ARRI digital cameras

[Balazs Rozsa]

I found some interesting pieces of news about future digital cameras for movie making.

In the 2003 September issue of Arri News there is some information about the research Arri is doing in digital camera development.

"Together with Lockheed-Martin, an experimental CCD camera was developed and tested under demanding conditions. Featuring three 12 megapixel sensors, the camera was designed to show the upper limits of image quality as would be required to completely supersede the 35 mm film format. The set-up was able to demonstrate superior resolution and color reproduction, however, it also showed that the path to a compact and cost-effective production camera with appropriate storage media was not a short-term venture."

Also Arri is working on a camera with a single chip 6 Mpixel near full size CMOS sensor that could output 1920x1080 downconverted signal on top of the raw data.

The Arri news pdf file is available from:
http://www.arri.com/infodown/news/0309_e.pdf

Balazs

[Rob Lohman]

Sounds good! I'm wondering though why most of the digital
"film" companies seem so focused on the mega-pixel issues
and not seem to talk about dynamic range. Or are these 3
CCD chips used to create a 3 times more dynamic range??

[Rob Belics]

It doesn't sound that good:

"...the path to a compact and cost-effective production camera with appropriate storage media was not a short-term venture."

Which I've been saying all along. The third step should be transportation of data issues, also. And, as you said, dynamic issues have not been addressed.

Cost effective for Arri means this camera would have to sell for $125,000 or more for a unit with no lenses or necessary add-ons.

[Rob Lohman]

My "sounds good" remark was targeted to the fact that Arri is
looking into digital. That gets me all excited. Ofcourse I could
never afford any of their stuff, but it does say a lot about the
state of business at the moment.

[Balazs Rozsa]

" I'm wondering though why most of the digital "film" companies seem so focused on the mega-pixel issues and not seem to talk about dynamic range. "

Abut the six megapixel camera they say:
"The output could be comparable to HD in resolution, but offer a higher dynamic range and better color fidelity."

At another point they say:
"Aside from the high resolution, the choice of the sensor also addresses other issues that are essential to the cinematographic application: an extremely high dynamic range, excellent color fidelity to capture images at variable frame rates."

So they are promising a better than average dynamic range.

Balazs

[Ken Tanaka]

Certainly Arri is trying to play a bit of catch-up to the high-end filmmaking market. Several other companies are developing 'electronic film' cameras, including one camera that features an imaging block the same size as a 35mm film frame. Arri probably sees itself as being drowned-out with all the buzz over digital video and they want to give current customers cause to pause before making commitments.

The principal target markets of such gear would probably be the rental houses, perhaps followed by broadcast production companies. As Rob noted, you'll probably have to mortgage your home to get your hands on whatever product emerges from this research, if any. Press releases and white-papers are cheap.

[John Gaspain]

sure looks neet...and expensive. I'll take 2 please ;)

[Rob Belics]

Arri IS the high end filmmaking market. Unless you mean digital video.

[Ken Tanaka]

Yes, I meant making digital video inroads within the filmmaking market.