagen brought along with him RED's own Ted Schilowitz and the duo animatedly discussed the virtues of the extremely popular digital cinematography system.
The RED ONE is a 4520 x 2540 single-chip CMOS camera capable of capturing 4K, 3K and 2K digital cinema images as well as 1920x1080 and 1280x720 standard HD images. The camera is also capable of shooting up to 120 fps and has a Super35mm sized imager which can take nearly any 35mm film camera lens utilizing the standard PL mount.
Hagen discussed some of his experiences with the RED ONE and the various upgrades that have happened since he first received the camera.
It was a long day, with a lot of fantastic information from all of the presenters that, hopefully, will help the attendees make a more informed decision about the best tool for their respective projects.
| COMMENTS (5) | | 03/01/2009 | | Typical DV story. Some are good but most just come off like ads. |
| | 02/25/2009 | | What a pointless article. All this tells us was who was there and with what cameras. How about some information on what was said, what was discovered, etc.? |
| | 02/11/2009 | | it seems like red just kicks all a$$ here unless I'm missing something. I guess price could be one factor, but prices weren't mentioned in the article |
| | 02/11/2009 | | I agree with the first comment. Get us some decent perspectives on the cameras. Which camera is best for what? Something one can use. - Thanks. |
| | 02/11/2009 | | interesting story but what's the point, no information at all, is it journalism or just an add for your activity? |
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