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Hybrid cameras changing photography
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A hybrid camera is one that can shoot stills and video. Point-and-shoot cameras have been able to do this for a while but now DSLRs (Digital Single Lens Reflex) are shipping with the capability of shooting professional video as well as stills. This new bread of hybrid camera can shoot HD Video on large sensors using really good interchangeable lenses. This allows the video to achieve what is called the film look where objects in the foreground are in focus but the background is blurry. This shallow depth of field technique is the way most major motion pictures are shot. Compare that with video from a camcorder where the image sensor is smaller and as a result the built in lenses aren't capable of shallow depth of field photography. In other words, everything is in focus all at once and the resulting picture looks like video instead of cinema footage.
35mm digital cameras that cost under $3000 are now capable of shooting moving footage equal to that shot by motion picture cameras costing six figures. Terminator Salvation director of photography, Shane Hurlbut saw the potential of using hybrid cameras to shoot in small spaces and to accomplish movements bulkier cameras would find impossible. Rumor has it that Iron Man 2 is using these cameras for similar reasons.
Hybrid DSLRs are affecting the movie industry but how does that change photography? Photographers now have another tool in their kit to keep them competitive in a changing market. Print jobs are declining and advertising dollars are shifting to the web, mobile phones and new markets like digital signage. Portrait and wedding photography has also been affected by inexpensive high quality digital cameras in the hands of every person attending an event or parent with a child causing declining back-end sales. Photojournalists have been carrying video cameras in their still kits for years now because news organizations demanded it. Now with advanced hybrid cameras, every type of photographer has the capability and the opportunity to deliver multimedia projects instead of just still images.
Still images aren't dead or even dyeing, but the need for stills only deliverables is on the decline. The average consumer won't be able to easily transcode or edit HD video on the typical home computer system so the barrier for entry has been raised again allowing professional photographers and videographers a window of opportunity. The down side for traditional commercial photography is that now, the disciplines of cinematography and photography are converging and the same set of tools that makes a still shooter competitive also empowers the commercial director of photography to deliver stills with their video project.
As budgets tighten and the playing field both contracts and expands because of hybrid cameras, the really talented photographers and cinematographers will have the opportunity to rise to the top. Check out the short film Reverie, shot by still photographer Vincent Laforet to see the result of putting this technology into the hands of a talented visual artist.
Cameras currently shipping that produce professional still and video imagery include the Canon 5D Mark II, Nikon N90, and the Panasonic GH1.
For more info: ShaneHurlbut.com, Collision Conference, Planet 5D, Cinema 5D, Prolost
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