The Future Is Digital…

MC Rebbe The Rapping Rabbi. From his monthly editorial in The Technofile: Rapper, DJ, VJ, Producer, remixer, Jewish comedian, Jewish comedy, Jewish rap, Jewish music Last month at the PMA (Photo Marketing Association) trade show in Florida, Canon announced their brand new 8 mega pixel EOS 350D SLR (which is close to being a 20D, but at the ‘knock down’ price of £749/$899)…at almost exactly the same time as Kodak were announcing that UK production of Medium format film is to cease (though it will still be manufactured in other…sweatier…countries and sold in the UK).

Elsewhere, rumours started circulating that at NAB, in April, Panasonic will announce a true HD prosumer camcorder for under $10,000, which, if it lives up to expectations, could be a major nail in the coffin for 16mm motion picture film…at almost exactly the same time as Quantegy, the last company manufacturing branded professional audio tape, filed for bankruptcy.

The future is digital…or is it?

Well as far as audio goes, without a DJ Shadow of a doubt. Digital audio is superior to analogue tape in every respect – price, convenience, quality, non-linearity (unless you include the ability to print to analogue tape ‘hot’ to cause subtle distortion which creates extra harmonics resulting in more warmth…something you can’t do with digital because digital distortion=horrible ugly noise….and not the good kind of horrible ugly noise…).

But photography is a different story. When it comes to workflow, flexibility and instantaneousness of results, digital wins hands down. However, the price advantage is questionable as digital bodies are still expensive compared to equivalent film cameras (which unlike digital ones don’t go out of date quicker than a tub of cream cheese left out in the Tel Aviv sun). People keep telling me how much digital saves them on processing costs. Fair enough if you’re a pro and shooting every day, but the majority of people buying into digital aren’t and most ‘semi pros’ / enthusiasts don’t shoot anywhere near enough to offset the digital premium…plus they sell their kit at a loss to upgrade to the latest piece of technology (usually released between the time they paid for their original kit and the time that they walked out of the store…). As for quality, it’s true that digital has finally equalled the resolution of 35mm film…but not the latitude…or the colour depth…and it won’t until everyone follows Foveon’s lead.

Motion picture Film vs. HD? Don’t believe the hype! If Panasonic’s rumoured prosumer HD cam turns out to be fact, it will be a major step in the right direction, but, at the end of the day, ‘High Definition’ video is a lie. 65mm film (aka 70mm) is high definition! It’s also so expensive that it’s beyond the reach of even most high budget Hollywood movies, which instead use 35mm film as a price/quality compromise. Anything less than 35mm (e.g.16mm) has traditionally been looked down on as inferior and is only used for low budget, art house and documentary…and guess which format HD is closest to…16mm…in terms of resolution that is, because in terms of latitude and colour depth it suffers from exactly the same problems as digital stills…only more so, because HD cameras are still using CCDs instead of CMOS sensors (don’t even get me started on depth of field, variable frame rates, variable shutter angles and optical viewfinders…).

But this doesn’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, because what’s crucial is what you can achieve with the technology, not the technology itself. Lars Von Trier proved that by making a DV feature that put most contemporary Hollywood movies to shame (although, to be fair, that’s not exactly a hard thing to do nowadays). But, at the end of the day, almost every cinema in the world has a film projector not a digital one, so even when the majority of production becomes digital, chances are the end result will still be transferred to and viewed on film for some time to come (especially in poor third world countries that can’t afford to spend mucho Deniros on digital projectors and satellite distribution systems).

Add to that the fact that Kodak’s sales of Super 8 are only slightly lower than they were in the early 80s and that they have recently started offering their 35mm motion picture stocks in Super 8 format; the healthy trade that specialist manufacturers/retailers are doing by catering to the very analogue needs of the fine art photography brigade (to many of who, even Silver is the ‘new fangled’ work of The Devil); the announcement just days ago that the 125 year old Ilford has made like a phoenix and emerged from the ashes of receivership in a management buyout; and speculation that Quantegy could be saved and production restarted and it’s obvious that the future may be digital, but not exclusively…Damn! Where did I put that Mitchell? Oh there it is…between the Steenbeck and the Revox…

MC Rebbe

© 2005 – 2010, The Technofile. All rights reserved. Moral Rights Asserted.