Elsie N
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Ummm... I guess. But they are the person on a production who I would most credit for the look of a film. But if we're going to go off into left field then you could say "if Epic is good enough for ___insert_favorite_writer___ then it's good enough for me!" After all writers are really important to a film. Perhaps THE most important part of the whole film. But if the subject matter is image, skin tones and color response I'm probably not going to go ask the writer what cameras were used on their best written films.
And not to go off into the weeds too far, I do recommend Epic for most everything I work on. But I also think that Deakin's opinion is spot on, which shouldn't be a surprise since it's his life's work to scrutinize images (unlike Sodenberg et. all).
I think your allusion to a writer of a film and choice of camera is a bit of a stretch for making your point.
And as I said before, Deakins can afford his eccentricities because he's shooting with someone else's money. But a cost concious real-world DP is going to make money choices when confronted with "Camera B gives me a look I prefer in a portrait shot but is probably more costly to the production... or Camera A gives me a perfectly fine look and one that other professionals in my field have no problem with and in many, if not most cases, prefer.
I think people like Soderberg are interested in bringing the attention to the story while Deakins is probably more interested in having the attention directed toward himself, through his work. Nothing wrong with either approach I suppose, but I think the storyteller's work will be remembered by the public, while pixel peepers will be in the self-defined Purist's corner.
And sometimes the two approaches come together in the same movie. '-)