35mm film is awesome

[Bobby Henderson]

No they weren't. Professional digital movie cameras are 2K or 4K resolution. Cinema digital projectors are either 2k or 4k. 1080p is a different format that is just under 2K resolution (2048 vertical lines vs. 1920 for Blu-ray).

Actually, Joe was correct.

The ARRI D20 (used on Superman Returns) has a native maximum resolution of 2880 X 2160 pixels. However, the video footage on Superman Returns was shot mostly at HDTV levels of resolution: 1080p.

Also, there are no digital movie cameras that shoot in 4K resolution. You have to use film to get that level of detail.

Other digital (video) originated movies like Sin City and the third Star Wars prequel were also shot at 1080p resolution. Not 2K. And certainly not 4K either. The 2nd Star Wars prequel was shot at levels significantly below 1080p HDTV resolution. That Sony/Panavision digital camera was in mere prototype form at the time.

I have no doubt digital cameras for movies will continue to improve, possibly at a fairly rapid pace even. But I think it's still going to be awhile before such cameras can truly match 35mm origination, not just in terms of sheer image quality, but also speed as well.

Shooting in "digital" adds a lot of convenience. But it has its own drawbacks too. Lots of movies (especially these days) are shot in low light conditions. Look objectively at Michael Mann's last two movies. Miami Vice and Collateral were both shot mostly with digital cameras. You'll see smearing, black crush in the shadows and all sorts of other problems that come from CCDs and CMOS chips struggling to "see" detail and lagging as a result. 35mm can be poorly exposed, but there's not going to be any pixel lag either unlike what you get from a video camera. Mann's Heat (1995) had lots of dark, low light night scenes, but still ended up looking really good. It's actually a great example of 35mm anamorphic origination. I wish Mann would go back to making movies like that.