Monthly Archives: January 2014

cameras, general, lenses

Everything is widescreen

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Now that we are fully entrenched in a 16X9 world, (Don’t tell the broadcasters in the smaller markets) we have embraced the trend in widescreen images for everything. Anamorphics and 2.35 crop is reaching high popularity. From Panavision and Zeiss creating perfect optics to the recently announced Letus Anamorphic adaptor for the GoPro it is everywhere. I think it is great. As trends go, this is one that does not bother me (like 3D).

Now that I have a GoPro, I have to have one of these. The coolest thing is that they took the Superview feature on the GoPro that I really didn’t understand and made it useful. In Superview the camera records the full 4:3 sensor and stretches it to 16X9 1080. Ok, so in Superview your images will be more distorted at the edges but you get a bigger frame. With the 1.33 anamorphic adaptor it records that 4:3 image squeezed and stretches it out to 16X9 1080. No post processing required. You can also record in regular 16X9 and post stretch the image to achieve 2.35:1 images.

I’ll post a sample here as soon as I get mine.

cameras, cinematography, lighting

New Year (1st post of 2014)

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2014 is here. What does that mean? Flying cars? no. Teleportation? no. Replicator? no, maybe 2014 is not the Star Trek future I had wished for, but there are some things to look forward to.

Cameras – The last few years has seen new cameras coming to market faster than ever. 2014 will be no different, or maybe it will be better. Arriflex or ARRI has the documentary bred Amira coming out some time after NAB. I haven’t been this excited about a camera since the SR3 came out when I was in college. The Alexa has proven that there is more to a camera than the size of the sensor.

Speaking of sensor size, the RED Dragon sensor will be exciting when it arrives in all of our cameras.

The Digital Bolex promises to be an indy darling for sure. Looking forward to getting my hands on one.

Black Magic Design has shaken up NAB the last two years, but have yet to deliver the 4K camera they promised. It is sure to attract the student, independents and some other productions, but if it is anything like the BMCC it still has to fight the ergonomics and other limitations.

What else is out there? Open source sensor and software developers. smartphones. action cameras. wearable cameras from Google and other wired sources.

Lighting – Who needs lighting when you have a RED Dragon sensor? LED lighting has begun to explode with many manufacturers entering the scene. We have adopted the AAdyntech lights this last year. Mole Richardson also brought updates to the classic Baby, Tweenie and Junior line with High CRI led instruments. This year there will be more compact sources packing high output and better CRI readings.

Monitors – How we watch the films we make pales in comparison to the resolution of these cameras. On set the monitor may be HD or near HD in pixel count, but the display of color and gamma needs varies widely. In the edit room these monitors get better but the calibration of the monitor is still something of a sorcerers conjuring leading to graded images the vary from venue to venue. Then of course is the monitor in your living room. Mine is still a Plasma 720. At least we stopped talking about 3D.

Here’s hoping the 2014 is an exciting year filled with cool new gear and lots of opportunities to use the gear we have.