What Is Today’s Workhorse Camera?

[Bob Cole]

[Todd Terry] “Well that is sad indeed (light sobbing beginning)..”

I had a similar reaction to John Sharaf’s post about lenses.

OTOH…
…look at all the great films that were made with lenses that wouldn’t be good enough for an iPhone today.
…think about how you’d feel, if you bought a lens for future-proofing, and it got damaged/stolen before you ever actually used it to its full capability.
…think about the added insurance premiums for a super-expensive lens kit, year after year.

I am sure John is right on target about the future of our current lenses, but we have to live and work with today’s tools, and they are amazing.

John’s advice is great, provided it doesn’t cost the moon. I was quite interested in John’s mention of Summicrons. Not crazy expensive, but what about the mounts?

Bob C

[John Sharaf]

Bob,

The Leica Cine lenses are Summicron-C and cost $178000 for a set of seven! The Fujinon Premier zooms in 14.5-45, 18-85, 24-180 and 75-400 are more than $80K each. These are probably the only lenses out there that have been purpose-built for 4K/5K sensors and are future proof.

JS

[Todd Terry]

Yikes… a single one of those Fujinon zooms costs more than I paid for most of my set of primes. OUCH!

Will definitely try to get a few more miles out of the glass that I have… definitely.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[John Sharaf]

Todd,

The point is that the current glass is perfectly fine for HD(TV), 2K and Super 35mm film, but when 4K projection in the Cinemas of 4K material shot in 8K becomes the standard, these new lenses will be de rigour.

JS

[Todd Terry]

Yeah… I understand.

I was curious enough to look up the specs on the Fuji’s though, as I especially thought the 24-180 would be pretty darn useful. Wider than that or longer than that and I would most likely only ever shoot primes.

It’s probably worth it in terms of resolution… but for the price I sure wish it was at least a half-stop faster, or so.

Thing looks like a beast, too.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[John Sharaf]

Hi Todd,

The 24-180 is actually shorter and lighter than the 12X Optimo which is the same T2.6. With the nominal speed of the Alexa, F3 and F65’s being 800ISO (and easily gained up to 1260) the speed is more than adequate in my experience.

JS

[Bob Cole]

[john sharaf] “The Leica Cine lenses are Summicron-C and cost $178000 for a set of seven!”

I was looking at the wrong Summicrons…

Ah well.

[Seth Marshall]

Forgive my thread hijacking… But I like to be up to speed and news of lens classes possibly becoming obsolete is certainly something I want to know about. Currently I’m not shooting at that level, my best rig being HDX900 and my Canon 21×7.5 Cine (that I bought from YOU!) but I’m young and my goal is to reach that level. Any glass I possibly invest in I want to be the best. (and I thought you just bought an Optimo?!)

Can you point me to literature explaining why you feel even recent PLs won’t cut it in the future! Thanks!

[Bob Cole]

Seth, I know you’re writing to John, not me, but I have one minor bit of advice: keep buying used, and sell before what you have is totally obsolete. Or just rent. I don’t think many people can afford to buy something that will never be obsolete – it’s a pipe dream to try, imho. Technology just changes too dang fast.

That said, it’s a good question: what to buy which won’t be obsolete before you can get it to pay off for you!

bob c

[John Sharaf]

Hi Seth,

I hope you’re enjoying that Canon Cine style zoom, there are many times I wish I had it back!

Anyway, there is no literature explaining this developing trend in lenses, as 4/5K cameras are only now coming available; notably the Epic which is in limited release right now and in January the F65, and relatively few people are privy to the situation (can you keep a secret?).

As I said, as long as these cameras are used for HD (1920×1080) or 2K there is no issue with legacy lenses, and yes I have a 12X Optimo which despite its bulk and size is the epitome of legacy lenses to this point in time, but remember that is an almost 10 year old design conceived in an era before single CMOS imagers.

However there is no doubt that the conversion of Cinemas from film projectors to 4K digital projection is now an unstoppable phenomenon and future “big films” will undoubtedly be finished in the 4K domain to take best advantage of this.

Maybe not all films, just as in the past there was always the 16mm blowup to 35mm releases, there will be many lower budget films shot in HD or 2K that are “up-rezed” to 4K, or up-rezzing might even occur optionally in the projector itself. This will allow distribution of smaller files to smaller theaters of smaller films!

Big budget films however will record their master in 3.5K RAW (Alexa), 5K RAW (Epic) or 8K RAW (F65); it is in these cases where legacy lenses will become an issue, essentially because the pixels are so small that the imager is actually sharper than the lens. This effect will only be seen/noticeable on large screens like in a cinema, or in proper editing/color correction environments with 4K projection.

This is just the beginning of the tale. Stay tuned for the next act.

JS