Trade-In for F800 or Nano?

[Alister Chapman]

I have not gone to filmout, only digital projection, often at 4K using sony SXRD projectors. Largest screen size was about 60ft.

I believe projection hides many artifacts as air currents, dust and suspended particles in the atmosphere have a very slight softening effect on the image. Also cinema screens are perforated for sound which again has a very slight diffusion effect. While a big screen monitor will often have various sharpening circuits that can enhance any artifacts. These are my thoughts based on my own observations and not necessarily based on science.

There is much you can do with the 700 to control image noise such as raising the crispening, reducing detail and careful gamma choice. I find the 700 on the whole very clean. Recording at 100Mb/s on the Nano does produce an image with less mosquito noise. One thing to consider is that an EX recording 4:2:0 at 35 Mb/s has roughly the same compression ratio as the PDW-700 recording 4:2:2 at 50 Mb/s. The extra "2" uses up most of the extra 15 Mb/s of data. While 50 Mb/s is fine for most day to day work, I rally do think that anything that will be graded or go through heavy post production would look much better recorded at 100 Mb/s.

The Digi-zoom that I used was very nice and if you are looking for every last ounce of picture quality Digi-zooms or Digi-Primes would most likely be the best way to go. However the difference between the Digi-zoom and a top end HD ENG lens is not big, especially if you get an ENG lens that supports ALAC.

[Peter Beeh]

Originally Posted by Steve Phillipps

have you seen it once it's gone through processing and compression for transmission - I wondered if the half res would start to break down then?
Steve

No - I've not seen anything go through transmission.

[Mike Marriage]

Originally Posted by Stewart Menelaws

1: Can I ask, what exactly was the project(s) you went to film out with, and was this for cinema release? If so what size of screens did you view this/these project(s)?

2: Is there a reason you think that a film out is perhaps visually more pleasing than HD projection? Or would that be a matter of the stylisation of the project itself, which may suit a sharper look on a digital projector?

I've done a number of cinema trailers for the National Theatre which have mixed 700, F900 and even EX3 footage. One played before Harry Potter in London and the South East, 2 others went international, with 35mm filmout in the UK and digital elsewhere.

A filmout obviously softens the image and adds grain etc. In some ways I'd say it adds something. I've seen them projected on standard cinema screens and also in the screening room at Frameworks where I always watch it once from the front row. I've also seen digital projection of the same work. I shot a lot of 720p in order to get slow-mo and it intercuts fine. You only really need 1080 for wide shots with a lot of detail on standard sized cinema screens...IMHO.

Personally I would shoot 25p on the 700 with a Nanoflash and the best lenses I could afford. Control you highlights, especially on any skin tone. I prefer them to be a little under and grade them up 1/2 a stop.

[Stewart Menelaws]

Alister: Thanks for that info, I understand that these are your own opinions but I appreciate the information. If you are available, we may wish to hire you in for a couple of days so we could do trial testing with the Nano, I will be in a better position to know the production schedule in a few weeks.

Mike: I agree with your approach to shooting with video, did you use the hypergamma settings or any other particular settings that took into account the film transfer?

I am feeling quietly confident that the 700 with Nano and Digi Primes may just prove to be more useful to this production than I thought. Many thanks for your input.

Regards: Stu
www.studioscotland.com

[Mike Marriage]

Can't remember my exact settings. I think I loaded in the BBC's as I didn't have much prep time. One of the projects primary purposes was broadcast which then went on to become a filmout as it proved popular.

I think the most important thing is to reduce the sharpening as it is pretty high out of the box and the image is plenty sharp enough without.

The first one is the longer web/broadcast cut, the cinema cut was 20s.
YouTube - War Horse in the West End - trailer
YouTube - NT LIVE - ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL Trailer

[Stewart Menelaws]

Thanks for that Mike – Nice work…

Regards: Stu
www.studioscotland.com

[Alister Chapman]

Backing off the detail to around -12 makes a big difference eliminating a lot of aliasing. That first 0 to -15 range has a big impact, changes beyond -15 have a lesser impact.