» Posts Tagged ‘4k’
Weren’t we just saying that this year wasn’t the year of 4K? The Japanese company NHK is plugging away with their 8K technological breakthroughs, and they’ve finally brought their 8K monster down to the size of a standard broadcast 1080p camera. That’s big news in the advancement of camera technology, and it’s only a matter of time before we’re shooting 4K on our cell phones. But what does this really mean for the world of video? How far away are we from having 8K TVs in our homes and actually shooting in 8K? More »
NAB 2012: Final Recap - Was This Really the Year of 4K? (Blackmagic Proves Otherwise)
I’m still trying to catch my breath from this year’s NAB show, but all this week I’ll be posting more videos and a few more thoughts on what I saw there. This had been dubbed the year of 4K by many, but I’m not so sure we can call it that. 4K is still a couple more years from becoming mainstream, but there’s no doubt that manufacturers are pushing their televisions and cameras into the world of 4K2K and QuadHD. Even though there were a few devices capable of shooting in that frame size announced at NAB, none of them are currently shipping (though the FS700 is the closest – even though it won’t technically be shipping as a 4K camera). It was a big year for announcements, but a few companies stood above the rest, while others missed the mark. More »
NAB 2012: Day 3 Recap - Thoughts On 4K RAW Data Rates and Letting the Camera Roll
I had a chance to stop by Atomos, RedRock, ikan, Jag35, Zacuto and had some great conversations with the people there. I will have video updates from all of these companies and more as soon as I can get them uploaded (again hotel WiFi is brutal, I know I am not the only one suffering from this problem). NAB 2012 is flying by and there is enough happening at this show that if it ran for a month it would still be impossible to cover everything in-depth. On a side note, if you’re going to make an app for your show (the NAB 2012 app), why not promote it a little more? This is probably advice for anyone making an app for any type of event like this, but promote it like crazy – from posters to telling people about it when they register.
Canon had its big NAB screening on Sunday night, showing off both its 4K DSLR, the EOS 1D-C, and the C500. As part of the presentation they screened “The Ticket”, a short film written/directed by Po Chan, lensed by Shane Hurlbut, and shot on the EOS 1D-C. Filmed and displayed in 4K, Hurlbut showed just what the camera can do, and now we too can see what it looks like by way of his blog (albeit through the limitations of Vimeo). Hurlbut goes on to share some interesting behind the scenes tidbits, and praise that might just entice you into giving this camera a whirl: More »
The new 6K Dragon Sensor isn’t the only thing RED is announcing at NAB — far from it. While the Dragon upgrade is aptly-named after a mythical creature — and will remain so until its spec sheet becomes a reality — some of these other RED announcements are actual products. Others, like their 4K Laser Projector, continue their wildly ambitious streak of announcements long preceding actual availability. More »
Canon has dropped its bomb — the EOS-1D C . The world’s first 4K video shooting DSLR. Equipped with a full-frame 24mm X 36mm CMOS sensor that offers an APS-H sized area for video capture, and recording 8-bit 4:2:2 Motion JPEG 4K video to CF cards at 24fps, this camera packs a punch. Both in terms of its features — and the $15,000 price tag: More »
Looks like Sony has decided to make some waves with the next model in their line of NEX cameras — the FS-700. Building on the FS100 (Super 35mm sized sensor, interchangeable E-mount lenses, XLR inputs, etc.), with some nice additions (internal ND filters, 3G-SDI output), they have decided to throw in some very big features — up to 10X slow motion at 1080p resolution (i.e 240 fps), and an upgrade path to 4K acquisition/delivery. It’s rumored that it will run about $8k, confirmed that it will run you about $8k (body only). More images and a preliminary features list after the jump: More »
Invitations have been sent out for a special Canon screening happening Sunday, April 15 in Las Vegas. Canon Rumors is reporting that this invitation could be a screening for Canon’s Cinema EOS 4K DSLR. Another thought is that it’s related to a Ron Howard project. Since it’s a weekend, I thought it would be a good time for some speculation about what could be announced, and what it means for the rest of the independent world if Canon does indeed announce a 4K camera at NAB (and why 4K even matters). More »
Canon applied for a RAW video patent in July of 2010, and it was just published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office yesterday. The filing indicates that Canon is planning to retain CF card compatibility while compressing 12-bit moving images to RAW 4K or 2K resolutions. Note that it’s a popular misconception that “RAW” means “free of compression” — RAW, as far as both still and moving images are concerned, means that the data is stored in an unprocessed manner (which allows for adjustments in maximum colorspace before converting to an output format) — not in an uncompressed manner. Indeed, in the patent Canon describes 4K uncompressed 12-bit video’s 2.8Gbit datarate as “too high for CF cards,” so, like RED, they will be compressing the data coming off the sensor. It’s going to be a very competitive next few years… More »
James Drake from Denver-based RED rental house 5K Insight gave Dave Dugdale of Learning DSLR Video a hands-on with the RED EPIC camera, and the two videos are an excellent introduction to the RED DSMC system. They’re included below, but first, two things every RED EPIC/SCARLET owner should be aware of: More »
The mysterious 4K Canon DSLR — or some other widescreen Canon HDSLR — has been spotted in the wild… literally. Stephen Oachs from Aperture Academy was shooting wildlife in Kenya (with a camera, not a gun) and spotted a Japanese cameraman using the unreleased Canon 200-400mm with built-in teleconverter and Canon 600mm lenses. The cameraman was also using the as-yet-unnamed 4K a mysterious DSLR, which has a widescreen LCD and a new “RATE” button. I’ve lightened and blown up Stephen’s image for as much detail as possible: More »
As I predicted, RED killed their “3K for $3K” fixed-lens SCARLET camera. If that small-chip, big-resolution camera was something you were interested in, JVC has stepped in with the GY-HMQ10 (rolls right off the tongue!), a 4K (3840×2160, or “Quad HD” in RED parlance) compact camera with a fixed 10x zoom lens, which will land in March for under $5k. Recording to a VBR h.264 codec at up to 144Mpbs, the camera also does 1080p at up to 60 frames per second (something that many cameras at double or triple the price can’t do). Does the new JVC hit a sweet spot or does it put the “K” in “OK” (or something)? Press release and larger picture (it looks like what you’d expect) below. More »
With all the hype surrounding 4K acquisition, I was surprised to hear that David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo would be the first large-scale end-to-end 4K digital cinema release. Previous films captured at 4K were posted and distributed at 2K… which kind of defeats the purpose. In my quest to find a 4K theater to see GWTDT, I got a response from Sony’s Digital Cinema Twitter account, yet because I’ve been catching holiday films with my family (including young ones) I haven’t yet had a chance to see the film yet (it seems I’m not the only one in this situation). Regardless, I wanted to share a very interesting article about the film’s 4K workflow by Light Iron’s Michael Cioni, which includes this interesting nugget on Fincher’s approach to reframing in post (his framing chart is pictured): More »
Sony plans to ship a 4K home theater projector, the catchily-named VPL-VW1000ES, for 25 grand in early 2012. Given the $13.50-a-ticket price to see a movie here in New York City, I’ve found myself disappointed at a few recent films where the image felt soft. Sony is on the record about 4K in theaters (PDF link), and I’m convinced that it is indeed the future for the big screen. But at home? I have a 720p projector in my apartment, and it looks pretty damn good. I can only imagine that 1080p would look better, and I don’t know that I could ever tell the difference between 1080p and 4K. Still, that’s not stopping Sony — and RED — from pushing 4K projection in the home. More »
Since RED’s announcement of their world-beating (and certainly Canon-beating) SCARLET X, their website has been down sporadically, but I was able to grab the full specification sheet from their website during a moment of uptime. First of all, I want to say that yes, you can shoot a beautiful film on the new Canon C300 — in fact, Vincent Laforet already did — so, taken in historical context there is nothing wrong with Canon’s new camera. A few years ago it would’ve been amazing. But it’s not a few years ago, and in fact just a few hours after Canon launched their first foray into the professional motion picture arena, they were upstaged by a startup named RED (you could also argue that the Sony F3 is also a superior option). While the Canon will be better in certain areas — low light performance, perhaps? — the SCARLET X starts at half the price of the Canon. Yes, you’ll need to add some accessories, but looking at these specs, I couldn’t help but order one. More »
I guessed RED’s 2/3″ SCARLET was dead, and now it’s confirmed. RED just announced the SCARLET-X, which more than backs up their claim that they were bringing a Bazooka to tonight’s knife fight with Canon. The SCARLET X is not the low-cost “3K for $3K” SCARLET announced years ago, but is instead the interchangeable lens camera formerly known as the EPIC-S, and it looks like an amazing deal. It is very, very close to being the same Camera as the $28,000 EPIC-X — it’s the same size and weight, has the same large sensor, takes the same accessories, and maxes out at the same 5K resolution — except the SCARLET-X starts at under $10K. Canon C300, we hardly knew ye. More »
The just-announced Canon Cinema EOS C300 has a 4K* sensor. But yes, there’s an asterisk there, and it turns out the Super35 CMOS sensor’s native resolution of 3840×2160 (which is exactly double that of 1080P’s 1920×1080 resolution) isn’t a “traditional” 4K, and the camera outputs at 1080P. It reportedly has 1920 x 1080 pixels for red and blue, and 1920 x 2160 pixels for green. Here’s the deal from DV Info: More »
As you already know, Canon is releasing a motion picture camera on November 3rd. Not one to let Canon steal their thunder, RED countered by scheduling their SCARLET announcement for the same day. In order to make such a bold move, I assumed RED had some advance insider knowledge of Canon’s plans, but RED’s head honcho Jim Jannard claims RED has “no idea what Canon is going to announce.” He also called the day “Ali vs. Frasier” [sic]. And he’s confident enough to say, “My bet is that after our November 3rd announcement… we will never, ever, be out of back-order. Ever. Really. Never… ever.” This kind of confidence does not come from announcing a camera with a sensor several times smaller than the competition’s. More »
Perhaps confirming the rumors that they will release their first camcorder designed for Hollywood/professional/whatever-you-want-to-call-it feature filmmaking on November 3rd, Canon today announced the opening of their “Canon Hollywood Professional Technology and Support Center” at 6060 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. I doubt very much they are opening a service center in LA to fix DSLRs, especially with the name “Hollywood Professional” in the title. Here’s the full press release: More »
Today Canon pre-announced an announcement — which they’re calling “historic” — to take place in Hollywood on November 3rd. What would be hilarious is if they show up in Tinseltown and announce a new line of inkjet printers. But because it’s Hollywood, hopefully it will have something to do with, you know, movies. In the “proper video camera with large sensor” market, Sony has their FS100 and F3, and Panasonic has their AF100. As of right now, Canon has nothing. Just saying! Here’s their teaser: More »
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