The first day of NAB and it appears that this year Panasonic has nothing to say to indie filmmakers. Going in to the show, Canon and Sony had already pre-announced several new cameras, yet there had been nothing from Panasonic. And now the show has opened and Panasonic has only three things to talk about; the first is the AG-HPX600 2/3 CMOS P2 HD camcorder with 10-bit 4:2:2 AVC-Intra recording. At seven pounds, it’s described as the lightest professional shoulder camcorder, but it’s not really an indie filmmaker camera. They also announced the microP2 card and microP2 card adaptor. With […]
by Michael Murie on Apr 17, 2012DP’s are probably aware of Blackmagic Design’s capture and playback devices such as the HyperDeck Studio or UltraStudio SDI. They may have even heard of their Davinci Resolve color grading software. But I don’t think anyone expected Blackmagic to announce a digital camera, which is what they did yesterday at NAB. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera features: • Super wide 13 stops of dynamic range allows capture of increased details for feature film look. • High resolution 2.5K sensor allows improved anti aliasing and reframing shots. • Built in SSD allows high bandwidth recording of RAW video and long duration compressed […]
by Michael Murie on Apr 17, 2012Was it only last week that Sony announced the NEX-FS700, and had everyone wondering where this left the Canon C300? One week later and Canon has seemingly fired back a huge broadside, announcing not one, but two new cameras; the EOS-1D C, (a 4K video DSLR that Canon had pre-preannounced at the unveiling of the C300 late last year) and the C500, a true 4K version of the C300. Note that the C500 – like the C300 – will be available in two variants; one with an EF mount, and the other with a PL mount. For those who haven’t […]
by Michael Murie on Apr 13, 2012Just when you’d think speculation about NAB releases would be starting to appear, Sony goes and ruins the surprise by pre-announcing a camera two weeks before the show! The NEX-FS700 is the big brother of the NEX-FS100, and it appears that Sony intends to continue selling the FS100, with the FS700 “fitting in” between the $5k FS100 and the $14k PMW-F3. The FS700 resembles the body of the FS100, but the barrel that the lens is attached to is much larger, and adds a hump on the side to accommodate ND filters. It continues to support Sony’s E-mount. The FS700 […]
by Michael Murie on Apr 3, 2012The last month has been a little confusing for the Sony PMW-F3. When the camera was originally announced, the S-Log Gamma option was an add-on which came on an SxS card and cost $3,800. But a month ago, Sony announced a “temporary” change for the camera that was to run through March 31st. The S-Log upgrade would be available for $899 for those who hadn’t bought it, but Sony said that you’d have to send the camera in to get the upgrade installed. For those who had already purchased the upgrade at full price, they offered a $2,500 rebate if […]
by Michael Murie on Mar 14, 2012Last week Canon announced the 5D Mark III, and not surprisingly, it’s evolutionary rather than revolutionary. To recap, the 5D Mark II practically created the DSLR video revolution when it was announced in late 2008. Since then Canon has released a number of other DSLRs that rival the Mark II – several at lover prices – but none that set the bar higher or so captured the imagination of video and movie makers. Still, the video world has continued to evolve, and the past year has seen the arrival of several large-sensor cameras that more closely resemble traditional video cameras; […]
by Michael Murie on Mar 8, 2012At the end of last year I interviewed DP Dave Kruta about shooting with the Red EPIC [See: DP DAVID KRUTA AND THE RED EPIC]. At the time I also talked to him about the independent movie Concussion, which he’d just finished shooting. The movie is currently in post-production: Q: How did you come to work on the movie Concussion? I was contacted out of the blue by the director, who’d seen my reel. She interviewed a whole bunch of DPs and I guess we just connected over the script and what she was trying to do. Q: Can […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 15, 2012John Bailey was a graduate film student at USC studying film criticism when he discovered a passion for cinematography while working on a school production. His first feature-length credit was for a 1972 horror movie Premonition, and since then he has accumulated a long and impressive list of credits, including such classics as: Groundhog Day, The Accidental Tourist, Swimming to Cambodia, Silverado, The Big Chill, and American Gigolo. More recently, he’s worked on projects as diverse as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Must Love Dogs, The Producers, and Country Strong. I first heard John speak at an event organized […]
by Michael Murie on Feb 3, 2012When Senior Director of Professional Engineering and Solutions at Canon, Larry Thorpe spoke recently about the Canon C300, he talked quite a bit about the sensor in the camera. His explanation of why they developed an HD camera rather than a 4K sensor, and how the image is processed, is especially interesting. The following is an edited transcript of that part of his talk [You can see a video of his full talk here: Canon EOS C300 Pub Night with Larry Thorpe on 1.5.11 Vimeo] There’s also a Canon white paper, written by Larry, that covers this and other aspects […]
by Michael Murie on Jan 19, 2012Canon’s Senior Director of Professional Engineering and Solutions, Larry Thorpe, recently spoke at an event at Rule Boston Camera presenting the Canon C300. You can see a video of his talk here: Canon EOS C300 Pub Night with Larry Thorpe on 1.5.11 [Vimeo] Thorpe joined Canon in 2004. Prior to that, he was a major proponent of, and closely involved with, the evolution and development of High Definition television while at Sony. He is a Life Fellow of SMPTE I spoke to Mr. Thorpe briefly about the C300 after the event. The sensor in the C300 is 4:4:4 internally, but […]
by Michael Murie on Jan 17, 2012