The Real Fake Cameras Of Toy Story 4

[bdbits]

I have not done much with video, real-world or animated, but found this interesting. And ironic, in that digital cinematography is imitating historical techniques that were very dependant on the physical, analog, and imperfect nature of the lenses available. This seems similar to what is happening with smartphones and computational photography.

 

[fractal]

I have not done much with video, real-world or animated, but found this interesting. And ironic, in that digital cinematography is imitating historical techniques that were very dependant on the physical, analog, and imperfect nature of the lenses available. This seems similar to what is happening with smartphones and computational photography.

I watched this movie on different levels as a photography enthusiast. The depth of field, the ability to focus on exactly what and were they wanted and bokeh they created within a computer was truly beautiful to observe.

Makes you wonder were we'll be in 5 years. Will our big, fast and expensive lenses be obsolete?

 

[bdbits]

I too have observed some of these effects in other movies as well as this one, especially Pixar. It does make you wonder.

Obsolete is a nebulous word, though. New ways of doing things don't always fully supplant the 'old' ways. Musicians still play acoustic instruments (myself included), even though you can do excellent emulations of almost any instrument with electronic equivalents (even wind instruments) without issues like tuning or weather-induced changes to your sound. There are still people painting, but at one time they thought photography or digital graphic arts would make that obsolete. Even within photography, there are still people doing wet plates (OK that is very niche).

I think the big difference will be that snapshots and family photography may (are?) no longer be a subject of interchangeable lens cameras, but photographers going beyond that - to the 'next level' so to speak - will still employ "real" cameras and lenses. So although it may become a niche, I think there may still be cameras and lenses around a long time after I am gone.