A motion picture camera used to be a light-sealed box with a strip of film running through it. Was it easy to thread? Did it run quiet? How bright was the viewfinder? Today’s cameras are exponentially more complex. They are literal bundles of separate technologies, each lurching forward at a different rate. To understand today’s cameras, you must understand the parts to understand the whole. This is my third annual overview of digital cinema cameras for Filmmaker, and it is being written in the run-up to NAB 2013 in Las Vegas, the world’s largest trade show devoted to digital video […]
by David Leitner on Apr 5, 2013
Originally posted April 2011. At back-to-back press conferences prior to the opening of NAB’s show floor, both Panasonic and Sony acknowledged the still-unfolding natural disaster in Japan and asked that our thoughts be with the Japanese people. Sony added that despite critical damage to its media plant in Sendai, supplies of HDCAM-SR tape would return to normal by June. Sony’s Sendai Technology Center (which I’ve visited) practically invented the high-performance tapes necessary to DV and HDV (metal evaporated) and HDCAM-SR (metal particle), and still manufactures a preponderance of them. Having persuaded both film and television industries to adopt HDCAM-SR as […]
by David Leitner on Nov 27, 2011
Originally posted April 2011. I wish to continue my notes about developments in large-sensor cameras, but of course the magnesium-powder newsflash sucking up all the oxygen at NAB today is Apple’s stealth sneak peek at Final Cut Pro X last night. Apple hasn’t officially attended NAB for several years—many of us miss the consummate showmanship of their former press conferences—so when news broke on the eve of NAB that an entire slate of speakers at the 10th annual FCP User Group SuperMeet had been swept aside for a special guest, Apple fever took hold. The event sold out in a […]
by David Leitner on Nov 27, 2011
Okay, I’m not on the road to NAB… but David Leitner is, and he’ll be filing reports from the conference here at Filmmaker. Look for his pieces beginning tomorrow or Monday. There are other sites to follow as well. Koo will be attending NAB for the first time and posting interviews, write-ups and news over at No Film School. Phillip Bloom will be attending as wIll Vincent Laforet. For many, the big news will be (the rumored) announcement by Apple of the new Final Cut Pro. If you’re not following all the tech blogs, here’s the low-down: at the last […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 9, 2011Jamie Stuart passed me this video, which Ray Pride posted at Movie City Indie. Check out the small size of the forthcoming RED Epic camera. Here’s another RED report from NAB, courtesy of Engadget: Ted Interview (Part I) from Landmine Media on Vimeo.
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 16, 2010