This years upcoming camera developments...

So last year it was the non release of any serious new RED camera and the explosion of HDDSLR cameras that took off like rockets that were the big stories. Every few decades theres a camera fad that moves photography in all sorts of new directions, hardware and methods. We are in the early stages of a huge increase in both still and movie photography due to several factors converging, internet as a research tool, display or sales tool, cameras themselves and post software. I’ve also decided to move downstream this year from RED to the HDDSLR for personal work but will be paying close attention to what happens with EPIC X and MX.

Here’s my quick notes on what I think will happen 2010 and into 2011.

MX Epic and Scarlet will be out over the course of this year with the most activity from the new MX sensor moving Red up field for better latitude, ISO etc. It’s already moved RED ONEs with the upgrade from 320 ISO to a 800 ISO baseline. Tests such as REDs own footage, various early MX upgrades etc have show a huge increase in quality and are moving closer to what happened in the DSLR area of low light, yet retain the 444 colour and red codec high quality.

Why is this crazy? cause its a MX image or the fact its Roland Emmerich doing Shakespeare?

Roland by candle light, this is seconds before the tidal wave with alien ships crashes into the window

A few links to check out the MX early footage.click here...

Epic and Scarlet will also becoming standard issue hopefully this year. They appear to be nearing the end of their development cycle and Epic X will start to be taken by early adapters. Scarlet, I think in some way for the cost is looking like a dud. If they had released the fixed lens body in say late 2008 early 2009 for three grand it might have flown but I think it’s now facing a huge opponent in the HDDSLR area and as I will go into later there will be something superior very soon. While a great piece of gear, having gone through the rigors of renting the RED ONE I would hate to be attempting to rent Scarlet against its far cheaper competitors.

Epic, will on the other hand move into place as a standard film system, its cost to quality is far too high for even the most hardened of film producers. DOPs, directors to not take advantage of. When we first got the RED I was part of a discussion on what impact RED ONE would have, one of the points I made was I thought that within a short time owning a camera package would be standard for DOPs, Operators etc that in a way it’s almost expected that there will be a camera on set with little to no impact on cost. IE if you want the job as DOP you would have to bring the camera, and soon there will be little to no compensation for that service. We are very near that threshold once the Epic becomes standard about one year into its operation this will be common up to the Epic level. Right now RED ONE rental costs have dropped dramatically so that it seems rental shops are almost including the camera body, and it’s about accessories and lenses. For a normal individual this is a huge expense to keep up with and I don’t envy someone trying to go this route without some sort of free money, large bank roll,  from family etc. Using bank credit or credit cards in this current climate will be dangerous and unadvisable. With the Epic there will be a increase in both camera cost and rental cost and it will make any un-upgraded RED ONE give off a five day fish smell. I think REDs biggest contribution was in just getting things moving again. After George Lucas paid for the development of the f900/f950 camera from Sony there was a stagnation of several years before we saw the current multi level options today. The break was with the release of the Red One its specs vs. price point seemed insane at the time, some people even charged that Red was some kind of online scam . Once it became clear that this level was possible at this price and level it began to move much faster. The Digital still sensor caught up to film and offered another route into this problem, if you could just get enough bandwidth for movie mode. Most digital still cameras have had some sort of movie mode it’s just became obvious what that could do in the last 18 months mostly due to one camera... the mighty canon 5dmkII.

Sorry film snobs this is what the kids are learning on...

make sure you have this playing when you gaze at it...click here

With every new RED Scarlet update Canon has keep pace with software updates to move their camera closer to what filmmakers in general want.  Exposure control, 24p etc are all after release add-on’s. This camera has a larger sensor and image quality equal to that first gen HD film camera that Lucas shot Star Wars episode II on so the issues now are about better data rates to improve or avoid compression.

I feel the general usage will be on the high end for film features/videos etc will use Epic x or similar and the rest of the territory will be a wild west of various HDDSLR cameras with several top makers. Canon has emerged out of the pack covering the high end still/low light video on the 1d mkIV to its workhorse 5d mkII, and for lower range the excellent 2/3 chip 7D to its weird awesome twin, the entry level 550d at under nine hundred dollars. They literally have a camera for every level and need covering a huge spread.

The amount of experimentation going on with these and similar HDDSLRs is incredible, the diversity of topics from DIY rigs to software hacks on the 5dmkII alone is staggering. Lens choices and experimentation is getting broader.

link here for crazy canon 5dmkII software hack to add some awesome features..

crazy HDDSLR camera rig....

Um hello? Is there a camera in this some where?

5dm2 with lomo anamorphics mounted....

Its like a deloren with a time machine, a PL mount on a 7d.

Shane Hurlbut rockin' some sort of rig and Primo lens

"CITY OF LAKES" The Official Trailer from PACIFIC PICTURES on Vimeo.

 Back to our future release line, we’ve seen nothing yet from Nikon,[im looking at you pat!] as I think they didn’t see this coming in terms of the impact on both stills and movie. So they could put out a camera that is a serious contender very easily in there next release. [Any rumors or links?]

 There have been other attempts such as the blue cam with the sparta sensor to create the last piece between epic level and the mid level which is variable rates say 1 to 120, 444 colour space, 35mm full frame, all under six grand last year. But it seems to have vanished this year....

And this is what I think will be the biggest surprise this year, a camera that does just that for say three grand, with some strange options that will come to have a massive effect.

Most HDDSLRs have the ability to use auto focus in stills mode so what's to stop a follow focus system to be built in? Canon could add this feature and sell the wire/wireless unit as an option.  There are some great DIY stuff coming out showing early atempts at digital wireless FF systems like this one using a Wii controller.How long before thats inside the camera with a touch screen focus zone system?

Expect a lot of change in the area of focus as it starts to automate. beep beep...

I could see a hardware hack to get data off faster becoming more common to break the internal bottleneck of a camera by adding a external drive and interface.

If you can get a camera to shot around 75 FPS that would give you a possible bracketed 3 level exposure for movie footage as well as still. At this point I’m looking very carefully for what’s happening in stills as movie modes are right behind.

HDRI great evil or pretty?

if this was a frame from a movie would it speak to you?

While this may be a cheesy effect HDRI pictures can be used beautifully or more likely would allow balancing in post of extreme light contrasts to be evened out.

Another area is the use of time lapse; one in particular really struck me, which was this scene break sequences for the movie “ghost town”. You can read more in-depth here..article on time lapse in "ghost town". But using a still camera and laptop then moving into some CGI post work they were able to make what would have been physically and cost wise far too hard a shot to do for real or even as full CGI. A example of an all CGI version which would no longer be possible to do was the shot in "Zodiac" of the tower going up which was being built in the 1970's. But this shot was super expensive. But similar style shots with a little imagination could be done in this hybrid method.

great clip of timelaspe 3d move

great clip of timelaspe 3d move

Getting backround plates from exotic location will become much easier, HDRI enviroments or something like a location lighting sample could be done on a single camera.

Of course, its soo simple!

There should be a sort of 3d camera scanner in which you could in essence take a series of stills until the camera told you it had acquired the structure. You could then take out of the camera a compiled image model or projection map model. This will allow you to sample an environment for later integration with composited CGI or actors.

Image model made in googles free sketch up photo modeler

The idea that the camera is a cost to a film budget. We’re past the point where you really need to think about having a useable camera to film something so it’s going to be about what’s in front of the camera, in both unique looks, to getting better performance out of actors for entry level film work. Start to think of cameras like paint brushes in that any one can get one, but its how you use it that adds style, art, value etc. 3D will continue to be developed but we will see where that leads. {See this entry on that}The problem in the hardware area is that essentially you need two cameras thus a cost doubling. Experiments such as this Panasonic may offer a solution.

you wouldn't hit a camera with glasses would you?

One possibility I think is to use the massive scale of 5k cameras like the EPICs 5k frame to get this down to just two lens plus adaptor and camera. You have the 3d rig in front consisting of two lens whose footage is merged and covers 2.5 k each top and bottom on the RED EPIC frame. Convergence and separation are motor driven as well for ease of use. Later software would extract the two plates from each frame and recompile them in a 3d or dual movie file format. I suspect a merging of single body 3d cameras, focus,convergence, separation systems and post 3d file formats. The idea is to get 3d as similar to 2d as fast as possible in the mechanics of its work flow and crew use. [update i was given a link for a similar idea. wow i wrote it and like an hour later it was real...]

oh its 3d image file! I thought i was drunk!

These are my first thoughts on this coming year any comments or feedback welcome…

Sorry gramps couldn't hear you over my loud rap video shot on RED ONE.

Update

Sorry gramps couldn't hear you over my loud rap video shot on RED ONE.I forgot the new ARRI digital camera which I’m sure is super awesome but I don’t think it will have much in the way of new market penetration nor any overall impact. The users of the d21 and other ARRI systems will I’m sure continue to work on that system. But sadly its impact in the way RED is like a apple product and has a almost religious fallowing is nonexistent. ARRI is like something your grandpa would use. Doesn’t mean it’s not good it’s just got a limited appeal and at that price point little chance we will use, let alone touch one. So I’m sure these cameras will be used well by various shows, movies etc but will have little to no impact on the directions where talking about.

SI 3d interface, in the time you took to look its became outdated...

SI 3d interface, in the time you took to look its became outdated... Another company to fall off the apple cart is SI who have, correction, had a cutting edge camera have shown nothing new except a expensive 3d camera control software [10g a camera thanks can you make it run on one camera for me?] which looks like something that has a shelve life of five months if that. As I stated above this sort of interface is going to become standard and will be a non issue by year’s end. SI has made me sad since I first saw them nad used it. It came out before RED, had better picture image and amazing features in the interface, which in one generation red absorbed and is the interface on both Scarlet and Epic. I almost wanted to grab them by the collar and shake them “wake up, you have a good project sell it you fuckers”.

WTF? WOW i found this under the back seat sweet! [click pic for link to this..].

On their website would be some amazing thing like a five layer video of 360s views done with some weird rig made with half a dozen SI minis. Or the bjork video done in 3d. And it would be one line of text with a link. I was surprised that A SI's wesite was the first hit when i looked for them on google, and that they had added pictures next to the links.

New RED announcement!

meanwhile If red farts everyone, even people who hate red, know it. Update II

amazing shootout with the hddslr,film etc. Films is of course the highest in quality but check out the 5d and 7d much closer then people realize.

link click here...