I don't disagree with Michael's assessment, but I think it's important to keep in mind that all of these new motion tools, dslrs, camcorders, the red, even traditional cinema film cameras all have great pluses and some liabilities.
Of course the trick is using the right one for the right gig, or allowing those limitations to be a plus.
This is still an early cut to an ongoing project.
magic man cutKeep in mind this is not the final cut, as it will go through rounds and rounds of revisions through the ad agency and our editorial staff, but this gives you some idea of how multiple cameras produce multiple effects.
The base of this was shot with a Nikon D700 at full FPS probably around 7 or 8.
Then some footage with shot with the Nikon d90, a small amount with the 5d2.
They all react different and shoot differently.
Peronsally I like the d90, even with it's limits because under low light it breaks up kind of cool and for this piece has a nice rough look.
The 5d2 is the true king of high iso and you gotta go crazy iso like 3000 to see any grain/noise in the footage when it's a motion piece.
The cool thing about the 5d2 is at any moment of break you just push the shutter and get a 22mpx still.
The D90, well, it's kind of the lost step child other than it's one tough little camera and is easier to focus as the Nikon Manual lenses (at least most of them) go about 90 degrees from close to infinity, where a lens like the Canon 35mm 1/4 seems to take about 400 degrees of spin to go close to far, which obviously plays hell with the follow focus rig.
Now my favorite, maybe cause I cut my teeth on stills is the d700 and the D3. What I would give for a D3 with autofocus that shot 24fps in raw.
But, back to the 5d2. It's so smooth and detailed that the look is a lot like 35mm cinema film, except it's even smoother and I gotta spend some time in post to muck it up. It also works much better as a tripod camera. For sound all of these devices can ha e an attached separate recording device with multiple channels and a good mike, or better a good sound man can make that part easy, or easier.
Next I will get my hands on a Red and try it out, if not for just the experience, though other than the ability to use PL's it's still a tripod camera that requires some pretty smart focus planning.
Regardless, a $900 d90 or a $40,000 red, we are going into a brave new world and for what would have cost many tens of thousands to produce some of the looks the 5d2 and the Nikons will get, would have taken twice the crew, twice the budget, and with heavy generators, twice the effort.
I also don't doubt that we will have motion cameras that will shoot high quality stills at the same time without having to break in between the clips to get a still.
(See Steven Klein's Bruce Willis spread in the latest W all shot on the Red and way, way, way retouched, (maybe over retouched).
I don't doubt that soon we will have Canon and Nikons that shoot 2 to 4 k raw, probably a better shutter and a whole lot of other features.
JR