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Cinematics CT.2 Lenses are Chinese Knockoffs of Zeiss CP.2s for Half the Price

12.3.11 @ 1:33PM Tags : cinematics, ct2, knockoffs, lenses, zeiss, zeisscp2

After speaking at AENY, a great community of film/MGFX folks in NYC, I was chatting with some DPs and one of them mentioned Chinese knockoffs of the Zeiss CP2 lenses. My ears perked up, as there’s a dearth of low-cost cinema primes in the world. The Zeiss CP2s, at $4k a lens, are in fact some of the cheapest available at roughly $20k a set. It turns out the Chinese knockoffs he mentioned retain the genuine Zeiss optics, for half the price. The question is, are they any good? More »

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Chinese KineRAW S35 Camcorder Attempts to Knock Off the RED and ARRI ALEXA for $8,000

08.28.11 @ 1:06PM Tags : arri, arrialexa, cameras, clones, kinefinity, kineraw, knockoffs, red, redepic

In our global economy, one could amend the phrase “nothing is certain in life except death and taxes” to “nothing is certain in life except death, taxes, and knockoffs.” The country responsible for half of my existence, China, is knockoff/bootleg Ground Zero, and so it should come as no surprise that the first reports of a RED and ARRI ALEXA clone come from The Motherland. The 2K KineRAW Kinefinity camcorder is like a larger RED (using “KineMAG” SSD drives instead of REDMAG SSD drives) with the size and weight of an ALEXA. It even uses basically the same menu system and display on the side of the body as does the ALEXA (knockoffs are not exactly known for their originality). The camera will record to CinemaDNG or Cineform RAW and will supposedly ship for the “gorgeous” price of $7-8k. More »