Camera sensor and film size explained – From 1/3 inch over super35 to IMAX – Epic Episode #1

[Music] hello and welcome in the media division today we're gonna have a look at the different sensor sizes and film formats that are used in the industry we're gonna go all the way from a 1/3 inch sensor that is used in iPhones all the way up to the IMAX format and we're gonna do so using the graphic you just saw that gives you a realization of how big the size differences actually are and I'm gonna give some examples with it of course there's a couple of more different formats that I left out and it's usually variations of the format's that have usually died out by now but I think this simplification is well enough so let's go [Music] we will start with the 1/3 inch sensor there are smaller ones but none of them is relevant for filmmaking you probably have one of those from your phone in our days these sensors are most of news for social media diarrhoea but this size was also used in three CCD camcorders that were popular around the millennium then he Boras iconic 28 days later was mostly shot with such a camcorder if he were born in the 70s your childhood films are most probably shot on super 8 film in the professional realm and navigate much traction except for training or as a stylized approach this is from the 2005 short the man who met himself just a little larger is the one to two third inch sensor found the GoPro Hero 3 and in the DJI Mavic bringing us to the broadcast evergreen two to three most studio and live sports cameras are still using this class of sensors as they are easy to focus in alpha extremely wide zoom ranges [Music] surprisingly Episode two and three of the Star Wars prequels wish on early sonatas that use senses in the 2/3 sighs we step up to the full 1 inch that is used in the Phantom for prodrome and many pocket camps way more relevant is the larger super 16 millimeter film format historically and even today in aluminum pictures mostly as a cheaper alternative to 35 millimeter but also for its gritty a look great movies like leaving Las Vegas and Black Swan have been shot on 16 millimeters even though the budget might not have been a limiting factor a large jump leads to the micro 4/3 standard here we find a fan favorite from Panasonic Olympus and Blackmagic Design as well as higher tier drone cameras like the DJI x5 s our next stop is a big one as we enter the family of 35 millimeter sizes and there are many in the digital realm we often find HPC and slightly differing sizes to be used synonymously with super 35 millimeter formats where there are many sizes as well historically it makes sense to start with Academy 35 there was the leading slimmest an ad from 1932 until the widescreen revolution starting in the early 50s the 1.37 to one aspect ratio is very close to the 4 to 3 ratio used in the pre HDTV and almost all classic movies like Citizen Kane button-down Kizza Blanca it's a wonderful life and the thief effecter all used it today it is used for most in aesthetic reasons and of course Wes Anderson is the kind of director to do so in some of his movies another modern installment is the Oscar winning feature the artist our next stop is the gold standard of cinema until today the super 35 full aperture after TVs found their ways into most households cinemas needed a novelty to fuller seats white screen so a wider aspect ratio was born there were many competing systems with slightly different aspects but we will simplify for this short journey the most iconic way to achieve a white screen is the use of anamorphic lenses during filming and projection this allowed most of the production chain to be unaltered the scope has a certain look that still popular maybe even more than ever a lot of iconic movies were shot in scope like Blade Runner and the alien and in more modern times firms like l-'alamin and of course it works in digital senses just as well like here in ex machina and in it of course super 35 widescreen can be a chief register opping the image or by using a super 35 that doesn't use the full height like three perforation super 35 a lot of iconic movies have been shot on super 35 and crop T White's granite like a gold fan on et and it is still popular in cinema and high-end TV productions like the glorious West world the list of super 35 films shot on film and digital is endless and is growing steadily the full frame 35 millimeter comes from surf photography and it was the farmer that started the DSLR ephemeral revolution with the Canon 5d ironically it hasn't played a big role in TV or cinema productions other than as a bee or crush camera some TV shows like the Leila house seasons were shot entirely on 50 using the full-frame crop to 16 to 9 expect the full frame is also the entrance to a new field of sensor and film sizes that are becoming more popular with evolving technology and a need for nostalgia the large format or short LF as full frames considered a large format compared with the cinema stand at super 35 it is usually included in the definition the first true la format is VistaVision but film shot entirely the format are very rare one of the few Hitchcock's vertigo mister vision was widely used for special effects shots given extra resolution and less grain for example the original Star Wars movies and you used it trans computer animations were rendered to this division for the live-action was shot a 65 million movies which brings us to another format that has historic relevance but is revived in analog and digital versions 65 millimeters a white negative or sensor achieves a wide aspect without anamorphic lenses but some processes are still using anamorphic lenses with a squeezed factor of 1.25 for an ultra wide image just like Vista vision it was often used for special effects shot for the same reasons like in Blade 1 classic films like Kubrick's 2001 and Lawrence of Arabia are shot on 65 millimeter negative Tarantino resurrected the analog format for the hateful eight the business giant re has added the airy 65 to the rental program this digital 65 millimeter version has a slightly different dimension but not in a relevant way the Rena vent is a prime example for the capabilities of the RA 65 and the future of large format filming in our journey we passed by the smallest medium photography format the six four five that might become an LF standard in the future it is interesting as lenses are available reasonable prices and they're quite future-proof in terms of sensor coverage our last stop is the IMAX format while there are IMAX digital formats they rely on smaller sensors like the RS 65 the king of all formats is therefore still analog film it is a full-height format that again gets us close to where we started from a four to three energy as IMAX is very expensive and because of the equipment size and weight it has mostly been used for documentaries but in the last decade it has become more popular in feature films especially Christopher Nolan likes to use dynamics for many sequences in his movies like here in dune kick and in the highest sequence of the dark minutes I mix is often use when extra a little bit of cinema magic is required as it claims to be especially immersive like here in Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol we will talk about that in a second but for now our journey ends I would like to talk a bit about the implications of what we just saw of course larger formats have their drawbacks they're usually heavier gear heavier cameras and larger heavier lenses et cetera but there's nothing that couldn't be overcome potentially by by technology meaning that of course we could have a radical new approach to two lenses or something but even existing lenses like this is for example Amemiya six four five lens and it is surprisingly light and small 480 millimeter lens with such a big image cycle if you want to see how this would look on us super 35 sensor I tried this on even a very very small test and you can check it out right here let's talk about the positive things that we can have using larger formats of course the same reason why we talked about this in there in the piece you have just more light hitting a larger film or sensor which gives you potentially less grain more resolution or larger sensor resulting in less grain and the cleaner image this is always nice to have because this will also mean potentially a higher dynamic range etc all nice things to have and I guess you're all for it I'm all for it give me that but are there other aspects as well and the answer is yes of course we all know if you want to keep it somewhat same distance you have to go much wider on a smaller sense with a wider lens and that will cause distortions that are unpleasant to your talent and if you're shooting architectural buildings et cetera it makes everything a bit wobbly the Deaf's and separation not only in terms of sharpness but in terms of perspective is very different with larger sensor and there's a lot of videos on that on YouTube you should check it out in general it's just said that it is a perspective effect that is closer to the human eye and therefore is very easily acceptable to our brains and we make a very nice perspective rendering out of that and it's beautiful having said that if we look at the Star Wars Episode two and three I'm not a big fan of the prequels of Star Wars I don't know who is I would say that just visually something like The Dark Knight the heist scene is completely shot in IMAX is vastly superior to the the prequels but this is a matter of taste would you say that it looks vastly better I mean in look at the relation that the censors actually have to each other this is massive does that really really show in the quality I'm not too sure about that I'm very interested in in your opinion about the meta subject and how you think the future will evolve our gear and so leave us your comment and we will be happy to respond to that and hope we have a nice discussion about it please subscribe to our Channel you do so by pressing that button and like this video I'm very thankful for your support see you around next time [Music]

Channel: Media Division

Views: 278,982

Rating: 4.9623337 out of 5

Keywords: Film, comparison, Samples, 1/3 inch, super 8, 2/3 inch, super 16, M43, APS-C, Academy 35, super 35, large format, LF, Vista Vision, 65mm, IMAX, sensor size, micro 4/3, imax film, film vs digital, cinematography, full frame, sensor versus film comparison, 65mm film, sensor size explained for video, digital sensor size, sensor size explained, different types of sensors, camera sensor size explained, camera sensor size, Alexa 65, 70mm film, super panavision 70, super 65

Id: rUOYXjH6y7w

Length: 12min 43sec (763 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 26 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/freshorang]

Thank you, very informative!