Silicon Imaging's SI-2K Update

The SI-2K and MINI have both matured quite a lot (link)

Información detallada de los adelantos y updates de la SI-2K y la MINI, de Silicon Imaging. Por Heath McKnight de la página Digital Producer.

EXCLUSIVE STUDIODAILY VIDEO: Silicon Imaging SI-2K with Cineform RAW

Silicon Imaging, Cineform and IRIDAS Partner to Create at RAW Workflow
Matt Armstrong

(Traduction to Spanish: Dankmar García)
May 3, 2007 Source: Studio Daily

Last year Silicon Imaging burst on the NAB scene with a 1920X1080 camera that looked like a tank. This year it showed its sleek, new 2K camera designed by P+S Technik.
El año pasado, Silicon Imaging irrumpió en la escena de la NAB con una cámara 1920x1080 que parecía un tanque. Este año enseñaron la nueva versión 2K diseñada por P+S Technik.

But the upgrade in pixels and design are just the tip of the iceberg with the SI-2K. Continuing the mantra of a manageable IT workflow and leveraging the Cineform RAW codec, Silicon Imaging has partnered with IRIDAS to bring color grading on set.
Pero la actualización en pixels y en diseño son solamente la punta del Iceberg con la SI-2K. Continuando con el mantra de un flujo de trabajo IT manejable y el apalancamiento con el codec RAW de Cineform, Silicon Imaging se unió con IRIDAS para traer corrección de color al set.

ARTICULO COMPLETO DA CLICK AQUI (EN INGLÉS)

Silicon Imaging 2K on The Mutant Chronicles

December 1, 2006 Source: Studio Monthly

On the feature film The Mutant Chronicles, DP Geoff Boyle experimented with an alpha version of Silicon Imaging’s new 2K MINI camera for inserts, greenscreen shots and even an entire scene in the film. The bulk of the film, however, was shot with the Grass Valley Viper camera.



Silicon Imaging 2K on The Mutant Chronicles

Having been quite impressed by the footage he saw from the 1920 SI camera at NAB last spring, Boyle got his hands on the 2K MINI and leveraged the compact size of the camera.
"The MINI was interesting in that we used it for a lot of stuff where we didn’t want ultra slow motion, just 72 fps, but we would clamp it onto the matte box bars of the Viper," he says.
"Basically, we were doing the same shot with two cameras, but one was shooting at 24 and the other at 72 fps. The 2K MINI is so small that you can actually put it in the middle of a shot with a wide-angle lens while you’re shooting with the Viper and have the actors move around it; in our case, it was concealed from the Viper the entire time."

The digital images were sent via Ethernet directly to a laptop that Boyle notes "wasn’t a terribly fast computer at all; certainly not a Core 2 Duo, which Silicon Imaging recommends, but we recorded straight to it." The CineForm RAW files were then assigned a base color correction and converted to a series of 16-bit TIFF files. The TIFF files, as well as the DPX files from the Viper, were then taken into DVS Clipster and transformed into DVCPRO HD QuickTime files to be edited in Apple Final Cut Pro.

"In the past I have been so anti-compression, but I am amazed by what is coming off this. I have fought and fought with production people not to use systems with compression, but the CineForm compression surprised me, to say the least," he says. "When people see these images the common response was‘that footage looks smooth.’ I hate to use the word, but it really does look‘filmic’; they have a smoothness to them like film and it lacks that hardness you usually get from aperture and gamma correction in digital images. It takes beautiful skin tones. We had a lot of scenes with people and fire in the same shot and it handled the highlights of the fire, and the skin tones on both black and white people looked amazing."

The Mutant Chronicles wrapped in October and entered into what will likely be a long post process (there are some 1,500 visual effects shots), Boyle has been at home doing color correction and compositing tests with the images from the MINI on his laptop. "I am playing with the CineForm Prospect HD, After Effects and Premiere Pro and working with the SI images, and it’s remarkably easy to color correct the RAW files," he says. "I’ve also been doing tests with the greenscreen footage we shot with the camera and it looks very, very clean, with nice keys and clean edges. It really is a remarkable system."

New toys on Mutants: SI 2K and Phantom

Geoff Boyle tests two new cameras on the second unit
and miniatures shoots for Mutant Chronicles: the Phantom
high-speed camera and the Silicon Imaging 2K Mini.

Articulo de la revista Showreel en PDF. (En Inglés/On English)

SI-2K Vs. Red One

Esta ha sido una discusión que se ha vuelto un "Vs." y hasta una batalla. La verdad es que es hablar de 2 cámaras totalmente diferentes. Asi como antes hablabamos de 8mm, 16mm y 35mm, hoy hablamos de HD, 2K y 4K. Son formatos diferentes. Incluso diseñados con mentalidades diferentes y para proyectos diferentes. Si seguimos con este concepto del "Vs." pasará como la eterna peléa entre MAC y PC. Pero eso ya se definirá por los usuarios en un futuro no muy distante y realmente ambas prometen ser muy buenas cámaras.

Este es el link de este articulo de HD for INDIES, SI-2K VS RED ONE escrito y actualizado por Mike Curtis. Es uno de los articulos más extensos y completos que hay acerca de estas cámaras.