This isn't really the thread for it.
But it is not necessary to expand a business to remain successful.
Steve Hendrix
Steve,
I think in just about every business, you move forward or you get passed.
Your company does an excellent job of moving forward, though you also have more than just digital backs to offer. I don't know your numbers, but I am sure the service and other products greatly help your bottom line and/or bring more customers to your door.
In regards to digital backs, in my view, in the professional world, I use mine less and less, I hear the same from crews I work with around the world.
To clarify it's not that photographers don't want to use a better camera or shoot a more detailed or deeper file, but our industry has been compressed like never before. Work we did in 4 to 5 days, we now do in two, or we're working from a bottom line, so regardless of the time, we have x number of dollars to draw upon so backing that up x amount of time.
Our next project is 4 countries, motion and stills, dialog and mos, and to hit the bottom line, once again we have x amount of time, x amount of crew. Every minute really does count and an extra day of location is a large amount of money due to lodging, permits, talent, etc. etc. In other words 30 minutes can be huge, so we have to work fast and be very well planned.
This week, we carried two RED's, three Canons and shipped/carried 12 cases of lights/grip mostly continuous light, as we now do parallel motion and still projects.
I would have loved to have used our digital backs when appropriate, the problem is we just don't have the time. We can't wait for any glitches in connection, we don't have the pre production time to always clean and set up 4 cameras every evening after shooting, we also need cameras that can work well in studio, then location, with iso ranging from 800 to 200 . . . minimum.
Case in point, this week we shot (in one location) talent on room sets, then talent on no-seam paper, then took them outside and shot walking on the street, interacting, etc. etc., both in still and motion.
For the no seam we could have used my digital backs as we double lit the shot with hmi and flash. the problem is in 5 minutes we walk to another set and shoot with leds and small hmi's plus window light at 800 iso and it has to be clean.
Then 25 minutes after that we do down an elevator to the street and add a long lens, have to catch the talent walking at a fast clip have to have a fast frame rate and must have the ability to check the exterior images without a tech station and 27" monitor, so the camera must have a detailed lcd, the iso flexible, the focus fast, the lenses fast and 5 minutes after shooting on the street, we're back into the location shooting the next set of talent that is already prepped and ready to go.
And . . . to be clear, these images have to be spot on, not sloppy or almost there, or "we'll fix it in post", especially since we shoot the RED's with every session.
Whether it's Canon, Nikon, RED, Lecia, Phase or Hasselblad, I don't care, I just want to make sure that whatever cameras we use will do the above.
That's where I see medium format with a more limited market. CMOS sensors, higher iso, faster focus, bullet proof software and detailed lcd's (not some of these features . . . all of these features) will get my attention. Anything less we just don't have the luxury of time/budget for.
Now when I do have time on something like editorial, where I make most of the selections, our style art crew decides on the sets and we don't need 300 images a session, but 20, then I use my medium format backs, just because I want to. Problem is those aren't large paydays, those just allow us to stretch and move our business forward.
IMO
BC
