SENSORS GEAR.
T here’s nothing new about film options. Canon founded the DSLR revolution in 2009, but the nature of the 5D Mark II meant the first people to encounter big-chip digital were often low-budget independent filmmakers well- equipped to handle it in terms of either crew or equipment. It’s no surprise that, 14 years later, things have improved. Canon capitalised on its early success with a string of releases all the way up to the current EOS R5 C, giving 4x the resolution to much the same users. What matters in general, though, is that the choice of a large sensor can be based on things other than the familiar effects on depth- of-field and field of view. MORE THAN SHALLOW FOCUS Before the Alexa 35, anyone shooting moving pictures on big sensors, even if we ignore the fantastically expensive who wanted to shoot Arri for a broadcaster which mandated 4K might choose the Alexa LF for more pixels, rather than more area. That created a field of productions shooting LF cameras without necessarily seeking archetypal large format effects. Arri’s Marc Shipman-Mueller describes that difference like this: “If you look at any episode of Altered Carbon ,
“ The Umbrella Academy was shot on Alexa 65 in large format – but they went all wide-angle”
depth-of-field. On the other hand, there is The Umbrella Academy . The first season was also shot on Alexa 65 using the large format area, with Canon K35 lenses – but they went all wide-angle.” On smaller sensors, wide-angle lenses risk the sort of distortion that can be less than ideal for both locations and people. Using larger formats to the same end, as Shipman-Mueller says, subverts the conventional approach of choosing longer lenses to maintain identical framing on a larger sensor. “Let’s say I have a large format camera and a Super 35 camera, both sitting with the same 47mm lens. You can say I want the same framing of your actor, so you move the LF camera closer to the subject.” While the geometry of the shot will vary, the subject might remain the same size as the surrounding scene changes, and without unflattering distortion on a larger format.
C FOR CAPABLE Canon’s EOS R5 C houses a huge full- frame sensor capable of 8K video up to 30fps
shot on the Alexa 65, the decision was that they wanted really shallow
89. APRIL 2023
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