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Friday, September 28, 2012

Blackmagic Resolve & Sony NEX-FS700

Something I didn’t mention in my report on Tuesday’s BOSCPUG meeting is that Rob Bessette of Finish Boston also demoed Blackmagic’s Resolve 9. Resolve is a sophisticated color grading application, and this new release features a significant UI improvement.

The previous version had the distinct impression of being designed for Linux, but this release actually is starting to look like a regular Mac/Windows app. On the downside, you still need to know how to do color correction, but the program seems simpler now; and don’t forget there’s a free version you can download and use.


Wednesday night was SMPTE New England’s meeting at Rule Boston, and Juan Martinez, Senior Product Manager, Broadcast & Professional Solutions of Sony was there to talk about 4K. They’d brought a Sony F65 and a 4K projector along, though the demo fairies struck and they had a lot of problems getting the 4K version of the Taylor Swift movie shot on the F65 to play, and had to use a 2K version instead.

I will say one thing about that F65 - it is a very wide camera; much bigger than I’d realized. I don’t think you’d be using that shoulder-mounted very much.

Juan talked about a variety of things from sensor design to AVCHD compression, but most interesting was the little bits of NEX-FS700 news.

Unfortunately, there was no official news on the NEX-FS700 4K upgrade, but they did say to check back in a month and a half. As expected, there will be a Sony 4K recording option for the FS700, but they had no comment on whether there would be support for a third-party solution. There was, perhaps, a hint that there might be…but there might not be.

Will the upgrade cost anything? No comment, though he did say his preference was not to charge unless there was a hardware change.

The FS700 has four Cinegamma’s, but no S-Log. When I asked why that was, he said that because the camera was outputting 8-bit, S-Log wouldn’t really make much difference.

Someone asked if the FS100 could be upgraded to support the new Cinegamma’s and got a definitive ‘maybe.’

Juan also delivered a spirited defense of the AVCHD compression, and when asked if they’d support 50 Mbps he said that he didn’t think they needed to.

4 comments:

Rick Webb said...

Thanks for the update on the FS700. Keep the info coming ! Any info on whether the FS700 will start shipping with the new "servo zoom" lens ?

Unknown said...

"Juan also delivered a spirited defense of the AVCHD compression, and when asked if they’d support 50 Mbps he said that he didn’t think they needed"

If they could convince the BBC, NatcGeo and the EBU that it was as good as 50Mbps, then I'd be happy with the response. Until then, I'd like a 50Mbps option so I could sell my Samurai...

sowattmusic said...

I would definitely love to see some kind of option for the FS 100 to improve it's cine gamma in some way or another. Just really getting as much out of the 8 bit HDMI output as possible, get as close to a cine log as possible. I'm sure there is room to improve because the imager is really amazing on the fs 100...

Michael Murie said...

Rick: I don't think the lens is shipping yet, but it will be out later this month. I wouldn't be surprised if when they announce the 4K option they might repackage it with the servo lens (that's my speculation, nothing was said.)

Colin: Good point. Actually I'm hoping to follow up about that. I'll let you know if I get any response.