Notes On Video

Canon Announces Development Of 4K Digital Cinema Cameras | Canon Press Release Canon sort of surprises by announcing a 4K DSLR and a 4K version of the C500. The later has no release date or price yet, though it's rumored to be around $30K Designated as the Cinema EOS C500* for use with EF-mount lenses, and the Cinema EOS C500 PL* for use with PL-mount lenses, the cameras will be capable of originating 4K (4096 x 2160-pixel) resolution digital motion imagery with uncompressed RAW output for external recording, in response to growing expectations for higher levels of imaging performance in premium Hollywood films and other production markets requiring the utmost in picture quality. Canon U.S.A. Introduces EOS-1D C Digital SLR Camera Featuring 4K High-Resolution Video Capture | Canon Press Release At $15,000, I'm not too sure who this is aimed at: Delivering outstanding video performance, the compact, lightweight EOS-1D C provides video recording at 4K (4096 x 2160-pixel) ...

Yesterday Sony Europe held a chat on Facebook covering the three cameras they have announced for NAB, including the NEX-FS700 . You can review the chat log here , but I've assembled the discussion of the NEX-FS700 into a more coherent - and readable - format below: Alvaro Ortiz, Kanta Yamamoto, Dave Stannard from Sony and Den Lennie of F-Stop Academy are on hand to answer your questions! Q: I have just bought the FS100, will sony be offering a trade in on for the FS100 when the fs700 arrives?? The FS700 addresses several issues that I have with the FS100. will Sony be able to help with thus upgrading?? Den : The FS700 is not an upgrade from FS100 it's priced at a different level so is designed to compliment rather than replace the FS100. There are times ie in my studio where Fs100 is great and FS700 would be overkill. Dave Stannard:  As Den said the NEX-FS700 addresses a different market segment on both pricing and feature set. At this point in time there is no plan ...

Racing with planes – shot on Sony NEX-FS700 | Peter Previc | Too Much Imagination Peter continues his posts on using the NEX-FS700 , this time concentrating on the slow-mo function: I only shot at full 1080P resolution so I didn’t test beyond 240fps. Reduced resolution didn’t interest me. You can record 8 seconds at 240fps and 9.5 second at 200fps (at 50Hz setting) and you end up with 1 minute and 15 seconds of super slow motion footage. You can set the trigger to be at the start, middle or at the end of action. I choose end trigger as you can wait for action to happen. You don’t need to expect it. An NEX-FS700 Amuse-Bouche | Adam Wilt | ProVideoCoalition Adam compiles a list of other posts about the NEX-FS700, while adding some of his own thoughts about shooting with the camera: 480 line-skips a fair amount (and appears, on the charts, to pixel-skip as well, though that might simply be an artifact of different demosaicing in slo-mo); 960fps further decimates the vertical res...

LumoLabs: Nikon D800 video function demystified | Falk Lumo | Blog Everyone says you should be more concerned about the image; than how the image is created, but I'm always intrigued by the tech. Falk looked at the D800 and works out how it downsamples the data from the sensor to create the final image: The big discs are constructed such that the 1080p Nyquist frequency emerges at its outer circle. The two center discs have their edge at twice this Nyquist frequency and the four tiny discs at four times this frequency. Therefore, the false color moiré disc emerges at (149px/258px x2) or 1.155x the 1080p Nyquist frequency (1247 px). This means that the Nikon D800 samples ~1247 horizontal lines from its sensor. A dynamic range test between Alexa, RED MX and Super 16 | Daniel Freytag | Blog Daniel posts stills from cinematographer John Brawley 's test video comparing the dynamic range of the Alexa, RED MX and Super 16 cameras: Alexa was shot in LOG mode, recorded to PRO ...

An Examination of: Sony F3 and Red Scarlet; a Direct Comparison | Timur Civan | Blog A pretty detailed post that compares footage from the RED Scarlet and the Sony PMW-F3 . Neither camera lands a knock-out punch, though Timur notes "When it needs to look natural, I use the F3. When it needs to look crisp and slick, RED." The RED is simply razor sharp, has a punchy slick look, and has the easiest onset ergonomics and workflow. The footage is 16bit 4K RAW. I mean, the camera is the size of a Hassleblad and gives you amazing images. The F3 on the other hand, is night vision, which makes for simpler indie shooting on lower budgets where you dont have access to bigger units. It also has more useable dynamic rage, and its color is in my opinion the best in digital right now short of the Alexa. Canon 5D Mark III Light leak A little more info is popping up about the "light leak problem" with the Canon 5D Mark III . Is it a problem or is it not? There continue...

Canon 5D Mark III Light Leak? | CanonRumors A report of a problem in the 5DMkIII where the light meter is being affected by the LCD light: A light leak issue in the 5D Mark III has been reported over the last couple of days. It seems the top side LCD may be to blame. I can confirm this is happening on at least one of the 5D Mark III’s I own (the rest are out for rent), I will look into the issue with more bodies in the coming days. This has caused some excitement; *UPDATE* REPORT: EOS 5D Mark III – Light Leak Issue? | HD Cam Team This is absolutely frustrating. How can Canon release a $3,500 camera body without carefully testing this? Just by turning LCD backlight on, or under bright light you get a wrong exposure metering? Who go on to use the occasion to point out problems they see in compression and the sharpening functionality of the camera. Yet several people on Twitter don't this as much of a problem, as the following post - which notes there's no leak to the i...

First Look at the Ultra-Compact Phantom Miro M320S | AbelCine | Vimeo Vision Research has announced the  Phantom Miro M320S high-speed camera. It's described as their new flagship of ultra-compact high-speed cameras: The Miro M320S features a 12 bit, 2 Megapixel sensor that’s near the size of 35mm film, and can capture up to 1500 frames per second at 1920×1080 resolution. The M320S features an HD-SDI output for high-quality monitoring or recording and is available with all popular lens mounts. Literally fitting in the palm of your hand, the Miro weighs in at only three pounds. There's more at Studio Daily : Phantom’s Miro M320S Shoots 1080p at 1540fps | Bryant Frazer | Studio Daily The sensor has 35mm depth-of-field characteristics, and the camera is available with a variety of lens mounts, including Canon EOS, 35mm PL-mount, and Nikon F-mount and C-mount. When using the EOS (EF) mount, aperture and focus can be remote-controlled. Along with the M320S, the Miro M-Series ...

First Hands-On Review of the SONY FS700 | Frank Glencairn | Blog Frank got to play with the FS700 and provides a lot of details in this blog post: It looks like SONY has really listened to the users. We finally have that ND Filter wheel, a lot of guys where asking for. The top handle is super beefy now and feels like it is milled out of one massive block of aluminum. Also the front mount sits on a big black metal base, very solid and twice the size of the FS100 counterpart. Overall the whole body feels more rugged and solid, but gained some weight, because of all the extra metal. Adding that his FS100 is for sale, he goes on to say: Noise is about the same as in the FS100, and it looks like we lost a bit of low light sensitivity (still impressive). But the downsampled images from the new sensor are stunning and the option of future 4k raw output is amazing. Sony Professional: Introducing the Sony NEX-FS700 | Sony | Vimeo Sony Europe has posted a video on the NEX-FS700 that in...

First Look at the Sony NEX-FS700 | Andy Shipsides | CineTechnica Andy was lucky enough to get his hands on an NEX-FS700  [ for at least 7 minutes -Ed] and gives it a quick look. Some interesting things I didn't know about the camera; the buttons are raised, making them easier to operate and the handle on the top seems a lot stronger too. Oh, and the rosette is explained... Other big features of the FS700 include: Cine gammas (the same found in the PMW-F3), progressive (P/Psf) outputs over HD-SDI and HDMI, still picture shooting, 50/60hz switchable, the ability to save picture profiles to an SD card, up to 8x focus magnification, and a sturdy body design. The camera will have a newly designed handle which attaches to the camera via an Arri style rosette. NAB 2012…The story so far…Sony | Philip Johnston | HD Warrior Philip just bought a Canon C300 , so there may be an element of buyers-rationalization in this post, but he suggests that the manufacturers have jumped on the ...

The new handgrip: for NEX-FS100 users, too? | H. Paul Moon | Vimeo FS700 Group Paul Moon noticed something interesting in the FS700 product photos on Facebook ; the handgrip on the FS700 has changed; it adds a rocker switch, amongst other things. Could it work with the FS100 ? What lenses will it control? [ Note ; the PMW-F3 was released with a rocker, but it took Sony to release a lens that worked with it!] One of the other things people disliked about the FS100  is the comparatively flimsy, and not always seemingly securely attaching handgrip. Perhaps Sony has upgraded the handgrip: See the zoom rocker? Clearly Sony has an E-mount lens with servo motor (for zoom control) in the works, though it is not on their official lens roadmap for the next few years. Another thing: there is more than just Start/Stop on that handgrip (iris, photo shutter and expanded focus), but if NEX-FS100 users luck out: (1) it's the same LANC cable with the same 1/8" plug; Sony Professional ...