Is a 'simple' 4:3 sensor possible?

[Kyle Wullschleger]

I don't see myself taking full advantage of everything 8K has to offer. I know some people will and that's great, for them.

What I can get behind is full height anamorphic. And I think a lot of other people can too.

However, is this 8K sensor just crazy overkill for that? Would it be possible to offer a 4:3 sensor cut that is cheaper than the FF 8K cut? Anyone else who might agree and not want to make this enormous jump to FF just to have a full height anamorphic sensor?

Maybe the cost savings wouldn't be that different, but I thought it's worth asking now before the train completely leaves the station. I think you would have a lot of very happy anamorphic hungry DPs who are otherwise overwhelmed by 8K FF and not quite finding the desire to have all that extra width.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

What's the difference between physically chopping the filter on the sides to get 4x3 versus cropping the sensor to get 4x3? The results would be the same.

 

[Kyle Wullschleger]

My hope is cost.... $20k additional for the larger sensor starting after today is steep.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Chopping the 8K sensor to 4x3 would basically make it a 5K sensor, but with a 4x3 shape, with the non-standard dimension of 28.7mm x 21.6mm -- not sure if anamorphic lenses would cover that, maybe not the wider-angle ones. If not, you're talking about using more of a 4K area of the sensor. Of course, this is still larger than the 2.8K size of the Alexa 4x3 anamorphic area. But I question if this 4x3 version becomes a smaller slice of the sales of the 8K Dragon camera whether the economics of scale would make it a cheaper camera to sell just because the sensor area is smaller. I don't know -- the big studio movies shooting in anamorphic aren't going to have a problem with the price of renting an 8K Dragon, so that leaves the smaller indie market that is shooting in anamorphic (and the even smaller group shooting for Academy 1.37).

Every company goes through this conundrum of whether adding more variations to the product line increases sales to the point of overcoming the economics of making more versions.

So the question is how big is the market for a 5K 4:3 Dragon that is 28.7mm x 21.6mm? Because some people might feel that with the 8K Dragon, they can shoot either way, making the camera more flexible.

 

[Ryan Glover]

For s35mm PL lens users, I'd love to see some simple 4:3 and ANA modes in the menus of the 8K VV Weapon: 24mm x 18mm (4800x3600) and 22mm x 18mm (4400x3600).
I think that'd be awesome!