Arri Alexa and Mysterium-X...

[Michael Bravin]

One thing that bothers me a bit is that when someone tries to convince for film over RAW, some of them may misunderstand my conviction as a lack of this romance for visuals. I find digital acquisition every bit as romantic as film... Digital didn't just pop out of of a different dimension, it is as much a product of that 1826 photo as the latest S35 stocks.

Roberto

Imagine how folks who have been shooting film their whole career feel when you try to convince them about RAW over film. Bothered hardly covers it.

I'm just sayin'...

 

[Roberto Lequeux]

I completely understand. I am not trying to convince anyone though. It is the opposite.

 

[Michael McVicar]

I once got to see the first photograph ever taken, by Niepce in 1826(!)

The oldest record of human spirit we have are visual images recorded on rocks in caves. The one thing no one predicted going back to H.G. Wells about landing on the Moon in the future, was that it would be recorded by a camera and seen live by the whole world. The processes may change but the impulses never become obsolete.

 

[Jason Murphy]

Speaking of film nostalgia, I'm still sad that I was never able to see a good nitrate print of anything, and that I likely never will.

 

[Teague Kennedy]

I just hope we aren't obsolete tomorrow...

Jim

Well if it is, you can look at it this way: If it weren't for all your team had done and all you accomplished, the Red Cam wouldn't have been obsolete nearly so soon. :thumbsup:

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Speaking of film nostalgia, I'm still sad that I was never able to see a good nitrate print of anything, and that I likely never will.

UCLA often shows b&w nitrate prints from their collection, as well as nitrate Technicolor dye transfer prints. There are select theaters around the world that have the right projection booth to handle the dangers of nitrate.

I saw an original nitrate print of "Citizen Kane" at UCLA that was quite stunning.

 

[zak forrest]

yall are making me cry over here

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Guys,

if some of you are so romantic and nostalgic about film photographic "silver prints"

there is a famous "Photographica Auction" here in Vienna (on May 29th, 2010),

where you could also take place and participate (online).

Some of the highlight at the auction:

Camera auctions:

"The sensational highlight of the coming sale is a Daguerréotype Giroux from 1839, the first commercially produced camera in the world!
The Daguerréotype offered at this auction was discovered very recently and is in beautiful original condition.
Worldwide only very few of these cameras are known to exist, all of them in public museums.
Never before one has been offered for sale in auction.
It will be expected, that WestLicht’s own 576.000 Euro world record price for a camera sale will be excided by far,
the estimate is Euro 500.000 – 700.000."

Read more>>>


Photo auctions:

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
Dunes, Oceano, California
(Portfolio Four. What Majestic World)
1963
Vintage silver print
18,3 x 19,1 cm

Read more >>>

 

[David Rasberry]

Daguerreotypes are fascinating. Pure metallic silver/mercury/gold image. I thought about doing Daguerreotypes at one time. Researched the process. Definitely not an enviro friendly footprint. These days it would require a full lab grade vapor hood and an environmental impact statement. But I love the look of them.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

A quick video tour of the ALEXA prototype

A quick video tour of the ALEXA prototype

Presentation of Arri Alexa

Cinematographer Frank van Vught gives a tour of the prototype of the Alexa camera at the AFC Micro Salon in Paris:

LINK 1 >>>

Arri ALEXA camera presentation >>>youtube video >>>

RED-1-M-X is still better digital camera system than Arri Alexa:

Just to give you the following three most important things:

1. RED-1-M-X weight around 10 lbs or 4 kg (without lens, battery and viewfinder) vs Arri Alexa around 12.8 lbs or 5.8 kg (without lens, battery and viewfinder)

2. RED-1-M-X latitude 13.5 stops vs. Arri Alexa 13 stops

3. The price of R1 body is 17,500.00 US Dollar (USD) equals 12,671.98 Euro (EUR) plus the price of the upgrade is $5750 and includes the M-X Sensor

and Sensor Board replacement as well as the new upgraded Optical Low Pass Filter that all is 23,250.00 US Dollar (USD) equals 16,835.63 Euro (EUR).


So to conclude is to say that three years old R-1 with new M-X sensor upgrade is a pure winner

over brand new Arri Alexa A-EV (50K Euro) in the price/performance/features battle.

That's how 17.000 Euro R-1-M-X beats 50.000 Euro Arri Alexa A-EV.


Only what is still missing with R1 is 3G out from one HD-SDI out source and that can finally be enabled very soon.

Probably Epic with its specs can compete pretty good against Alexa at the upcoming NAB in Las Vegas.

 

[George A.]

I once got to see the first photograph ever taken, by Niepce in 1826(!)

The oldest record of human spirit we have are visual images recorded on rocks in caves. The one thing no one predicted going back to H.G. Wells about landing on the Moon in the future, was that it would be recorded by a camera and seen live by the whole world. The processes may change but the impulses never become obsolete.

In Austin, right?

Saw it, too. Harry Ransom Center.

 

[Michael Hastings]

I just hope we aren't obsolete tomorrow...

Jim

I just saw the alex henry piece that he did with your MX:

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=42609

Brilliant. I think you might have just a little while before you're obsolete.:smile5:

 

[Steve Gibby]

Sanjin,

Point of trivia:
That Oceano Dunes photo by Ansel Adams caught my attention. My studio is less than a mile from those same dunes. When I'm not traveling for work, I shoot a lot of stock footage with my Reds here on the Central Coast. I've often wanted to hike out into those dunes to duplicate that Adams shot - but now days those dunes are a State of California Offroad Recreation Area, full of rampaging dirt bikes, dune buggies, and sand rails. I'd have to risk my life to get that shot. There are some other dunes farther down the coast where offroad vehicles aren't allowed, but they aren't as visually spectacular as these right here by my studio.

A very weird twist - a few weeks ago it was a coastal dune field in Chile nearly identical in size and origin to this Oceano dune field, in which I was shooting with Red, when the 8.8 earthquake and multiple huge tsunamis (8 to 12 meters) hit and mostly obliterated the dunes. Migratory Peregrine falcons nest and mate in the dunes of Chile - we were filming them being satellite.

No matter where you find them, dunes seem to be a risky place to work...

Back to the thread. I absolutely love traditional image making techniques and results - but I equally love the amazing doors and results that technological innovation opens for me as an artist. I see no paradox whatsoever in simultaneously loving both approaches and technologies. As an artist it is truly a smorgasbord of choices out here...and I feel that's good for our art.

The above said, all I seem to shoot with now days is my Red One cameras - and I'm definitely looking forward to putting Epic and Scarlet into the mix.

 

[Todd M.]

Sanjin,

Point of trivia:
That Oceano Dunes photo by Ansel Adams caught my attention. My studio is less than a mile from those same dunes. When I'm not traveling for work, I shoot a lot of stock footage with my Reds here on the Central Coast. I've often wanted to hike out into those dunes to duplicate that Adams shot - but now days those dunes are a State of California Offroad Recreation Area, full of rampaging dirt bikes, dune buggies, and sand rails. I'd have to risk my life to get that shot. There are some other dunes farther down the coast where offroad vehicles aren't allowed, but they aren't as visually spectacular as these right here by my studio.

A very weird twist - a few weeks ago it was a coastal dune field in Chile nearly identical in size and origin to this Oceano dune field, in which I was shooting with Red, when the 8.8 earthquake and multiple huge tsunamis (8 to 12 meters) hit and mostly obliterated the dunes. Migratory Peregrine falcons nest and mate in the dunes of Chile - we were filming them being satellite.

No matter where you find them, dunes seem to be a risky place to work...

Back to the thread. I absolutely love traditional image making techniques and results - but I equally love the amazing doors and results that technological innovation opens for me as an artist. I see no paradox whatsoever in simultaneously loving both approaches and technologies. As an artist it is truly a smorgasbord of choices out here...and I feel that's good for our art.

The above said, all I seem to shoot with now days is my Red One cameras - and I'm definitely looking forward to putting Epic and Scarlet into the mix.

Sorry to be OT but Steve, were you actually on the dunes when the earthquake hit? Did you see these tsunamis roll in? If so, do tell (and please say that some 4.5k footage exists!)

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Sanjin,

Point of trivia:
That Oceano Dunes photo by Ansel Adams caught my attention. My studio is less than a mile from those same dunes. When I'm not traveling for work, I shoot a lot of stock footage with my Reds here on the Central Coast. I've often wanted to hike out into those dunes to duplicate that Adams shot - but now days those dunes are a State of California Offroad Recreation Area, full of rampaging dirt bikes, dune buggies, and sand rails. I'd have to risk my life to get that shot. There are some other dunes farther down the coast where offroad vehicles aren't allowed, but they aren't as visually spectacular as these right here by my studio.

A very weird twist - a few weeks ago it was a coastal dune field in Chile nearly identical in size and origin to this Oceano dune field, in which I was shooting with Red, when the 8.8 earthquake and multiple huge tsunamis (8 to 12 meters) hit and mostly obliterated the dunes. Migratory Peregrine falcons nest and mate in the dunes of Chile - we were filming them being satellite.

No matter where you find them, dunes seem to be a risky place to work...

Back to the thread. I absolutely love traditional image making techniques and results - but I equally love the amazing doors and results that technological innovation opens for me as an artist. I see no paradox whatsoever in simultaneously loving both approaches and technologies. As an artist it is truly a smorgasbord of choices out here...and I feel that's good for our art.

The above said, all I seem to shoot with now days is my Red One cameras - and I'm definitely looking forward to putting Epic and Scarlet into the mix.

Gibby,

it is such a coincidence and I would like to suggest that you still maybe able to get something like that famous Ansel Adams shot very early in the morning

before all those "happy tourists" are coming in dunes for a ride.

I'm sure that R-1-M-X with new Nikon 50mm G f/1.4 or even better with old Nikon 50mm f/1.8 AF would give you almost the same image quality at the same

place if you can't have new Leica's or large format lenses on you R1...

That's what I think but it could be wrong.

Btw, I've just got an old Gitzo lightweight photo tripod for about 120 Euro that has possibility to get on the top of its head Arri dovetail plate and R1 full fitted with

battery/hot-swap/drive/EVF/LCD plus a lightweight lens (super fast old Canon FDs or new Leica M aspherical lenses), Arri MFF1, Lightweight MatteBox,

also can record audio with Sound Devices MixPre and Rode NTG3 mic.

An ideal fast and easy lightweight kit that can shoot 4K+ moving and still images, timelapse, slowmotion,...

on a tripod or handheld...in the city like a Florence or Tuscany as a countryside...

I know some great dunes for shooting in Canary Islands but I have my old classic route to south of Tuscany where I can easy drive with my car

to get some of gorgeous landscape images in May without many risks involved.

Go back to your thoughts about an art and artist's destiny I like to combine new and old, mix of contemporary and traditional,

I'm not a conservative but very opposite and like this kind of Digital Cine Renaissance that started with RED1 and will continue with Epic and Scarlet.

 

[Steve Gibby]

Sorry to be OT but Steve, were you actually on the dunes when the earthquake hit? Did you see these tsunamis roll in? If so, do tell (and please say that some 4.5k footage exists!)

We were staying in a small building right next to the dunes, about 200' from the ocean, and just about 8' above sea level. The earthquake hit at 3:34am on February 27. The severe shaking lasted around two minutes. We knew a tsunami was highly probable because we knew that Chile has a long history of large quakes followed by tsunamis.

We scrambled around in the dark, threw a few quick things in our truck, I grabbed Bud Anderson's Red 5543 and chucked it in the back seat, then we raced up a dirt road from the beach. Our second truck, driven by our Chilean friends, was right behind us. They said they could hear the first tsunami crashing ashore right behind them!

Down cracked roads and past avalanches we worked our way up into the hills, spending the remaining hours of darkness there amid many aftershocks. At dawn we ventured down the hill to what looked like a war movie disaster zone - huge muddy brown lakes, bridges out, etc. At about 9:30a we witnessed another smaller tsunami coming up the river past where we stood.

Since then we learned that the epicenter was just a short distance offshore from where we'd been staying. The first tsunami (about 8 meters) reach the coast in an estimated 7 minutes from the start of the heavy shaking. That tsunami caused the most life on Chile of the entire disaster - killing over 500 people camped on a small island at the mouth of the Rio Maule, by the city of Constitution, which was just 7 miles south of where we'd been staying on the beach. It has been estimated that 8 tsunamis slammed the coast there, ranging in height from 8 meters to 12 meters in height.

The Red I rescued had no battery with it, thus we got no Red footage when it got light. We did shoot many digital stills and some low resolution video of that small tsunami (2.5 meters) coming up the river past us.

--------------------

Back to the thread - I'm way happy with the digital cinema options Red has offered us. I also like the idea of Arri bringing in other DC cameras. A little competition never hurt any marketplace.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

It's like in Western movies where cowboy sleep with the full gun and he is always ready to shoot what ever can happen.

But that's in the movies.

R1 and 7D are always very good combo kit for any kind of shooting or even at emergency situation.

But must say that I still didn't get in any of those life danger situation with my gear except during the war in Balkans at early 90s.

 

[Alex G. Cohn]

So did they choose both or not telling us which they chose yet? Either way it's good to see.

Also, while were on the subject of different cameras, I was reading:
http://www.fxguide.com/article595.html

They mention looking for 4K cameras and chose a Dalsa Evolution... "there were only two of the Evolutions in existence that we couldn't rely on just them to shoot the whole movie, so we opted also for the Panavision Genesis for a good portion of the film as well. So we had the Genesis, which has a 1920 x 1080 resolution with a 1:78:1 aspect ratio. And we had the Evolution 4K camera which is 4096 x 2048 with a 2:1 aspect ratio."

Seems odd that they wouldn't just shoot it all in Red perhaps? Maybe there's something they left out... Or maybe it was a while ago before they could get Red. I don't know... but when I was reading I immediately thought "RED!!!"

I think I first heard about Burton choosing the Dalsa around two years ago, so that's probably why. Red was still a little young in the industry's eyes at that point.

 

[Rob Ruffo]

We were staying in a small building right next to the dunes, about 200' from the ocean, and just about 8' above sea level. The earthquake hit at 3:34am on February 27. The severe shaking lasted around two minutes. We knew a tsunami was highly probable because we knew that Chile has a long history of large quakes followed by tsunamis.

We scrambled around in the dark, threw a few quick things in our truck, I grabbed Bud Anderson's Red 5543 and chucked it in the back seat, then we raced up a dirt road from the beach. Our second truck, driven by our Chilean friends, was right behind us. They said they could hear the first tsunami crashing ashore right behind them!

Down cracked roads and past avalanches we worked our way up into the hills, spending the remaining hours of darkness there amid many aftershocks. At dawn we ventured down the hill to what looked like a war movie disaster zone - huge muddy brown lakes, bridges out, etc. At about 9:30a we witnessed another smaller tsunami coming up the river past where we stood.

Since then we learned that the epicenter was just a short distance offshore form where we'd been staying. The first tsunami (about 8 meters) reach the coast in an estimated 7 minutes from the start of the heavy shaking. That tsunami caused the most life on Chile of the entire disaster - killing over 500 people camped on a small island at the mouth of the Rio Maule, by the city of Constitution, which was just 7 miles south of where we'd been staying on the beach. It has been estimated that 8 tsunamis slammed the coast there, ranging in height from 8 meters to 12 meters in height.

The Red I rescued had no battery with it, thus we got no Red footage when it got light. We did shoot many digital stills and some low resolution video of that small tsunami (2.5 meters) coming up the river past us.

--------------------

Back to the thread - I'm way happy with the digital cinema options Red has offered us. I also like the idea of Arri bringing in other DC cameras. A little competition never hurt any marketplace.

I'm not gay, but I must say, that is a an exceptionally manly story. I would strongly suggest repeating it to the ladies on first dates!

 

[Rob Ruffo]

Guys,

if some of you are so romantic and nostalgic about film photographic "silver prints"

there is a famous "Photographica Auction" here in Vienna (on May 29th, 2010),

where you could also take place and participate (online).

Some of the highlight at the auction:

Camera auctions:

"The sensational highlight of the coming sale is a Daguerréotype Giroux from 1839, the first commercially produced camera in the world!
The Daguerréotype offered at this auction was discovered very recently and is in beautiful original condition.
Worldwide only very few of these cameras are known to exist, all of them in public museums.
Never before one has been offered for sale in auction.
It will be expected, that WestLicht’s own 576.000 Euro world record price for a camera sale will be excided by far,
the estimate is Euro 500.000 – 700.000."

Read more>>>


Photo auctions:

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
Dunes, Oceano, California
(Portfolio Four. What Majestic World)
1963
Vintage silver print
18,3 x 19,1 cm

Read more >>>

That auction is stupendous - and so is the rest of your city.