the problem is the enlargeability is not yet there. Actually, it might be there, but there is no way to get an uncompressed image off the phone.
Edmund,
I have no dog in this fight so I'm not trying to prove anything.
Everybody should use what's right for them.
I've just noticed in the last few years, nobody talks about still cameras . . . at least in my world.
You know it's funny . . . I try and usually do shoot every image in one piece. In other words I don't add a lot of background plates, or different exposures to make up for lack of dr or any problem with the camera.
If it is a problem, with stills, adding a sky a little darker (or lighter), or pulling out a separate exposure for shadow smoothness is just a no brainer. We can combine something like that in less time than it takes to put the cameras back in the cases.
The images I showed obviously have retouching, hell everything has retouching that goes into publication . . . everything including a lot of real journalism that's not suppose to have any changes and I'm not advocating turning the world into a drawing, but photoshop has changed how all of us work and what I worry about.
Since we now shoot a lot of motion on each project, or the project is even motion based we try to keep the set as clean as possible, without going into the thought of don't worry we'll fix it later. Fixing motion images later is a lot of work.
Anyway, I just wanted to show that this (and many more images) was an editorial we squeezed into a movie we're working on and we shot about 15 set ups in 10 hours. Day, night, rain with a 800 watt hmi, or with a small handheld light panel all I really cared about was the result.
These stills ran in an Asian Magazine that prints very high quality. No problems, no issues. The previous project we shot for this publisher we used mostly a p21+ and a P30+ (of course with a lot more light quantity) and once again no problems, no issues.
I guess if anything, in the world of images for money, the very FIRST thing the client looks at did we get the shot, the look, the emotion (or lack of emotion depending on the creative brief) and nobody ever talks to me about image quality, unless they just don't like the photograph.
But what do I worry about. Usually it's just capturing the moment I and the clients want to see and nowdays getting the same look in still and video.
That's what matters, not the camera, 2% more dr. 35% more or less pixel count.
Right now we're in a whirlwind of change. Could Pandora become the world's radio station, will every magazine in the world be on an ipad and will it have Justin Bieber moving or standing still or both? Will we have real time wireless where you shoot it, effect it, cut it and deliver from a laptop device and above all once this all fleshes out, will content and creativity become more important than the process?
The last one I want to believe it, the rest I have no control over, so it's none of my business.
What is my business is if a client wants footage that can be changed, cropped or effected to tell the "story" and in advertising, journalism and entertainment the creative story wins. . . it wins everytime.
So as I look at my balance sheet of things I need to spend on, schedules that must be met, new business that should be acquired, the camera is way down on the list.
It's important but not as important as I used to think it is.
Thanks.
BC
P.S. To tell you how the world has changed, yesterday a client went through the dailies web galleries from a still/motion project. The main still images were selected and retouched weeks ago, but they want more, (everybody wants more) so they went through the dailies from the RED and pulled out 16 screen shots they'd like to put into still images. We processed them out at 16 bits, did our color and clean up, shipped them to the retoucher and on Monday or Tuesday they will be ready for print.
Are they as technically good as a d3x, or even a 5d2 . . . ummmm maybe not, but they're pretty damn close and since they embody the real non staged look the client wants to see, they will work and work so well, we've acquired more projects from this client.
But no, I can't shoot with an Iphone, or would rather not, but I can shoot with a whole bunch of cameras that do a lot of different things.
The world is changing and changing damn fast.