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MillimeterHigh-res Dreams
Aug 11, 2009 12:00 PM, By Dan Ochiva
Senior Colorist Mike Smollin, shown in Mega Playground’s Digital Vision Nucoda suite, sets up his monitor for a DP Dailies session.
While Dalsa’s dreams of creating the top 4K digital camera are dashed—the company closed its digital cinema division late last year—the move to higher resolutions for production and post continues at a faster clip.
Film, as its aficionados will tell you, is already there. Kodak announced the latest stock in its well-received Vision3 family this past April. The stock, 250D color negative film, is tweaked to deliver more details in the extreme highlight areas, something film still does better than current digital systems.
At NAB Show 2009, United Kingdom-based Cintel debuted the latest version of its diTTo film scanner. Now scanning at 2K and 4K resolutions, the device uses pin registration for each frame so that the imaging sensor captures the highest detail, as well as new high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging chops. The company recently announced that for the first quarter of 2009, the diTTo racked up record sales.
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Meanwhile, rumors persist of a less-expensive digital cinema camera from Arri for debut at this year’s IBC (the “Red killer” as some wags have it), and a 4K camera from Sony said to be in the works for NAB 2010.
Taking a slightly different tack, JVC showed a preview model of its proposed 4K camera system at NAB 2009. The KY-F4000 camera—its output displayed on JVC’s prototype 4K 56in. LCD panel—offers the unique twist of live-signal output of 3840x2160 pixels at 60p. Due for release at NAB 2010, the camera is expected to price less than $200,000, according to the company. That won’t give Red’s digital cinema camera any competition, but by targeting the live market (think teleconferences, sports, military), the Yokohama, Japan-based company may stake claim on a less competitive market space.
Meanwhile, more companies now offer the ability to view and edit higher resolutions in post. In an effort to provide film producers with cost-effective, digitally printed dailies, New York-based postproduction facility Mega Playground recently introduced DP Dailies. Based on technology originally developed by Grass Valley and Technicolor and now owned by Germany-based Digital Film Technology (DFT), the process offers a single workflow from original camera negative through DI and final graded color master. Instead of traditional, lower-resolution telecines, DP Dailies are scanned as .dpx files at 1920x1080 for a DP Dailies session.
Aimed at saving time and money while offering a consistent creative look, further development on the DP Dailies workflow comes from Mega Playground’s Chief Technology Officer Terry Brown, who worked on developing Bones Dailies while at Technicolor’s Los Angeles division. Since the majority of films finish as DIs, DP Dailies eliminates the disconnect between the DP’s original vision seen in the dailies and the end product, according to Brown.
Now, with the move toward higher resolutions in post, the facility offers the option of scanning dailies at a full 2K. According to Brown, even with its higher charges, “2K DP Dailies costs less than competing traditional HD dailies.”
Turns out the rest of the digital world isn’t waiting around for higher resolutions either. Samsung’s recently released I8910HD includes an 8-megapixel sensor that helps deliver the world’s first 720p HD video recording on a mobile phone.
Continue the discussion on Crosstalk the Millimeter Forum.