Hi all,

I'm new here. I've been working as a camera operator with different pro cameras for a few years and I think now it's the time to move forward to digital cinema. I've been looking at other options but the Ikonoskop seems to be the perfect camera for me. Small, simple, easy (I expect it to be) and affordable. I've been lurking the forum for a few months but now I see it's a bit quiet. Does anyone have news about release dates? Is Ikonoskop still taking preorders?

Thanks.

Dvorak.

Hey, Dvorak. Yeah, it seems like every third stall at NAB this year was a new camera maker of a D-film camera. It is a mine field out there, however.

For real products already shipping, I think that the best velue for the $$$ overall is the Silicion Imaging SI-2K camera. It has a 2K sensor (important if you ever plan to blow-up stuff to 35mm negs), and will take all sorts of lenses via the P+S Technik IMS mount system. Also, it uses the Iridas color system, so workflow is smooth. Big downside: it has a CMOS with the rolling shutter, so you'll be getting all sorts of rolling shutter induced artifacts.

There is the Red One, if you are into that company. I can't take them seriously, and their footage looks too much like video. Bad and expensive workflow if you take it to a post house for the finishing touches.

There is the Vision Research Phantom HD, Phantom 65, and the Weisscam HS-2, but these babies are well north of $100,000, same as the Arri D21. Or plan on planning $2,500-$3,000 a day just to rent the camera body. Check out the Grass Valley Infinity 1000, though, that is unique and a good value for the money. Records in 1080p using Motion JPEG 2000, like the DCI-compliant digital cinemas use.

The rest are your "standard" makes -- Sony, Panny, JVC, Canon. Or you can rent from Panavision some of their unique gears.

The A-cam dII would be a great Godsend, but since all we do are features in the $150-300K budget straight to TV broadcast and video, I certainly would not be able to trust my footage to a camera that is yet to be field tested.

What camweras have you tried to use lately, BTW?

We are shooting something new in 2nd quarter 2010, and will probably stick with our Super 16mm film gear for now. No surprises there, it's just the frame-by-frame scanning at 2K is so darn expensive. But with film, you'll get none of those nasty CCD, CMOS, rolling shutter artifacts and give-away video look. You shoot on film -- and it will look like you have shot on film, every time.

Thanks for your reply.

I know most of the cameras you talked about but all of them have their flaws. I've never really liked Silicon Imaging due to their sales politics. I consider the SI2K Mini to be highly overpriced for a camera head that needs a computer to shoot. I'm also worried about the rolling shutter. The workflow and color management is great though. I already talked about Red. They released the Red One without having a fully working camera (that's my impression since they're constantly releasing new builds, patches and fixes) and after a year, people's still having lots of problems with the workflow. It's interesting that you speak about the video look in the Red cameras. I've already seen examples showing a very filmlike image and others that looked like a really clean camcorder video. I still don't know what can make you get one look or another. "Knowing" looked great IMHO.

The Phantoms and the Arri are a bit out of my reach. I didn't know about the Infinity though. It looks like a cheaper Viper, doesn't it?

I also knew about the NoX Camera which was based on a 1,2" Kodak CCD and its footage looked great, but I don't know what happened to it.

That's why I hope the A-cam dII gets released soon. It looks like a very balanced option.

Answering your question, I've been using a HVX200 and a XL-H1 for a long time. My own camera is a HV20 plus Brevis35 adaptor. When I first tested that combo I decided I wanted to have that film look forever. It looked totally different from any other camera I had ever tested before. The problem with that camera is basically compression and low light response, that's why I'm thinking about going raw even if the sensor's not 35mm sized.

By the way... Now that we're talking about different cameras... Have you seen this?

http://www.cineraw.es/paginas/camara.htm

Probably just another site talking about a new camera, but they say they'll be presenting it this september in Los Angeles... It looks interesting on paper. 2/3" CCD so no rolling shutter. It records 12bit RAW DNGs and 8bit PNG sequences, which is good for quick shooting.

I guess we'll have to wait and see if it's true. With so many new cameras coming out you never know what to do...

It's been quite awhile since an update. Anything new, guys?

.

Nothing new here... Nothing new at Red... The Sparta guys have released a somewhat strange footage sample. It's FullHD@25fps but it's in black and white!

http://www.cineraw.es/

Don't know what to think...