Cinematography
Filmmaking - Cinematography
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iOgrapher Adds Support and Mounts to iPhones and iPads
It’s becoming more and more common to do quick shoots with iPhones and iPads. They’re inexpensive, they have great cameras, they’re connected to the internet. But they obviously lack certain elements of even the most basic camera. When high school teacher David Basulto was using iPads in his media arts class he was noticing a common theme – shaky footage with poor audio. This led him to create iOgrapher. iOgrapher is a simple plastic molding that now comes in three flavors – iPhone 5, iPad, and iPad Mini, with iPad Air on the way. The rig gives you two handles, […]
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VectorMount Adds Movement to GoPro Action Shots
I stumbled on an interesting GoPro mount in one of the far corners of the NAB showroom floor yesterday. Though it shares a striking resemblance to a weather vane, VectorMount is a mount for vehicles that adds movement to action shots. The camera is free to rotate with an aerodynamic tail extending from the back, straightening out the camera as the vehicle moves. What you get are some nice pans and movement from an un-operated camera mounted on a vehicle that’s a little more exciting than just a wide static shot. A weight on the tail rod let’s you adjust how […]
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Small and Handy Grip Gear from Manfrotto and Matthews
With lots of one-man-band shooters out there and small productions, it’s always great to find small but effective gear along with gear that does double duty. Manfrotto released the new Nanopole Stand, a lightweight stand with a twist. The center column pops out of the legs, giving you a boom pole to quickly hold a small light or accessory overhead. Works great with their new Smart Tilt Head, a flexible cold shoe mount adapter. Another nice feature of the stand that is also appearing in other Manfrotto stands is a flexible leg that slides out, giving some adjustment room to […]
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New Pocket Series Rigs from Edelkrone
Edelkrone has taken their Pocket Rig concept and broken it down to create an entire series of different pocket solutions so you can pick and choose what type of attachments you’d like on your camera. The first one that caught my eye was the Pocket Slider. While obviously you won’t get as much slide from this as a full track, this is a really neat rig to get a little camera movement in your shot from a device that can easily fit in your bag instead of taking up its own bag. For other movement options there’s the Pocket Skater. […]
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Lowel Gives LEDs Some Glass
While cameras get most of the attention at NAB, I’ve been on the lookout for interesting lights and support gear. One that caught my eye is a new Fresnel lighting fixture from Lowel. The Lowel PRO Power LED gives you the equivalent of about 100w and has a telescoping feature with the outside of the fixture letting you spot or flood the light but with much finer control in between. It doesn’t have a page online but it’s the exact same head as the handheld GL-1 light, so you can check that out for comparable features. They’ll also offer their […]
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The Two Big Camera Announcements at NAB – AJA’s CION and Blackmagic’s URSA
There were two big camera announcements at NAB yesterday. First up AJA is entering the camera market with CION. This is a 4K camera with global shutter that has the ergonomics and connections of a more traditional camera. It’s priced at just under $9000 for the body and a power adapter. However there’s some things to keep in mind. It’s PL mount only so the lens options will be pricier. It also only takes AJA PAk Drives which run about $700 for 256 GB and $1300 for 512 GB, so media will not be cheap. And you’ll need to get […]
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NAB 2014: The Year of Unusual Cameras
It was clear that this would be the year of 4K, but perhaps more surprising is who plans to ship 4K cameras this year. Sony, who actually bought out two new 4K cameras last year – the F5 and F55 – clearly decided they didn’t need to roll out new cameras this year. Instead, they announced ProRes and DNXHD recording options, and a new ENG-style base for these cameras. They also announced that the F5 will be upgradeable to the F55. Perhaps feeling they needed to show something new, Sony invited their consumer camera unit on stage to show off […]
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DJI’s Ronin Hits Camera Stabilizer Arena at NAB – Big Features, Low Price
While today is the official day the exhibition halls open their doors at NAB, last night some companies got to release a sneak peek of some do their new products. Definitely the most exciting in the production field is Ronin, a new handheld gimbal stabilizing system that’s a direct competitor to the MoVI. Like MoVI’s manufacturer, Freefly Systems, Ronin comes from a company with a background in making aerial drones with gyrostabilizers, DJI. They’re probably best known for the Phantom, the GoPro aerial drone that’s made high altitude shots available to just about anyone. While Ronin and MoVI look pretty […]
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Digital Motion Picture Cameras in 2014: The Next Chapter
Welcome to Filmmaker Magazine’s fourth annual digital cinema camera round-up. Each year for reasons of publishing schedule, this overview is written on the brink of the big NAB show in Las Vegas. By the time some of you read this, journalists and bloggers will have breathlessly uploaded each and every scrap of breaking news from the frenzied show floor, saving you the airfare, sore feet, and those Vegas cab fares calibrated to expense accounts. But what do these splashy product introductions mean? Do we need to trade up our cameras? How soon? Are more resolution, bit depth, frame rates, color […]
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Watch: Cinematography In The 21st Century
Emmanuel Lubezki, Christopher Doyle, Bruno Delbonnel, Roger Deakins, Robert Richardson, Janusz Kaminski all in one place? This video, strewn together by editor Erick Lee, features clips from the work of internationally illustrious cinematographers over the past decade. Interestingly, there is very little handheld to be had, with most of the stylized shots achieved on a dolly.
