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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

MONOCHROME - 4000asa TOIA tests.

Mark Toia

Mark Toia

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Before I use any camera on a professional production, I test the hell out of it... yes Im a control freak.

I have a back & white shoot coming up in December, at night and some of it in real low light conditions...
So before I put my dick on the line and throw my hand up and saying that Im going to use the EPIC MONOCHROME for the job, I wanted to make sure it delivers... AND MAN DOES IT DELIVER !

The camera turned up yesterday, We quickly modded it to suit our needs and turned it on, was quite weird seeing a black and white image on the touch screen... nothing to really do other than set an asa..

So being a bastasd tester as I am, we quickly dialed up the asa out to 4000... why? because I want to see the worse this camera can put out...
I quickly clicked in a 12stop ND, spun around in my chair and shot out the window into hard back light sun. Blasted a few frames, and not to concerned about focus as this was a grain and latitude test only.
Walked deeper into my office, turned the lights off and shot into a very dimly lit room, walked deeper into my house to darkness.... at 4000 asa I could still see plenty going on in the view finder.
While there I dialed the asa back to 320 and 800asa for a few frames... just to see the difference.

Sat back down, through the card into the reader, turned on RSX and started scanning the images.... for the first few minutes I was looking at some amazing tones, tones and depth that reminded me of my old BLACK and WHITE days shooting 5x4 and 6x7 ilford and kodak large format stocks.. The images are seriosuly that clean !... but thinking I was looking at the 320asa shots then quickly dawned on me that I was looking at the 4000asa shots... FUCK ! no way... grading was like so deep... you can just dig deeper and deeper...

Then I clicked on a few of the 800asa shots... GRAINLESS!!!! zoomed up to the max, NO GRAIN! WOW!... it's like something I have never seen before, All cameras have grain... but this thing is so clean at 320 and 800...

Now 4000asa had grain, lets not kid ourselves.... but no way near what you would see normally from an EPIC X at 4000 asa... its was amazing to see.
What blew me away even more was the highlight latitude, I had banging light smashing off the side of my car dead into the lens. Within RSX, I could retrive or that highlight information, it was like I had the HDR function on... but didn't. The info in the blacks are staggering. Shooting into darkness I could suck out 4 to 5 stops out of blackness without chunky ugly grain appearing.

All I could keep thinking was, I so wish and hope the DRAGON sensor will be this powerful and clean.... i
Our real testing will be happening over the next week. will keep you posted.

Jarred & Jim, thanks for the Camera, I promise to return it. :)

Here are some of the tests...

Monochrome_tests.jpg
 
Nice.
Is it Ferrari? to me its look like Lambo' (lol)
 
It's funny it's hard to learn an old dog to sit. I have the same, cant help to see it as the old world. Guess its actually a good thing as digital is the future and when we get so used to it that we refer it to the old days. Is when film has, sad to say, finally died. Not good or bad, just evolution :). Be fun to revisit film again though and hopefully do something at the same time / push, shoot reversal or bleach bypass - sadly processing, by then, is probably impossible.
 
Ive just pulled out of a filling cabinet some old black and white prints I did back in the day.. from some 6x7 negs... The look sharp, but know way as crisp as the epic.
I'm going to blow up one of my test shoots to A1 size poster and see how it holds out. :)
 
It baffles me that people perceive a potential resistance to black and white imagery. Its such a commonplace thing in stills that I can't fathom what the negative association is with motion. I mean, check out the avatars up the left side of this thread... mono, mono, mono, mono.... do a google image search for 'portrait' one in three is mono.

Now we have a tool with unquestionable advantages in mono its time to push back against that negative connotation for motion IMHO.
 
I just would like to point out, that traditionally 6x7(centimeters) is considered a medium format camera, while 4x5 (inches) is a large format. I'm sure, as impressive Mono Epic truly is, you meant medium and not large format camera.
 
Mark Toia said:
Ive just pulled out of a filling cabinet some old black and white prints I did back in the day.. from some 6x7 negs... The look sharp, but know way as crisp as the epic.
I'm going to blow up one of my test shoots to A1 size poster and see how it holds out. :)
Click to expand...

Looking forward to the results. I would love to shoot some Monochrome footage, it blows you away!
 
Mark Toia said:
.... for the first few minutes I was looking at some amazing tones, tones and depth that reminded me of my old BLACK and WHITE days shooting 5x4 and 6x7 ilford and kodak large format stocks..
Click to expand...
I had the same experience, it reminded me of shooting my old 5x4 inch black and white camera, even though the sensor is much smaller. Monochrome Epic is simply a work of art, and I am positive will be a great artistic tool for guys like you Mark - thanks for sharing.
 
jake blackstone said:
I just would like to point out, that traditionally 6x7(centimeters) is considered a medium format camera, while 4x5 (inches) is a large format. I'm sure, as impressive Mono Epic truly is, you meant medium and not large format camera.
Click to expand...

medium yes... But looking through all my old BW prints from 5x4ince and 6x7... I have to say, that the MONOCHROMES images are as clean as large format.


oliver imfeld said:
great ! but who's car is this outside the window ?
cheers, o
Click to expand...

uuuummm....:emote_couch:
 
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