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Some may think I’m setting up a harangue about the RED camera. But I’m
not. The single-sensor 4K camera being developed by Jim Jannard,
founder of sunglass colossus Oakley, was the most talked about object
at this year’s NAB (to read more, see
Studio/monthly’s June issue or visit
www.studiomonthly.com/studiomonthly/6655.html).
Some thought RED was the greatest thing since the invention of oxygen;
others thought it was offensive hype. I thought it was neither.
The RED boys and girls put on a good show, made a lot of promises (a 4K
camera for under $20K including storage), but they didn’t show a
working prototype. On the other hand, they didn’t lie. They made it
clear they have a lot of work ahead of them. They didn’t reveal as many
details as I wanted, but they didn’t claim they were about to ship. I
would love to try RED, but since I can’t yet, I withhold judgment. I
hope it will be great. But RED is not yet a product; it’s an idea.
There were, however, several working 2K cameras on the show floor. But
a trade-show exhibit doesn’t reveal much about how a camera works in
the real world. So a couple of months prior to NAB, Director/DP Scott
Billups, DP Geoff Boyle and I organized a little soiree we publicized
through CML (Cinematography Mailing List,
www.cinematography.net) to give vendors and DPs
a chance to operate the cameras and examine their output on a real set.
And drink some beer.
Scott came up with the original idea, found the facility, wrangled a
couple of actors and convinced the vendors to bring their cameras,
monitors and recording gear. Once we were all set to go, he directed
the shoot. Geoff put the weight of his cinematography mailing list and
his own decades worth of DP experience and contacts into the event. I
picked up loose ends, both figuratively and literally.
We pulled this off thanks to Media Underground
(www.mediaunderground.com), a comprehensive
production, post and rental facility located near the Las Vegas strip.
Stuart Cane, Bill Fisher and the rest of their gang provided a large
sound stage and grip truck from JR Lighting
(www.jrlighting.com), set up tables and a tent
for food and drink, solved several last-minute equipment problems and
otherwise made the event happen.
Scott was delayed, so we had a couple dozen DPs all with valid but
different ideas about how to design and light our set and actors. I
asked Jim Iacona, a San Francisco DP whose work I admire, to take
charge and with that, Jim and the rest of the troupe fashioned a nice,
flexible, open scene to capture with the cameras.
Real Cameras in the Real World
Thanks to several camera manufacturers, as well as dealers Plus8digital
and Band Pro Film & Digital, we were able to work with a great
cross-section of HD cameras. Some companies planned to attend, but
didn’t show. Despite several invitations, Sony declined to participate.
Unfortunately, we had neither a Panasonic VariCam nor a Sony F900 HDCAM
camera. They’re the HD cameras I’m most familiar with, and I wanted to
compare their operation and images with low-cost HDV and DVCPRO HD
cameras and with full-raster 2K cameras. Alas, that was not to be. But
a bunch of other companies did come through.
Grass Valley brought its Viper FilmStream camera that produces a
full-raster 1080p through three 2/3-inch CCDs. Coming straight from
imaging a feature, to the NAB show floor, to our event, the camera
needed a little tune up. George Palmer was able to do that in situ, a
good sign that the camera really is designed for production.
ARRI brought its elusive ARRIFLEX D-20 digital camera and a couple of
the company’s new ceramic lights. The D-20 has a single Super35-sized
CMOS sensor and outputs either a full-raster 1920 x 1080 HD signal or
3018 x 2200 12-bit raw sensor data. The sensor size means 35mm lenses
produce 35mm depth of field. The optical viewfinder and compatibility
with ARRI film accessories lets film DPs easily master the D-20.
Silicon Imaging brought a working prototype of its SI-1920HDVR 1080p
camera that works with PL, F and C-mount lenses, and records 1080p
images from a 2/3-inch CMOS sensor to CineForm’s new RAW wavelet codec.
The company found a great way to introduce a new camera: show a working
prototype, and ask working professionals what they think and what
they’d change. A nice change from the usual— companies telling us what
to think.
Vision Research brought a high-speed Phantom camera. Since there aren’t
many over-cranking options in HD, the Phantom cameras fill a nice
niche. A Panasonic AG-HVX200 and a Canon XL H1 rounded out the
collection. The Canon XL H1 is, at the same time, the most-expensive
HDV camera and the least-expensive HD-SDI camera.
We recorded camera output to an S.two digital field recorder as 10-bit
DPX files at the highest quality the cameras could generate. We also
recorded to a Wafian HR-1 recorder as 10-bit CineForm files. We viewed images and signals through Assimilate Scratch, two Cine-tal Cinemage monitors, Leader HD scopes and the Iridas SpeedGrade OnSet grading system. We had more
equipment, more talent and more pixels than on any other set I’ve ever
worked.
The goal of the event was not to determine which camera produced the
best image. We didn’t have time for such careful evaluations. We wanted
to know in a qualitative way what the images from the different cameras
looked like, how the different cameras worked and, most importantly,
how hard it was to work with them.
We didn’t learn anything shocking. Expensive cameras with nice lenses
have impressive total range and produce nice images. High-quality
compression can look pretty dang good. A $9,000 camera recording
through a $60,000 lens produces damn fine pictures.
Many of the DPs had already worked with one or more of the cameras, but
none had worked with them all. Even so, we were able to get up to speed
quickly. Thanks to Scott’s direction, we set up and recorded images
with each camera, wrapped and had the truck packed by 10:30 p.m., hours
earlier than I expected.
And that wrap time provided the best lesson: If you know what you’re
doing, working with these cameras isn’t very different than working
with film or standard HD. As always, craft, not technology, determines
the success of any shoot. That’s something you can forget on a
trade-show floor.
Jim Feeley works at POV Media, a production company in Northern California. You can reach him at jfeeley@accessintel.com.
Write Jim at jfeeley@accessintel.com
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