Amazing feature-film Magellan is shot on the Panasonic GH7

[Davide DB]

20 hours ago, Danyyyel said:

The irony, for the last two decades we have been pursuing feverously the vista vision look. One by one, years passing by we got large sensor, better codec, even raw and just as we got affordable anamorphic lens, it is now cool to film in 4;3 SD tv format. LOL

I've just watched Train Dreams and it's 1,46:1 🙂

 

[Clark Nikolai]

On 11/26/2025 at 3:05 PM, Andrew Reid said:

What has happened is the gap between the top-end i.e. ARRI and the cheap stuff has closed up.

This has been going on ever since the start of the DSLR revolution so it's not a new thing but there's never been a smaller gap that exists now, for example between something like the Alexa 35 and a $1000 used Panasonic S1H.

It once was that the pros had 16mm an 35mm film and the "amateurs" had Super 8 and videotape. Now that's all changed.

Yesterday I was capturing some old videotapes from a friend's project that we did in 2011 on a Canon HV20. It looked amazing. I was expecting it to look worse than cameras of today but it doesn't. Just shows that even a camera from then, with a CMOS chip from that era, MPEG 2 encoding, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, 1440 x 1080 frame size recorded of the wide screen image, and 8 bit colour, it still can look amazing. 

It just shows that cameras have been very good for a long time now. The differences are mostly ergonomics and physical size. When deciding on a camera, you have to consider what you want to spend months living with.

[fuzzynormal]

2 hours ago, Clark Nikolai said:

CMOS chip from that era, MPEG 2 encoding, 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, 1440 x 1080 frame size recorded of the wide screen image, and 8 bit colour, it still can look amazing. 

Best footage I ever shot in my life was on a XH-A1.  It was the situation and lighting, not the camera.  Could it have been better with a new 4K-whatever-camera?  Sure!  But only marginally so.

[zlfan]

5d3 ml raw can do 1:1 1920x1920. i tried once, like hassy in video. 

[zlfan]

"What has happened is the gap between the top-end i.e. ARRI and the cheap stuff has closed up. This has been going on ever since the start of the DSLR revolution so it's not a new thing but there's never been a smaller gap that exists now, for example between something like the Alexa 35 and a $1000 used Panasonic S1H."

 

True

[Clark Nikolai]

On 12/3/2025 at 9:37 AM, fuzzynormal said:

Best footage I ever shot in my life was on a XH-A1.  It was the situation and lighting, not the camera. 

Schhwwweeeaaatt!!

Just checked out the specs. Nice. If I was looking for a camera I'd totally check it out.

https://media.onecall.com/Image_Products/Canon/XHA1_info6.pdf

It doesn't have HDMI but it does have HD-SDI through a BNC terminal, meaning it could connect to an external recorder to record in ProRes if you can't find any miniDV tapes anymore.

[zlfan]

3 hours ago, Clark Nikolai said:

Schhwwweeeaaatt!!

Just checked out the specs. Nice. If I was looking for a camera I'd totally check it out.

https://media.onecall.com/Image_Products/Canon/XHA1_info6.pdf

It doesn't have HDMI but it does have HD-SDI through a BNC terminal, meaning it could connect to an external recorder to record in ProRes if you can't find any miniDV tapes anymore.

no surprise. 3 ccd. 1/3 inch means bad low light and no bokur. otherwise, good color. 

[Ninpo33]

On 12/3/2025 at 6:56 AM, Davide DB said:

I've just watched Train Dreams and it's 1,46:1 🙂

 

I was just about to mention how good Train Dreams looks and the magical pairing of the Alexa 35 sensor matched with the Kowa Prominar Sphericals. Stunning film and very Chivo-esque. 

As much as we say the camera doesn’t matter now I think there are arguments for both sides. I think it’s a lot like fine wine. A lot of people are fine with a $5 bottle and can’t really taste the difference between that and a $500 bottle. I can though. 

 

[Ninpo33]

On 11/25/2025 at 2:25 PM, fuzzynormal said:

I'll return to Lubezki's work.  Feeling the same vibes.  The stuff he does with Cuarón, and overall in general I guess, really nurture the deep dof.

Here's a film he shot in my back yard.  I can literally see the location from my office -- which I still get a kick out of being able to 'name-drop

Speaking of name dropping AND Lubezki…

I was bartending my day job years ago while in film school and came to work to set up the hotel bar and looked up to see The whole crew from “Knight of Cups” standing there silence. I proceeded to hang out and cut fruit for 3 hours while they shot some scenes with Christian Bale and Natalie Portman around the pool and walking in and out of my bar. I was giving “Chivo” and his AC’s beers at the end of the bar and chatting with them in between takes. At the end he wanted to pay and I just laughed. I told him he was a huge inspiration for me and there’s no way they were paying LOL. Have me his business card and got to meet Terrance Malik later. 

i don’t think any of those scenes even made it into the film but it would have been even better if i got some background work out of it LOL. Loved the way he ran his set and how quiet and professional it was. Lubezki told me Mallick wants it all naturalistic and wanted the hotel and bar  open the whole time. No closed set and no yelling from the first AD. Just quietly exploring shots and vibing off of the mood and the actors. I learned a lot through observation and it was inspiring. 

Epic day.