BEYOND 4K | GEAR
resolution and lens resolution do work together”. He elaborates: “We tend to measure them by projecting light through the lenses and then measuring the accuracy of the image produced. A lens that can project 200 line pairs per inch will be able to resolve around 22K on to a sensor. That means all of our cinema lenses will easily manage enough line pairs per inch to resolve 8K, even on a Super 35 sensor.” Fujifilm, of course, is in the unusual position of specialising in cinema zooms and has done a lot to dispel the prejudice that zooms inevitably sacrifice quality for convenience. As such, the company has traditionally been less interested in promoting lenses with hugely outspoken optical character, knowing they’ll likely be filtered and graded to match things that bring a specific look. Fujifilm has therefore been less bashful about the pursuit of clarity and sharpness than some manufacturers are. “All of our Premista lenses – the 19-45, 28-100 and 80-250mm – well and truly out-resolve 8K for the Monstro camera,” assures Marc Cattrall, nonetheless. “Our Premier lenses cover way more than 8K on Super 35, and even when we put a 1.7x adapter on them to make them work on full-frame cameras, they resolved well in excess of 12K.” Even the company’s entry-level zoom, the XK6x20, performs well. “You can pick these up for about ten grand, these days. We tested the resolution to see if it would be good for the Blackmagic 12K, and even this lens resolves around 22K in the middle of
the image, dropping to nearer 8K at the edges,” reports Cattrall. With cameras and lenses very much ready to go, cinematographers have routinely been shooting resolutions significantly beyond 4K simply to make a 4K finish look better, in the same way the original Alexa used a 2.8K area of its sensor to shoot HD. So, shooting high resolution is common. Finishing beyond 4K, though, other than for very specific situations, such as Peter Chang’s giant screen work and the occasional theme park ride, is rare. technology seems very much ready to do it. SGO’s Mistika finishing system, which handles everything from editing and audio to paint and grading, exists in its Ultima 8K form to handle 8K material at up to 60fps. The company took an early interest in 360 ° and VR production – both demanding a very high-resolution workflow – and reports supporting a number of clients, who are regrettably publicity-shy, in the areas of theme park and exhibition work. 8K finishing in conventional film is rarer, although on the feature Two Yellow Lines , colourist David FINISHING SYSTEMS Undaunted, post-production
“OUR PREMIER LENSES COVER WAY MORE THAN 8K ON SUPER 35”
Bernstein, working in Baselight at Roundabout, was asked to finish the trailer in 8K. The request came after people from Samsung viewed a test on a Samsung Onyx LED video display, installed at Roundabout West’s facility in Burbank. The growing application of bright, contrasty LED displays for cinema exhibition is a story for another time, but Bernstein tells us that the original intent was to shoot on the Red Helium and leverage the spare pixels for a better 4K finish. Reflecting on the project, Bernstein describes the production as “an independent, low-budget film”. “It came to me via the director and DOP, Derek Bauer,” Bernstein explains. “We previously worked together on a film he shot a few years back, and this is his first directorial effort. I believe the intent was to capture as much detail as possible in the big vistas of Montana, where the film was shot, in order to get a good 4K result by oversampling. “I introduced the filmmakers to Des Carey [head of Cinematic Innovation] from Samsung,” Bernstein continues, “and we performed a brief demo of the film on the Samsung Onyx screen housed in our facility. That led to a conversation about the 8K Association, which is actively
BELOW Fujinon’s Premista lenses out-resolve 8K for the Red Monstro
DECEMBER 2020 | DEF I N I T ION 27
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