Viddovation
Veteran
So... I own two F23s, one F35, and one FS7. I can tell you the FS7 works the most frequently, and as a business, it's the one that justifies itself on paper. The F23s and the F35 will stay though, because I love the look when I get to do passion work. And their relative rarity in the world leads me to think they won't depreciate further the way cameras of other stripes that were made in much larger quantities will.
But I'm writing now, because I think we're on the precipice of a titanic shift in cinematography. Not available to you and me yet - but on it's way. If you haven't already looked up the Lytro Cinema camera - do. Imagine a camera where depth of field, motion blur, even point of view (to an extent) can all be chosen in post - where adding elements in 3d, and 3d tracking are all cake. Where separating objects no longer takes green screen or rotoscoping. Right now the revolution is aimed at high end work with a pricetag starting at $125k. It's protected by patents, and it uses an ungodly amount of bandwidth and storage space. But this - in my opinion - is where we're headed. The F35 was $250k in 2008. Today, it's features if not it's mojo have been superceded by cameras costing less than $10k. If that's any indication, by 2024 we'll be able to buy the capabilities of the Lytro Cinema Camera for less than $10k.
But it goes one step father. Imagine if someone took four or more Lytro Cinema cameras, genlocked them together, positioned them at cross angles around a center point, and fed the data from all of the to a central mainframe that computed those discreet camera feeds (composed of color and depth data) into a single 3d composite. Imagine if in the future, you didn't have to chose a camera angle on set, and if you did - it was merely previs. Imagine if you recorded a 3d composite wide angle, that let you chose your camera angle, your camera move, your motion blur, your depth of field - your everything - in post. Imagine you were never locked in.
And - it goes yet one more step. Take the above, and consider that your hypothetical 3d composite has color data mapped to 3d positions. If you light the set 100% flat (or, as flat as possible), what would prevent you from applying lighting in post? Even your lighting decisions could be made in post.
My point is this: the brave new world is here. Tomorrow's digitial cinema isn't going to look anything like what we're doing today. All of these cameras will be obsolete. And all of these cameras will be left for those who want to try their hand at a relic of the past. Don't invest heavily in this generation of cameras. Don't break the bank of F55s or Alexas or Red Dragons. They're all going to be obsolete, not just because newer cameras will come with better specs - but because the entire way we work is going to change and is going to use a vastly different type of camera technology.
But I'm writing now, because I think we're on the precipice of a titanic shift in cinematography. Not available to you and me yet - but on it's way. If you haven't already looked up the Lytro Cinema camera - do. Imagine a camera where depth of field, motion blur, even point of view (to an extent) can all be chosen in post - where adding elements in 3d, and 3d tracking are all cake. Where separating objects no longer takes green screen or rotoscoping. Right now the revolution is aimed at high end work with a pricetag starting at $125k. It's protected by patents, and it uses an ungodly amount of bandwidth and storage space. But this - in my opinion - is where we're headed. The F35 was $250k in 2008. Today, it's features if not it's mojo have been superceded by cameras costing less than $10k. If that's any indication, by 2024 we'll be able to buy the capabilities of the Lytro Cinema Camera for less than $10k.
But it goes one step father. Imagine if someone took four or more Lytro Cinema cameras, genlocked them together, positioned them at cross angles around a center point, and fed the data from all of the to a central mainframe that computed those discreet camera feeds (composed of color and depth data) into a single 3d composite. Imagine if in the future, you didn't have to chose a camera angle on set, and if you did - it was merely previs. Imagine if you recorded a 3d composite wide angle, that let you chose your camera angle, your camera move, your motion blur, your depth of field - your everything - in post. Imagine you were never locked in.
And - it goes yet one more step. Take the above, and consider that your hypothetical 3d composite has color data mapped to 3d positions. If you light the set 100% flat (or, as flat as possible), what would prevent you from applying lighting in post? Even your lighting decisions could be made in post.
My point is this: the brave new world is here. Tomorrow's digitial cinema isn't going to look anything like what we're doing today. All of these cameras will be obsolete. And all of these cameras will be left for those who want to try their hand at a relic of the past. Don't invest heavily in this generation of cameras. Don't break the bank of F55s or Alexas or Red Dragons. They're all going to be obsolete, not just because newer cameras will come with better specs - but because the entire way we work is going to change and is going to use a vastly different type of camera technology.
