Stephen Mick
Totally Usable
After four days of press events, parties, product demos and seemingly endless walking across the convention center, we thought we'd share what we consider the highlights of this year's NAB show. Now, mind you, these are just the considered ramblings of two guys who saw most everything there was to see at NAB 2012. Your interests may not quite align with ours, but we did our best to look at a wide range of things, from lenses that cost more than a house to little bits and pieces that keep your camera from crashing to the ground.
And so…
The Cameras
Obviously there were quite a few new cameras announced, but the one that took everyone by surprise was, of course, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. We were waiting outside the show for the doors to open on Monday, and when we heard about the BCC, we changed our plans and made that our first stop. Honestly, this is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that makes shows like NAB so great. Nobody saw this one coming.*
As for the camera itself, it's hard to really say much about it, as there's very little footage to judge it by. But when you consider that the specs promise a 2.5K camera, recording to multiple formats (including RAW), and it includes a free copy of Resolve, we don't see how anyone wouldn't be super-excited about this camera.*
While we didn't get to put up a video about the new Canon cameras (technical issues), we did get to spend a bit of time with both the C500 and the 1D-C. For us, perhaps the most impressive aspect of both of these cameras was seen in the*Sunday evening*event Canon held, with films shot on each camera shown in a 4K cinema environment.*
"Man & Beast," a short directed by Dante Ariola and DP'ed by Jeff Cronenweth, was shot on the C500 and (we think) a Codex 4K recorder (don't quote us on that). As you'd expect, the footage looked absolutely spectacular on the big screen.*
As you might not expect, the film shot on the 1D-C, "The Ticket," looked equally impressive projected in 4K. When you consider that it's a cinema DSLR recording 4K internally to a MJPG codec on Compact Flash cards, it's almost mind-blowing how good it looks. While we may have some issues with where these cameras are priced, we essentially had no issues with the footage.* The 4K looked incredibly sharp and clean even when projected onto a huge cinema screen.* The only negative to say about the footage was when slow motion was used (the camera will only overcrank in 1080p mode, 4K is 24p only).* With the 4K being so sharp, the switch to the 1080p slomo was obvious, and the footage took a visual hit that just didn't hold up when projected on such a large screen.* Granted, 99% of the time footage isn't going to be viewed that way, so this might not be as big an issue in most cases.
The Sony booth was constantly mobbed, with throngs of people looking at the FS-700. And honestly, if you've seen the front of an F3 and the back of an FS-100, you've seen the FS-700. In an environment like NAB, it's difficult if not impossible to really judge the performance of a camera. So we'll have to wait until there are more cameras in the wild, and more projects shot on them that we can see, before there can be much more to say about the FS-700. But given the form factor, the frame rate options, and the ability to shoot 4K (via external recorder), it's a compelling piece of kit.
We'll add one final camera to this recap…the new Vision Research Phantom Miro 320S. Now, this isn't going to be a camera that everyone will run down to Best Buy and pick up. But for anyone who needs 1080p recording at silly-high frame rates, the Miro is perfect. It has options for PL, EF and Nikon lens mounts, and runs off standard Sony batteries.* It's so small it's hand-holdable for run-and-gun shooting.*
And so…
The Cameras
Obviously there were quite a few new cameras announced, but the one that took everyone by surprise was, of course, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. We were waiting outside the show for the doors to open on Monday, and when we heard about the BCC, we changed our plans and made that our first stop. Honestly, this is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that makes shows like NAB so great. Nobody saw this one coming.*
As for the camera itself, it's hard to really say much about it, as there's very little footage to judge it by. But when you consider that the specs promise a 2.5K camera, recording to multiple formats (including RAW), and it includes a free copy of Resolve, we don't see how anyone wouldn't be super-excited about this camera.*
While we didn't get to put up a video about the new Canon cameras (technical issues), we did get to spend a bit of time with both the C500 and the 1D-C. For us, perhaps the most impressive aspect of both of these cameras was seen in the*Sunday evening*event Canon held, with films shot on each camera shown in a 4K cinema environment.*
"Man & Beast," a short directed by Dante Ariola and DP'ed by Jeff Cronenweth, was shot on the C500 and (we think) a Codex 4K recorder (don't quote us on that). As you'd expect, the footage looked absolutely spectacular on the big screen.*
As you might not expect, the film shot on the 1D-C, "The Ticket," looked equally impressive projected in 4K. When you consider that it's a cinema DSLR recording 4K internally to a MJPG codec on Compact Flash cards, it's almost mind-blowing how good it looks. While we may have some issues with where these cameras are priced, we essentially had no issues with the footage.* The 4K looked incredibly sharp and clean even when projected onto a huge cinema screen.* The only negative to say about the footage was when slow motion was used (the camera will only overcrank in 1080p mode, 4K is 24p only).* With the 4K being so sharp, the switch to the 1080p slomo was obvious, and the footage took a visual hit that just didn't hold up when projected on such a large screen.* Granted, 99% of the time footage isn't going to be viewed that way, so this might not be as big an issue in most cases.
The Sony booth was constantly mobbed, with throngs of people looking at the FS-700. And honestly, if you've seen the front of an F3 and the back of an FS-100, you've seen the FS-700. In an environment like NAB, it's difficult if not impossible to really judge the performance of a camera. So we'll have to wait until there are more cameras in the wild, and more projects shot on them that we can see, before there can be much more to say about the FS-700. But given the form factor, the frame rate options, and the ability to shoot 4K (via external recorder), it's a compelling piece of kit.
We'll add one final camera to this recap…the new Vision Research Phantom Miro 320S. Now, this isn't going to be a camera that everyone will run down to Best Buy and pick up. But for anyone who needs 1080p recording at silly-high frame rates, the Miro is perfect. It has options for PL, EF and Nikon lens mounts, and runs off standard Sony batteries.* It's so small it's hand-holdable for run-and-gun shooting.*
