Request: Could you tell me how the 'open gate' concept works? In my 3 decades of photography/videography I never needed it or used it. What am I missing? What will I gain? Thx. Is it all about reframing in post?
Open Gate is a term mainly used now to describe using the maximum height and width of the digital camera sensor (or film strip height for film movie cameras)
This is largely beneficial for anamorphic lenses, to maximize the amount of digital sensor resolution or film resolution.
These days, it’s often referred to as benefitting post production for cropping multiple aspect ratios, or reframing a shot vertically.
Many digital cinema cameras today have different sensor sizes, so the term doesn’t necessarily refer to a constant, but means to use the entire sensor area for video recording. Zero windowing or cropping.
While open gate is very exciting for the C50, you aren’t necessarily gaining an extraordinary amount of pixel resolution.
The maximum raw resolution offered by the R5C in 8k mode at 60fps is 8192 x 4320.
The maximum raw resolution in “open gate” on the C50 is 6968x4646, at 30fps.
The C50 gains 326 pixels vertically, but loses 1224 pixels horizontally. Different strokes for different folks.
I love having more options.
The C50 I would not consider an R5c successor, but another cinema camera in the lineup that targets a specific, and slightly different user.
Open Gate is sort of an overused expression that dates back to the early motion picture film industry, opening the film gate to check for debri. Digital cinema cameras don’t even have a gate to “open”.
A more accurate term could be suggested, “full sensor readout” or something like that. But once a term on the internet gets ingrained (“open gate”) good luck changing it for today’s accuracy.
