Thoughts on the Panavision Millennium DXL

[Peter Lyons Collister ASC]

As always Phil, well thought out and well written.

Thank you,

Peter

 

[Tom Dowler]

I **think** I saw one on a shoot while I was on my run in Boyle Heights this morning. Is that possible? Are they out in the wild yet?

Or is there another panny digital cinema cam I could have mistaken it for? Stupid camera dept people were in my way, obstructing my view

 

[Phil Holland]

I **think** I saw one on a shoot while I was on my run in Boyle Heights this morning. Is that possible? Are they out in the wild yet?

Or is there another panny digital cinema cam I could have mistaken it for? Stupid camera dept people were in my way, obstructing my view

Filming a commercial if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Tom Dowler]

Filming a commercial if I'm not mistaken.

damn. wished I'd sacrificed my mile time to stop and chat to them now. might go back later for a nose around.

 

[George A.]

I hope we will find more details (as they trickle out) on that new OLPF that the Panavision is developing.

I am almost certain it will contain some optical effect (slight diffusion or low contrast) to make the image even more 35mm film-like.

It would be great if the option would be offered in the Weapon as well.




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[jake blackstone]

I hope we will find more details (as they trickle out) on that new OLPF that the Panavision is developing.

I am almost certain it will contain some optical effect (slight diffusion or low contrast) to make the image even more 35mm film-like.

It would be great if the option would be offered in the Weapon as well.

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Do you mean like the one, that is used or not used in Alexa?:beatdeadhorse5:

 

[George A.]

Do you mean like the one, that is used or not used in Alexa?:beatdeadhorse5:

I did not say that!



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[Steve Sherrick]

Peter Deming with rave reviews on the ASC instagram. He's been filming a project for 40 days with it and seems very happy with the look. Also makes a key point that people should not interpret more resolution to be an overly digital image. Peter is very fond of Alexa so kudos to the Panavision team and to RED for this quality camera.

 

[Graeme Nattress]

Good point on resolution Steve. I find it's a low resolution that leads to an electronic looking image because you have to enhance it so much to stop it always looking soft and out-of-focus. With a naturally high resolution image with real detail you don't need to enhance and hence you get a natural image. I remember the complaints directed at early HD were pointed at it having too much resolution, yet in reality we know the problem was that it never had enough....

Graeme

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

I like it RAW

I like it RAW

To accentuate Graeme's point even more, for close to a decade, so many people in the industry pointed at that over sharpened (read aliased) look and praised it (Sony marketing I'm looking at you), that many producers in the early HD days were actively trying to get that exaggerated edge characteristic. They wanted that "pop", and I echo Graeme in believing it was an attempt to cover the fact that most early HD cameras (for a variety of reasons starting with data rates) couldn't properly resolve a 1080 x 1920 raster in luma, let alone whatever sub-sampled color scheme might have been employed. This led to a lot of DSP processing in the camera head, something Sony is actually quite good at, but the quest to manufacture sharpness led to really nasty things like high contrast aliasing around facial blemishes, odd color transitions that could accentuate makeup contours and otherwise add detail in lots of places it wasn't a good thing.

RED, OTOH, made so many really good choices early on. First off, a commitment to creating raw data sets robust enough be manipulated quite a bit in the digital darkroom without killing the image. Second, enough AA (anti-aliasing) in the OLPF to make a Bayer sensor mask viable for motion capture. They also wanted to allow proper access to the data set by tools not yet in existence 10 years ago. That meant no "auto enhance" circuitry employed in front of writing out the sensor voltages (also meant they didn't need to do a full debayer in camera on the fly). The price RED paid for staying true to the RAW was blowback from productions that simply failed to properly use the workflow. For example; those who reviewed footy opened at whatever metadata settings that a particular DP/CamOp/DIT set that day, were judging sharpness on 1/4 res playback, had no idea how to choose a scaling filter, etc. I'm one of those people who wants to see the strengths, and weaknesses of the footage - then bias RAW development/grading to characterize the image to suit my creative intent. I'm cray, cray that way ;-)

Cheers - #19

 

[Karim D. Ghantous]

Peter Deming with rave reviews on the ASC instagram.

He's terrific and I hope to meet him one day. I loved his work on Mulholland Drive. However... and this is not a criticism of him, but I have no idea why he is fond of the Alexa. I loved Twin Peaks The Return but it looked nowhere near as good as shows captured on film. I suppose I should be grateful that it wasn't shot on DSLRs.

It's easy to make a digital camera look good if you can control all the lighting (just watch the BR 2049 trailer) but once you take the thing outside, forget it. If you're going to shoot digital on a syndicated production, at least shoot with up to date cameras like the RED Dragon. I mean, come on.

Good point on resolution Steve. I find it's a low resolution that leads to an electronic looking image because you have to enhance it so much to stop it always looking soft and out-of-focus. With a naturally high resolution image with real detail you don't need to enhance and hence you get a natural image. I remember the complaints directed at early HD were pointed at it having too much resolution, yet in reality we know the problem was that it never had enough....

You would think that technically minded people (such as all of us here) would understand this simple point. Nobody ever criticised 4x5" sheet film because of its resolving power!

 

[Peter Lyons Collister ASC]

I was happy to hear that Panavision is making a few DXLs with the Monster sensor... So many choices now for film productions