S35 digi cinema camera for US$8000

[Simon Wood]

Haw! Guess it was inevitable that a post about a Chinese cinema camera would turn into the old F3 vs FS100 vs 5DMK3 debate. (Doesn't anyone rate the AF100)?

[Heath McKnight]

The link I posted above to the candlelight shootout includes an AF100. I think the conversation drifted there, because these affordable S35mm (or close to it) cameras are available now, not vaporware. We have examples and user experience.

Heath

[Brian Drysdale]

Originally Posted by Simon Wood

Haw! Guess it was inevitable that a post about a Chinese cinema camera would turn into the old F3 vs FS100 vs 5DMK3 debate. (Doesn't anyone rate the AF100)?

I know one DP thought the AF100 was the camera to use unless forced into using a DSLR by the producer.

5Dmk3 seems to exists as a model floated around on forums. I really can't see any advantage for a full frame 35 sensor for video, unless it adds increased resolution and other pluses.

[Walter Brokx]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

It's nice to know that the Sony F3 is better in candlelight than the Canon 5D but considering that it costs about 10X the price perhaps that is to be expected. Does it really look 10X better?

Watch The Great Camera Shootout 2011: SCCE ~ Episode Two | Zacuto USA
It's not only the candlelight... It's also resolution/sharpness and colors...

[Shem Kerr]

Originally Posted by Simon Wood

Haw! Guess it was inevitable that a post about a Chinese cinema camera would turn into the old F3 vs FS100 vs 5DMK3 debate. (Doesn't anyone rate the AF100)?

Please may Simon have his thread back? It's not simply about a "Chinese" camera; and definitely not about a hybrid DSLR; nor a pro-sumer camera; nor an ENG camera: it's about an affordable professional cinema camera .... well, in concept and intent at least.

My questions are: how robust is it?
How easy will it be to use? and
how upgradeable is it in hardware or software?

[Larry Kelly]

A couple more questions.

I assume this is a bayer sensor?
If so, what are you left with after the de-Bayer process? Assuming this is the type of sensor used in this camera, you would think that starting at 1080P will leave you with at best slightly more than 720p actual resolution, not enough in my opinion to leave your with an kind of overhead for post production or "DCP "Cinema" style distribution.

Good for net, some TV likely, but not the big screen. Assuming it is a bayer type sensor that is, pardon my ignorance if I am wrong.

Larry

[Heath McKnight]

I don't think we'll know anything until, if and when, a working prototype comes out.

heath

[Brian Drysdale]

I understand that the Chinese company involved has a background in making cameras for astronomy, so it seems to be them branching out into new areas of imaging..

[Glen Vandermolen]

I'd buy that for a dollar.

[Don Parrish]

Looks like a hoax to me, I don't think a company capable of building anything even close to a camcorder would put up pages that say nothing and lead to nowhere.

[Dan Hudgins]

The cameras from Kinefinity (tm) are not a 'hoax' as was suggested. They have been in development for almost 4 years now and are entering into G5 development depending on how you count the prototypes.

I have the KineRAW-S8p (tm) prototype in San Francisco shooting some calibrations for the viewfinder look tables and doing some other testing and checking the SSD and firmware revisions with my de-Bayer software that supports CinemaDNG based workflow cameras that record 100% True RAW data.

The KineRAW-S8p (tm) shares much of the same workings as the S16 CCD and S35 CMOS cameras, except that the larger cameras also are to support Cineform (tm) compressed recording and workflow. The DNG frames from the KineRAW-S8p (tm) can be processed into Cineform (tm) by a converter program if you want to work compressed or do a compressed proxy, that can also be done in any NLE with a H.264 proxy for an off line edit.

Here are the links to the first and second lens test demo reels,

#A2

KineRAW-S8p (tm) lens test reel #A2 w/o links on Vimeo

#B1

KineRAW-S8p (tm) 2.5K lens test reel B1 on Vimeo

Projection is that the S35 will start field testing in China in April 2012, maybe. Its working for the most part in the test prototype, some details of the re-design are being worked out now.

If you have questions about the cameras you can email Kinefinity (tm) about their KineRAW (tm) cameras at the contact in their web sites email for contact. People say they answer questions.

If you have any questions about my free de-Bayer and freeish DI/NLE/MIX/SCAN/FILMOUT/OPTICALS/GRADING software development for support of CinemaDNG based cameras you can contact me at the email at the top of every page at my web site, or comment on my Vimeo pages as Vimeo will email me about your questions there. If you email me be sure to put 'Its not a hoax? DVinfo user' in the subject line so I know you are not a junk mail, thank you.

[Brian Drysdale]

Many thanks, that looks nice, but I would like to see test shots that push the camera to its limits. Find out how it handles highlights, its dynamic range, the low light capabilities, how much skew there is etc. The sort of things you need to know when selecting a camera for a film.

[Jay Kavi]

Maybe I'm a little dense, but according to the site the S8 camera records up to 2.5K but the S35 camera only records up to 2K? can you get native 2.5K resolution from a S8 size sensor?

[Brian Drysdale]

You may have the pixels, but there'll be trade offs In theory the Super 8 sized sensor should be wider than a 1/3" sensor, I guess it's more room than you'd find on quite a few mobile phones, some of which have 8 megapixel sensors

[Jay Kavi]

Ah, that's the connection I wasn't making.