In-Sync Publications

4 4 K d r e a m i n g L L L by Robert Render Harrison Technology changes so fast in this field that yesterday's hottest cameras fall by the wayside. I just heard of a guy who purchased three Sony F900 Cine Alta cameras, 2/3" 3-chip HD cameras of the kind that George Lucas asked Sony to make shoot 24p. Based on an over-the-shoulder 60p camera used by NHK news in Japan, it became the go-to workhorse HD camera for a decade or more. Said guy got three of them for next to nothing; original price $306,000 the lot. Designed to record to tape, he's using a Black Magic converter box to output HD-SDI to hard drives. Great imagery for a low-budget multi-camera shoot. Me, I like something easily hand-held, but then I'm primarily interested in documentary shooting, and I'll trade mobility for size any day. Now I don't have to trade quality; in fact I'll trade UP to some of the best available: 4K. On the cover of this issue is what I'd call my 'dream team.' For the moment, anyway. It comprises the Sony Alpha 7s, with the Atomos Shogun providing monitor and 4K recording, and Carl Zeiss Otus Lenses. The Sony Alpha 7s (A7s) records up to 400,000 ISO. I saw some very impressive footage shot at this incredi- bly high ISO of a man on a beach, standing by a bonfire. All the landscape was shades of blue, the light source being the night sky. There was plenty of shadow detail, yet highlights weren't burnt out. The image on a 62" 4K monitor was entirely acceptable, with the minimum of luma noise. That's rather like film grain. Chroma noise is like lots of specks of various colors, and utterly awful. So the Alpha 7s has use- able 400,000 ISO. Wow! Then I realized that the fire - thousands of times brighter than the shadows, wasn't even burnt out! Now that is truly amazing. Other cameras may encompass 13 stops of dynamic range, but no others shoot at such extreme ISO. The sensor is a full frame Sony Exmoor, 12.2 MP, utilizing 9MP for video shooting, so no line skipping, no moire. Huge numbers of pixels are good for stills photography. For video, less pixels on the sen- sor means bigger pixels, and this translates into higher low light sensitivity. Alpha 7s lists at $2,500; shop around for maybe 10% discount. I saw the demo at Mike's Camera in Sacramento, one of chain of photo stores stocking good still cameras that's in Northern California and Oregon. The largest photo shop chain West of the Rockies, I'm told, and they're Sony dealers. The long-awaited Atomos Shogun, just announced at IBC, provides monitoring, with all the current 'bells & whistles" - color peaking, waveform monitor, etc, and enables the Alpha 7s to record 4K. The camera only records 1080x1920 in camera, up to 60fps. Shogun is priced at $2,000, available on pre-order for 10% dis- count. The Zeiss 55mm f1.4 lens is heralded as the world's sharpest standard lens. It's a bit bigger and heavier than the ZF.2 and ZE Zeiss lenses, and the styling is very clean, almost futuristic. Maybe I should say timeless. The 55mm has just been joined by the next in the series, claimed as the world's sharpest portrait lens. Like the Shogun, this was announced and shown at IBC. Prices on the lenses? $4,000 a piece. Actually not bad at all if compared to other lenses designed specifically for the full frame (still) sensor of about 24x36mm. I've seen imagery shot with the 55mm that could be blown up and up (on a Retina screen iPad) with the lens holding resolution way after comparison lenses fell by the wayside. Zeiss must have considerable confidence to claim that these are the sharpest lenses in their focal length. From what I've seen, it seems a fair claim. I look forward to shooting some video footage on the Otus lenses, providing my friend, who has the 55mm (and of course had to order the 85mm) will let me. I'm planning to use two each of these hot new items for my final shoot on an art documentary I've been shooting for 12 years. I need to make the final shoot as future proof as I can, so it really has to be 4K, and I want cameras that weigh a lot less than the 18 pound monsters we used last in 2005. We were shooting at an altitude of 7,000 feet, where 'running and gunning' became an aerobic exercise. Oh yes, these cameras were a little less than 4K. Most were 480x720 pixels, about 1/3 of a megapixel, the best 720x1280. Progress, and how.

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