So you don't see the value in having subforums at all? I find the Red camera very interesting, like many other things, but I don't understand why people keep posting about it here. It's like going to a Ferrari forum and posting about electric cars like the Tesla and constantly predicting that Ferrari's time is up, how they all wasted their money on old technology, etc.
I see the value in discussing all forms of professional photography, especially on the high end.
Quite honeslty the RED is not much different than the meidum format business model. It's expensive compared to Canon and the japanese makes, it has a superior image quality and raw format, but is also requires a lot of proprietary software to view and process the files, and in ways is slower and less mobile than the newer high def video cameras.
It doesn't mean it doesn't have a place, but like medium format it can get maginalized quickly depending on what the Japanese makers decide to produce.
As far as imagery for commerce and editorial, don't think for a moment that video and even video screen grabs are not coming at us. I see more and more of my work, even very large budget production work purposed for web display over print and that requires less megapixels and more flexibility.
Once the computer is the main medium, video will become even more commonplace.
Lately, like most of us, I am inundated by retouchers, suppliers and crews all looking for work.
The first thing I tell every retoucher or digital lab is to learn final cut pro, avid and the process of of color correcting, cataloging and storing moving imagery.
Also like everyone else I see a lot of resistance from clients on cost or better put, ROI. They want video, they want stills and they want them both, pretty much during the same produciton.
Clients that push back over still digital fees will not blink at adding a dp, a sound specialist and the post produciton required to cut a video, web or broadcast.
I know this will go against the grain of some of the people here, but for the commercial/editorial photographer our rolls are changing to that of digital artists vs. still photographer, at least for the ones that want to survive or better yet, prosper.
We have done this to ourselves. Still production at almost any level has grown to the point it mimicks small motion/cinema produciton. We have larger crews, larger studios, more expensive equipment and longer post production periods, which all adds up to costs. What I use to shoot for 20k 7 years ago, just scratches the surface of what it takes today, so when projects get into the 6 figure range clients expect more.
The photographer, digital artist, post production company that can accomodate this will have a very strong sales position to make, so after the long answer, I'll go back to the short answer, of yes I do see a great deal of parallels between the two mediums, in style, function, production values and final consumer display.
B
