New Week, More Cameras

This is Liverpool calling... Liverpool, approximately 5048 miles from the Las Vegas Convention Centre.

That's where some of my colleagues (and a load of wannabes) are at the moment visiting NAB2012, the annual broadcast industry bun fight where new toys and equipment are demonstrated and released and cameramen and editors from all over the world look to spend money they haven't got on equipment they don't need for clients that don't care!

So far on Twitter people have been banging on about EOS-1D, 4K, 5D MkIII and 6K. All fawning over brand new cameras and shooting standards.... the 5D MkIII is THE camera to have... then it's not. You must have an EOS1D to succeed in the industry. Then you don't. You're a shit cameraman if you don't have Red Dragon... 4K is now sooooo last week and 6K is the way forward. Nothing will do now unless it's got a 6K image sensor.

Now, for those of you who aren't camera ops or the slightest bit technical I must explain that "K" is a resolution standard. Only last year 4K was often spoken of as the last ever resolution you will ever need. It's greater than the current high definition you watch at home by some considerable amount.

 

BTSL (big telly small living room) syndrome will afflict techno geeks for many years

But before you trundle your brand new HD telly into the back garden and rush out to Rumbelows to buy a newer one you need to understand that in order to fully appreciate 4K you would need to have a larger than 55" 4K tv in your living room and sit one and half times the screen height away from the screen... BUT so far there is no 4K domestic content. So the main use for 4K is for cinematic release.

Okay.. lets stop at 4K then... Everyone happy? Cue Red and their 6K sensor... oh for fu........ All the Twitter fanbois now bang on about how its going to revolutionise 'their' industry - everything will be clearer and crisper. It'll be like looking through a window when you go to the cinema... blah blah blah... "Now I can get realistic a film-look for my movies" was one of many Tweets that made my eyes roll into my head.

If you want a film look then SHOOT ON FUCKING FILM! (Eastman Kodak and Fujifilm are welcome to use that as an advertising slogan).

Anyway.. back to NAB. Just when you thought that the big guns had finished and the resolution battle had been won, this happened...

Wait... what..? Bollocks, where's that reciept for my EOS 1D...?

Out of nowhere Blackmagic Design launch the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. Is it 4K? Is it 6K?

No. It's 2.5K. That's the resolution AND the price. That noise you heard was the fanbois choking on their 4K/6K/Canon/Red wank-socks. Two and a half grand for a camera that can shoot above 2K resolution is quite an achievement and could possibly be the DSLR killer that Canon feared and it could knock a couple of other cameras off their perch.
The downside of something like this hitting the market is that it will become popular with "DoP's" who have just left college (don't get me started on that again) and feel that this will improve their work and they will be beating clients away because of the kit they have. It won't. If you are talented enough then it won't matter what you shoot on. Remember, Danny Boyle's "28 Days Later" was shot in standard definition on a Canon XL1.


Hey look everyone, I filmed a dog toffee at 6K... I'm greater than Kubrick now.

 I've said it before and I will keep saying it - camera ops and directors, learn your trade before you worry about what you shoot on. Only engineers and anoraks will really be able to see a difference between 2K and 4K. The viewers won't give a toss.

Content will always be king. Always.




Thought For The Day..

Television: it's called a medium because its neither rare nor well done.