Re: I guess it's So Long and Thanks for all the Fish!

"Herb, so you are saying right tool for the right job?"

No, what I'm saying is that if your going to deal with a lot of problems then a tool better be able to deliver something you can't get any other way. If the final results are worth the pain then you call the problems "idiosyncrasies," if not then the tool is simply a piece of crap.

"And what appealed most to you about the 5D? The color, short DOF, the contrast, all the aliasing? OK, that last one was a dig. What couldn't you get out of the AF that you could out of the 5D besides audio/video and tc?"

Yes to the color, the contrast, the DOF but mostly I just thought of it as the way the 5D handled the light. The AF looked like the other Pany's except with a slightly shallower depth of field. The 5D reminded me of when I was first starting out, working with 16mm film, and I got to edit 35mm for the first time - there was a glow to the image that at first I thought must be some filter combination the DP was using - later I realized it was just the difference higher resolution and smaller grain size brings. In the hands of a skilled DP, someone who could take advantage of those properties, you could get a look that simply couldn't be matched on 16. Something about the way the 5D handled the light reminded me of that. I've been looking for it ever since I switched to video and I never saw it before.

I would be thrilled if Canon, or anyone, would put that sensor in a real video camera body - but for now I will put up with it's "idiosyncrasies" when the right situation comes along.

If I could afford to keep a Red or Alexa around to just pull out a few times a day for special shots, then I would be happy to say good-bye to the Canon.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions