Digital Cinema
Digital cinema has really been picking up steam recently, with major movies (Star Wars, Collateral, Miami Vice) now being shot and distributed in digital formats, rather than on film. Oakley Sunglasses founder Jim Jannard's set up Red Digital Cinema is 2005 and their camera has now developed into a fully-fledged product. Taking much of the thinking behind the top-end digital cameras, the relatively cheap ($17,500 for the main camera) records RAW data on a Super 35mm sized censor, at up to 4096x2304 pixels (4 x the res of current HD).
The company also have a 3k handycam sized model "Scarlet" forthcoming for $3000, and a 5k camera "Epic".
As well as all that, the camera can shoot up to 120fps for slow-motion, which overcomes a huge advantage that film always mainstained over video. Check out the Red Users group on Vimeo for some examples.
Peter Jackson filmed a short (Chasing The Line) to test the system, and more recently Steven Soderbergh shot his Che Guervara project (Guerilla / The Argentine) using the system.
If none of that floats your boat, you could try Letus, which cleverly allows you to use lenses from your 35mm camera on a standard video camera. Cheap(er) and cheerful.
17th Sep 2008 - Tumblr