From 2006 to 2008

Here's an article from the International Cinematographers Guild from 2006.

Interesting how much, and yet how little has changed in the past few years. The digital cameras mentioned in the article have all either had their day in the sun, or are still too expensive to be used on anything but the biggest budget studio films (for example, David Fincher's "Zodiac" which used the Viper Filmstream camera).

And yet, the use of Super 16 as a capture medium just continues to grow. The new filmstocks are so good, they've remained very competitive with the highest quality digital formats.

To quote Cooke Optics' Les Zellan from the article:

"We've seen a resurgence of interest in (Super 16). Many companies think 16 is dead. The video guys have been saying so for years. Sometimes even we believed it. People get caught up in buzz and there’s an idea that you have to shoot this way because ‘everyone’s doing it.’ That’s often the first wave. Then people realize the technology that they were so excited about isn’t always best. People jumped on the video or HD bandwagon where often 16 makes more sense.”

Ha ha, I like how he calls them "video guys."

-Dave Boyle