Sony F23 -

James0b57 said:
@mike, i’ve had a panasonic sdx900 for a while now, and have been surprised by its image quality, but just acquired an OG Varicam 27, and woah! Big step in the right direction. All the mojo of that era! I like having a lofi camera around, but the ssx900 and similar sd cameras just don’t scale very nicely on giant digital tv’s these days, so the 720p varicam is in a sweet spot. I’ll post some stuff soon. I have it paired with a SD zoom to further smooth the image. I definitely like the images you get with your 900F. Also, i am back in the F35 game. Hope to start shooting with it asap.
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Nice dude! Yeah the Varicam 27 is a sick camera and still very relevant IMHO. I had the F and the H model and I found the H to be better all around with less noise as well.
 
Mike Krumlauf said:
Nice dude! Yeah the Varicam 27 is a sick camera and still very relevant IMHO. I had the F and the H model and I found the H to be better all around with less noise as well.
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I was quite surprised how much i instantly liked the image coming straight out of the camera.
 
James0b57 said:
I was quite surprised how much i instantly liked the image coming straight out of the camera.
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Yeah, I had the same response when I first began using it. I had the same response when I began working with the Pana 900. The Digital Praxis curves are much more sensitive than film rec.
 
Mike Krumlauf said:
Nice dude! Yeah the Varicam 27 is a sick camera and still very relevant IMHO. I had the F and the H model and I found the H to be better all around with less noise as well.
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James0b57 said:
I was quite surprised how much i instantly liked the image coming straight out of the camera.
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Mike Krumlauf said:
Yeah, I had the same response when I first began using it. I had the same response when I began working with the Pana 900. The Digital Praxis curves are much more sensitive than film rec.
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I know we’re in the Sony forum, but yeah, the Vari’s have a damn good picture. I’ve been shooting on VariCam’s for well over a decade(bought a 27H in 2006 and 2x 2700’s in ~2011 & 2012, I believe). I had semi-retired my 27H years ago and hadn’t used it in probably a year or so after and had a request for tape for a shoot(they wanted to be able to ship the tapes around instead of hard drives...). Even though I had shot with the camera for close to a decade, I was still pleasantly surprised at the image. It was still beautiful with great color and great skin tones. A big part of what made these cameras shine is the 3-chip CCD optical block. And unfortunately, this is all but a thing of the past...
 
We’ll have to get a couple of these “classic” digital video cameras together and figure out what is making them shine.

I feel dome cameras own their look, while others despite themselves don’t.

Varicam
DVX100B
5dmkii (and 1D-C, but it’s limited popularity makes this a hard sell)
F35 (genesis and srw9000PL)
F23 (srw9000)
Alexa


Many other good cameras out there, that even have better specs, but never really seemed to own their look. The C300 fell into the uncanny valley, because it looked so good until the very end of the highlights, and then it felt off, so it never sat well with me, despite having a good baseline. Whereas the 5Dmkii is clearly inferior specs wise, but owns the first gen dslr look and is an aesthetic. The DVX100B managed to pull off character in the minidv 1/3” format with 8? Stops dr? Even though the Sony VXPD series cameras are iconic, they lack soul.

It could be argued that red MX has a certain grit to it, or that black magic brought a level of iq to the low end price bracket, but niether camera objectively had pleasing aesthetics by themselves. The BM had weird shadows and the highlights never went as far as the midtones promised. The mx had weird stuff going on too. Being able to get a good image from a camera is more the skill of the operator or team than the inherent aesthetics of a camera alone. Specs and pliability are one thing.

There are also plenty of under rated cameras like the F3 or the Varicam35, but there is a diference between being underrated and having th “it” factor.

Would be a good study, if anyone in LA is interested, let’s talk. JCS and PIMP i hope are down, i’ll hit them up.
 
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James0b57 said:
We’ll have to get a couple of these “classic” digital video cameras together and figure out what is making them shine.

I feel dome cameras own their look, while others despite themselves don’t.

Varicam
DVX100B
5dmkii (and 1D-C, but it’s limited popularity makes this a hard sell)
F35 (genesis and srw9000PL)
F23 (srw9000)
Alexa


Many other good cameras out there, that even have better specs, but never really seemed to own their look. The C300 fell into the uncanny valley, because it looked so good until the very end of the highlights, and then it felt off, so it never sat well with me, despite having a good baseline. Whereas the 5Dmkii is clearly inferior specs wise, but owns the first gen dslr look and is an aesthetic. The DVX100B managed to pull off character in the minidv 1/3” format with 8? Stops dr? Even though the Sony VXPD series cameras are iconic, they lack soul.

It could be argued that red MX has a certain grit to it, or that black magic brought a level of iq to the low end price bracket, but niether camera objectively had pleasing aesthetics. The bm had ugly shadows and the mx had weird stuff going on too. Being able to get a good image from a camera is more the skill of the operator or team that the inherent aesthetics of a camera. There are plenty of under rated cameras like the F3 or the Varicam35, but there is a diference between being underrated and having th “it” factor.

Would be a good study, if anyonne in LA is interested, let’s talk. JCS and PIMP i hope are down, i’ll hit them up.
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I would say the F900/3 and variations of it (panavision & clairmont versions) should be put in that list up there. ;)
 
Agreed.

The difference in aesthetic between the RED Monstro 8K and Panavision DXL is noticeable despite the similar hardware.
 
I'm curious. Could a C-mount (or even D-mount) adapter be made to work with these older bayonet-mount CCD cameras like the F23, F900, Varicam, etc? Or would there be a flange distance issue?
 
Looks a little tricky. The B4 mount is wider than C mount, and the flange is blocked by filters pretty close to the rear of the lens. B4 lenses are cheaper for the money at this time, imho.
 
The theroretical flange of the typical B4 camera is 48mm? But it is all going through a prism and the wave lengths are seperated and travelling slight different lengths.

Wheras the C mount flange is 17.5mm?

In any case, with a c mount lens, the focused image is way too short, and would possibly never hit the sensors on a Varicam or whatever. But they could make some interesting macro lenses.

Don’t let my limited knowledge stifle your creativity though, that is just how i understand the tech at this point, i could be wrong.
 
@QHR, haven’t seen you in a minute. Guess you’ve been lurking on other threads?
 
@James0b57

I've been around, often lurking more than posting. Still waiting for the day I can get my hands on an F35 and in the meantime, experimenting with some older cameras/lenses (just shot a short with some Kern Switars on a BM camera; hence the c-mount question -- I wonder if a recessed adapter could be 3D-printed). I shot exclusively with a Varicam 2700 for about three years at the dawn of the DSLR revolution. Never fell in love with it, mostly because I could never get it to work for me ergonomically. Nice images, though. Haven't had a CCD camera in my life until recently when I picked up a Panasonic FZ-47 for laughs, but ended up liking it a lot more than I expected to: https://vimeo.com/284602742

Looking forward to your shootout. I'll be following that other thread for sure.
 
You made that thing shine! Will have to get you an F35 to play with!

I was actually up in PDX at the beginning of Feb and had brought an F35 along. Was only there a couple days to see family. I’ll have to link with you again next time i am there.
 
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@James0b57

Please do. I've still never seen one in person. My biggest hesitation about pulling the trigger is the form factor, so it would be awesome to see one up close and personal.
 
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