Sam Wells

As I said before I'd trade "several stops of latitude" for a way to keep from clippy highlights. (Trying to see if Canon's "Highlight Tone Priority" is gimmick or more but haven't been able to see an EOS 1D Mk III yet). If I can live with: Highlight response; Sensitivity (virtual "ASA"); rolling shutter -- I'm starting to seriously think about this camera, as much as it surprises me to say this.... I'd know what to do with it Carl..... -Sam

Alexander: this could be DPX and ProRes HQ at the same time ?? That's intruiging.... I don't see how/if this is VTR emulation in terms of stop / start / insert ? -Sam

I've transferred to D5HD at Shooters, I dunno if they are doing any direct to disk or not. Again, it can be a question of how best their internal setup can be used for you. If you're on a recent Mac, I'd go to ProRes 422 from there. (I confess I haven't done this yet, well this is the first month of ProRes' publc existence). You can get DVCProHD on a FW drive from D5 at Shooters, been there done that. -Sam

Lion: 1.85 Alligator: 2.35 Giraffe: IMAX Elephant: 1.37 See the logic ? B)

He's not really associated with the "noir" style - but take a look at "He Ran All The Way" a film John Berry directed, with John Garfield. I got to see a fresh 35mm print of this and was astonished, very expressionistic tonal planes of light -- hope it's on DVD with a good transfer.... Also the Raoul Walsh "noir western" "Pursued" -- THE darkest western I've ever seen... -Sam

Reading the "rolling shutter issues" with HV20 as referenced on the RED thread of that name I hope I didn't speak too soon..... May / may not be an issue for you... -Sam

Nonetheless they might be considered "global" in the sense that the frame is continually being exposed; That area on the frame has not been "read out" in the moving-shutter period. -Sam

I agree Phil, I think it's important to separate out the retinal skipping issue here. -Sam

David - in the interest of accuracy it's 2/3 of a stop - think thirds, ..... 200, 160, 125 ...... -Sam

The 4K demo (projected with the Sony 4K) Dalsa footage I saw was quite good re response in the highlights - candles on a dinner table did not bloom etc and detail seemed to hold in the flames.... No hot sky through window type torture tests in that footage tho.... -Sam

Hi Dominic - I think you missed the word "Ektachrome" before 7242 in the header. Martin if this is Ektachrome 7242 it is very old color reversal stock - dating back to the seventies at least. (I don't know how long it was continued after 7240/VNF effective replaced it in - what 1978, 1979 ?) -Sam

Disclaimer: I did say this was an out of left field idea B) -Sam

Maybe not but pop over to B&H sometime and - if you can - look at the HDMI out signal, I'd be curious as to what you think... -Sam

Hi Frank - idea from left field: Get a Canon HV20, kludge some kind of wide angle adaptor on the front, Record the HDMI out somehow wd. be best. I bet it would look better than you'd expect. -Sam

Hi Jaxon, I'd want to be as careful exposing B&W neg esp. in 16mm as I would Plus-X or Tri-X reversal. B&W Reversal is like this 5 stop (not much more) window on the world but it can be a crisp beautiful window ! -Sam

Well I'd even be willing to say entirely aesthetic if you like..... I don't deny your last sentence but I don't see RED or digital as changing the status quo per se -- more like more people want to join the staus quo -- I could put it this way, if I bought a RED (or whatever) it would make my work harder than ever, to overcome the industrial assumptions of its imager whereas I know how to do this with film, or at least I'm constantly getting there, the result of many years of experience with it and the collective history of 100 years of same in motion pictures, 150 in stills... I'm not saying the chance for us to do reinvention isn't a worthy challenge, I just want to make sure the tools are a help not a hinderance. -Sam

It's a good point Adam makes: all the wasted energy used already in unnecessary urban, suburban lighting. I'd been hoping someone would have invented efficient full spectrum lighting by now -- but I don't know... I really dislike discharge lighting of all kinds. I mean I'm no fan of HMI's even. So I'll use the sun for day, and I guess I'll just use candles after dark; give us EI 4000 or 8000 film & we'll need No-noise CMOS sensors, OK Kodak & Canon et al, get to work B) -Sam

To me this is also like buying $ 17,500 ++ worth of a new film stock that I haven't had a chance to shoot ! "Peter Jackson likes it is not enough testimonial for me, nor are QT's on the web; I suppose seeing the NAB demo might have helped but even then.....) I know the 'take it where you need to in post' argument for digital but there ARE limitations there - not that I have much hope those limitations as they relate to the assests (which I probably can't deny) can be seriously discussed on any of the online forums, unfortunately.... -Sam

Hi Tony, a #8 Yellow is also known as a Wratten K2 - I don't know if that explains it or not. (I just looked at my Tiffen Deep Yellow # 15 - it says "Orange" on the ring, even though it's yellow by my definition -- well then some oranges are a bit yellow on the outside but when I hear yellow I think lemon :D ) -Sam

Really ? Sorry for giving misinformation; current versions of the 12.5-100 are advertised as covering S16, I guess I made wrongly the assumption you could use the Aspheron in that case also. Or do you mean earlier 12.5-100's vignette on their wide end ? Too bad as the Aspheron is cool, actually Of course you throw a rear focus out zooming & holding focus won't happen -Sam

I typed Arri "B" and it reads as the emoticon with shades........... -Sam

Well there are granular image textures that do not really appear "grainy" (the former what digital 'lacks' the latter an asset of digital **sometimes** but digital (ideally) has no surface of its own, so I don't know what I'm gonna do instead......I'm starting to think about this tho...) B&W grain easier to tune out somehow as Leo puts it. (In fact in B&W fine grain back to course grain doesn't particularly bother me too much in B&W) -Sam

Although I own Switar primes, I've not compared them directly to the Switar 12.5-100 zoom which I used a couple times in the past and rather liked (I remember thinking, I wouldn't mind having this in Arri B). Drawback to that lens is, to go wider than 12.5 (I like wide) you have to put on the Aspheron, which gets you down to - I forget - about 6.5mm ? --- you can actually use fl's in between if you are careful with rear focus but of course cannot zoom with the Aspheron. It does cover S16, a plus. Are you a zoom person or a primes person I guess is the question ??? -Sam

The nitrate print I saw of this in the 70's was possibly the most beautiful B&W print I have seen. Also it's my favorite Dreyer. I can't say much about the lighting from this memory (& have only seen 16mm reduction prints since this); my memories are of textures, tonalities. Which is perhaps how to think about classical lighting anyway ! People, spaces - a film about light into darkness, darkness into light... -Sam

I've had an Arri S for 25 years, thousands of feet of film run through it. Total maintenence cost: $ 8 in camera oil. (I did upgrade the motor to Tobin.....) -Sam