F300EXR goes to the movies … Sanctum

I was on my way to pick Karen up for a movie on Friday evening and was in a bit of a rush. This, of course, guarantees that the extremely rare occurrence of a train leaving the Fallowfield station coincides with my arrival at the signals on Woodroffe.

So I whipped out the F300EXR and took this shot into the sun just as the train hit the spot …

This image is flawed in numerous ways … too much grain, sun in the center, nasty wire anchor slashing across … this image needs some serious work.

Yes, that’s much better.

After popping into the theater to get tickets to see Sanctum at 7:55pm, we popped over to the Baton Rouge for some nice Cajun fare. I sat the camera on the table at one point to let it capture our little private lamp with the rum and the Bud Light Lime …

For this sort of subject, any of the EXR cams will do a nice job. These cams do very well in DR400 mode because they capture the scene’s tones a lot better than many cams can manage. The lights do not blow out and the shadows have some detail.

I shot this for the halibut … it’s a Cajun soup with a tea biscuit. Very tasty …

The composition is pretty strange … but it appeals somehow.

Anyway … off to the movies we went. We chose to see this one in IMAX 3D, which I was presuming would knock my socks off.

Yes, that shot is of the screen by the F300EXR.

I’ve read some pretty bad reviews for Sanctum … and I cannot help but find them somehow Sanctumonious [sic]. The movie is meant to be an action flick with lots of impressive scenery and amazing feats by the actors. It is meant to keep you on the edge of your seat. It provides all that in spades. It reminds me of Vertical Limit in some ways. And any number of similar movies.

In my opinion, Sanctum is an excellent example of its genre. It is extremely suspenseful with its share of tragedy, and a suitably uplifting ending … what more could you ask for an evening of escapism?

What I did not like was IMAX 3D. This was my first experience with the theater version of IMAX and I was completely underwhelmed. The screen is tall and slightly curved. The opening IMAX test scenes were impressive, but when it came down to it I did not like the glasses and the field did not seem flat. It was not all sharp and clear as regular 3D has been every time I’ve seen it.

For example, I saw Green Hornet last week in 3D and it kicked butt. Some extremely funny scenes and the sharpest and crispest 3D imagery I’ve seen since Avatar. But this one should have blown Green Hornet away and rivaled Avatar. It did not come close. It was more like watching Alice in Wonderland … where you struggled to get over the flaws in the 3D and just watch the movie.

So I can easily recommend the movie … but I suggest that you give the IMAX version a miss and see it in regular 3D or even 2D. You’ll enjoy the story and the action that way.