Yeah, I can see it. RED made a big splash, initially, in dramatic episodic TV but you see more and more Alexa being used in new shows even though it's a much more expensive camera. ProRes just drops right into a timeline, with or without expensive, dedicated hardware and still offers some stylistic possibilities (see: Hannibal).

I've noticed a change in the last season of SOUTHLAND, one of my favorite shows that was shot on RED (cancelled, so sad). They used to really push the look in ways that you needed a raw camera (or film) but something happened this last season (its last season). They pulled back to a much more conventional look with cheap, post filters, likely as a way of saving costs. IMDB is only current through season 3 as far as camera package goes but I wouldn't be surprised if it's revealed they went to a non-raw form of shooting because on location in LA is already very expensive regardless of film, RED or DSLR. There are no discounts for what camera you're using or how small your crew might be.

edit: I see season 5 was an Epic show, doing some googling...makes the change in aesthetic all the more disappointing but still points to a cut-back in post perhaps. Anyway, not poo-poo'ing "raw" per se, but it is a far from universal application. I couldn't see using it for any sort of documentary filmmaking of people and personalities either, where you might shoot a hundred hours of footage. Nature documentaries, sure. Short films, sure.

Realistically, shooting an indie feature with a raw DSLR is going to be difficult for the indie shooter because they can't be like Steven Soderberg and buy a metric ton of CF cards and when a CF card is full that's treated like an exposed roll of film, never to be shot again, put in a vault for editorial. That's a lot of disk, and it's gotta be fast and secure, which means double or triple the space you actually intend to use and maybe forget about building it with stuff from BestBuy.

@GravitateMediaGroup

We are small team of guys who helped me very much.
And we will be changing developing approach quite soon. But, it no way guarantee any improvements and require big time for arrange and coordinate. Believe me as I used such approaches before and are using them now on NEX project.

Think GH2 hacking has come to a plateau where taking it to raw is just belaboring the point. I applaud all the guys who have contributed to real working patches, and am grateful for every single effort. But I also use other cameras, and am glad to hear VK is working on Pentax and NEX. Just wondering if VK and friends have found a way round the NEX sensor. I use the VG20, and even without being hacked, the camera yields quite stunning imagery. I cant imagine if someone eventually finds a way to crack the sensor's potential. It'll be awesome.

@producer

I think you started going in circles quite long ago.
If you look at plans and knew hours spent on profiles research you'll be be quite surprised.

You personally replied to me long time ago that the profiles and film modes are one of the hack targets. Later you wrote me to quit because this would not happen. Now I read in the Development status topic about film modes again.

I think you have strange fluctuations in your mind. Making changes to image processing and understanding it was goal from the very start, and it keeps to be goal. In fact very big time had been spent on it.

@producer you need to check yourself with regards to 'expectations', especially when presuming to speak for the community.

i think that what raw is desirable because of:

1. sharpness,
2. high dynamic range,
3. high color depth....

with the current hack and the high end patches, we have the sharpness;

if Vitaliy manage to understand the film modes, we could have an increase in dynamic range.

So we now have 1 of 3 of what raw means, in a friendly to the hard drive avchd... if in the future the film mode gets hacked, we could have 2 out of 3,

i hardly think that's a bad thing, comparing the advantages and the disadvantages against the raw output.

i much prefer compressed files that have a comparable amount of information

@producer You are nothing but a patch troll.

If you ignore the troll he will trip trap away.

@Brian202020

I'd really like to know your workflow...

Quote: As for RAW being time consuming, it really isn't that bad. I've edited several RAW projects on my 2008 MacBook Pro. I'd say from ingest to final edit, it's at most a 15% increase in time over an H264 acquisition, and maybe a %30 increase in time over a ProRes acquisition. It's all about finding the most efficient workflow possible for the project.

@CFreak

It varies a bit from project to project, but the biggest time saver that is constant between all the RAW projects I've worked on was recording a proxy format real time. Example: RED ONE records proxies internally. Otherwise just use an external recorder and record ProRes or DNxHD to use as proxies. This allows you to edit right away and link up the RAW media in the final edit. That way you are only transcoding the media used in the final edit. Not sure why others don't discuss this workflow, but it's a time saver for sure.

RAW on 5D - an armchair DP's wet dream. Have we all totally maxed out the capabilities of our current gear?