FEATURE
become available to those with a TV budget, with digital cameras from Arri, Red and Sony appearing to not only crack the ‘filmic look’ so desired of cinematographers, but at a price point that demands consideration. Digital acquisition at this level promises
CINEMATIC TV O
nly recently has the ability to emulate the luxurious qualities of 35mm film
greater colour and contrast control over every pixel without resorting to the ‘guesswork’ of film processing, while smaller, lightweight cameras afford greater flexibility in shooting stereo 3D. It also promises higher-resolution pictures,
denoted by ‘K’, or the number of horizontal pixels on a camera’s sensor, which converts the optical image into an electronic one – currently the bar is set at 4K (about 4,000 pixels). The chief argument for shooting at 4K for TV is the same as that which once applied to HD over SD and is similar to that made for shooting simultaneously in 2D and 3D: for the highest-quality source material and for archive. “Recording at 4K is not just about deliver- ing in 4K today, but about capturing content at a higher resolution with benefits in dynamic range, colorimetry and latitude to 2K and HD images derived from it,” explains Sony general manager for content creation Olivier Bovis. “In that sense, it is similar to when broadcasters captured at HD when the only deliverable was SD.” According to Arri director of group busi-
ness development Milan Krsljanin, TV drama producers are most interested in achieving a look and getting it onto the screen most effi- ciently within given budgets and schedules. Their options now include 2K to 4K-capable systems, but measuring the relative quality of each is partly subjective and dependent on the skill of the cinematographer to bring out the best in the technology. The ergonomics of the camera’s bodywork,
its ability to work with prime lenses – many of which are rated at 8K or more of light
12 | Broadcast TECH | November/December 2011
The latest cameras from the likes of Arri, Red and Sony are providing broadcasters with the opportunity to achieve a ‘filmic look’ at a price that suits a TV budget. Adrian Pennington reports on the advances
coming through the glass – and the elegance of handling the large volume of data on-set and into post are all considerations. Certainly, reliance on the ‘K’ figure alone is misleading. Just because one camera is rated 4K does not make it twice as good as those shooting 2K, particularly when the debayering of the image is taken into account. This process, applied to almost all digital cameras, filters the received light into red, green and blue, and onto the sensor’s pixels. The science used to do this and the mathematics needed to reconstruct the image differ from manufacturer to manufacturer and result in different qualities of colour and contrast reproduction.
Picture quality The confusion is “engineering mixed with marketing”, says Seth Emmons, marketing manager at rental house Band Pro. “It all comes down to the final image.” For exam- ple, the M-X chip in Red Digital’s Red One camera does, indeed, contain 4,000 lines of resolution, but after debayering, the output is around 3.5K. However, the company’s newer Epic camera captures 5K and outputs over 4K, according to Red. Sony has included a chip capable of 8K
resolution in its new CineAlta F65, and although this is sampled down to 4K for the launch version, Sony’s claim that this is the first camera to output ‘true 4K’ is disputed. Indeed, it is widely acknowledged that a company called Dalsa invented the first professional 4K sys- tem a few years ago. Expensive to hire, tricky to handle and arguably ahead of its time, Dalsa cancelled development of the Origin in 2009. Red’s chief marketer Ted Schilowitz suggests
that given Sony’s background is in video, the picture quality from the F65 would look more electronic than filmic. He says: “There are a lot of cameras that make great pictures when viewed on a plasma display, but when you blow them up to a 40ft screen, it looks nothing like film. Sony can put any kind of nomenclature around it – 4K, 5K, 8K – none of that matters until you put images up onto a big screen.” Arri’s Alexa (below), which outputs around 3K, is being examined by director James Cameron to shoot the Avatar sequels and has found favour in broadcast drama, where directors of photography have a vital say in the acquisition format. Bristol facility Films@59 recently supplied a dozen Alexas to the sets of Doctor Who and Casualty. “It is not resolution, it’s latitude and
tonal rendition that DPs are interested in, and a simple intuitive camera that’s a joy to work with,” says Tony Coleman, DP on the Alexa-lensed Garrow’s Law. “After years of the industry being duped about yet another video camera ‘that’s as good as film’, it’s good to get to the stage where we can move on and recognise that Arri has finally done it.” Cramming more pixels on a sensor may
increase resolution, but at the risk of losing sensitivity to light. That’s why Arri chose to
www.broadcastnow.co.uk/technology
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