» Posts Tagged ‘red’
So Many New Camera Tests it's Hard to Keep Track: Phantom Miro, RED SCARLET, Sony F3, and Canon C300
We’re trying to share more actual shorts and not just camera tests here, as a difference of one stop in dynamic range from one camera to the next is not going to make or break your narrative or doc. From DSLRs costing hundreds to 4K cameras costing tens of thousands, there is a great camera out there for your budget. Still, one question all filmmakers will be asked is, “what do you want to shoot on?” and so it’s still handy to keep tabs on what’s available. Here are several new tests of some of the latest large-sensor imagers: More »
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 »
Amid the hubbub of new product announcements this item has flown a bit under the radar — this Fall, RED will start offering a 16 week digital-cinema training course. It aims to take students from pre-production to production to post-production while developing their own projects with the guidance of working professionals. At first glance, it looks like a pretty interesting opportunity — you get to make projects on RED equipment, while learning the tools, craft and technique from experts. But what will it cost? And what are the pros and cons of this sort of program?: More »
Subzero temperatures. Sunlight filtering through an afternoon forest onto bright white snow. Actors wearing shiny silver outfits, running from direct sunlight to shadows. No neutral density filters and no polarizing filters. No bounce cards and no lights. No tripod. Collectively, all of this makes for some of the worst conditions you could use a camera in. On top of this, it wasn’t even my project, so I was essentially filming a behind-the-scenes featurette with no ability to direct the actors. This was not a project from which to produce a great reel; it was simply a way to put a camera and a new set of lenses to a (freezing) test. With all of those disclaimers, if you care to see the footage, here it is. More »
When a story traverses from stage to screen it can often be a less than rewarding experience. Those beautiful flowing prose which wow audiences in the theatre become somewhat redundant in a medium which has ‘show don’t tell’ as one of its most abiding rules. Even worse is the monologue, which requires action to stop whilst we concentrate on an actor’s singular delivery, often direct to camera (admittedly Neil Labute pulls this off to disturbing effect with Jason Patric’s frank ‘confession’ in Your Friends and Neighbours). The fact that many filmmakers have attempted and failed in this translation endeavour makes the recent duo of projects from Sydney-based Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) Boot and Bat Eyes, all the more impressive as powerful pieces of short cinema. More »
JAG35 at NAB 2012: a $1300 Wireless Follow Focus, Friction Follow Focus, RED Rig, and Slider
JAG35 makes one of the cheapest wireless follow focuses in existence. Now they’ve improved upon their design and made the entire system much more durable. They also are introducing a clever follow focus that is friction based for newer lenses, but doesn’t have to be mounted to the side like many other friction-based follow focuses. I talked with Jehu Garcia from JAG35 and he introduced those products, as well as a custom RED Scarlet/Epic rig and a new slider they are developing. More »
Welcome to the world of public camera testing, Jim. The wild west camera shootout that Jim and Co. were planning to have at RED Studios Hollywood on June 4th has been cancelled. It seems all of the “grief” that he’s been getting over the situation isn’t worth the trouble, and he and RED “have better things to do.” Surprisingly, Steve Weiss entered REDUser forum territory to explain the choices that had been made for the Zacuto camera test, and the fact that RED had been offered many times to come to the shootout, manage their own RED Epic, and control the post-production method used for that camera. More »
The Canon 5D Mark III, Canon C300, and RED SCARLET Shoot a Nighttime Bike Race Side-by-Side
Remember when video cameras had sensors that were one third of an inch? It was damn hard to shoot anything at night. But now there are a million cameras (well, not a million, but a bunch) with Super35-size sensors. So while you can actually get a decent exposure while shooting a bike race at night now, not all sensors are created equal. Here’s the Canon 5D Mark III, Canon C300, and RED SCARLET filming the same bike race. The first pass of the video has no key (so you don’t know which is which), and then they show you the second time around: More »
This is a guest post by filmmaker Robin Schmidt a.k.a. El Skid.
It’s been a while since I wrote part 1 and part 2 of this series and much has happened in between. For the indie filmmaker the camera buffet suddenly grew a few extra tables and it’s interesting to see which, if any, of the new cameras we’d have chosen to shoot on back in November in preference to the RED Epic. More »
Pay-Per-View…Or not. It seems that Mr. Jannard has a bone to pick with the people at Zacuto, and he wants the world to see in 4K. He’s unhappy with the tests (I couldn’t see the newest test at NAB thanks to technical difficulties) since the final output for all of the camera shootouts thus far has been 2K, and it levels the playing field for those cameras that can’t shoot above 1080p. With more and more theaters moving to 4K projectors, it is important to at least consider if 4K should start to be included in the near future. Unsatisfied with anyone else who does camera testing, Jim has decided to do his own camera test in 2K and 4K and is inviting other camera manufacturers to RED Studios in Hollywood on June 4th. 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 »
Earlier in the week I was able to watch the short film Loom, directed by Luke Scott and produced by his father, Ridley Scott. The entire futuristic sci-fi film was shot on Epic in 3D, and it was being projected on RED’s (not new) Laser Projector and RED Ray. Both of those products were announced a long time ago but RED may finally release them this year. Unfortunately at the beginning of the week the projector was only displaying 2K 3D in each eye, but it’s actually capable of 4K in each eye. I went back later in the week to see if it had been fixed but they were still working on the system, so I imagine at some point it will be 100% working as it ships late this year (hopefully). But the real question is: can 3D make a comeback with RED’s projector? Will the lower cost be beneficial to the survival of independent theaters or will this projector not be adopted by theaters at all? 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.
NAB 2012: Day 1 Recap - Blackmagic, AJA, SmallHD, RED
This being my first time at NAB, it’s a little overwhelming with the incredible amount of exhibitors on hand. It should also be noted there are not a team of shooters and editors on hand to help me out – just me shooting and uploading everything you see (if you’re wondering why some videos might take so long to be uploaded). Some of the biggest news of the first day was the Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera, which I had a few moments to play with and take a look at, and I also had a great interview with Simon Westland of Blackmagic. Some other big news was the announcement of the AJA Ki Pro Quad 4K recorder, and SmallHD’s new DP7 display, which has two versions – one with a very bright LCD and the other with an OLED – which reproduces colors impeccably. More »
It’s been announced – the long awaited successor to the MX sensor, Dragon, is finally getting some specs and a release date. Upgrades for Epic will cost $6,000 and begin late this year, while the Scarlet upgrades won’t be until 2013 with a price TBD. Jim slightly broke his rules – announcing specs for something that isn’t shipping yet – but it’s still fun to see what those guys at RED are coming up with. I just came from the REDUser event where the 4K portrait finalists had their films displayed on multiple 4K TVs all at once – my favorite being the Panasonic 152″ behemoth, which isn’t even at NAB – only RED had it at their event. 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 »
It’s that time of year again, when companies reveal what they’ve been working on for the past year, and quite a few prototypes that aren’t quite ready to see the light of day. A few have already thrown down the gauntlet for camera superiority, namely Canon and Sony (though Sony still might have one more surprise for us at the show). We’re still waiting on RED’s (and Panasonic’s) response to these new 4K RAW ready cameras, and Jim Jannard has been making some noise on the REDuser forums, showing his excitement for what they’ve got coming next. Hopefully we’ll get a glimpse of “Dragon” at NAB, but we’ve been told in the past on those same forums that we won’t see any new products until they are shipping. More »
DP Timur Civan, who lensed my RED SCARLET test short and now has a SCARLET of his own, has done an apples-to-apples comparison with two of the top similarly-priced Super35 motion picture cameras currently on the market: the Sony F3 and the RED SCARLET. Timur has the luxury of owning both — and some flawless Cooke Panchro primes — and has set up a nice skin tone and still life test. Here it is: More »
RED makes an excellent custom laser-cut EPIC case for $600 (pictured). However, the same wheeled case — a Pelican 1510, which is the maximum allowable size for carrying onto an airplane — is just $150. It’s certainly nice to have a custom foam insert in your case for maximum camera/accessory security, but if you don’t feel like spending $450 on a foam insert, here’s how to create your own — using RED’s own custom-cut materials, which come with the original camera and accessory packaging. It may go without saying, but this post will only be of interest to folks who have a RED DSMC or are thinking of buying one. More »
Band Pro has teamed up with Astrodesign to make a 1920 x 1080 Electronic Viewfinder. We’ve already talked about what might be the future for small EVFs, but for now, we’ve got this monstrosity weighing in at 3 pounds. Though many of us won’t be able to afford this when we actually find out the price, it will be a fantastic rental and it’s a good sign that high-resolution EVFs at affordable prices are just around the corner. More »
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