See on Scoop.it – GearJones

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The folks at LockCircle have put together what looks like a awesome set of re-housed Zesis ZF lenses. They offer 9 lenses ranging from 18mm f3.5 to 100mm f2.0. They offer a number of different combinations in water proof cases.  I can’t wait for a chance to get my hands on these.

See on www.lockcircle.com

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As video technology has improved, the size of quality cameras has gotten smaller. That smaller size has its downside.  Even though the operator can move faster and be much more agile, often the shots are much less stable than a traditional shoulder mounted camera, Utah cameraman, Doug Monroe has developed a solution that promises to enable much more stable camera control without the limitations inherent with a shoulder mounted camera.

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The Dougmon looks like a well thought out device, I’m eager to see how it performs in the real world. Lookout for a review.

http://www.thedougmon.com/

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Finally, I’m not sure how I feel about the super easy umbrella style deployment.  I know a can’t be the only one who gets joy out of watching some newbie struggle with wrapping a flexy fill disc.  Seriously, although I said it seems a little over engineered, I really think it a pretty good idea at a reasonable price.  If I decide to order one, I’ll let you know how it works out.

Check it out at squarebounce.com

From FilmTools.TV

At #NAB2012, @Zacuto is showing off a number of new products. They have the Recoil camera rig, a bunch of new mounting options and the Tornado follow focus grip.  But coming out of left field is the new Micro Plasma Z-Light.  It’s a soft 1×1 thin light source. Very similar in size to the LitePanel 1×1, but the Z-Light replaces the multiple LED light engine with their Micro Plasma technology, which produces a single source light effect that Zacuto claims to be a soft as a Chimera.  I’ll have to see that for myself. The new light can be powered via AC or DC and will be offered in either daylight or tungsten balanced. Estimated price is $1300 – $1400.

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Well, I can’t say I saw this one coming. Blackmagic Designs, who are know for their elegantly designed I/O, conversion and recorder products, have staked out their position in the Digital Cinema War. Simply named, Blackmagic Cinema Camera, this new 2.4k DSLR sized image maker boasts some pretty nice features:

• 2592 x 2192 Resosution

• 12-bit RAW files recorded at 2432 x 1366
• 2.5K RAW at 2432 x 1366, compressed at 1920 x 1080
• Frame Rates 23.98p, 24p, 25p, 29.97p, 30p (What? No 60p)
• 16.64 mm x 14.04 mm sensor (4/3″)
• Dynamic Range 13 stops
• RAW 2.5K CinemaDNG
• Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD
• HD-SDI
• ThunderBolt
• Built in SSD Recorder
• Lens Mount EF and ZF mount compatible with electronic iris control
• 5″ – 800 x 480 resolution touchscreen LCD
• Integrated mono microphone
• Integrated Lithium-ion Polymer rechargeable battery. (90min run time)
• 12V-30V DC port for external power.
• Weight 1.7 kg / 3.75 lb

I hope you didn’t miss that lens mount feature.  If I’m reading that right, you can attach either Canon or Nikon electronic lenses and control them via that camera, without the need for expensive third party adaptors that seem to have a hard time coming to market. That’s killer.

If all that’s not enough, the $3000 price tag includes a full version of DaVinci Resolve. This gives your one of the most power grading tools on the market, to insure you’re able to deliver the best images possible.  The camera can be connected to any ThunderBolt enabled computer for monitoring the image a scopes live on set.

Storing useful metadata is the easiest I’ve seen on any camera.

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“Blackmagic Cinema Camera is the first camera to feature built-in metadata entry so your files include information compatible with popular editing software. This dramatically speeds up the whole post production process! Entering metadata is easy. Simply tap the capacitive LCD touchscreen to display the slate where you can enter information such as shot number, search tags, scene number, timecode and more! You can even set shot number and other data to increment automatically!” –Blackmagic web site.

One concern I have with this camera is with the sensor size.  It’s essentially a 4/3″ sensor in a world obsessed with Super35. The Af100 has suffered from this lack of endowment. I wonder if the BCC with suffer the same fate? I guess you might say, it makes up for any shortcoming in sensor size with 2.5k RAW image capture.

I’m really eager to see some images from the camera, but I may not be able to wait to place my order.

Check out all the details at Blackmagic Designs.

Panasonic held their camera event on Sunday. If you were hoping to see a successor to the Af100, I’m sorry to disappoint you. But they did announce a new software upgrade. Starting in May, at a cost of $250, you’ll be able upgrade your AF100 to record 1080/60p at 28mbps with the addition of  a 2.35:1 display marker. No mention of expanded focus.

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• Expanded Focus
• One Push Auto Focus
• 60p

Owners of AC130/160, don’t fret. For a $300 fee you can update your current cameras to “A” models via software upgrade.

There’s a new 1/3″ P2 camera. HPX255. This model is essentially the same as the HPX 250, but with the added capability of remote shading.  Great for multi cam event shooting.

Speaking of the HPX250, an upgrade adds Focus on Red and Turbo Autofocus.

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Did we talk about Micro P2 yet? Micro P2 is basically very high performing 32 & 64 GB SD cards that are capable for recording data upto Panasonic’s highest bit rates (AVC-Ultra). These new SD form cards can be used in existing P2 gear via an adapter. In a pinch, you can use Class 10 SD cards in the adapter, but your recordings are limited to 50mb.

Finally, they showed a concept of a 4K Varicam. It looks to be RED inspired modular camera system. Not a lot of details yet, but it looks… interesting!? It’s not what I was really expecting see from Panny.  I wonder why this mockup doesn’t have Leica Glass mounted?

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If you missed Canon’s Sunday night presentation of the new 1D C and C500, Adam Wilt was nice enough to post all the technical slides that Larry Thorpe shared. You can check them out on the PVC ProBlog.

There were two films shown. One by Shane Hurlbut, shot on the 1D c and another by Jeff Cronenweth, shot of the C500. I guess we’ll have to keep an eye on Vimeo for the release of those films.

UK DPs Stephen Murphy & Ed Moore posted a very interesting test/comparison of the diffusion qualities of various rags and bounce sources.  Check out the results in the Vimeo clip below.  You can find a detailed description on their method on Stephen blog. You can also find Raw 5d photos of the test at Ed Moore’s blog.

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The features include:

• Small Form Factor
• Full 1920×1080 (1/3″)
• 10x zoom (5.4-54)
• XLR Audio Inputs
• HD-SDI
• HDMI
• 60p @ 720
• 35mb 4:2:0
• 50mb 4:2:2 (to high speed SxS PRO cards)
• Genlock & Timecode i/o

Looks Like the Sony FS700 might  be for real.
Check out these picts.  Notice the ND filters and the HD-SDI.

Sony NEX FS700

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