The last few years weren’t as exciting for tech-savvy nerds like me. Sure, several cameras, lenses, and other developments and innovations did make my heart beat slightly faster, but it was, usually, a rather fleeting excitement, quick to dissipate once put into perspective of its actual, real-world gains. New tech always bears the potential of obscuring our view of what’s really important in the creative process, but recently, I find myself less pumped by those numbers, leaving my front-line seat on the tech-spec race. With this article, I try to figure out why. The last week of January 2021 created an exciting stir in the world of image-making. Photographers and filmmakers looked in awe as two new premium cameras were announced. One was the FUJIFILM GFX 100S, in all its 100 Megapixel glory but also 10-bit 4K, Phase-detecting autofocus system, and a price tag competing with high-end full-framers. The second camera introduced that week presented us with such incredible technical specifications that it utterly broke the ancient segmentation separating high-technical quality cameras from high-speed ones. The Sony a1 had it all. Since the medium’s early days, we’ve had to choose and compromise between speed and quality. Large format cameras were used for rich landscapes or high-end studio work, and 35mm film was the bread and butter of sport and journalism (for stills, of course). Medium format cameras such as Hasselblad’s 500 series or Rolliflex twin lens cameras were the middle ground. The same principle applies to motion capture, with larger...
Published By: CineD - 4 days ago