Digital filmmaking

Digital cinematography is the process of capturing (recording) a motion picture using digital image sensors rather than through . As digital technology has improved in recent years, this practice has become dominant. Since the mid 2010s most of the movies across the world are captured as well as distributed digitally.

Many vendors have brought products to market, including traditional film camera vendors like Arri and Panavision, as well as new vendors like RED, Blackmagic, Silicon Imaging, Vision Research and companies which have traditionally focused on consumer and broadcast video equipment, like Sony, GoPro, and Panasonic.

As of 2017^[update], professional 4K digital film cameras are approximately equal to 35mm film in their resolution and dynamic range capacity, however, digital film still has a slightly different look to analog film. Some filmmakers still prefer to use analogue picture formats to achieve the desired results.

Beginning in the late 1980s, Sony began marketing the concept of "electronic cinematography," utilizing its analog Sony HDVS professional video cameras. The effort met with very little success. However, this led to one of the earliest high definition video shot feature movies, Julia and Julia (1987).

(1996) was the world's first film utilizing extensive digital post production techniques. Shot entirely with Sony's first Solid State Electronic Cinematography cameras and featuring over 35 minutes of digital image processing and visual effects, all post production, sound effects, editing and scoring were completed digitally. The Digital High Definition image was transferred to 35mm negative via electron beam recorder for theatrical release.

The first digitally filmed and post produced feature film was Windhorse, shot in Tibet and Nepal in 1996 on a prototype of the digital-beta Sony DVW-700WS and the prosumer Sony DCE-VX1000. The offline editing (avid) and the online post and color work (Roland House / da Vinci) were also all digital. The film, transferred to 35mm negative for theatrical release, won Best U.S. Feature at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in 1998.

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