You know the look. You’ve seen it in big-budget features. It’s the Christopher Nolan look. The Lawrence of Arabia on the big screen look. The kind of image you can only get if you have the Hollywood budget to rehouse Hasselblad lenses. Or rent equipment that can’t even be purchased. Be it an IMAX camera for Dunkirk, the Panavision Panaflex 65 for The Hateful Eight, or the Arri Alexa 65 for anything from Joker to Solo: A Star Wars Story, Medium Format Cinematography is a staple of larger than life cinema. Until now, this larger-than-life image has been out of reach for the majority of filmmakers. But with the release of new reasonably priced medium format cameras such as the Fujifilm GFX 100s, a new revolution is on the horizon. Let’s Talk About Frame Sizes To really understand the importance of medium format cinematography, we have to have a reference point. There is a myriad of sensors and film sizes out there. For decades, the default standard for celluloid film has been Super35. This is roughly around 24mm by 18mm or a vertical exposure of 135 photography-size films. Which is mirrored in the APS-C Sensor. That is why the Canon 7D was so popular at the beginning of the DSLR revolution. Second to the Canon 5D, that is (at least for some). Size Comparison – Film and Digital Sensors. Image Credit: CineD If we go smaller, we get the Super16 film size: digitally mirrored in the Original Blackmagic Pocket Cinema...
Published By: CineD - Sunday, 27 June, 2021