As regular readers of my essays will know, when I’m asked to evaluate gear, I like to create real world scenarios that I call DCS Road Tests. These Road Tests give me the opportunity to really judge performance and show the results in just the way I would be using the...

  by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the July 2026 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter) It’s an exciting time in the long history of celluloid acquisition and exhibition and no one is happier about it than...

by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the May 2026 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter) I think I first attended the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in the mid-1980’s, and as I recall, it really...

In this thoughtful reflection on the transformation of the role of the cinematographer noted Director of Photography Alfonso Parra,  AEC explores this evolution with respect to the technical, perceptual, and the questions of authorship in contemporary motion picture...

by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the March 2026 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter)   Hooray for Horror: Celebrating Some of the Behind-the-Scenes Talent That Make Indie Horror Such a Successfully Enduring...

Celebrating the Heritage of Longtime DCS Supporters ARRI, Cartoni, Sigma, and ZEISS by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the January 2026 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter) It is no secret that it has been a tough...

Three Predictions for 2026 From Larry O’Connor, Founder and CEO Other World Computing 2026 Prediction 1: On-Prem Comes Back, Not as a Rebellion Against Cloud, but as the Sensible Default for Performance, Cost, and Control. In 2026, more teams are going to rediscover...

The Rise of Vertical Content and the Aspect Ratio Conundrum by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the November 2025 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter) In the dozens of indie features I shot throughout the ’80s and...

No Need For Tilly to Have Us in a Tizzy - "She" is Just a New Tool For Storytelling by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the October 2025 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter)   By now I’m sure you’ve heard...

I shoot people. To clarify, this is not the confession of a hitman, but just to affirm that my cinematographic specialty over the years has been capturing images of people. Whether it be narrative, documentary, or promo work, I’ve managed to use my skills to support...

by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the April 2025 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter)   DCS Road Test 2025: Lights, Camera, Action, Plus All The Support Gear to Make it Happen As regular followers of my...

by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the February/March 2025 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter) Tales From the 2025 HPA Tech Retreat Told at a Difficult Time in Hollywood...But Don’t Blame AI The mood in the...

IMAX for All? – The Rise of 65mm Format Cinema Cameras and Cine Lenses A DCS Content Contribution from Rafa Laperal and Oli Laperal Jr of RSVP Film Studios, Manila, Philippines Let’s go back to the late 1950s when 65mm film was first introduced. It was a big deal back...

Hollywood’s Ice Age — Film Workers Fighting to Come Back From a String of Disasters by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the January 2025 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter) I try to keep positive and avoid being...

I have travelled to lens manufacturers’ head offices multiple times to attend service courses on disassembling, overhauling, and realigning cinema cameras, fluid heads, as well as prime and zoom lenses.  These journeys have taken me to Munich for ARRI & Sachtler,...

Lights, Camera, Innovation: How AI is Shaping the Future of Film Careers By Lawrence Jordan, ACE Introduction Artificial intelligence is reshaping the film industry, revolutionizing everything from visual effects to on-set workflows. Like the leap from practical...

Codex shares two recent articles featuring conversations with six top Digital Imaging Technicians about how their jobs have evolved. Part 1: https://codex.online/dit/The-changing-role-of-the-DIT Part 2:...

The Beijing International Radio and Television (BIRTV) is China’s comprehensive answer to events like NAB, IBC, Cinegear, CinemaCon, Infocomm and LDI combined. Some 500 exhibits and 50 conference sessions spread across eight (8) huge halls, the event attracted some...

For The Love of the Zoom: A Brief Retrospective and Rationale On My Use of Cinema Zoom Lenses by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the October 2024 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter)   The modern zoom lens is...

AI-ography: How AI Technology is Changing The Way We Create Motion Picture Imagery by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the July 2024 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter)   Other than some focus assist...

Indie Filmmaking - A Hard Habit to Kick and the Challenges of Making It To The Big Screen by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the April 2024 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter)   I love shooting movies, but...

Tales From the 2024 HPA Tech Retreat - Keeping Up With AI and Other Quickly Evolving Technologies In a tradition maintained for many years, I devote a DCS eNews essay to cover the technology presented at the HPA Tech Retreat. It is a very high level gathering, now in...

The Cioni Brothers Launch Strada, A.I.-enabled Cloud Platform for Creative Workflows by James Mathers Cinematographer and Founder of the Digital Cinema Society (Excerpted from the January 2024 Digital Cinema Society eNewsletter)   They are not easy to keep up...

When James Mathers asked me to pen a guest column for the monthly DCS “One DP’s Perspective,” he said a lot of other cinematographers would be interested to find out more about my specialty of shooting tabletop.  I get it because tabletop shooting really highlights...