Flew up from LA seated between Jim Compton, CTO of the DVS Intelestream group, which includes Burbank post house CCI, and DP Brian J. Reynolds. Reynolds—late of The Closer, shot the first five years of NYPD Blue, the Emmy-nominated American Family, and is just finished with David Semel’s new pilot Limelight—a three-camera Genesis shoot that also gave Reynolds the chance to experiment with the Canon 5D DLSR.

Compton’s testing 2 perf (Kodak Primetime) for Jim Chressanthis on Ghost Whisperers; Reynolds is pretty dazzled by the 5D. The two men trade stories and opinions about life and images in post-35mm television. One talks about “grain,” the other “noise” but their observations overlap around questions of sensor size and resolution, budgets, and archiving.

Reynolds calls the Canon image “insane,” and like others I’ve heard talk about it, seems to still be adjusting to the implications of a $2,000 camera and its big, beautiful, grain-free resolution. “Suddenly you can shoot literally available light—you could use a flashlight—and get more than what you see with your eye,” he says. He points out that the image is 30i only, that he’s anticipating the Canon firmware upgrade. He doesn’t know if the 5D-shot footage will make the Limelight cut, but he knows that it could. But the unknowns for him are nothing compared to the potential, and he’s not alone.

(Read D.W. Leitner’s story about Mark Forman’s adventures in 5D ).

Compton and Reynolds talk F23s and F35s, 2 perf and CCDs; they talk pro and con about the Red, which they both respect. “But they say it’s 350 ASA and can push to 500,” Reynolds says, “but it’s really 250 ASA.” He hardly expects limitation to stand, but he also circles back a little incredulously to the 5D’s “3200 ASA performance.” They can both still muster enthusiasm for the “format agnostic” convenience and archivability of film.