Reason #3

...not to buy the new Panasonic G1, according to David Pogue's NYT review:

The Micro Four Thirds design screams out, “I can do video!” After all, the light is already shining directly on the sensor (instead of being blocked by a mirror), so this camera should be able to record video without batting an eye.

But the G1 can’t.

Video, Panasonic says, will be the emphasis of its 2009 models. They will be the first S.L.R.-type cameras that can not only record hi-def video, but also change focus and zoom while you’re recording, just like a camcorder. (Olympus’s prototype can do video, too.)

This kind of talk makes me giddy. If it’s all true, then these machines will be the world’s first no-compromise, combination still camera/video cameras. The electronics world will truly turn upside down. Watch this space.

Indeed.

Scarlet Specs Countdown, OpenCut 3

RED will release the revised specs for Scarlet and Epic on November 13th.

OpenCut 3 is a VFX challenge, create and composite backgrounds for a scene shot against a vaguely greenish screen. Doesn’t seem quite the creative win-win of previous OpenCut contests (although you can win Adobe Creative Suite 4: Master Collection and one week’s free rental of a RED One), but I encourage you to enter if only to learn why I recommend in The Guide that you stay away from virtual backgrounds if at all possible!

OpenCut 3 - Sensored REDVFX Challenge from Silverado on Vimeo.

October 19, 2008

October 19, 2008 from angus giorgi on Vimeo.

Another 5DMkII showreel.

There's some good info on the Vimeo page, as well as some incorrect statements. "Panning too quickly on 35mm produces stepping effects that you don't get on 16mm film"—I have no idea how that could be true. But the general sentiment is spot on. SLRs are an inch away from being mini movie cameras that create images more cinematic in feel than many video cameras costing ten times as much.

Same thing as Reverie—wanna know why, as lovely as it is, this video looks like video? Read this.

Thanks to reader Greg for the comment that brought this to my attention!

UPDATE: Check the comments for a password protected (why?) D90-lensed music video (try the password all lowercase). You will note that a careful DP seems to have enforced a 180 degree shutter equivalent or narrower. That along with the 24 fps frame rate makes this look much more film-like than anything we've seen from the 5D2. Don't be fooled by the film leader overlays, that's not as responsible for the film look as some would like to believe (although it's perfect evidence that we just can't get enough image degradation!). Attribute the cinematic feel more to the lighting, and the color correction. The D90 can be configured to shoot video that's much more friendly to post color work than can the 5D2, which bakes in a harsh contrast.

No jello-cam to be seen—as I twittered a while back, the funny thing about Jellocam is that it's remarkably easy to shoot a test that amply shows it off and in no way resembles anything you'd ever actually shoot.

UPDATE 2: Director Ramon Boutviseth is discussing the D90 shoot on DVXuser.com. What I described above as the actions of a careful DP, he describes thusly: "most challenging would be the exposure, I shoot on Auto because I don't know how to work the other modes yet, I aim the camera into the light and hold exposure lock to get the picture."

It's Happening

Let’s get something straight. The video from the Nikon D90 and the Canon 5D MkII is not of good quality. It’s over compressed, over-processed, over-sharpened, and lacks professional control. It skews and shears and shuts off in the middle of a take. It sucks.

So why are we so excited by it?

Because the video from these DSLRs stimulates us emotionally. It’s contrasty, with sexy depth of field. It looks like cinema, if you don’t look to close. Guess who doesn’t look too close. Everyone.

Not to mention the thrill of portability, incognito shooting, and of an infinite assortment and renewable supply of state-of-the-art lenses that serve both our motion and still habits. It all adds up to a thrilling sensation, even if we know deep down that these cameras aren’t quite ready for us yet.

What the D90 and 5D2 have done is show us that it’s no longer OK for video camera manufacturers, whether they be Sony or Canon or RED, to make a video camera that doesn’t excite us emotionally. Buttons and features and resolution charts just had their ass handed to them by sex appeal.

There’s nothing new about this of course. We’ve been trading image fidelity for sex appeal for years now, using 24p modes, on-camera filters, Magic Bullet, and 35mm lens adapters. Especially those lens adapters. We suffer all kinds of pains in our filmmaking asses to cut our cameras’ resolution and light gathering capabilities substantially. All because in cinema, less is so much more.

So it stands to reason that the number one manufacturer of 35mm lens adapters is the first to start taking these video DSLRs seriously.

On August 29th I wrote: Mark my words, you will see rail-mounted D90s with follow-focus rigs and outboard HD displays. On September 27th I played around with some spare Redrock Micro parts in an attempt to imagine what such a rig might look like. Zacuto soon followed with mock-ups of their own. But Redrock Micro is doing more than just mocking up: tomorrow they will announce a new, shipping product, a cinematizing kit for DSLRs with video.

I love Redrock. They make great, affordable rigs with the DV Rebel in mind. The Redrock bundles for video DSLRs are being showcased at Photo Plus in New York, tomorrow through the 25th, in the Canon and Zeiss booths. They ship November 1.

Since Redrock is taking video DSLRs seriously, maybe it’s time the camera manufacturers do too. It’s great that these images are so exciting, but they do need to grow up if we’re to use them for our films.