Chris Ross Leong
New Member
Chris here, pro Brit photog and film maker living in the Los Angeles area, California, USA.
Started in the 70's, still going string!
Up until now I've mostly been Sinar and Speed Graphic LF, Fuji, Bronica and Hasselblad MF, and Leicas and Nikons. Had dabblings with Sony Alpha, Fuji X, Micro 4/3, but retreated back to the larger formats, but continue to dabble in the more portable cameras, the latest being the Foveon Merrill offerings. About the only small sensor cameras that I do still have are on my drones, a Sony RX10 that my son now owns, and a Leica 114 that was snapped up on arrival by my better half, who opened the box for me, said "mine", and that was the end of that...
However, my serious work will probably still be all Leica, Nikon, Fuji (I use Blackmagic cinema cameras for work mainly these days, along with D800Es, Leica M and Sinar P2 with Fuji glass for stills).
Having said that, the L mount offerings sure look great!
I'll probably have a dive in when one system or another presents itself as being particularly suitable for an assignment that warrants buying into it. Mostly my clients are wanting me to scale down on (downres) the shots I already give them, so that might be awhile!
In the meantime, I'll content my self with watching here to see what transpires and really poke into the sensors and color science behind these new systems. For me, for instance, the earlier Blackmagic cameras were really magical - most of my fellows bought the original cinema camera, made wonderful movies from that camera, got rich and then of course had to follow the "me too" latest and greatest equipment trend and move from 2.5k to 4k to 4.6k sensors...
My point is that most of them didn't mind the move to the latest sensors - they are pros and so their fees demand they have the latest gear - but they were all, without a doubt, connected to their first 2.5k Cinema cameras. Come to find out that, unlike all the other Japanese sensors of the modern cameras, the original Cinema camera was built around a BAE/Fairchild sCMOS sensor coming out of... SIlicon Valley. Yes, an honest-to-goodness US sensor, powering an Australian camera. The color science was and is gorgeous, and the imagery, especially with older Leica R glass, is gorgeous out of the camera.
What I'm getting to is that even though we have a great new mount system, and great new lenses, I really do hope that the camera manufacturers get the back end of their cameras away from that flat, capture-all let's-change-everything-in-post RAW approach and give us great color science (stackable sensors?), exposure latitude, bit depth, and a fantastic post production system to go with this time around.
Probably won't happen, but hey, a guy can dream!
Cheers and glad to be here!
Chris
Started in the 70's, still going string!
Up until now I've mostly been Sinar and Speed Graphic LF, Fuji, Bronica and Hasselblad MF, and Leicas and Nikons. Had dabblings with Sony Alpha, Fuji X, Micro 4/3, but retreated back to the larger formats, but continue to dabble in the more portable cameras, the latest being the Foveon Merrill offerings. About the only small sensor cameras that I do still have are on my drones, a Sony RX10 that my son now owns, and a Leica 114 that was snapped up on arrival by my better half, who opened the box for me, said "mine", and that was the end of that...
However, my serious work will probably still be all Leica, Nikon, Fuji (I use Blackmagic cinema cameras for work mainly these days, along with D800Es, Leica M and Sinar P2 with Fuji glass for stills).
Having said that, the L mount offerings sure look great!
I'll probably have a dive in when one system or another presents itself as being particularly suitable for an assignment that warrants buying into it. Mostly my clients are wanting me to scale down on (downres) the shots I already give them, so that might be awhile!
In the meantime, I'll content my self with watching here to see what transpires and really poke into the sensors and color science behind these new systems. For me, for instance, the earlier Blackmagic cameras were really magical - most of my fellows bought the original cinema camera, made wonderful movies from that camera, got rich and then of course had to follow the "me too" latest and greatest equipment trend and move from 2.5k to 4k to 4.6k sensors...
My point is that most of them didn't mind the move to the latest sensors - they are pros and so their fees demand they have the latest gear - but they were all, without a doubt, connected to their first 2.5k Cinema cameras. Come to find out that, unlike all the other Japanese sensors of the modern cameras, the original Cinema camera was built around a BAE/Fairchild sCMOS sensor coming out of... SIlicon Valley. Yes, an honest-to-goodness US sensor, powering an Australian camera. The color science was and is gorgeous, and the imagery, especially with older Leica R glass, is gorgeous out of the camera.
What I'm getting to is that even though we have a great new mount system, and great new lenses, I really do hope that the camera manufacturers get the back end of their cameras away from that flat, capture-all let's-change-everything-in-post RAW approach and give us great color science (stackable sensors?), exposure latitude, bit depth, and a fantastic post production system to go with this time around.
Probably won't happen, but hey, a guy can dream!
Cheers and glad to be here!
Chris