Leaderboard

It looks like there are tradeoffs compared to the LA7200. On the one hand, it's sharper, particularly at the edges and you can use it at okay stops below 80mm (pre-diopter). I can't recall ever seeing any LA7200 footage that wasn't either soft all over or really soft at the edges when shot wider than f/5.6 at nearly any focal length unless a diopter was used -OR- the unit had been modified so that the front and rear element could be spaced by the operator. Flaring looks muted, even in other tests from their (supposedly) most flare friendly coating, and it doesn't appear to allow follow-focus with any lens that breathes (like an LA7200 modified so that the front and rear element could be spaced by the operator). Someone needs to do a thorough side-by-side with the Panasonic to see what's really going on. Even better if they've got one that's been split, to see if that's all it takes to make an LA7200 a better flaring Letus. It wouldn't solve the new caveat precluding follow-focus but I'd eat my words that the Letus kills demand and street price for the Panasonic.

Apologies for the delay in replying. I had set up the post to email me when replies were posted, but apparently this didn't happen. Anyway, here is the link: http://stellarsurvey.com/s.aspx?u=692218CF-93D8-490C-ABD1-3D50BB5E90D4& You will notice nearly all the features you asked for. I don't however ProRes 422 (not HQ) will be implemented, as this would cost BMD extra to licence the codec from Apple.

Thanks Johan, that's all very useful. I went ahead with the system I listed above (maxed-out 27") - it arrives monday. I think this will be more than adequate for my needs and will hopefully last me a while. I got the applecare thingy so I'll be covered for 3 years if the SSD goes kaput. I know the recommendation with spinning discs is not to put all your video stuff on the same drive as the OS, but I'm hoping this isn't the case so much with SSD's. I'm also hoping my output rate will go up significantly without the pain of such a slow computer!

I had been a projectionist for a long time (now this profession has died), and from 2000 on I had also been a digital projectionist. Until 2011, when automation finally killed the job, I used to compare my own stuff to the DCPs, side by side on the big screens, in the last two years also as DCPs, when easyDCP and openDCP became available. The largest screen was 78 feet x 32 feet (that's for scope, for 16:9 the width then was 58 feet). First thing I noticed is that resolution doesn't influence sharpness to the expected degree. And it also doesn't influence subjective quality very much. In fact, an upscaled SD DVD ( anamorph pixels with scope-crop, really the worst way to treat a video) could be shown to a big audience, and (back then) nobody complained, the class-A hardware scalers made it look good. I know this is hard to believe, but we once had a festival with student films, ranging from DVD, BD to genuine DCP (a Red!), and the one best looking was a masterfully graded HVX200 short, played from SD DVD. On the other hand, there was a way to know instantaneously what was film and what was video: Colors. I know this comparison is only 8-bit, but I have to find a way to describe aesthetic subtleties here. With a camera like the GH2 ("Musgo"), for example, one would be well advised to fill the frame with detail, textures (resolution, that's the GH2s strength) and not with skies and other big areas of glorious colors. Right now we grade for 8-bit, so 12-bit raw is *just* a bigger palette for grading. Color depth seems to add a new dimension to our video. It's fun to tear the, er, bloom off the images and to dive through the colors. Would it stand against an Alexa? I can't tell, really, but I'm convinced it would do better than many others. I can't wait to see a DCP with the 12-bit preserved in my old cinema.