Monday, April 29, 2013

Video Bootcamp for Photographers Presented by Victor Ha, May 10th at Video Gear

On Friday May 10th Victor Ha will be coming to Video Gear to present a seminar about transitioning from still photography into shooting video. I've had a chance to meet with Victor twice now; once at NAB and again this last weekend at the Photo Video West Expo where he presented a very condensed tutorial (time constraits of the venue).  If you heard him speak at the expo, then you know Victor is a very knowledgable guy and great to learn from.


Since it's always good to keep the boss happy, here's the official sales pitch...

A Video BootCamp for Photographers

Presented by Victor Ha

Come explore and learn the basic skills and elements needed in transitioning from the photography into HD Video.  This one-day, hands-on, seminar will investigate the concepts of story telling and what tools, skills and concepts are required in moving beyond the still and into the world of HD Video.

REGISTER & RESERVE YOUR OWN SPOT

We believe this session will sell-out fast and you don't want to miss this one.
Learn to get the most out of your camera during this full-day course.

Advance Registration is only $195 for the full day and includes lunch plus a Benro monopod!
 
Items to Bring
* HDSLR Camera
* Memory Cards
* Variable ND Filter (if you have one)
* Notepad
* Computer


Instructor Bio:
Victor Ha is a former professional photographer that has transitioned into understanding the complexities of HDSLR filmmaking and overcoming the various challenges involved with making a transition from shooting stills to capturing video. Victor takes a very practical approach in helping other photographers make the transition to HDSLR video by leveraging their photographic knowledge into filmmaking prowess.
 

 
But wait - there's more...
 
Register online NOW and you will receive
not only some great knowledge
and a good lunch, but you also receive a
Benro A48FBS4 A48F Classic Aluminum Monopod -
Flip Lock Legs - S4 Head - 3 Leg Base,
retail value: $199.00 - FREE.

We look forward to seeing you right here on

Friday, May 10th

and don't forget to bring your camera!
 

End of marketing stuff...  Fwewww, made it through alive.  The bottom line is Victor is a cool guy and you're going to learn a lot of stuff that will kickstart your video endeavours.  That...and Martin is usually no slouch on the craft services ...and you get to take home a new monopod at the end of the day.  So come join us on May 10th.  If you have any questions about the seminar just call the shop.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

NAB Show 2013 part 3: A Little More Action Please...

I felt like I had to throw in a reference from the Elvis song "A Little Less Conversation" for the grand blow-out finale from my NAB reports.  I mean we've already had lights, cameras...and what comes next...ACTION!  Sorry, no showgirls or "thunder from down under" in this last installment, but I did find a cool looking Bolex at the Kessler booth.  Sadly for some, that's equivalent.

 

One of the largest product introductions at the show and maybe one of the largest bits of excitement in Hollywood this year is Freefly's MoVI.  It's a solid state gyro stabilized handheld camera rig.  As shown in the picture it's mostly made of carbon fiber composite, so the price isn't for the faint of heart.  ...and yes, you can operate it alone.  There are two modes: one with a second op on a joystick; the second where the stabilizer slowly adapts to where you are moving the camera - essentially smoothing out your handheld shaky-cam.

I saw Q from Revolution Cinema the next day and he was trying to get one for Shane Hurlbut.  Sounds like the folks from CSI and JJ Abrams are already starting to put it to work.  As soon as these rigs become prevalent around Hollywood the Steadicam is pretty much dead.  I also caught up with my friend Blair on Sunday and he said his Steadicam operator friends are all swearing up a blue streak (not in a good way) after seeing this rig in action.  What they need now is a way to comfortably get the camera up into shoulder mount position.  Trying to lift a 15lb weight above your head all day isn't going to be user friendly.  That would be like trying to operate a 15lb Steadicam all day without the vest.  Ouch!

Just like a Steadicam you're going to have to invest in a wireless follow focus and a wireless HD transmitter.  Freefly hasn't integrated those items just yet.  I saw a Bartech wireless follow focus ($10k!) attached to the demo unit.




I know the last report talked about camera porn...well, say hello to crane porn.  Yes, every super-jib-techno-extender-vendor on planet was there to show off their 30-50ft cranes.  It's awesome to see these precision machines fly a camera around like it's nothing.  I have to give a shout out to Sara in the Kessler booth (4th photo below).  She kept me from accidentally bonking Rodney Charters on the head while demo-ing the new Kessler Pocket Jib (shown in pic).  That would have been a very sad day indeed.  I don't need to be known as the guy who sent Rodney to the Las Vegas hospital with a concussion.

The fifth photo shows the new Kessler Cinedrive system attached to their motorized head.  Somehow it seems inadequate to match their computer controlled system with a low end DSLR, but they need something to demo it with.  For small camera computerized movement this system seems light years ahead of the other vendors.






Ikan was showing off their new wireless HD transmitter and receiver.  Oh, how I could have used one of these many times.  As you can see on the price tags it's not cheap, but so far no one has a cheap real time HD transmitter system.  The competitors are Teradeck and Boxx - both high end solutions.  It's intriguing from a technology standpoint.  Maybe we'll have to get one in the shop and see how well it works.(?)


Audio!  ...the forgotten and abused red-headed stepchild of video production.  I haven't forgotten you.  Audio was my first entry into film making and I don't like to compromise when it comes to audio quality.  Bad audio just says "I don't care about the quality of my work."  The Sennheiser booth was buried in a small hard to find corner of the showroom floor.  Despite the show organizer's best efforts I found it!  They were showing their new MKE 600 shotgun mic.

More importantly I found their new SK9000 wireless lav kit.  The new transmitter has a lithium ion battery pack that lasts 10-12 hours (their rep's claim).  So no more changing out AA batteries during a day long shoot.  ...and for the audio tech who feels that a simple receiver doesn't impress the boss, there's the 9000 series rack mount receiver.  The rep said this setup just went on the road with Harry Connick Jr. 






Last, but not least are our friends at Tenba.  I personally bought their made in the USA tripod bag and was looking for a lens/camera case.  That's Peter, their sales rep, over on the far left demonstrating a case.  Victor Ha was also working at the Tenba booth as part of the Mac Group.  Victor is holding a class at Video Gear in two weeks on DSLR video, so it was good to pre-meet him at the show.

The bag I like and intend to buy is the Roadie II Large.  It will fit my camera plus all my lenses, filters, and a few other goodies in one small carry-on size suitcase.  Video Gear sells Tenba, plus Kata and Cinebags.  Stop by the showroom if you'd like a demonstration.   

 
 

That's it for this year.  I know we have a lot to talk about internally at Video Gear.  There are many great up and coming products that deserve attention.  Our intention is to get many pieces of the gear mentioned in this three part NAB report and see what it does in the real world.  Video Gear rents what we sell and sells what we rent.  If you're interested in any particular item mentioned here just give Jeff a call at the shop.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

NAB Show 2013 Part 2: The Reason to Go...Camera Porn


Even though this blog is primarily aimed at video professionals and a business that serves those professionals, it's almost an industry accepted term to talk about "camera porn."  There are always those pieces of gear that require you to perform at least one miracle that qualifies you for catholic saint-hood, a minimum of three Oscar wins, and knowing an inside man at Panavision before the manufacturer will let you touch it.  Being a male dominated industry, we lust after what we can't have.  Thus...camera porn.

As talked about in my previous post, Arri was there in full force.  The Alexa shown below is equipped with a 35mm anamorphic lens...drool!.  (Side note: Martin, when do we get a set of Zeiss anamorphics?)  The Ultra Prime and Master Prime lenses were behind glass cases.  After all, the fingerprint cleaning by an Arri tech in their class 1 clean room probably costs $1k/hr. 

The picture that I wish would have turned out better was the setup with the Arri geared tripod head.  After trying it out I want one!  Financially speaking it's not going to happen.  For now, I'm stuck with my "lowly" OConnor 1030D which I used to think was the best thing since sliced bread.  Now I have tripod head envy.  Note that this camera was also equipped with a 75mm anamorphic lens!  I was pulling focus on this camera while a couple b-boys were onstage dancing.  A couple guys behind me were commenting on how sharp the lens is.  I told them it was the focus puller. 


 


Blackmagic design stole the NAB show with their two announcements the night before the show opening.  The first shocker is a point and shoot size cinema camera with a super-16 sensor, 13 stops of dynamic range, and lossless Prores/CinemaDNG recording!  This is going to absolutely kill off DSLR video products.  In fact, it will likely take a hard bite into GoPro's Black Edition camera.  With a micro-4/3rd's lens mount you can adapt just about any lens to it.  My Zeiss ZF.2's will work perfectly.  The downside?...It still has rolling shutter.  I gave the camera a little whip-pan and the rolling shutter was about as bad as a DSLR.  Still, it's an awesome product for the price.  On my way home I saw a friend in the airport and he had already purchased one online!  The camera is *supposed* to be released in June.

The second shocker was a Production 4k camera.  This has the same odd form factor and lack of XLR audio inputs as the current BMCC, but it has a super-35 size sensor and GLOBAL SHUTTER!  the next step up to get 4k with global shutter is the Sony F55 at a body price of $26k!...and if you want raw it comes with the Blackmagic camera whereas the Sony requires another $7k bolt on box+battery+SSD.  If and when the camera gets released I'm strongly considering a purchase.  The ergonomics, connectivity, and controls aren't as nice as the Sony camera but at $4k who can argue?  Did I mention the global shutter?  Now the downside...Blackmagic said that the dynamic range will only be 11-12 stops and the target native ISO is 400.  So the Sony/Red solutions have the Blackmagic camera clearly beat in technical performance.

 

 



Convergent Design had their interesting new Odyssey 7 recorder/monitor solution.  The concept is that you rent codecs on a pay as you go basis.  So if you need Arri raw, you can rent it for a few days.  Need Prores HQ, rent it.  The rep said that they will also offer the option of purchasing the codecs.  At $1300 the Odyssey 7 makes a great OLED field monitor with true blacks.  My guess is that in a few years you'll be hard pressed to find an LCD field monitor from anyone but the Chinese knock-off folks.  The Odyssey 7 comes with a full set of scopes and for another $1k you get more 4k support including FS-700 4k raw.  Given the size of this panel, I would like to see them produce a 5" version as well so the monitor doesn't dominate the camera as is does in the photo with the Epic below.

The other interesting product I saw at their booth showed a collaboration with I/O Industries.  The IOI camera has a 2/3" sensor with global shutter and allows for a number of lens mount options including electronic control of Canon EF lenses.  Here, the camera is mostly shown with c-mount lenses.  The downside to this solution is the lack of built in battery and monitoring options, but the camera does output 1080p and 2k streams over SDI with over cranking, including raw.  Every solution has its positives and negatives, but I can clearly see this solution being used in action and motor sports...maybe even reality shows for POV shots.  Just think about the Act of Valor Navy Seal POV shots. 



This is a well defined picture of camera porn.  I wasn't even allowed to take a picture of the other half of the Leica glass case!  Martin...anamorphic lenses...just saying.


Panasonic didn't have any new cinema cameras to show, but they were showing the new P2 format, which is the SD Card form factor.  The difference between a standard SD Card and the P2 card is mainly guaranteed performance.  As anyone who has bought "the great deal" on SD Cards knows, card reliability and throughput varies wildly with cheap/generic cards.  Panasonic will also allow Class 10 SD Cards to be used in their new P2 cameras.  Since PCMCIA is pretty much dead this seems like a great upgrade path for Panasonic customers.



So...speaking of performance...I'm not sure which booth this picture was taken in, but someone was showing off the Phantom cameras including the new "affordable" (it's a relative term) Phantom Miro.  Definitely camera porn.  Las Vegas will probably be the only place I see these cameras.



Red has been building on the concept of a digital motions/stills camera for some time.  The mount in the first picture below allows you to swing the camera 90-degrees clockwise in case you want to record in portrait mode.

Red was also showing off their "global shutter".  This shutter solution is installed as an optional lens mount and is an LCD that they place in front of the sensor.  You lose 1 stop of light, but with the Dragon sensor coming in at a native sensitivity of 2000 ISO, who cares?  The demo consisted of a TV screen and a spinning fan.  Both behaved properly when the global shutter was turned on.  It can be electronically turned off via the control panel, but then you would clearly see the jello-cam return.

In classic Jim Jannard fashion, Red was building Dragon sensor cameras on the show floor in a portable clean room.  Anyone who has dealt with Red knows about Red's lack of credibility with regard to delivery schedule.  This move may shut the critics up for a bit...or people may ask, where's my camera?  I saw it being built at NAB!




Sony F5 and F55 cameras were EVERYWHERE at NAB.  Every rental house, catalog company, or large equipment supplier had an F55 in their booth.  The main way you can tell them apart is by the PL mount color.  The F55 PL mount is silver.  The F5 PL mount is black.  It was fairly clear that Sony's dual bombshell offerings are going to be very popular in production in the coming year.

We stopped by the Sony booth and talked with Jody Eldred, who had recently done a camera event at Video Gear.  He took the F55 out to Red Rocks and shot back lit skies against the rocks in raw.  The color grading guy at the Sony booth was able to recover both the sky and the rocks is Davinci Resolve from the raw footage!  There's no way either would survive with a DSLR or any 8-bit compressed codec.  The camera does a true 14 stops, just like the Alexa, but with global shutter, and at 1/3rd the cost!

The F55 includes 4k internal recording onto SXS Pro+ cards ($1k+), whereas the F5 only records 2k and HD internally.  The F55 can over crank to 240fps, whereas the F5 "only" goes up to 120fps.  So there is a clear differentiation in technical performance.  For documentaries the F5 seems good enough, but for action sports and commercials the F55 has an advantage.  Another technical advantage of the F55 is that it has the same wide DCI color gamut of the F65, mainly for cinema use.  The F5 is limited to rec.709 color gamut.

Sony also showed their FS-700 raw solution.  It's real, but it's not quite what I thought it would be.  The solution takes multiple parts:  A $3k cable break-out box, a $5k raw recorder, at least one SSD at $1k (everyone will want at least two), and a V-mount battery brick at $500-$1k.  So that little $8k camera turns into a $18-19k camera that doubles in size and probably triples in weight.  At a certain point it just makes more sense to get the F5 if you really need raw or just a high quality direct to edit codec.  I don't believe the FS-700 raw option firmware includes S-LOG2, so the F5 seems like a better option if you're trying to obtain high quality footage with a light weight camera setup.




Atomos showed their update to the Samurai product called the Samurai Blade, which is mostly an upgrade to a high resolution IPS panel version of the Samurai.  If you read my previous review of the Samurai the LCD panel was a weak point of their product so this is a welcome improvement.  The Samurai Blade also includes a full set of scopes, just like the Convergent Design product.  The supported codecs are still limited to Prores and DNxHD 10-bit 4:2:2, but those are very nice and easy to use codecs.


Part 3 comes next week when I'll wrap up the remaining stuff.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

NAB Show 2013 Part 1: The Lights

Earlier this week Martin and I saddled up and headed northward into the desert for the annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show in Las Vegas.  The second picture below is proof, just in case Martin needs to justify this as a business expense with his accountant.  Note to IRS, that's him in the blue shirt.  Ah yes, the casinos, the show girls, the taxis, the general disdain for wholesome living, and the lights... and that's where we are going to start this journey, with the lights.



First up is the default industry equipment supplier, Arri.  Although they did have some larger tungsten fixtures on display (but not on, since that would blow a circuit), the emphasis was clearly on their new line of "L" series LED Fresnels.  In the newest incarnation they made the fixture 1.5" shorter from front to back and added a fan, just like the Litepanels Sola/Inca fixtures.  Being a high end light, they allow control of both color temperature+shift and RGB.  This year they are also offering the L-series lights in black for studio installations because of customer requests.  Last time I checked the price was in the "if you have to ask..." category, but it's a well designed and built tool for sure.  The light takes standard barn doors.  Gels and scrims obviously aren't required anymore.




Next up is a innovative company called Hive.  Last year at NAB Zacuto was showing off a small plasma panel for video lighting.  This year Hive has taken that concept to a whole new level.  These lights put out daylight color temperature light with better spectral response than HMI.  In fact, Hive proudly publishes their spectral response and compares it with daylight.  With all the bashing of "daylight" LED lights over spectral response and color rendition, this is an excellent step toward gaining credibility.  Like an HMI, the light has a long strike time about 10 seconds from full off to full on - still much shorter than HMI.  The ballast is built into the lighting fixture, so you don't need to carry around a long umbilical cord attached to an external ballast, as is the case for HMI.  These lights consume about half the power of the equivalent light output HMI and operate completely flicker free, unlike tungsten, HMI, and most LED lights.  So fire up that Phantom camera!

The lights are dim-able, however there's one great bit gotcha.  As they dim the lights severely increase in color temperature.  In fact, at 50% output the color temperature goes up to 12000K - essentially moonlight.  So if you need a fixture for sunlight and moonlight, it's a two for one.

The third picture below shows the actual bulb.  Yes, that's it.  The bulb life is about 10,000 hours with no color change or output variation.  Total bulb life is about 30,000 hours.  The bulbs normally come in a large heat sink assembly and when the bulb dies, the whole assembly gets replaced by a service technician.



 

BrighShot is another small innovative company making RGB LED lights.  These fixtures come with a handheld controller that allows you to program the lights for various flashes.  For instance, these lights are used on most of the police dramas on television today.  Anytime you see patrol car lights on camera, but not the actual car, it's probably this light generating the gag.  The company owner showed us demos of flashing lights from an ambulance, police car (LA, NY, Chicago...yes, they are different), fire truck, lightning, and fire/flickering candle light.  The most annoying one was the flashing strobe (AUGH! MAKE IT STOP!).  Like the Arri light, dialing in a particular RGB color was easy with the controller in hand.


Ikan was showing off their wide array of LED lights.  Like Arri, they offer a number of lights with digitally controlled color temperature and dimming.  Unlike most vendors, they offer an LED strip light, as shown in the third photo below. This is perfect when you need to emulate a fluorescent fixture or you want an awesome back rim light.  Strip lights are used in fashion and portrait photography all the time, so it's good to know that someone is finally offering a solution for video.  As you might notice in the photos, the prices are well within the range of most budgets.  The representative explained that they have a no hassle warranty policy, which is good news to us.





Another small innovative company is Nila.  Currently they are best known for their "Boxer" series of LED lights.  The latest model has controls similar to the Ikan models.  One of their new innovations is the holographic lens, as shown in the third picture.  It's easy to mistake the cover as a typical diffuser, but this cover is actually a lens that controls the spot/flood beam width.  Just like the lens set that comes with a typical HMI Fresnel, you can exchange the holographic lenses in the field for various beam widths.

Also new this year is the idea of a "remote phosphor."  White LEDs are actually a very blue, ultraviolet emitting LED that excites a phosphor coating.  If you want a "daylight" LED you use a phosphor that emits less red/orange when excited by blue/UV light.  When you want a "tungsten" LED you use a phosphor that emits a lot of red/orange.  The idea here is that they move the phosphor coating normally on the LED itself to the yellow panel you see the representative installing.  Since this panel is user interchangeable, you can create whatever color temperature you want by installing a different "remote phosphor." 

Because the LEDs output very bright ultraviolet light they can damage your eyes, so the fixture has an automatic shut off switch that won't allow the LEDs to turn on while the remote phosphor panel isn't installed.  It gives new meaning to the old phrase, "don't look into the light!"






Brothers, Brothers, and Sons has a unique product in the sense that they have replaced the backing on a source four with an LED (product name: "Force V") and claim equivalent output to a 575W tungsten fixture at much lower power.  The Force-V light is flicker free (yeah!  over crank time!) and you can change the bulb from 3200K to 5600K in about two minutes in the field.  The optics are standard source four optics, but BB&S is working on their own.  So all source four cucalorus patterns should be compatible.  The rep showed me a demo and sure enough, nice even light pattern on the far wall.  Surely this will make a great replacement for the hand burning tungsten models.  You can see the rep placing his hands on the fixture when it's been on for a while.

BB&S also offers "LEDonardo" PAR cans as well as a remote phosphor "Area 48" fixture nearly identical to Nila.




Martin and I talked after the first day of walking through the show floor.  The problem with all these new lighting fixtures and technology is mainly a matter of gaining a solid reputation in the market.  People call up the shop and specifically ask for HMI lights, when the Plasma or LED equivalents might do just as well, if not better...AND with fewer hassles as far as power outlets and set safety are concerned.  We really want to get some of these fixtures into the shop and see how they perform in the real world, so hopefully you'll be reading about the reality of plasma and remote phosphor this summer.

Technology can be confusing, so please do call us if you have questions.  We're here to make sure you have a successful production and you buy/rent the right technology for your specific needs.