» Posts Tagged ‘cameras’
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 »
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 »
It seems like it was just yesterday that Blackmagic Design’s Cinema Camera was announced — and now it is available for pre-order! As expected, the camera body will run you $2,995, and the projected availability is July 30. So how much will you have to spend to get this thing bare-bones hand-held shoot-ready? And what effect will the Super16-ish sized sensor have on your existing lenses? Let’s see: More »
For all of the stellar spec sheets and newfangled doodads coming out of the RED camp at NAB this year, one look at the active production landscape will show you that one camera is absolutely everywhere: the ARRI ALEXA. From feature films like Drive to TV shows like Game of Thrones to seemingly every TV commercial in existence — seriously, almost every commercial is shot on an ALEXA these days — the camera is as ubiquitous on high-end productions as HDSLRs are for low-end shoots (though the latter is changing with the advent of “real” large-sensor video cameras). Why is the ALEXA everywhere? Because of its stellar imagery, ease of use, established workflow, and fast turnaround time. It is not a stretch to say the ARRI ALEXA is the camera that killed film, not anything from RED (or anyone else for that matter). More »
I had a chance to play with the Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera – and it’s definitely going to be a disruptive product. The touch screen on the back of the camera was very sensitive, and it took me only seconds to find exactly what I was looking for. The specific camera I was using had a Zeiss 18mm T3.6 while another had a Canon lens, so the versatility is not to be understated. I had a great conversation with Simon Westland, Director of Sales EMEA at Blackmagic. You can watch that video below, as well as some additional photos of the camera. More »
UPDATE: all NAB screenings are canceled on account of a technical problem discovered by Bruce Logan, ASC. Which means signing up here will be the first chance to see the screening…
I’m not at NAB this year, and one of the things I’m most bummed about missing is Zacuto‘s annual camera shootout. This year’s installment features an impressive lineup: the Sony F65, ARRI Alexa, RED Epic, Sony FS100, Sony F3 w/ S-log, Canon C300, Canon 7D w/ Technicolor, and a hacked Panasonic GH2. They’re screening the shootout 35 times at NAB, so don’t miss it if you’re there. The rest of us will just have to wait until it is released online on June 15th — or register below if it’s coming to your city: More »
Holy cow. What if I told you BlackMagic Design was introducing a 2.5K resolution, 13-stop dynamic range, RAW-shooting (with format-agnostic ProRes/CinemaDNG/DNxHD options), Thunderbolt-connected, built-in touchscreen LCD, SSD-recording camera that comes with the new version of Resolve 9 color correction software… all for $3,000? You’d say, “what’s the catch?” Looks like the only catch is a 15.6 mm x 8.8 mm (active) sensor size, which makes it a S16 camera, not a S35. Still, for that price and with those options — this is a seriously disruptive camera and one that targets the HDSLR space perfectly. 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 »
A $15,000 DSLR? Now we’ve seen it all. No, wait — we haven’t seen it all, as Canon is just getting started with their Cinema EOS line. And they’re also just getting started with 4K acquisition: their latest addition is to be the Canon C500 (pictured), which is essentially a 4K version of the C300. 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 »
As noted previously, RED has a new color science and gamma curve for their RAW-shooting cameras: REDgamma3 and REDcolor3. The new color science comes with a new camera firmware — version 3.0.0, which is a release build (not beta) for both EPIC and SCARLET — and there’s a new version of REDCINE-X as well. RED’s Jim Jannard explained the color science updates with the following — note that if you’re doing a full grade, your gamma setting will still be REDlogfilm, but you should expect to employ the new color science alongside that gamma curve: More »
After a long, long wait, and much anticipation (years, in fact), Canon has finally updated the 5D Mark II. It was a revolutionary camera for video shooters, even if it all happened by accident. That camera saw a couple major firmware updates over its lifetime, including the most important of all, the addition of 24p. It breathed new life into what was already a fantastic camera, and it wasn’t long until people were clamoring for an updated body with improved video features. That updated camera body has arrived, and it’s called the 5D Mark III. More »
The KineRAW is a Chinese digital cinema camera that I called (perhaps too harshly) a “knockoff” of the ARRI ALEXA and RED cameras. This is a guest post by Wentao Marvin.
As China is celebrating the Lunar New Year (the Year of Dragon), Kinefinity KineRAW development has entered the final stage of internal user testing, and public testing is scheduled to roll out in February. This update focuses on the S35 (Super35-sized sensor) and S8 (Super8mm-sized sensor) model as they are being developed back-to-back. More »
Is the just-announced Nikon D800 the new Canon 5D Mark II? It’s full frame, it’s of a similar size and it’s of a similar price, but it offers a clean HDMI output, and it does 60p (at 720p). The question, I guess, is not how the D800 will fair against the 5D Mark II but how it will compare the Mark III — whenever we hear about that. Thanks to reader Paul, here’s the first (to my knowledge) short film shot on the new D800: More »
The new Nikon D4 isn’t the only new kid on the block — Nikon will also be releasing a second full-frame DSLR, the Nikon D800. As rumored, the D800 has a whopping 36 megapixel CMOS sensor (7360 x 4912 resolution), which may make the D800 not seem optimal for video (smaller photosites). However, the camera features full 1080p HD video at 30/24fps and 720p at 60fps. Similar to the D4, the D800 will also offer a clean HDMI output — except the D800 is half the price of the D4, coming in at $2,999. More »
Alex Buono, Director of Photography for Saturday Night Live, has been shooting on DSLRs for quite some time (the intro for the show was in fact shot on a Canon 5D Mark II and 7D). Here, he gets his hands on a C300, shoots some spots for the show, and talks about his impressions of the camera (which are quite positive). Here’s the video, courtesy Clint Milby: 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 »
The Canon C300 will begin shipping January 31st for a street price of $16k. It’s not what people were hoping for, given the Sony F3 with S-Log firmware is about the same price ($16,840), and given there were rumors of the C300 coming in at $14k or even $10k without the top handle/monitor/audio inputs — but it’s finally official. Also note that the PL version, at B&H at least, is already backordered an additional month. Despite this slightly higher-than-hoped-for price, the camera is still the best option for many, so here’s a full (and lengthy) presentation by Canon’s Larry Thorpe at Rule Boston Camera, wherein he stresses that the C300 is just “the first” of Canon’s cinema camcorders: 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 »
I’m not here to start a camera flame war between the Canon C300, Sony F3, and RED SCARLET. The fact is, with any of these new large-sensor camcorders, you can tell your story effectively, and that’s what’s important. However… these cameras are an investment. And a much more serious investment than a DSLR at that — $15k does not come easily, and that’ll just get you started with each. So I thought I’d share a thought I had the other day when watching Philip Bloom’s latest camera shootout. Bloom didn’t include the RED and I’ll have plenty of thoughts to share on RED going forward (to the chagrin of some of you!), but if I hadn’t gone the RED route I would go with an F3 over the C300. Why? More »
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