GH2 "Dragon Tattoo" DOF equivalent to GH2

M

motionflow

Member
I'm a big David Fincher fan and I was reading this article which mentions some technical aspects of his shooting process on "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo":

http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/4k-di-on-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo

Specifically of interest to me as a GH2 user, the article mentions that for framing flexibility, stabilization, and fine-tuning in post, Fincher shot at 4.5K while taking only a 3600x1500px center extraction in post.

In this reduser post, David Mullen mentions that on a RED camera, if you multiply pixel dimensions by .0054, you can determine the measurements of the part of the sensor used, in millimeters.

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?61760-RED-ONE-MX-4-5K-film-back-measurement

So, if you multiply 3600 by .0054, it yields 19.44mm horizontally for the center extraction Fincher made.

By comparison, the GH2's sensor is 19mm horizontally. To me this means that all other things being equal, someone shooting a feature on a GH2 could get the same control over depth of field as Fincher did on TGWTDT, which never felt like it had too much DOF.

Then again, this is David Fincher I'm talking about, and even with a 2/3" sensor (Zodiac and Benjamin Button), he makes great images.
 
Perry Wilson said:
looks pretty standard to me
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Exactly my thoughts. I never questioned the DOF in Dragon Tattoo as being too deep, which is usually one of the perceived shortcomings of the micro four thirds sensor size. I'm just pointing out that if 19mm horizontally is good enough for one of my favorite filmmakers, it's good enough for me ;-)
 
Of late (past two years), there has been much talk of sensors not being big enough. Only full frame is good enough etc. (bigger is better:cheesy:)

To which some respond, 'm4/3s is good enough'...'it will do just fine'... 'its not too far from S35'.

But I think those lines show too much restraint.
M4/3 is Too Damn Big. Small is Superior.
S16, baby
 
Aerials shot with RED EPIC 5K

David Fincher approached us and wanted aerials night time over Stockholm.
He also wanted to use the new upcoming digital film camera RED Epic 5K.

Since most of the shots were at night, our helicopter partner Pegasus arranged permissions for night flying using a AS 355 twin engine helicopter.

Girl with the Dragon Tatoo

This was a kick start for our brand new Stab C Compact Gyro.
Rigging and testing was performed in Oslo.
We flew over to Stockholm and met up with the film team, using Skå Edeby as our base.

After some test shots at daylight, we fueled up and started filming over a beautiful Stockholm at sunset.
We continued to film at night with the Epic in HDRX mode.



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http://www.bluesky.se/?dnode=144&prid=41

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In a few more years, the "Camera" is going to be this little sugar-cube sized bit attached to a lens.

Just strikes me as somehow....strange.
 
I'm beginning to see what people mean about GH2 users needing validation...

But it is a cool factoid to know, thanks for sharing.
 
Kholi said:
I'm beginning to see what people mean about GH2 users needing validation...

But it is a cool factoid to know, thanks for sharing.
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LOL. That's exactly what this is about. It's to mitigate that insecurity that crops up every time I line up a shot with the 20mm 1.7 for example, and then wish the background were a bit more out of focus.
 
The difference in DOF from Micro4/3 to APS-C (or Super35) is only about 1/2 stop. So a GH2 shooting at f2 will have the same DOF as a Canon 7D shooting at f2.5. Not a big difference.
 
Either way, this movie would have looked fantastic shot on the gh2, if Fincher did it. Camera fanatics everywhere would be crapping in their collective pants. Ah red scarlet, maybe one day I will own you...
 
It isn't a big difference. But I get the sentiment, sometimes you just want to be comfortable with what you're shooting. No problem.

I know people said like crazy looked good in theaters but IMO I dunno what they were looking at. Larger sensor didn't save it from being bug and mushy when projected. And super bland looking. But everything looks better blown up. Use the camera to its strengths man.

The wide and speed are pains but nothing that can't be quelled with a little cash and care.
 
In 3K video mode, the Red Scarlet's sensor has a 2x crop factor, the same as the AF100 in 1080p mode. The GH2's crop factor is actually a bit smaller due to its multi-aspect sensor. With suitable adapters, Nikon AF-D lenses could be shared among these cameras, and would produce nearly the same FOV and DOF.
 
Kholi said:
I know people said like crazy looked good in theaters but IMO I dunno what they were looking at. Larger sensor didn't save it from being bug and mushy when projected. And super bland looking. But everything looks better blown up. Use the camera to its strengths man.
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Everyone in this forum could go out and watch the same movie and not see it projected the same way. I've watched three different digital projections of the Dragon Tattoo so far, and each experience was quite different. The first was bright but with more motion blur than normal. The second one was dim, dark and desaturated. The third was the great, projected on a nice bright Barco with good contrast and a nice amount of color and looked fantastic. Fincher's films are usually so dark and faces are usually so underexposed that variations from projector to projector can make an experience of his films hit or miss on a visual level.

But on the other hand, doing a side by side comparison of images from Seven and Social Network for example, does make the starkness of Seven pop out at you, while Social Network looks milky by comparison.
 
Was specifically talking about LIKE CRAZY, not Dragon Tattoo, but I understand what you mean.
 
motionflow said:
Sorry, thought it was some kind of typo. Didn't know "Like Crazy" was a movie.
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Love Story starring some Award winning actors/actresses shot on a few 7D's with PL mount supplied by the awesome that is Hot Rod Cameras. Sold at Sundance, in theaters now I believe worldwild. Great reviews, if you catch it of course judge for yourself how you like the projected picture.

Need to go out and see Dragon Tattoo but waiting to get back to LA for a better screen.
 
This makes sense, the Dragon Tattoo (great movie btw) I saw projected had really nasty digital noise in all the dark scenes. I assume this is the projectionist's fault?
 
DPStewart said:
In a few more years, the "Camera" is going to be this little sugar-cube sized bit attached to a lens.

Just strikes me as somehow....strange.
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You mean like this Silicon Imaging 2K camera today...

SI-2Kmini_productpage.jpg
 
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