I just watched Amelie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and I agree...it's not the grain of the film (which seemed non-existent to me) that made it alive...it was the script/story , the acting, and the beautiful cinematography coupled with the great music and sound effects. Grain is the least of our worries :)

e

Well, as far as Spielberg movies being non-grainy--how about Minority Report? Probably his most (intentionally) grainy effort yet!

And whether or not grain is obvious in an image, having it eliminated entirely will likely make a noticeable difference (as in digital, although that medium can contain noise, which is another animal entirely since it does not have the randomness that grain does). I think grain in this sense refers more to "texture", incorporating elements of tonality and detail. It's extraordinarily difficult to capture luscious skin tones in a digital medium; you have to light and filter and process to end up with something that MAY approach the beauty of an image caught of film, shot clean under ambient lighting!

Of course, beauty may not be the intention. Digital does gritty just fine. Run out and shoot DV with the gain cranked up, it's all the rage. Will future generations adopt a new aesthetic just because economics will force a shift in technology? It remains to be seen. I am intrigued by the movement that has been represented here and other DV forums to consider 24p an antiquated and less desirable look than 60i. Looking forward to see how it all shakes down.

I was viewing Contact on DVD the other night. Shot on 65mm and grain reduced using Digital Visions Mpack system in 8K resolution. Except for the progressive film movement of 24fps the image looks a lot like...video. Video shot with style and know how. The resolution difference would be apparent on the big screen of course - but on the small screen it looks very similar.

60i/50i is still very hard to sell on the international market. Once the 60i fans control the market that would probably change. 60i is still so closely connected to news or porn in the minds of the distributors :)

I received my P+S Mini35 today!
 

Initial testing with my Nikon still lenses shows great promise! I was worried that I would have to buy the more expensive Cooke or Zeiss lenses but everything looked great...especially with the 85mm/f1.4 but then that's my favorite lens in my still photography world. Using the 16mm fisheye, 17-35mm/2.8, 28-70mm/2.8, 85mm/1.4, 80-200mm/2.8 and 300mm/2.8 all brought me good results but then I have nothing to compare it to...although they do seem sharper than my Canon 3x wide angle which I use alot. I'll have to try shooting some sort of resolution target which is suggested in the rather sparse manual in order to determine if back focus needs adjusting.

I will try to post more usage results as I use the Mini35 on upcoming projects.

e

Re: PS Technik adapter for 35mm lens Report
 

:) A bit of humble pie for the new Generation that never knew the 35mm adapter.

Re: PS Technik adapter for 35mm lens Report
 

Normally I'm mystified by zombie posts, but I like this one because it points out the longevity of DVi.