Pitching F35 to clients/production companies,

[IronFilm]

If you're getting half the rental fee of the latest Alexa for your F35 then I reckon you're doing a good job at negotiating already!

 

[Grug]

If you're getting half the rental fee of the latest Alexa for your F35 then I reckon you're doing a good job at negotiating already!

Well, Alexa Classic....

 

[IronFilm]

What does an Alexa Classic rent for per day in your neck of the woods?

 

[Grug]

About $700/day. Half of what you'd pay for a Mini or (S)XT package.

 

[odshannon]

So the reason you could afford to buy the F35 is that no one is going to use it for money projects. Everyone is obsessed with the K's and it's the file size that matter, not the sensor size or anything that computer in the box does to get to the end file. You have already figured out the answer: show them footage, let them see the difference. If they still only care about the K's let them rent. I like that the F35 is used less and less and considered over the hill, it only makes it more powerful for those of us who know the truth.

Yachacha, that's a great point. I can't complain because if this camera was still all the rage, I probably couldn't afford it. It's definitely a wonderful little secret but I'm hoping the right people will still value what it has to offer.

i’ll shoot F55, A7sii, and F35 for you guys. Maybe i’ll toss in a C200.

James, that would be GREAT. I checked out some of Mac's test and though I think they are a good start, it would be helpful to have a one and done video to send to anyone who is on the fence. Let us know how we can help!

I always found the simplest method was to simply list a couple of the $100 million films shot on it. My go tos for name-dropping were:

- Apocalypto
- Captain America
- Tron
- Real Steel
- Superman Returns
- Harry Brown

That a couple of them were shot on the Panavised version of the camera, never caused me any existential guilt, and (generally) if a camera's good enough for Marvel - I found that it was good enough for mere mortal productions.

Plus, at half the rental fee of an Alexa, it's appeal increases.

Thanks for the list, Grug! I have been using that tactic as well and it's been helping somewhat. Nice to have more options to throw at them.

 

[Guest]

did a very impromptu test with a friend using the F55 and F35. Same lens. Zeiss CP.2 21mm and 85mm.

the differences between the two cameras are more minimal than I expected. The F55 without a doubt has the edge over the F35 in almost every way on paper. The F35 still wins in getting the image with minimal processing better than the F55. That however, is based entirely on aesthetic choice, and would be dependent on the project.

I put them both on a UHD timeline. zoomed into 100%.




Two images at the top are 100% crops from the side by side wides graded to match, not for aesthetics.

Images below are the ungraded footage at 100% for the F55 and 200% for the F35.


If the project doesn't get any reframing in post, then the resolution difference is minimal.

F55 had internal ND.9 on with native iso 1250
F35 was set to tungsten WB in part to easily differentiate the cameras as well as to reduce any possibility of aesthetic advantage.
T stop was the same for each camera, which may have altered the exposure between the two cameras by 1/2 stop. this may have resulted in a slightly over exposed F35 footage.
This was not a test to see which camera had a better image aesthetically. will work on something for that on another day, this was strictly about resolution.

 

[Guest]

200% f55:


400% f35:

 

[Guest]

300% f55:


600% f35:

 

[Guest]

Switching over to the 85mm:



100% F55:


200% f35:




200% F55:


400% F35:

 

[Guest]

85mm

300% F55:


600% F35:


This is perhaps the biggest difference in resolution. There is a bit more fine detail in the F55 footage. If you look at the crossing hairs on the F55 seem to resolve better.

 

[Guest]

But you would have to shoot raw on the F55 to get additional resolution benefits, because at a certain point the 10bit 422 on the F55 compresses out fine detail, in particular in the shadows.


F55 the compression in the defocused hair


300% F55


600% F35

 

[jcs]

Pixel peeping is cool for analysis: your results are as expected.

To really sell to non-techies/clients, shooting the same scene with both cameras side-by-side and displaying both split screen will clearly show any real-world perceptual differences. If you do a bit of post sharpening on the F35 footage (both displayed at 4K on a 4K display), no one will be able to tell the difference in resolution.