Best product released in 2014?

Ted Ramasola said:
Best personal is the GH4.

Best Industry wide is the groundbreaking ARRI 65.
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Why Arri 65, as the best product of 2014?

Don't get me wrong, it's pretty cool... basically multiple Alexa sensors stitched together... but it's super niche. Like super super super niche. Like only .0001% of productions will ever use it.

Just curious on others thoughts as to why, since this is the 2nd time it's been mentioned.
 
Best personal for me: RED Dragon Sensor.

Best industry wide? Hell who knows. There are so many contenders.

Great new cameras this year. What's crazy is I bet 2015 is even better.

Sigma Art primes, fursure. I hope they complete the set in 2015. My dream set would be a 14-24 2.8, zoom. 24 1.4. 85 1.4 and a 135 2.0. and if they released an awesome cinema set... :)

Cinegears wireless follow focus ordered. Can't wait to play with it.

Everything just getting better and cheaper every year. Good times. :)
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
Why Arri 65, as the best product of 2014?

Don't get me wrong, it's pretty cool... basically multiple Alexa sensors stitched together... but it's super niche. Like super super super niche. Like only .0001% of productions will ever use it.

Just curious on others thoughts as to why, since this is the 2nd time it's been mentioned.
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I guess because it paves the way for whats to come.
The choice for me was a "hyperbolic" decision since the term "product" is a very wide brush stroke, it could be cameras, lights, etc so might as well "nominate" something "extreme" irregardless of its price and even if its not sold.
That being said, I guess I disqualified my nomination since I just thought that "product" means something we can buy?

I never used an arri product myself but the images I see from them are quite beautiful.
 
Kino flo celeb 400 and although limited hands on thus far, I'm liking the Panasonic Varicam (will have a whole week with it from Jan 5) for delivering a dual ISO sensor and not in the ML way.
 
The Odyssey 7Q was the item that made a difference to me, coming from FS700's internal avchd. BUT the 7Q also brought a lot of headaches to us users (glad a lot of them are gone again).

my best product vote goes to A7s, pretty astonishing what one can do with just moonlight nowadays.
 
I was also wowed over by the FS7

About the stuff I bought this year... lots of contenders, with lots of "but" for every one of them::
* a7s (great but to be fair it didn't make such a huge impact in what I do)
* 50W Cree LEDs for DIY fresnel lights (absolutely awesome but haven't used them much in real projects, I do too much "available light"; these stills are the only thing I've shot with them so far; that's me, btw, in case anybody is curious)
* Adobe CC (great but not that much of an improvement)
* Colorista II (I'm sure it's awesome but I bought it just a few days ago and haven't had much time to play with it)
* 3D printer (would be my winner, I sure used it A LOT this year, printing lots of pieces and accesories and whatnot, but I actually bought it in late 2013)

So... not sure. This year I've shot a lot but my main tools haven't changed that much from what I used last year. It may be the first year in which I improved my skills more than I grew my kit.
 
Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
Why Arri 65, as the best product of 2014?

Don't get me wrong, it's pretty cool... basically multiple Alexa sensors stitched together... but it's super niche. Like super super super niche. Like only .0001% of productions will ever use it.
Click to expand...

So, by your reasoning the iPhone should get best camera because it's a mass-market product. It gets my vote because Arri took the best digital cinema camera on the market today and turned it into a medium format digital cinema camera. That's pretty dope in my book!
 
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Fs7 for me too....

I see it as the first completely legitimate film replacement cam under $10k (ready to shoot). Not saying you can't shoot something cinema worthy on the vast number of budget cams out there... but the FS7 ticks every box and more... dynamic range, colour rendition, codec, resolution, frame rates, low light, NDs, ergonomics and no major moire/aliasing or rolling shutter.

Considering the price, it really doesn't make any major compromises.
 
I think the AJA LUTBox was very cool and useful.

I found the Sony FS7 a revolution at its price point and what's possible from it.
I am in love with the Samsung NX1 but that is a point of heated debate on this forum.

I was wowed by the Sony A7S as well.

The Odyssey 7Q came into its own this year - getting some really amazing firmware updates.

And the Arri Amira seems quite amazing.

And the redrock micro follow focus is so stable and wonderful.

The Ronin seems amazing.
The Red Dragon when I used it was a complete letdown for me - asking people to shoot at 320 ISO and then having to switch out OLPH was embarassing especially since I want them to succeed.

There has been a ton of innovation this year. It's really quite scary and amazing how quickly things have progressed. Tools have gotten cheaper and better in ways I've never seen before.

Also Impulz Luts helped pave the way for all our footage to look a little richer. And Davinci Resolve 11 for free - and what a program!! What a gift to the world!

And this was the year that film died to me. With digital projection it doesn't really seem that important anymore.

Birdman looked incredible - shot on the Alexa with Master Primes.

But with that said, the trailer for the Entourage movie, which looks like shot on kodak vision3 5219 film stock has that magic film feeling.

So old and new, moving forward.
 
There are A LOT of amazing products introduced this year. Quite a lot really.


The major ones the GH4, the A7s, NX1, FS7, Amira, Alexa 65, Cion, Ursa, Red Dragon, C100 mk II, Sigma ART lenses, the Zeiss Otus line, the Pentax 645z, and many more I can't remember. All of these products are simply outstanding. But if I had to pick one for the 2014 Prize, I would go with the GH4.

It was the camera that took the DSLR/indie quality to the next Pro territory. The thing is that it changed an entire industry/section of filmmaking, and it affects a much bigger market than anything else on the list.

So although I sold mind and had personal dislike to the image, I see the GH4 being the best product of 2014.
 
Personally, this year I acquired "Shark Slider" as well......what a piece of art that is! A C100..... Atomos Blade, lighting equipment, a couple lenses, neat software, and FilmConvert, FCPX, a new MacBook Pro quad core, 759 gigs SSD, and 16 gigs of Ram, a GlideCam and various other things..... all and all a good year for me. Looking to buy a pair of Schoeps with the Mk4 capsules and I should be content for the time being.

As far as the most "hyped" gadget of the year is it would have to be the GH4...... I say hyped because a lot of people bought the hype, and are now selling them left and right...... it's quite a phenomena to observe!
 
Don't know when the bmc4k was released - but I'd say an exceptional product. Simply simple and no gotchas, at all.

The fs7 has better spec et al but with "wafeform sometimes" etc etc it cannot be said to be a "better" prproduct.

Most other products have design flaws that should have been ironed out well before release.
 
.. The gh4 for example composite video only works on playback. Now we had a comp monitor on a gimbal and lost some shot options due to that

The designs that I really dislike are yes the feature is there - sometimes!
 
Liam Hall said:
So, by your reasoning the iPhone should get best camera because it's a mass-market product. It gets my vote because Arri took the best digital cinema camera on the market today and turned it into a medium format digital cinema camera. That's pretty dope in my book!
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I totally get your point, although taking it to a bit of an extreme. My reasoning isn't solely based on mass-market, however, greater industry impact is a consideration I made into my opinion.

I'm not necessarily arguing against the answer of Arri65, it's pretty cool and everyone is valid to their opinion. I was just wondering why people had that opinion, as I thought it was cool, but too periphereal to the day-to-day industry for such praise.

If you don't mind, I'll ask you, which do you think deserves award for best product?

1) Taking the best digital cinema camera on the market today and turning it into (just a few) expensive rental-only medium-format digital cameras that have a proprietary lens mount with only one modern prime lens set option, and can only currently shoot up to 27fps?....

OR

2) Taking the best digital cinema camera on the market today and making it available to the world for almost immediate purchase at much more affordable prices; but also making it smaller in size, lighter in weight, and with an interchangeable mount system with support for industry standard PL, news/docu B4 and versatile/affordable Canon EF lenses. It also shoots at a higher FPS than Alexa, maxing out at 200fps.

(Also, the Arri 65 was officially launched on December 10th. I suppose it qualifies for 2014, but I doubt more than three people will have used it officially by years end. I mean, there are only five of them worldwide. The Arri Amira has also been out for months and months, has sold hundreds of cameras and has been used on thousands of productions.)





I'm not saying the Amira is a better camera. For image quality, the Arri65 will be king.... A big difference being the Arri65 can do ArriRAW with a much larger resolution, while the Amira is 2K ProRes4444... but without falling to the extreme example of mass market video cameras, it is my opinion that the Arri Amira has done much more for the professional film and television industry in 2014 than the Arri 65 has done. Not that it detracts from the Arri65, but I might have been more star-struck by the camera if it were the first 65mm format digital camera, but the now retired Phantom65 camera was out years ago and did 4k at like 100fps, or something. Of course it didn't have a sensor as beautiful as the Alexa, but it was pretty good, and available years ago.

I don't know why they discontinued the phantom65mm camera, but I recently heard rumors that IMAX, the company, was creating their own camera, and the heart of it was, again, rumored to be the foundation of the Phantom65 camera... for what that's worth.

Is that criteria for judgement? I don't know. It's something I considered with my opinion.


No right or wrong answer... the Arri65 is definitely a worthy and arguable response.
 
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Speaking of Arri65 and Phantom65

Here is a video from April, 2011 of the Phantom65.


Because of the obviously large sensor of the Phantom65, AbelCine in conjunction with Vision Research, developed a 3D system that had two smaller lenses which were both captured on half of the sensor, creating two-2k video streams!

There were shooting 3D with two lenses and one sensor! How crazy is that?

With a similar large scale, wide sensor, I wonder if Arri is looking into this! Would make for a great way to capture Arri quality 3D without needing to do the 'Hugo' Alexa 3D rig which was a monster! One of the main reasons you see Red being used almost exclusively on 3D productions. Their rigs are 1/3 the weight!




Eh, never mind about the IMAX rumor... Seems they simply bought the exact idea demonstrated in the 3D Phantom65 video I posted:

Seems the Digital IMAX 3D camera IS a rebranded Phantom65 with the afforementioned stereoscopic lens system shooting to one sensor.

 
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Ryan Patrick O'Hara said:
I totally get your point, although taking it to a bit of an extreme. My reasoning isn't solely based on mass-market, however, greater industry impact is a consideration I made into my opinion.

I'm not necessarily arguing against the answer of Arri65, it's pretty cool and everyone is valid to their opinion. I was just wondering why people had that opinion, as I thought it was cool, but too periphereal to the day-to-day industry for such praise.

If you don't mind, I'll ask you, which do you think deserves award for best product?

1) Taking the best digital cinema camera on the market today and turning it into (just a few) expensive rental-only medium-format digital cameras that have a proprietary lens mount with only one modern prime lens set option, and can only currently shoot up to 27fps?....

OR

2) Taking the best digital cinema camera on the market today and making it available to the world for almost immediate purchase at much more affordable prices; but also making it smaller in size, lighter in weight, and with an interchangeable mount system with support for industry standard PL, news/docu B4 and versatile/affordable Canon EF lenses. It also shoots at a higher FPS than Alexa, maxing out at 200fps.

(Also, the Arri 65 was officially launched on December 10th. I suppose it qualifies for 2014, but I doubt more than three people will have used it officially by years end. I mean, there are only five of them worldwide. The Arri Amira has also been out for months and months, has sold hundreds of cameras and has been used on thousands of productions.)





I'm not saying the Amira is a better camera. For image quality, the Arri65 will be king.... A big difference being the Arri65 can do ArriRAW with a much larger resolution, while the Amira is 2K ProRes4444... but without falling to the extreme example of mass market video cameras, it is my opinion that the Arri Amira has done much more for the professional film and television industry in 2014 than the Arri 65 has done. Not that it detracts from the Arri65, but I might have been more star-struck by the camera if it were the first 65mm format digital camera, but the now retired Phantom65 camera was out years ago and did 4k at like 100fps, or something. Of course it didn't have a sensor as beautiful as the Alexa, but it was pretty good, and available years ago.

I don't know why they discontinued the phantom65mm camera, but I recently heard rumors that IMAX, the company, was creating their own camera, and the heart of it was, again, rumored to be the foundation of the Phantom65 camera... for what that's worth.

Is that criteria for judgement? I don't know. It's something I considered with my opinion.


No right or wrong answer... the Arri65 is definitely a worthy and arguable response.
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I've already answered this earlier in the thread. Sony FS7 was my winner, Alexa 65 runner-up. One's a station wagon, the other a sports a car...

Amira's a great camera for sure. But, it's just another station wagon. It ticks all the boxes except one, price. I looked into buying one earlier this year, but the rate of return was too long. Remember, this is a camera trumpeted as offering Alexa quality for the owner operator. Well, as a director, who self-shoots I couldn't afford one. It's still a rental item for most people. I can buy six FS7s for the price of Amira. Is Amira six times better?
 
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