Re: Camera Choices

I realise I'm jumping in late, but I thought it was a really good (and more importantly sensible) discussion. With regards to the quality of the image, and how much to invest in a camera, I've always judged it in one simple way, of all of the films I've ever seen, which do I like the most? Its a long list, granted, but films such as Eraserhead, Primer, El Mariachi, Metropolis and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari all find there way on there. Were the more modern films on the list filmed with amazing cameras? Nope. Does a film from the 1920s look as good as anything released in the past 10 years? again no. Films shot with relatively modest cameras have found their way to cinema screens and found some commercial success, I'm thinking particularly of 28 Days Later which was shot, in part, using a Canon XL1.. and Crank 2 was shot using Canon XH-A1s and Canon HF10s.
If your idea, script and people making it are strong then an audience will gravitate to it, and sometimes a filming style can overcome other areas that aren’t as 'hollywood budget'-esq. If a studio sees that they can make money of any film, no matter what the quality, they'll to look closely at it as well (although I would imagine such instances are few and far between.. unless your name is Robert Rodriguez)