Re: 16mm vs hidef

Without question the Sony CineAlta has been the choice for film-out for motion pictures. One must bear in mind that the Sony camera appeared long before the VariCam and it's development was heavily influenced by George Lucas. The VariCam could not be chosen because it did not exist! Not only was CineAlta the only camera available, but it was fitted with Panavision lenses and that gave a measure of comfort to DP's. Now that the superb DigiPrimes are here, the Panavision lensed CineAlta is not the only game in town. From my readings of the forums, most DP's believe the DigiPrimes to be superior.

A far as I can tell from my conversations with people in the industry, certainly not a scientific poll, CineAlta seems to be chosen for political reasons, for familiarly, and post availability; VariCam seems to be preferred by owner/operators on the basis of it's image quality and variable frame-rates.

System cost is certainly a consideration, especially for those who do both production and post; play/record decks from Sony are very expensive, those from Panasonic are quite inexpensive.

If you prefer the CineAlta, Joe, you should buy one, or specify it for your productions. I think you'll agree that your opinion of the cameras will carry more weight if you actually test them both.

If you have some shots from a CineAlta, you could post them to your ftp server so we can have a look at them.

Best regards,
Leo