Canon 7D Footage on the Big Screen, Opinions Wanted

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shorty15

Well-known member
I am looking for opinions on how the 7D would look on a big screen, for festivals and short theatrical runs. I am trying to decide between the 7D and shooting on 16mm. Obviously, the savings are in the 7D camp but 16mm has a proven track record and looks good when blown up to theater projection.

How do you think the 7D would compare to 16mm? There have been a couple of experiments with printing 5D footage to 35mm film, as well as a mysterious French workflow that is 4:4:4???? as well as rumors of 7D raw capture. Any opinions on current theater projection as well as the future of DSLR's on the big screen.
 
saw the gh1 at 1080 at the dvxfest screening and it looked real nice. I imagine the 7d would look nice as well all things considered.
 
Once I get my camera I'm going to be projecting my test footage at the Visual Arts theater in NYC. They had the red carpet premiere of Inglorious Basterds there, so needless to say they have some of the best equipment you can get.

Ill let you know how the results look....
 
shorty15 said:
I am looking for opinions on how the 7D would look on a big screen, for festivals and short theatrical runs. I am trying to decide between the 7D and shooting on 16mm. Obviously, the savings are in the 7D camp but 16mm has a proven track record and looks good when blown up to theater projection.
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Just about any modern HD camera is going to look substantially better (in terms of grain and sharpness) than 16mm or Super16.
 
Thanks Barry. I shot super 16 on my last feature and my next will be shot digitally. Avoiding the 35K expense in film stock and lab fees would be like gettting 5 really badass camera, or a nicely equipped RED. Film is dead to a Scottish Filmmaker.

I'm a Scottish filmmaker...
 
I also believe that so many people do the digital printing to film that having the advantage of a workprint and then getting the negative conformed and all that blah blah blah.. is out the window. It's more about story and ideas than anything else. In 97 when I shot my last feature, DV cams weren't on the horizon and the internet was still in its infancy in so many ways... So much stuff has changed and so are the times.

Film is in someways kind of how newspapers are being treated. Still great and warm and cozy and has it's place, but more often than not its going to fade away due to it's expense and workflow antiquity...
 
Barry_Green said:
Just about any modern HD camera is going to look substantially better (in terms of grain and sharpness) than 16mm or Super16.
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But the big one for me is latitude. Obviously, film has any of these slr's beat hands down. The other thing is color sampling/ accuracy, which film wins at too.

BUT-

To your average audience, would they see the increased latitude and color of the movie shot on film as looking "better" over the extra sharpness and reduced grain of an HD-shot movie? If all other things were equal.. ie same DP.. etc. Probably hard to say, and it could go either way.
 
i've blown up d90 footage to 35mm and it looked fantastic, in many ways better than the 16mm stuff i've done in the past. since the 7d has higher resolution and seems to have an otherwise crisper image as well i can't see why it wouldn't work great.
 
Barry_Green said:
Just about any modern HD camera is going to look substantially better (in terms of grain and sharpness) than 16mm or Super16.
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when did grain and sharpness become the key ingredients for a good looking film? even dv is sharp enough for the big screen and grain can often enhance the image. film still looks way better than digital in my opinion.
 
From what I have seen I'd think a 7d with some nice glass would look pretty good on a big screen. I'd risk it and not think twice about it, just me though, some people get so anal over this, your crowd for the most part aren't pixel peepers. I would be a little hesitant if the cam had cheap glass on it.

I do know some people that have upsampled 4:2:0 footage to 4:4:4 but I have not seen the comparisons to see if it made a difference, don't know on that one, wouldn't think it would hurt, just not sure if it actually improved it.
 
ydgmdlu said:
Opinions, opinions.
Just use whatever looks good to you and stop worrying about it.
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i think he was asking because he hasn't made the comparison himself thus he doesn't know what it looks like to him, hence the opinion. but you're obviously right. he will never get a definitive answer here or on any other board.
 
I went to see a collection of shorts a friend of mine and his filmmaker social club did. He shot his on the 5D and projected digitally at the AMC 30 here in Houston and I was pretty impressed by how good it looked. I'm not sure the exact size but I would guess the screen was 45-50 feet wide or so in width based on there being ~20 seats per row.
 
@robmneilson - I'd be interested to see that test - I went to SVA and had my HVX footage shown on that screen - thought it looked fantastic - would love to see the 7D up there.
 
IMHO, most screens and projectors just aren't in that great of shape, so 7D or 5D footage should look fine.

The "mysterious" French 4:4:4 work around would certainly help, but the sensor design of the camera makes for some problems outside the colorspace - the aliasing, the moire, etc.
 
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>the aliasing, the moire,

I have seen it from 5D2, GH1. Looks like moire can really destroy footage. Could some sort of minor blur rescue Aliasing?
 
Hi, was just reading your post. Just wanted to know if you went with the canon 7D for shooting. and if so how did this turn out? good? grainy? clear? I have a project that i wanted to shoot pretty soon. If would be awesome to hear from you on how yours turned out

cheers
 
Help me! need to shoot on 7D has anyone used this camera for entering film fest?

Help me! need to shoot on 7D has anyone used this camera for entering film fest?

Hello to all. Was just wondeing if anyone on this forum used a canon 7D to shoot their film? for festivals? and if so how did the quality turn out? blurry? grainy? or just alright?

I have a project that Ive been wanting to shoot to enter the festivals. I dont really want to use my 7D if the quality would be poor. It would be awesome if someone here had used 7D to shoot.

Im really really interested from everyones comment

cheers guys
 
To me the choice would appear simple

If you are poor a GH1 7d is a great choice, maybe a 5d, you might want an EX1 for any building shots or other shots that fall over with the stills cameras

Of all of these the 7d has the best monitor O/P and is IMO the best single camera

these are cameras you can probably borrow

If you are not so poor rent a Red - a gash package that uses nikkor lenses does not have a load of memory etc

i have not mentioned an F3 because I think a 'gash' red package would give you a lot more flexibilty and not cost much more

if you are rich, rent a proper digital package

I cant see film as a viable option (apart from a full 35 feature)

S
 
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