Barry_Green
Moderator
It quantified what is and what isn't. That's all.
Look, people will shoot with what they've got, and they'll get good results, sure. But to some of us, it matters what the product actually does, and how, because that will influence whether it's the right choice. For us.
To use a broad allegory -- to many people, it simply does not matter whether the sun revolves around the earth, or the earth revolves around the sun. It's true -- think of a farmer, does he care whether the sun revolves around the earth, or the other way around? Doesn't make one lick of difference to him. Nor does it to the laborer, or the carpenter.
But to some of us, it matters. Because if you understand what something does, and how it does it, then you are prepared to predict and deal with the consequences, accurately.
To many people it doesn't matter whether the earth is flat or round -- again, to the farmer, the call center operator, the house painter, it doesn't matter, does it? But to the travel industry it mattered a lot, and the world wouldn't be what it was if we said "who cares if it's round or flat?"
Whenever you see any substandard result, or less than expected, people start asking questions like "what lens, what aperture, etc.," trying to find any possible explanation for why the reality didn't match the expectation. I have now attempted to quantify what the expectations should be, based on the reality that exists.
On this forum I've seen threads from people asking "should I sell my EX1 to get a 7D?" or "Should I sell my HVX to get a 7D?" or "should I buy a 35mm adapter, or a 7D?" or "why on earth would anyone buy a video camera instead of a DSLR?" or "Will the 7D put the video cameras out of business?" or "Who needs a Scarlet when we have a 7D?"
We've seen threads talking about how the DSLR is the way forward.
I've seen people posting proclamations about how the 7D has greater dynamic range and sharper images than video cameras.
Whenever people get all decided like that, it's an automatic trigger in me to start asking "really?" What do we really know? What does the camera actually do? Has it really advanced the state of the art? How is it better than what we already had (if, indeed, at all?)
Now we know some answers. Those proclamations are simply not true. The hype is hype. It is not sharper than a $2,000 video camera. It does not extend dynamic range beyond what we already had. There are many, many areas open for improvement, primarily in aliasing and moire and sharpness. It does some things well, some incredibly well, it does other things not so well, and some it's just not good at. In some ways it is a step forward, in other ways it is a step backwards. But now we know what ways it is a step forward, and what ways it is not. Now we know what ways it is a step backward, and what ways it is not.
It is not the end-all and be-all, in fact, in some ways it's not even very good. In other ways it's extremely good. And yes, there is certainly still very much room for Scarlet (or others) to improve significantly on what we have here.
Where it has improved the art is in access to a shallow-DOF, interchangeable-lens, low-light camera. It is not sharper than what we had, in fact it's about as sharp as a good 720p camera. And the dynamic range is more limited. And the usability is limited. But in terms of its ability to deliver an incredibly filmlike beautiful image when the shallow DOF is fully taken advantage of (such as an interview shot or MCU), it delivers in spades, at a very low price point. And we also know that the 720p mode is not good at all, not much higher res than standard-def. These are now known quantities, not speculations or suppositions.
At least now we've quantified what the limitations actually are.
If that is not of interest to you, then go right ahead and go out and shoot.
If the examination of the hype and doing a little bit of "mythbusters" bothers you, don't read it. Everyone is free to believe whatever they want to. As for me, I prefer to believe what actually exists and what actually happens, and so I set out to discover what those things are.
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