Just jumping on the bandwagon here - on October 3, James Nachtwey who is arguably the most accomplished and celebrated photojournalist working today - will reveal a project that he has been working on thanks to a TED grant - being released simultaneously online, on media channels, and as images projected in public places. So spread the word. (Click on the “X” to the left..)
On a personal note, James has always been one of my favorite photographers and an amazing person to get to know. I met him just days after 9/11/01 in Quetta, Pakistan… I was stunned when he recognized my name as we were introduced (he read(s) The New York Times and likely recognized the byline from seeing it in the paper) but even more impressed with how humble and focused he was and still is. One of my favorite quotes from him - which is a quote that is pulled from a portfolio review that he was giving years ago to someone else - (after looking through that person’s portfolio quietly page by page, closing the book and making a single comment before concluding the review right then and there and moving onto the next student, is: ”I’m afraid that these pictures don’t tell me anything about who you are.”
We spend a bit of time together in Pakistan as I helped him figure out what was then one of the very first prototype EOS 1D Cameras - and getting his satellite phone working with an antenna we placed on the roof of the hotel (running the wire down to his hotel room window - super high tech
One of the best lessons I learned from him (there were many) is that while we were all drowning our sorrows late into the night (the press corps in Pakistan) mostly due to the overwhelming emotion / frustration / fear & uncertainty that followed 9/11/01 - Nachtwey would quietly decline to join us - going to bed early (or likely working on a book layout now looking back at what I know of his crazy work ethic.) By the time we were waking up to horrible light and hangovers - he was walking back into the lobby of the hotel… no matter how good you are, how developed your eye and vision are - discipline and adherence to the following axiom: “The early bird gets the worm…” helps even Mr. Nachtwey…
So the point of this rambling post is - I am really looking forward to seeing what he, along with the help of the folks at TED, have come up with… I wish them the very very best of luck - can’t wait to see what they’ve managed to pull off!
All of these images were shot between 1600 ASA and 3200 ASA. These are in-camera JPEGs with no post production (except for the inclusion of my watermark.) Therefore it is quite foreseeable that you will get even better quality images once a final production camera becomes available - and once you are able to decode RAW images in DPP, Aperture or your favorite software - designed to better handle and minimize noise. Although I have to honestly ask: What Noise????
I think that the excitement over the video - has overshadowed the pretty incredible still image quality at high ASAs - I’ve never seen an image look this clean at 3200 ASA.
These images were shot with the exact same lens, position and timing as the video.
I remember shooting Kodak’s TMAX 3200 in college - and thinking that was a Godsend for photojournalists…. my how things have changed: some of these look better than the Kodak Ektapress 100 ASA Color Neg film I used back then as well…
In very low light - shooting at the aperture of f2 was the key with this prototype 5D MKII camera in my opinion. Of the three clips that were released - only one of them was shot at f2 - the one with Jimmy (the model) splashing water on his face. You’ll have a hard time seeing any issues of “noise” or other technical negatives from most of the footage shot at f2 (which is what the majority of the film was shot at.) Understand that almost all of the light we shot in was the still camera equivalent of 1600ASA, f2, 1/15th. That’s very low light - no matter how you cut it. (more…)
Three of the raw files from the prototype Canon EOS 5D MKII - files straight out of the camera - that were used in “Reverie” short film - are now available for download to your hard drives. (*Please Read Important Note Below for SPECIFIC LIMITATIONS OF USE.)
You will need the latest Quicktime player to view these - and many of you may have a hard time playing these at full resolution without top of the line systems - given the heavy amount of 30 fps 1920 x 1080 pixel data that is contained within each file.
UPDATE: We’ve broken 500 comments asking for 24p/25p - awesome. You’ve all made the point loud and clear. I wanted to share a few thoughts with you…
First of all - I’ve had a chance to work with a lot of cool companies these past few years - in the development of both software and hardware - and if there’s one thing I’ve learned (actually two):
1. You need to find out right away if something is technically (im)possible - is what you’re asking for something that the hardware / software can do… obvious - but easy to overlook - don’t waste your energy pushing for something that simply can’t be done…
2. You need to request only ONE thing… THE most important thing to you. And STAY FOCUSED ON THAT - so that they understand you are willing to give up on the 5-30 other features you are dying for… if you don’t do that - you’ll overwhelm them… and they’ll ignore you. Well they might not exactly ignore you - but remember that other people are asking for different things as well.. if you’re enough of a “pro” to ask just for one thing and let the other things go - they know that “the” one feature truly is KEY to you.
So for now… 24/25p should be the ONE request in my opinion.(more…)
Due to pretty incredible demand and a fair amount of (healthy) skepticism as to whether or not the footage in the “Reverie” piece is “truly” raw out of the camera, we will be releasing a series of raw clips - the exact same clips that were used in the “Reverie” short film - this coming Friday. (more…)
I just wanted to put up a quick public thank you to everyone for visiting - and for all of the comments.
539,380 have visited this blog since Saturday and 211,935 today alone - and that’s nuts. The most amazing thing: my server (Rob Haggart’s to be exact) is still up - as are both the Canon and SmugMug servers that are serving up the massive amounts of data…
Just to put things in perspective… (While I can’t really assume that everyone visiting this site has been here to see the video and downloaded it - but the numbers are showing that 98% or so or the visits are to both of those videos) I think it’s safe to assume that between that (and the fact that people are visiting the Canon web site directly from other articles/blogs etc from around the world) let’s assume for a minute that the 89.4 MB has been seen “only” 211,935 times (and that does not include all of the other sites linking to the video directly… sites that undoubtedly send much greater traffic to them than this little blog does…) To put it in perspective - today alone: a minimum of 18,946,989 Megabytes …. almost 19 TB alone have been transmitted - I know Smug Mug is up to 3.8 TB of bandwidth for the behind the scenes video - today alone… these numbers are nuts to me.
Anyway - thanks for all of the kind words. My apologies for not getting back to the comments today - I will do so tomorrow. It’s 10 p.m. and I’m going to catch up on rest - so that I can be at maybe 90% tomorrow - it’s been a very long - but invigorating - ten days! And this looks to be just the beginning…
Keep in mind - this is raw footage (not RAW) from both Canon XH A1 camcorder - and a few clips for the Canon EOS 5D MKII - you’ll see that the two are toe to toe (not really) on bright scenes… but in low light - the Canon EOS 5D MKII is impressive - but common sense leads me to state the following: if the Canon still camera team and the video team have come together to produce the Canon EOS 5D MKII - the next HD camcorder they come out with - may just floor us all… these are very exciting times - to be someone who focuses on “creating” as opposed to the “process” and “technique” of making your vision match the “reality” of the tools you have at your disposal. To view the main movie (not the behind-the-scenes), click here: REVERIE
SmugMug has offered to sponsor the making of the next movie and an international search (and/or contest) for the most talented filmmakers, screenwriters, lighting technicians, gaffers, actors - you name it.
SmugMug will put up another $25,000 once we’ve proven that we can make this happen - and some other sponsors hopefully jump on board to guarantee that we will have the necessary funding and/or access to resources to make this come together!
I just received confirmation from Canon: “barring any last minute technical difficulties” the video will be live within the next 12 hours… (I will link to it from this Blog)
SmugMug has stepped up to the plate as well - and they’ve agreed to host the “Behind The Scenes” video on their servers at no cost… so this site will remain advertising-free as a result (I don’t need to raise cash to pay for bandwidth as a result of their generous offer).
There is also a pretty incredible announcement coming up from them on this blog… within the next hour or so… One that almost trumps the release of this video in my opinion- an announcement that you all have a chance to benefit from…
If you choose to subscribe via RSS to this blog - you’ll be the first to hear of it and the release… my life has been on hold for almost a week - so I’m eager to get this out! We’ve gotten over 250,000 hits on this blog since Saturday - and the numbers just keep rolling in.
For now - enjoy this 12 second clip “teaser” of the behind the scenes video - to be launched simultaneously with the “Reverie” film…
Just jumping on the bandwagon here - on October 3, James Nachtwey who is arguably the most accomplished and celebrated photojournalist working today - will reveal a project that he has been working on thanks to a TED grant - being released simultaneously online, on media channels, and as images projected in public places. So spread the word. (Click on the “X” to the left..)
You may now find 10 images shot during the filming of “
Three of the raw files from the prototype Canon EOS 5D MKII - files straight out of the camera - that were used in “
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