For some stills pros the real alternative to DSLRs and MFDBs will be the Red Epic announced at the same time as the Scarlet.
It weighs 6lbs, has a 5 K chip (about 20MP) and can shoot raw stills and video at 100 FPS, and with interchangeable lenses. Priced like a medium format back though.
Michael
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We are now within inches of where moving digital capture (anything but the term video) is not going to be a afterthought or added on to a still shoot, it will be the standard procedure of a still shoot.
Now before everyone starts grabbing their Sinars, Hasselblads and Nikons and throw them at my door screaming about the purity of still images, regardless tradition, the industry is moving in the direction of convergence.
Still sets resemble mini movie sets, with gaffers, monitors, multiple lighting solutions and instant review of what was shot.
Talk to clients (usually direct not ad agencies), or publishers and mention the word "video" and they listen very intently.
We hear about democratization that the internet has given publishing, (see this site for example), television view, journalism and movies, but it's not democratization that the internet is providing, it's a common carrier and network (free or not) where moving imagery carries as much if not more weight than stills.
We are still in the early stages of how this works in advertising, but remember it's much more effort to scrub past an advertisement embedded in a video than it is to set your browser to block pop ups.
Now how the Red works into this, especially at 5k is something that should give us all some pause.
If the same image you shoot in "video" will run on a double page spread then there is something to be said for the one camera system.
The reason I said talk to clients and publishers instead of ad agencies is a lot of agencies still seem to be in the traditional mindset where a still photographer only shoots stills and a film director only directs film and never the two shall meet, at least in harmony.
I recently shot a large project where there were two sets and two productions, one 35mm film the other my still set.
I'm not complaining about my role or what I was asked to do, because it was a very rewarding project, but working next to the "film" set it was obvious that both could be integrated with no more than a change in camera and a few different lighting placements.
If the projects had been combined, the savings would have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and the interesting part was on the film set the client was relegated to viewing the image on a flickering video tap, where on our still set we had color corrected imagery coming into the computer every click of the shutter.
Where the Red plays into this I don't know because I guess no mortal has shot with a 5k red, at least in this type of mixed media production, but it seems that is logical that it could/would/probably should go this way and not with compromise.
My studio shoots and produces a lot of parallel productions and working in this form of harmony, even taking into account sound, different framing ratios, different lighting requirements, the convergence gets closer every day.
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JR