Best Yet Almost Blog

On Monday, June 12th, Bob and I (and over 200 other lucky folks) attended the ASC screening of the Camera Assessment Test. I wish I could adequately describe the magnitude of this undertaking, suffice it to say the finished product was an accomplishment of the highest order. Eight cameras, hundreds of crew members, 2 days of shooting on Wisteria Lane, endless hours of post as footage was color corrected and blown back to film.

Bob's assessment:

The Panasonic 3700 is one hell of a good camera, looked as good or better than anything in every set up. Never having worked with one, I was surprised. It beat the hell out of everything in the "bare light bulb" test, including 35mm, where it showed an ability to reach into the mids and shadows while handling bright highlights reasonable well that was, frankly, shocking. I wandered around the lobby after the show, eavesdropping on various groups chatting, and the stellar performance of the 3700 was the hot topic. (I, by that time, was scarfing cookie crumbs)

With the exception of the "bare light bulb" test, where every camera's strengths and weaknesses were wildly obvious, there wasn't a tinker's damn worth of difference between any of the cameras once they went through the film out process. With that one "bare light bulb" test exception, I don't believe there was a person in the room who could consistently identify any of them at "normal" viewing distances. As one veteran DP said to me afterwards: "What we've really shown here is that when decently shot, with enough post time and skill, they can all be made to look pretty much the same."

A brief description of the "bare light bulb" test:

It starts in complete darkness, then a single bare unfrosted household bulb hanging at about a six foot height is slowly faded up to a maximum intensity in closeup. The camera does a small pullback, and a pasty faced white guy steps into the shot about 6 inches from the bulb, and stands there for a few seconds. The shot continues to get wider, and now we see we are inside a tool shed or garage, and the bare bulb is the only real light in the room. There is a small window on the far wall with a very small amount of light coming through it. The talent steps away from he bulb into the darkness as the camera widens, and we see all sorts of shelves, and the tools mounted on the wall, all of it lit by this single bare bulb.

And lastly, it was interesting to hear that had all the production and post work been paid for, the overall cost difference between shooting and showing all the formats, including 35mm, was less than 10%. Basically, a rounding error.

Disclaimer: Bob has no financial interest in any of this.

My disclaimer: Bob granted me worldwide distribution rights to this.