Acquisition
How the Search for a Standard HD Camera Model Went Awry
I’m a member of SMPTE, and as such I receive the SMPTE Journal fairly regularly. The latest issue contains an article that’s backed by the best intentions but, in the long run, poses an unintended threat to the film industry. The technical paper, entitled “Toward a Standard Model of HD Cameras,” details a very interesting Read More
The Padcaster
Every year at NAB we see new and improved hardware accessories for taking mobile device video to new levels. Now, we have the Padcaster. The Padcster consists of an aluminum frame containing a rubber insert that will accept any second generation iPad or newer. The outer frame edges contain several threaded mounting holes (both 1/4-20 Read More
Replay XD Showing New Accessories at NAB2013
Here at NAB 2013, Replay XD is showing some new accessories for their action cameras. The new $39.99 dive housing is waterproof to 60 meters(197 feet). The standard lens is made of acrylic. An optional all glass lens is available for $19.95. The ReView is a 4.3 inch portable field monitor that includes a detachable Read More
BlackMagic Debuts new Cinema Production Camera and Cinema Pocket Cinema Camera
The big buzz on Day One at NAB 2013 comes once again from BlackMagic Design. Definitely not resting on their laurels, they’ve raised their game a couple of notches. At the high end, is the official debut of the Cinema Production Camera 4k. The headline is “4K for $4K” since the camera has true 4k Read More
Quick Look: Canon EF-mount Cinema EOS Lenses
When Canon lent me and Art Adams a 1D C and a C500 for review, they also left us three cine primes and a compact cine zoom, all in EF mount. Here’s a quick look at these lenses.
Quick Look: 2K/4K Recorders for the Canon C500
Quick Look: 2K/4K Recorders for the Canon C500 So you’ve gone and booked a gig with the Canon EOS C500, and you wish to partake of the camera’s detail-rich, uncompressed 2K or raw 4K goodness. You’ll need something to record that on, as the C500 doesn’t capture 2K or 4K internally. The two most common Read More
Review: Canon EOS C500 HD/4K LSS Cine Camera
The US$26,000 Canon EOS C500 joins the $16,000 C300 and the $6,500 C100 as the Big Daddy of Canon’s Large Single Sensor cine cameras. All three cameras share the same Super35mm-sized 4096×2160 sensor, the same general body design, and the “Canon look,” but diverge in their recording formats and output capabilities. The original C300 records 8-bit, 4:2:2 1080p using the Canon XF codec, and offers HD outputs on SDI and HDMI. It pioneered the “potato-cam” form factor, with a superb side handgrip and a removable, tilt-and-swivel monitor unit. The C100 is a simplified AVCHD ‘corder with the same great handgrip, an integrated LCD in place of the monitor unit, and HDMI output only (no SDI). Read More…
Shooting 4K with the Canon C500: It’s All in the Details
I was initially thrown by the waveform display, which reflects the levels of the underlying log-encoded raw data at all times. Due to the log encoding most of the data was compressed toward the middle of the dynamic range, which is typical for a log curve, but that made it difficult to see what was happening to individual objects, like faces. Over time I learned that all I had to pay attention to was highlight clipping. If I set the exposure by eye based on what I saw in the onboard LCD and then checked that the clipped highlights were the ones I expected to be clipped (there’s always something clipped in a dark forest, usually the sky), I knew I had more than enough to work with in post. And I really liked the quality of the clipped highlights: they were white but not zingy, electronic white, similar to what I see on the Canon 5D Mk. III.
Review: Canon EOS-1D C HD/4K DSLR
In the beginning… there was the Canon 5D Mk II. It wasn’t the first HD-capable DSLR, but it was the first one good enough for serious work. Once Vincent Laforet’s “Reverie” went viral, there was no putting the large-sensor, low-light, super-shallow-depth-of-field genie back in the bottle—no matter how soft the images, how prevalent the aliasing, and how much bother it was (for the two years prior to firmware version 2.0.3) to deal with 30p images in a 24p world.
Fast-forward five years: Canon’s EOS-1D C, announced at NAB 2012, is now shipping. It’s a full-frame DSLR with an 18 Megapixel sensor, full-frame and crop-mode HD recording, and true 4K at 24fps: 4096×2160 pixels. Yep, 4K in a DSLR package. And it’s only… $12,000.
My First Lighting Class; or How I Learned to Light
Recently I taught my first lighting class, for Abel Cine, at Sony DMPC in Culver City, California. It got me thinking about how I know what I know about lighting, and why I seem to be able to explain it. One of the worst lessons I learned in film school was three-point lighting. I understand Read More
