User Adjustable Sensor Read/Reset

[Paris Remillard]

Jim mentioned this option in the Monstro thread in Recon about 20 pages in. So I just wanted to highlight the idea in it's own thread and say that I think that user adjustable read/reset would be a very useful option. At least the ability to switch to a global read for certain shots with fast moving horizontal action, whip pans, tracking past verticals like fence posts or trees, etc... Or even as a creative option to make things look more electronic or "sterile" as Jim put it. Options are good. Just as we need the ability to choose shutter speeds/angles for creative, or aesthetic, or practical reasons, I feel like having options for read/reset times could be very useful and serve all of these purposes as well.

Here's some of what Jim had to say about it:

"We could easily do a global shutter. It just isn't the right solution. If we made a global shutter sensor, everyone would wonder why the footage looked sterile.

One of the options we have is to give the user adjustable read-reset times... just so we don't hear that we are "marketing". From zero (global) to something (what we recommend and looks right).

A "fast read-reset" feels better than a global shutter. A global shutter looks better than a "slow read-reset". It is the same reason that a film camera "feels better" than a global shutter digital camera. Pretty easy stuff.

Let me give you a better example... you can choose 0-10. 0 is the same as a global shutter. 4 is the equivalent of a film camera. 40 would be the equivalent of an old rolling shutter camera. You would pick 3 or 4 for the best look. It would not be 0 and it would not be 40."

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=15858&page=21

That's all. Just wanted to give my vote to the idea.

 

[Brook Willard]

I dig it.

It'd also be interesting if the sensor could be mapped to read with different shutter characteristics [side, bottom, butterfly, etc.] while taking into account the gradual "blending" effect that a spinning shutter has on an image [versus the perfect pixel-by-pixel 100% density read of a digital shutter].

It may be impossible, but it's just a thought.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

:whistling: :whistling:...

.......Ultimately, I think the technology will evolve to a point where read reset times can be dialed by the user from zero to whatever, to induce the desired amount of skew. We could even take that farther by utilizing scanning algorithms or defining masks and photosite scanning orders to mimic various types of shutters and their associated skew effect; like the soft and angled fall-off of a mechanical mirror shutter.

 

[Jaime Vallés]

If anything, that would be really useful when shooting scenes that include flash photography or strobe lights. If possible, the ability to switch to global shutter on occasion would be very welcome.

 

[Brook Willard]

:whistling: :whistling:...

Great minds think alike, Jeff.

 

[Paris Remillard]

I dig it.

It'd also be interesting if the sensor could be mapped to read with different shutter characteristics [side, bottom, butterfly, etc.] while taking into account the gradual "blending" effect that a spinning shutter has on an image [versus the perfect pixel-by-pixel 100% density read of a digital shutter].

It may be impossible, but it's just a thought.

Yes, yes, and yes. All of these options would be fantastic. I've been wanting a horizontal or side to side read for a while. It's the skew that kills me. I'd much rather have a little bit of expansion/contraction than skew. So yes, being able to change the direction of the read in addition to the speed of the read would be great.

 

[Brook Willard]

Because of the unusual size of several of the FF35, 645 and 617 sensors, there will be many an opportunity to shoot the cameras on their side. But another reason for adjustable read/reset and mapping.

 

[Monday Sunnlinn]

Soooo....does that mean...(as it stands now) there are plans for an adjustable read-reset time? or was that Jim just explaining the reality of the problem?

 

[Mark K.]

"Choice" will always be my pick when it comes to things like this, I'd much rather be able to choose my own shutter settings than be confined to just one.

That said, I'd be very interested to hear some explanation of why Jim and the team think a global shutter would make the footage look sterile (I'd like even more, to see some footage comparing the two options). Because having worked quite extensively now with some of Panasonic's global-shutter HD cameras (HPX-500, HVX-200) and having worked with rather a lot of footage from the HPX-3000, there are many adjectives I can think of to describe their footage, but "sterile" is not one of them.

And the lack of restrictions (compared to shooting rolling shutter cameras) really is a nice thing. So combined with the smear-lessness of a CMOS sensor, I think a global shutter would be a very attractive option for the new cameras.

 

[Monday Sunnlinn]

Another question that didn't get answered in the other thread about this is: what the ex-1's shutter is rated at on the Jannard Jello-Vision scale. (hope that gives you a laugh Jim!)