As a veteran in this industry but as someone who also LOVES new equipment, new methods and especially new cameras that provide a unique visual look...I also think it's important to remember that to get great images from these things, you STILL need to be a skilled cinematographer and/or DP.
And...even though I'm a fan of Phillip Bloom, a lot of his Vimeo videos are really just eye-candy set to music. Of course he's typically championing a new product...and he DOES know how to use a camera to tell stories as well...
But if you have a great story, a great eye, and you already own a high-end HD camera with good lenses, you can likely tell your story just as effectively and with less location and post-production hassle using that.
You can achieve similar looks if you know how to position the camera and use focal lengths and ND and exposure to get shallow depth of field. Certainly there are setups where nothing beats a film lens, especially in tight spaces, but you can also use DOF adaptors that fit right to the front of your lens to achieve that same look.
We'll probably get one of these cameras, because we need a new still-digital camera anyway...but for 95% of our projects, the last thing we need is a more complicated work flow both on-set and in post...not to mention the complications of running separate sound...doing without TC etc.
Yes these things have great potential, but it sounds like from the posts that while they greatly reduce your equipment weight and space, they greatly increase what you need on-set and in post. I'm not sure that's it worth the trade-off for people working in the middle of the market budget-wise.
Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com
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