Epic skintones.

[Bob Torrance]

Well I'm currently on a very high profile TV show that just switched from film to Alexa and I've been looking at a bunch of close up skin tone footage day in and day out and I'm not blown away. I think it's a personal preference thing, I like the way the Epic handles flesh better but others prefer the Alexa. I will tell you from experience though, the Alexa does have a much bigger problem with mixed lighting and discontinious souces (hello green spiike!) than the Epic, closer to what the original M sensor was like, but no re-white balancing in post.
I've got no beef with the Alexa but I think the Epic priduces the better image (including skin) when all parameters are considered.

I rent REDs and Alexas and it is really interesting how different DPs, Producers and Directors look at these cameras. It often sounds like they are talking about different film stocks. I just had a DP pick the Alexa because of the way it separated mixed lighting sources (ironic I think). More color separation, said it looked more like film. Another DP picked EPIC because his film is a high contrast scope project (no budget for anamorphic). It did come up that the Alexa Studio will fit right into a 4K raster with Anamorphic lenses. Expensive though. Almost no one talks about 2K, 4K, etc. Add the F65, the new Canon, new Panavision, the Aaton 4K to the pack and my head starts to spin. Must buy more lenses.