Also, with additional HD equipment with your camera; I ENTIRELY recommend capturing RAW uncompressed footage, it’s only 100% worth it if you do it that way.

Digital should stick to the highest standard available for the budget. I’m sure there may be better standards out there, but I’m a firm believer in Red One 4K for the pricing or above; I’ve seen it work out. While film is THE BEST no doubt when capturing and for storage / finer grain, you have to remember where the film will end up in the end. Most theatres will show a blurry picture anyway which defeats the purpose of all that quality (you can talk 8K and higher, but it won’t make a difference if it’s blurred by the projector in the final distribution cut). If you want something to last ages, film on film. However, for any professional budget filmmaker, I will mostly recommend digital (Red One or higher will do absolutely fine for HDTV shows or Projector Disribution later on).

The problem is that all of you were talking about higher quality on a studio floor than what most will even get to see in theatre reels if it is ever distributed, which often due to crappy theatre projectors all around. All hollywood movies turn out like 4K or 2K in the end for theatres. It’s the system of distribution which will matter in the end.. If you plan to have your film shown in theatres, it will be much less quality than what some film buffs are expecting it to be, unless it’s IMAX or something. So whether it is 8K or 4K, I’ve seen 4K work magic and will try to not go any lower than that for post production reasons. By the time it reaches the theatre it will have the same cut as a Hollywood film, it’s virtually indistinguishable to me around here.

“Red Epic” Camera (model after Red One) Brains record a data rate of 225 MB/s. The sensor sizes will be Super 35, 135 film, 645 (medium format), and 617, equivalent to the Linhof Technorama camera (the 617 will record a data-rate of 500 MB/s). Horizontal resolutions will range from 5K to 28K (the latter is the equivalent of 261 megapixels) and could be printed onto 70 mm IMAX 15/70 without the need for the IMAX Digital Media Remastering (DMR). On April 15, 2010, a Red Epic camera was demonstrated at an off-site meeting during the 2010 NAB show exhibition (Red did not have an official booth at NAB) Peter Jackson is shooting his version of The Hobbit using 30 Epic cameras in a 3D configuration at 48fps

The Red Epic is announced to come in the following variants:

Name Physical Size Resolution (in pixels) Estimated Price
Epic-X S35 30 × 15 mm (1.2 × 0.59 in) 5,120 × 2,700 (5K) >$10,500 RED1 body
Epic-S S35 30 × 15 mm (1.2 × 0.59 in) 5,120 × 2,700 (5K) $12,000
Epic S35 30 × 15 mm (1.2 × 0.59 in) 5,120 × 2,700 (5K) $28,000
Epic-M S35 30 × 15 mm (1.2 × 0.59 in) 5,120 × 2,700 (5K) $58,000 (Package)
Epic FF35 36 × 24 mm (1.4 × 0.94 in) 6,000 × 4,000 (6K) $33,000
Epic 645 56 × 42 mm (2.2 × 1.7 in) 9,334 × 7,000 (9K) $43,000
Epic 617 168 × 56 mm (6.6 × 2.2 in) 28,000 × 9,334 (28K) $53,000

NOW ANY ONE HAVE ANY QUESTION THAT DIGITAL CINEMA IS NOT BETTER THAN FILM? film can record up to 10k maximum for 70 MM. but Red Epic can Up to 28 K !

I SHUT EVERY PERSONS MOUTH WHO WERE SHOUTING & TELLING NEGATIVE WORDS TO DIGITAL CINEMA. DUDE, DIGITAL CINEMA IS GET MORE IMPROVE , SAVING MONEY & TIME. . NOW IS 2011 & IF NOW DIGITAL IS SO ADVANCED THEN HOW IT WILL BE AFTER? AFTER 5 YEARS I DON’T THINK THAT ANY FILMMAKER WOULD LIKE TO USE FILM CAMERAS.

i have Latest Red One ( with latest MYSTERIUM-X 14 MP Sensor) i am happy by its result & i have order Red Epic now.

Who cares about the “it’s like a vinyl record” deal? That’s like the whole analogue audio vs digital audio. I don’t want to screw around with film when I could just shoot digitally and have the same picture quality (though I admit this didn’t use to be the case back in 2009/2010).

Film is not dead. Digital is very much alive and only improving.

JH – If what you say is true, then why do my high-end clients; and most high-end commercials for that matter, still shoot film? The answer – because even going through the nasty video compression broadcast chain, film still looks noticeably better – even on a TV screen. It holds up. The same holds true (perhaps more so) for digital distribution in theaters.

Someone else mentioned the F35 – which is a “latest generation” variant of video. Yes, it does slam the Red & it’s a very good camera – if the concept fits that particular medium, it’d be at the top of my list; but it’s still not in the same league as film. Eventually, perhaps, video will surpass film. But not for a long time yet. My $.02.

Also for the film vs digital projector argument at cinemas, lots of places that I know have converted are now leasing the digital projectors and servicing is included where as they used to buy film projectors outright. When chains are entering into agreements with Sony to convert all their theatres they are being offered very competitive prices, certainly some of the costs I have seen are pretty good when you consider all of the associated costs.

There is lots of quoting from Wikipedia above, but ultimately it makes sense to go digital, and if you don’t believe it, go and work in a cinema or distributor, that is why lots started before 3D became popular again! Once you get over about 80 features you are saving money compared to film projection and that is taking into account all costs of digital vs film projection.