John Sprung

The unexpected success of DSLR's revealed that there's a substantial market for a motion camera at this price point. It looks like Blackmagic decided to shoot for that segment. With Red and Canon hitting substantially higher price points, I'd expect them to do very well indeed.

-- J.S.

The sensor department of Kodak is now a new company called Truesenseimaging, that continues service and further development.

I'm not worried any more.... ;-)

-- J.S.

I love the 1950's retro style. But I worry about the CCD chip, it's from a bankrupt company.

-- J.S.

Just an off the wall thought -- If a lens with fungus were left inside a house that's being fumigated with Vikane for termites, would that KO the stuff? I believe it kills the dryrot fungus, so maybe it would be worth a try....

-- J.S.

A quick pre-production test you can try: Given that you're shooting with a 180 degree mirror shutter, just take an empty camera body and lens, and see if you get flicker in the finder.

-- J.S.

Bear in mind that hard disk prices are currently rocketing due to the crocodile-infested status of many Thai manufacturing plants after the recent floods.

I'd expect this to be a temporary supply issue, nowhere near as big as the earthquake/tsunami in Japan. Back to normal in 2Q12....

-- J.S.

What worries me about it is just the sheer scale of the industrial plant required to create and process colour negative - it's hardly a trivial thing. It can't really be done on a small scale without an outrageous pricing model - I don't think those factors apply to things like pianos.

Yes, that's why I'm thinking some kind of variation on the Autochrome process, which only needs B&W chemistry.

Can you tell me if I'm looking in the right areas?

Yes, those are the places where the number should be. It's a nice paint job, but probably not original, because you can't see the number. They weren't stamped very deep, and it's easy to sand or file the number off. Dissolving the paint would be the safe way to go. If you find a light green under the black paint, that was the original finish on the WWII Luftwaffe cameras.

-- J.S.

the little Konvas is perhaps the toughest 35mm camera ever built.

Um.... It has that delicate little gear that's supposed to drive the magazine. The mag lid latch isn't all that secure. I don't think it compares with the Arri I and II line for durability and reliability. I've owned both, and still have Arri's, though only as antiques.

-- J.S.

If all this was the case, people would still be shooting on orthochromatic black-and-white stock on hand-cranked cameras.

Obviously what Stuart says is also true, and photochemical origination is likely to go the way of the dodo shortly after distribution. Hopefully we'll have finally fixed this whole dynamic range issue before that happens.

Hmmm.... Does the progression go from mainstream to extinction, or mainstream to niche?

Hand crank cameras still exist, and with heavy cyan filtration on B&W film, the ortho look could be recreated. It'll never be mainstream again, but if somebody wanted the look the could get it.

Arri's Alexa has nailed the dynamic range issue. Perhaps Red Epic, too, though I haven't personally had a show on it.

The general trend seems to be for new technologies to push their predecessors into high end niches.

Photography didn't kill painting and drawing. It brought portraiture to the masses, with painted portraits the province of the rich.

Digital wristwatches brought accurate time to everybody, but Patek Phillipe and Rolex are doing quite well in the high end.

You can be playing a digital keyboard for well under a grand, but Steinway, Boesendorfer, and Stuart & Sons are alive and well for those who have a few hundred grand to spend.

Film killed vaudeville, the top stars like Charlie Chaplin went into film. But you can still see live plays and operas, they just cost more than movies.

Coating B&W film is certainly in the range of possibility for a niche market. Color as we've known it perhaps less so, but maybe a variation on the Lumiere Autochrome process....?

-- J.S.

the quality was far better than we are getting on a rca cable dump from the camera to a dv recorder; I am assuming that part of this is due to the fact that the miniDV is recording in hd correct?

Yes. DVD is SD only, it's at the end of its useful life. You may want to consider going to a file based HD system.

-- J.S.

I still fail to understand why we have to deliver digital tapes (HDCAM-SR) of finished programs on drop-frame (23.98) when sending to the US today.

It's because all of broadcasting here still operates at 29.97. The reason for that is the downconverters and cable boxes that feed the remaining NTSC sets still in use. Theoretically some day we might be able to change to 30.00.... But it looks like "point nine something" will remain for a long time like a wad of bubblegum stuck on the sole of the shoe of television. ;-)

IIRC, the French 819 line system was black and white, not PAL or SECAM.

-- J.S.

In reality, you'd barely see the smoke at all in daylight -- or pretty much any lighting condition. Maybe it would be something to bring in as a last subtle touch after you get the flame right. But at this point, it's way too heavy.

-- J.S.

Try the major rental houses in your area, the ones that have machine shops. If they have the time, it would be to their advantage to take on paying work. Here' I'd ask Clairmont.

-- J.S.

To make a pixel level array out of it is theoretically possible, but it would be expensive -- so expensive that pitching your idea to Jim Jannard would be your best hope.

As for sharpness, it's no problem at all -- equivalent to a UV filter.

-- J.S.

The long leg should be in the direction of the load. Wrap the bag around the column of the stand opposite the long leg. And set the stand on the side of the light away from camera unless there's no room.

-- J.S.

(but who grounds a Honda?)

It's not unheard of -- A three foot stick of old rebar driven in moist dirt will do the trick. Best is to have one near the genny and another at the far end of your main run.

-- J.S.

The edges are too sharp, and the area inside the flash is too uniform, with no transparency. You might try looking at some real ones from various films. We've had good results just grabbing them and matting them in when there weren't enough, or some of them hit on a closed shutter.

Another thing to do is tie a wire or monofilament to the gun, and have a grip off screen tug at it to make recoils. Then you'd also get some practice at wire removal....

-- J.S.

You might try Klueber Lubricants in Munich. I believe they made the special Arri grease originally.

http://www.klueber.com/

-- J.S.

Whatever it is, it's been languishing for three years. The last substantive posts in this thread are from September of '08.

-- J.S.

The Canon C300, and the Arri Alexa will give you about the same final resolution when used in the highest recording settings.

I'd want to test that on Marconi charts and zone plates before reaching any conclusion. Canon does a really simple deBayer -- They average pairs of greens, and take the red and blue as-is. I'd look for color fringes on sharp diagonals. Also important to test how the 8 bit depth limits color timing.

-- J.S.

I had at that time a Makita drill/driver and small circular saw. They're probably still in the garage somewhere, but the Makita batteries are long dead. I opened one of them up, and it turns out not to be practical to re-cell them. The plastic cases can't be put back together. Maybe some day I'll put XLR-4M's on the tools and run them corded from camera batteries. You could convert a junk tool or charger into an adapter to XLR, but look carefully at the batteries to find one that'll be easy to re-cell as needed.

-- J.S.

I also need... More technical details of the battery, like MAH, AH, etc...

The design rule of thumb for batteries is the "Ten Hour Rate" -- you want to discharge them no faster than that. So, if your camera draws 3.6 Amps, the minimum battery would be 36 Amp-Hours.

-- J.S.

I see they have a "viewer" but I wonder if they expect folks to watch the negatives?

Perhaps they expect people will shoot reversal slide film?

-- J.S.

I don't get the Canon C300 -- the jump from a Canon 5D to a C300 gets you 1080P 8-bit 4:2:2... for only $20,000? It would make more sense if the C300 sold for $10,000, not $20,000. At $20,000, you'd expect at least 10-bit 4:4:4 1080P Log if not 4K RAW to be exciting as a product. Six years ago, that price would have made sense.

 

And 8-bit Canon Log doesn't sound like a good idea from a potential banding issue.

Yeah, I don't get it either. One guess/suspicion is that they wanted to get something out the door ASAP, and there'll be an upgraded model soon. The numbers certainly are underwhelming, except for the price. But the pictures are really adequate even on the big screen at Paramount. Richard's movie looks like an honest to god movie, I want to see it when it's released. Maybe all that proves is that it's story and performance, even more than the pictures, which matter even more than the numbers....

-- J.S.