Tom Lowe

Stephen would be wise not to count his chickens just yet! He thinks he's got this won, but the fat lady hasn't even begun warming up her vocal chords yet.... We still have more than a year to go. ;)

Zodiac and Sith looked amazing, IMO. With the new Arri and Red Epic cameras just around the corner, watch for this list to grow by leaps and bounds soon.

I agree that this has been Deakins' decade, but it also saw the rise of Lubezki, with films like Y Tu Mama, Children of Men, and The New World. The decade saw the ultimate rise (and fall?) of Doyle, starting with 2000's absolute masterpiece of cinematography, In the Mood for Love and continuing through with 2046. It seemed Doyle was finally on top of the world, but then he began to fizzle in the mid and later part of the decade, IMO. Right around that time, Rodrigo Prieto picked up the ball up and ran with it, with films like Brokeback, Babel, Lust Caution, and State of Play. Seems to me like Prieto is just getting started!

I have, and it should work fine. It's actually smoother for certain types of timelapse, like driving. Of course, you are limited to the resolution of the HD camera and the record time of the media -- CF, P2, tape, etc. One great thing about timelapse is the huge, huge jump in image quality from a standard HD camera to RAW still frames. The 5D Mark II RAW frames, for example are 5.6K wide, 21MP per frame. Downsampled to 1080p, the quality is stunning.

David, like you, I've spent almost all of my life in California, but I had never been to Yosemite until 2007. It was almost like a religious experience for me. Did you get up to Glacier Point? I lost my mind the first time I saw the view from up there!

I loved this shot.

Just expose the sky properly, and do short intervals between 1 second to 5 seconds. 4s is a good number. I wouldn't go longer than 5s intervals, in order to keep the shot flowing smoothly.

Chris Doyle might disagree with this career advice. :lol:

it's funny because there are some people i really respect and like on twitter, but as soon as they start posting political stuff, i just unfollow them. it's kind of teaching me to leave the politics at the door.

Makes no sense at all, obviously.

Well that scenario has become sort my new personal zone plate test. Hand me a camera and I will go shoot a golden sunset behind rippling, high-frequency water waves. Only the strong can survive. ;) David, you know, in terms of the driving plates, the new 1Dm4 might be even before. It's low-light capabilities are even better than the 5D2, as you may have seen in Laforet's video. One area where the 5D2s and 1Dm4s could work really well, I think, but where no one seems to really be using them, is in black and white, ala "Sin City," for example. You could shoot outdoors, at night, at ISO 6400, and the B&W would probably hide a lot of the color noise, lack of DR, etc.

it looks really horrible in video. Some kind of chroma aliasing. You can reduce it with an adjust layer or mask removing chroma luma but it's tough because they are panning tilting and dollying shots. It's a well documented issue. Trouble for me is that it's exactly what I like to shoot -- high-frequency waves in golden light.

I've already acknowledged the usefulness of the camera when I said, "Honestly, if some indie band came to me right now and said, "Let's go shoot a music video at Joshua Tree in low light" I would probably just do it on a 5D2. Keep the DOF shallow, avoid moire bait, etc." Again, my main point on this thread was that the 5D2 is not a "1080p" camera. I think we are all in agreement on that? As far as looking for a fight with Most.. hardly. I just find it odd that 100% of his posts at Reduser and here regarding me are disagreements with something I have said. I would think at least 1% of the time I might get something right? :lol: Anyway, I'm not into arguing on the internet. If someone like David thinks I am out of line, then I probably am. The only thing I know about Most is that someone I respect has told me he is a valuable contributor at CML and someone to listen to. So I'm trying! ;) No hard feelings, I hope.

Ha. So it was my fault, right? :rolleyes: You're funny, dude.

I understand this. Honestly, if some indie band came to me right now and said, "Let's go shoot a music video at Joshua Tree in low light" I would probably just do it on a 5D2. Keep the DOF shallow, avoid moire bait, etc. I was one of the first people out there trying to shoot good cinema stuff on these cameras, so it's not like I have some bias against them. My only bias is caused by the poor results I have gotten -- ie, the framegrab I posted above. The main point I made on this thread is that the 5D2, 7D, etc, simply are not 1080p cameras. Maybe 720p at best.

Hal, that was EXACTLY my point. To me, that shot I posted is useless because of the ridiculous chroma aliasing. You might have missed my sarcasm. This was not Canon's finest moment.

Michael Most, I'm just curious if you bother to even read my posts with an open mind, or if your entire goal in interacting with me is to quickly make a contrarian point? As far as I can recall, both here and at Reduser, you have never, ever agreed with me on anything. From my point of view, it grows tiresome. I said that the camera is not 1080p, and I stand by that. Shoot some charts and prove me wrong. I'm not sure why your other points are aimed at me. Anyhow, here is a "shockingly nice" and "surprisingly robust" image I was able to acquire on my 5D2 in video mode in the early days when the camera came out. I only had to drive 300 miles and walk through half a mile of slick, ankle deep mud for the pleasure of having these shots ruined by this camera.

Well, I can upres a DVD and fill up 1080p; that doesn't mean it's 1080p. If it holds up pixel for pixel and looks pristine at 1080p, then it's 1080p. It also has to pass muster on the charts. That is my definition anyway. The real test for me is whether I can seamlessly intercut "1080p" video with with my 1080p timelapse renders, which are being downsampled from 5.6K RAW still images.

Um, yes.

Point them at a chart and find out. The only thing I know for sure is that these Canon DSLRs simply are not 1080p.

Again, though. Where there is a will, there is a way. If theaters and studios want to put out 4K 3D, they will figure it out. As you say, though, for a while they will probably just use 2K projectors for 3D. There will be plenty of 2Ks around.

If this is true, couldn't they just change the specs on the 4K projectors, or use two of them for 3D? Where there's a will, there's a way.

I think this will be the last generation from Arri at 2K/1080p resolution. From now on, the bar will be raised, I think, to essentially 6K RAW or 4K RGB. 5K Epic X being the bare minimum needed to create pristine 4K finishes. With thousands -- or tens of thousands -- of 4K projectors going into theaters, it makes little sense to keep designing 1080p cameras. Epic will have a huge resolution leap on Arri. Yes, Arri's cameras will have better DR, most likely, but the days of 1080p are coming to an end.

Yeah. Probably a combination of several of these factors. I kind of figured that the fixed-lens 2/3" Scarlet would be a loss-leader for Red anyway. Basically just a chance to get lots of cameras -- and especially the REDRAW workflow -- out there into a lot of hands. That's just total speculation on my part, though. Jim has hinted that the fixed 2/3 lens alone is costing him a fortune.

Yeah, my prediction was that 51% or more of major American features would be in the process of shooting on digital rather than film by Jan 1st, 2011. The delays at Red are not helping my case, but I won't use that as an excuse if I turn out to be wrong. I think the new Arri cams look amazing. I think they will be very popular. I'm also incredibly excited about the Epic X. Being able to shoot 100fps at 5K on a 30mm-wide sensor, RAW, is extremely appealing to me. I think a lot of "disappointment" about this recent announcement is coming from people who were hoping for a sub-$5K Scarlet 2/3" 3K camera they could afford now, and I completely understand that. I saw Rodney Charters speculating on Twitter that Red was pushing out Epic X first in order to head off Arri.