My good friend Patrick Moreau and his colleagues over at stillmotion have begun a new initiative within their company that is focused on giving back.  They have set up the Share project, which tells the story of one cause a year and is produced on a 100% volunteer basis.  Patrick and the others felt that rather than donating a percentage of profits to a cause, they could better help that cause by donating their greatest asset – which is a pension for fantastic storytelling.  I have to agree that this is an amazing and gracious approach to giving back.  Anyone can donate money, but those that are gifted as storytellers can give so much more by putting their skills to work and spreading the word of a particular cause in a way that connects with audiences.

Thier first endeavor for Share is the "Old Skool Cafe" – the story of a youth run supper club.  A description of the piece is available below via stillmotion’s blog – and you can see the video embedded above!

"Teresa, the first heart behind Old Skool, was a correctional officer who was really affected by how few options there are for youth after they have entered the system. she would get so connected to many of the youth with the time she spent with them inside of prison. sadly, many ended up right back inside shortly after being released. the environment many of these youth come from, and the environment from which they are released into gives them little chance of breaking free. Teresa wanted to created a way out, another options that could offer these youth a positive community support system as well as an income. with that, and 8 long years of hard work, Old Skool Cafe was born. in the coming weeks we will have images and a film telling the story of Old Skool Cafe, our first story for the stillmotion: Share project."

Hi-Hats are useful, short tripods that allow you to get lower to the ground than a standard set of sticks ever could, even with the legs spread all the way out.  Granted, taking the camera off whatever support you have and putting it directly on the ground or a sand bag is another solution, but Hi-Hats support fluid heads, giving you the ability to pan/tilt and level, which is invaluable.  Most grip trucks come with a Hi-Hat on board, but for some reason my gear closet has been lacking one.

I recently got the new Dromos Hi-Hat from Cinevate (pictured left), which has been filling this gap in my gear closet and more.  Above, you can see the Dromos, next to a traditional Hi-Hat (pictured right).  You will notice a difference between the two right away, namely the number of holes covering the Dromos.  This is because Cinevate has cheese-plated out their Hi-Hat with 1/4" and 3/8" holes so that the user can attach accessories and explore different mounting options.  (You can now easily put a Marshall Monitor via an arm screwed into one of the sides of the Dromos for example…)  And while both of the pictured Hi-Hats support 100mm bowl fluid heads – the Dromos bowl can be articulated at 0, 45, and 90 degrees.  This opens up a whole new slew of creative options for low angle shots.  For instance, at 90 degrees, you can now easily get shots where the camera is pointing straight up at a subject from the ground, rather than at an angle – this is actually a pretty big deal.   So while the traditional Hi-Hat is very useful, it is not nearly as versatile.

You may also notice that both are fastened to a piece of plywood (fancy right? Hollywood has been doing it for years).  This lets you easily put the tripod and camera down on most surfaces and then weight the board with sandbags.  However, traditional Hi-Hats are usually bolted to the board, but the Dromos uses screw in bolts that go into threaded holes on Cinevate’s base board.  This lets you easily detach the Dromos from the base and use it as a riser with all sorts of different support gear.  Because the cheese plate extends all the way across the bottom of the Dromos and has various sizings and spacings of holes, you can use it as a riser and attach it to almost any type of slider or jib.  As you may notice from my gear page – I use both Cinevate and Kessler support depending on the application, and it is incredibly useful that the Dromos can act as a riser that mates with both.  The combinations for use are numerous – you can use it to mount a fluid head to the top of a slider, or mount it to the bottom of your jib’s mounting plate to undersling a fluid head and camera (check out the image to the left in which the Riser is mounted to a slider, and then the bowl is configured at 45 degrees to creat a level shot).

And if you aren’t in need of a low angle shot solution, or an incredibly versatile riser – the Dromos in combination with the wooden base plate makes for an excellent place to build your camera.  You can easily put the Hi-Hat down on your camera cart, workbench, or any table really, and have easy access to it for setting up your rig.  When its built you can use the handles on the baseplate to easily carry your entire rig from setup to setup.

I went looking for a Hi-Hat tripod and came back with a piece of gear that has many additional functionalities, both for creative and practical applications.  That’s more than you could ask for out of any piece of gear.

iOS devices – specifically the iPad (which just reported that it soared to 68% of the tablet market share in Q1 2012) – are becoming increasingly prevalent.  Many of the users are buying them for one task: media consumption.  Movies, music, documents, magazines, games – you name it.  And increasingly, people are using their smart phones for the same application.  However, there is an inherent conflict at work here: tablets (and smartphones) are great for consuming media on-the-go, with their small form factors, but small form factors give way to little hard drive space, and media these days requires an increasing amount of just that – space.  Granted, wireless capabilities on these devices gives you the ability to stream media, but that is not always available.  I love that I can now download any previous iTunes movie purchase on my phones/tablets/AppleTVs for example, but that only works when I have a relatively fast internet connection – usually only at home.  The other catch, os tat fees for large amounts of streaming data can (increasingly) be prohibitive depending on the type of service provider you have, especially if you’re trying to pull it off of a 4G/3G connection (or if you’re an AT&T customer, a 3G connection that they are "calling" a 4G connection…but don’t get me started!) so you probably want to have media files stored on your device.  But between those files and all the various apps – even 64GB can go quickly.

Enter the G-CONNECT.  A new 500 GB storage drive from G-Technology that has built in WiFi so that you can wirelessly access your movies, music, photos and documents via your iOS device.  This gives the user an additional 500GB of storage space for media that would otherwise be competing for space with iOS applications – and you don’t need an internet connection to access it (this is due to the fact that the drive has its own internal WiFi.   All you have to do is plug it in and it puts out its own signal to which you can wirelessly connect to gain access.  Access to the device is gained through the use of your web browser, or the G-Connect App – both of which allow you to browse through the files on the drive and stream them to your device (Of course to get media on the drive in the first place – the drive includes a traditional USB2.0 connection).  

Up to four (Supports five devices or more, depending on the workload) others can access the files as well by logging on to the G-CONNECT through Wi-Fi connection – which supports the streaming of up to 5 SD movies, or 3 HD movies.  A wireless drive like this would have been incredibly useful on production meetings during my last film, "Mobius" as we were staying out in the desert with basically no internet, but still needed to share references, storyboards, script updates, etc… this would have provided a fast and efficient solution for sharing these things digitally than everyone downloading them off a flash drive one by one.  

Now there is an inherent catch here, because you are connected to the device through WiFi, you are excluding yourself from connecting to your internet service – so what if you want to stream your media (such as music), and surf the web at the same time (and you don’t have a 3G/4G LTE iPad)?  The G-CONNECT has an ethernet connection on the back so that you can plug it directly into your wireless router.  This causes the device to show up as a shared drive on your network, which anyone can access who is tapped into your network – making for a  great shared storage solution.  What’s even better is that since the drive has internal WiFi, it can also act as a wireless hotspot, so that you can tap into the internet connection through the G-CONNECT itself.  You could of course plug the G-CONNECT straight into your modem and use it as your sole wireless router (with 500GB of storage!)  The range of the device is 150 feet, so this solution is best suited for a small apartment.  For this type of home use, it should also be noted that the drive supports DLNA – so you can connect to it and stream with a compatible device, such as an XBox or Television.  

For me though, I can see this as a great solution to having all of your movies, reels, and media with you accessible wirelessly on the road.  For those of you who are constantly on the go like myself, you don’t have to be near a wall outlet to power the G-CONNECT.  You also have the option of powering the device through Apple iPad-compatible USB power cables, car power adapters and external batteries.

 In a few words – this device is hugely convenient, especially for those that travel a lot.  It has applications in numerous lines of work, and can also just be a hub for entertainment (often referred to as "research in the film industry .  It goes for a retail price of $199.99 – which is incredible given the functionality.  A G-Technology 500GB drive on its own starts at $100.00, and it’s wireless equivalent, the Apple Airport Express, goes for $99.99, but this device combines the functionality of both of those devices at no additional markup. 

One of the big announcements that caught my interest at NAB was Adobe CS6′s inclusion of the high-end color grading software SpeedGrade within the suite.   This is a similar move to what Final Cut Studio did several years ago when they included "Color" within their suite for free – and I have always been a huge fan of that software and the added creative control if gave me over the final look of the video I produce.   SpeedGrade  gives us the ability to do high end color grading within the Adobe CS6 ecosystem without outsourcing that process to a third party plugin – and that’s a very welcome move.

To get started with SpeedGrade on some of your own clips, you can send footage directly from Premier Pro, import via EDL, or import individual clips from your hard drive.  For the purposes of this tutorial, we are using a clip shot on the 5D.

When you open up the main viewers you will see a Histogram, waveform, preview window, etc.  All of these windows can be moved around to make the window comfortable for you.  You will find also that the different color corrections and color effects are applied via layers – so it will be familiar to users of Photoshop and After Effects.  Here, we start our grade with a primary layer that includes an Offset, Gamme, and Gain slide to adjust the main levels within your image.  However, also included in the primary layer are a number of other sliders that help you with saturation, contrast, color temperature, hue, etc.  Once your primary is set, it would be easy to add another primary layer to start creating an overall look for your clip, but you also have the option of using a number of presets that come stock with SpeedGrade.   As with any color grading software you ideally want to do your work within a two monitor setup.   

On our clip we added the "Cinematic 1" LUT – which we though helped pop the colors in the woman’s red hat.  In order to further this effect, we can add a secondary to isolate the red colors of the hat and tassel to help it pop more.   Once we have the color of the hat isolated using the sliders, we can increase the intensity of just the red.  However, we have found it useful to go back to your secondary layer and then reduce the opacity on it until you get something that is a bit more natural looking.

In order to get rid of any portions of the clip that were affected by the increase in red saturation that we did not want to be, we can apply a mask to our secondary layer so that only that which falls within the bounding box of the mask (or outside of it – depending on what the user defines) retains the attributes of the secondary layer.  In this particular clip, the camera is on a slider, so we are able to using motion tracking, which is built into SpeedGrade, to move the mask with the image.

Finally, for this clip we wanted to add a vignette.  To do this we added an entirely new image layer on top of our original clip (this should not be confused with the layers we have applied within a particular look).  Here we created an ovular vignette mask, which we were able to manipulate using the Widget tool – which lets us adult the size, shape, rotation, and feathering of the mask.  We pulled down the offset for this entire layer, and then defined that the effect would only occur outside the vignette mask that we created.

And with that – we have done a simple color grade in Adobe CS6 SpeedGrade.  While we only used a few layers in the above example, you are not limited to any number of primary or secondary layers within the application.  We also only worked with a single clip in the above tutorial, but for when you are grading entire sequences, there is the ability to have two playheads so you can preview your grade consistency between clips.  There are also a variety of out put options too, from within the application, and the ability to conform back to RAW clips when working with cameras like the RED EPIC and ARRI Alexa.  One note to C300 users:  SpeedGrade is missing is the ability to work with MXF files at this time, so you cannot grade C300 files natively.   However, this application is new to the suite, so I am sure we will see such enhancements down the road.

All in all, this is a powerful new Adobe application with all of the standard tools for high end color grading and a welcome addition to the suite.

Accessories are a BIG part of NAB – it’s not just about the cameras…  Here are a few of those tools that caught my eye and that I think are relevant to this blog’s readership. 

Pictured to the left is the Kessler Fusion. I wrote a post on this a few weeks before NAB when Kessler launched their site – but the full Fusion was display at NAB and it was attracting a ton of attention, not only because of it’s relatively inexpensive price (under $6,000.00 for the Fusion starter kit – a steal for a motion control system), but because of its ease of use.  A connection to the Fusion brain is accessible via ethernet, USB, or WiFi (no internet required), and then the software is accessed through your HTML5 browser on any device.  The software is intuitively laid out (and customizable!), and gives you the ability to keyframe moves and smooth the ease in and ease out of those moves via Bezier curves.  It should be noted that the Fusion is also not just for time-lapse – it is fully functional for live action and stop-motion motion control shots as well, allowing you to play back your key framed moves exactly.  The starter kit mentioned above comes with the Fusion brain and two modular bricks and included hardware for configuring them into a pan/tilt any number of JIB/slider moves you can think of.  Of course, the modular design is expandable for up to 256 axes of movement (would love to see that).  It can also be programmed to pull your Iris and focus when paired with the appropriate hardware – which is HUGE for me. It is compatible with all pre-existing Kessler sliders/dollies that  This is an incredible piece of gear and technology, and I can’t wait to play with it more.   I’ve seen it work fantastically with EF lenses for those that might be curious – and NAIL focus.

Kessler was also showing off its new Kwik Release System, which is a camera fastening system that instantly locks when the mounting plate is placed in the receiver, and can be quickly unlocked with a push-button release gate.  A quick release plate is one of the most useful accessories you can spend your money on – I SWEAR by them.  (No more screwing in tripods heads into your sliders, or trying to slide them into tripod heads.)  By pre-mounting all of your support gear with receiver plates and placing a camera mount on the bottom of your camera, you can move between tripods, sliders, jibs, etc… with speed and ease.  I have been using Really Right Stuff plates for the past couple years to do this and am very excited to hear that the new Kessler system will mate with the RRS plates that I already own.

 

Cinevate was also showing off some support gear – namely their new Axis Jib – which is a quick and simple jib that comes straight out of the case and can be set up in a short amount of time.  While there are many jibs out there that our built for speed and ease of use – this is one of the few jibs I have seen that is completely contained within a single tube – which means no pinch points for your fingers to get trapped in while you are rushing to set the jib up or operating it. The tube comes in two pieces that snap together with a small twist, and the back end of the jib contains an internal counterweight.  This helps you set the jib up even quicker, as you can just put a rough amount of counter weight on the back and then fine tune it with the internal trim weight.  The jib comes with a 100mm ball head that fits on to any pair of rugged sticks with a 100mm bowl.  On top of the ball head is a riser, which Cinevate has cheese plated out so that you can attach arms with monitors for the operator as well as other accessories.  On the hinge of the jib, they have also incorporated a dry erase ring (much like on a follow focus) so that you can mark your tilt points.  The jib also has a 100mm bowl at the camera end and supports a payload of 50 lbs.  The coolest part about the camera mounting end of the jib though is that it can be inverted or locked at 90 degrees which opens up a lot of possibilities for creative jib moves.

    

 

Quite a few companies were also showing off new focus accessories.  Redrock Micro was showing off their long-awaited wireless follow focus system, the microRemote.  This is a digitally controlled system that allows you to remotely focus your lens via a handheld controller (that integrates with your iPhone and a Redrock iApp) or a finger wheel that is attached to a Redrock hand grip.  Both of these accessories communicate with a torque motor that mounts on the15mm rods beneath your lens.  There is also a Base station that you use to calibrate the motor to the lens.  Its all very simple to setup and use, and brings wireless focusing to DSLR shooters – who are in need of more exacting focusing mechanisms to help with still photo lens focus rings (looser than cinema lenses, and often with no hard stops).  I find the finger wheel incredibly attractive – as it allows a handheld operator to handle focus on his own while maintaining a steady grip on two handles.  Many DSLR shooters often work as a one man operation – so I am sure they will find this incredibly attractive as well.  I know this has a big potential for me.   Holding a follow focus and pulling focus can be tough on your own – often I feel like the camera is off balance.   This is the best (and relatiely affordable) solution I see to go out as a solo shooter an pull focus on your own wide open and have a good chance of making it.   I tried this on my own on the floor at NAB and back when it was first shown in the fall – and I really picked it up very very quickly.

 

OConnor was also showing off their new studio follow focus intended to deal with the photo lens focus issues mentioned above.  The O-Focus Photo Dual Mini features a hand wheel that allows you to set hard stops at close focus and infinity so you can work around focus rings that spin infinitely.  The gearing from the wheel to the lens gear is also setup to give you 270 degrees of rotation for every 360 degrees that you spin the hand wheel.  This gives your 1st AC (or the operator) a longer pull while moving the actual focus ring less – great for exact focus pulls.  I suppose the hard stops could also be set to mark a focus pull from one subject to another.  The inclusion of an on/off switch makes this a feasible application in case the focus puller needs to quickly improvise.

 

Manfrotto also showed off a new focus assist – an electronic remote that plugs directly into a Canon DSLR body to access its internal electronics and control focus.  This removes the need for there to be any sort of external hardware that interfaces with the lens itself – and its always useful to have as little touching the camera as possible to insure steadiness – especially on DSLR’s where a slight bump can cause an aberration in the image due to the sensitive rolling shutter on these CMOS sensors.  Manfrotto has released two versions of this remote – one that clamps on to the pan/tilt arm of a fluid head, and a deluxe version that is built to work on the hand grip of their new DSLR SYMPLA rig.  Both remotes give you control over in and out focus points and focus speed, but because they interface with the Canon firmware directly – they can also control record start & stop, live view, one-touch auto-focus, digital zoom, aperture and exposure, ISO settings.  However, the deluxe version also has an LCD that displays additional information such as battery levels, media space, and color temp.  Basically the only thing these remotes can’t control is the zoom since it has to be adjusted manually on all EF lenses.  Though if you paired this device with the Redrock microRemote finger wheel and attached the torque motor to a gear on the zoom ring rather than the focus ring, you could theoretically control focus on one hand grip of your shoulder rig and zoom on the other. At any rate, this accessory should prove incredibly useful for videographers and news shooters who have to operate, dial in settings, and pull focus on the fly.   I haven’t had a chance to try this out extensively – but I think that these tools are going to be very welcome by DSLR shooters out there – especially since I know most people out there often don’t have the luxury of having a 1st AC with them to pull focus. 

 

Of course all these accessories are great – but many of them require power.  In order to keep your rig simple, its always nice to use an on-board, external battery to power both your camera and all of its auxiliary components.  I have used Anton Bauers to do this for the past couple of years with my DSLR rigs.  This year at NAB they announced a new battery mount (The QRC-CA940) that is specifically designed for use with the C300 and C500.  What makes it unique is that this mount comes equipped with a DC connector that outputs the proper 7.2v current for powering the Cinema EOS cameras.  It also has an additional (3) PowerTaps that output 14.4v for powering other accessories (typically the camera mounts only have one addition PowerTap).   This accessory is fantastic for use with the Cinema EOS systems, but I foresee a huge market for this item in conjunction with the Black Magic Cinema Camera, as that camera does not have a removable battery and users will be in need of an external power source.  However, currently the QRC-CA940 cannot support the BMCC as it requires an input voltage of 12-30v.  But if they can work the voltage out and keep the same design, the BMCC is in need of a single power source that can power both the camera and multiple accessories.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see this released down the road.

 

Last, but not least, I wanted to throw mention to LitePanels new 3-light Sola ENG set.  And while lights are technically not accessories or support – this kit is too useful, lightweight, and mobile not to mention.  As the name suggests it contains (3) of LitePanels recently introduced Sola ENG lights, which are daylight balanced LEDs with a fresnel lens that draw 30w of power and have an equivalent output of 250w.  The kit also includes diffusion and CTO to warm diffuse and warm the lights, stands, barn doors, AC and DC power (for powering from the wall or battery), and a collapsable soft box to turn one of the lights into a larger, softer source.  I have really enjoyed using these lights in the field – they provide nice quality light that is perfect for a small fill or kick.  Some other DPs have also told me they really love these lights – they are perfect accent lights when mixed with natural lighting – and can also be used as a highly portable interview lighting kit.  WIth the inclusion of the soft box, you can now turn one of the lights into a nice, soft key light – which makes this kit perfect for documentary filmmakers on-the-go who have to set up quick, impromptu interviews.  The ability to power all of these lights off batteries also makes this kit ideal for setting up an interview almost anywhere – no more cords or generators needed… obviously:  these are for indoor use or overcast days.  They cannot fight the sun – you will still need the big boys and genies to do that.

As many of you may know – these past few years have been particularly cruel in terms of the amount of journalist and photojournalists going missing, being kidnapped, or getting killed in conflict zones.   Next Tuesday, Christie’s auction house is holding its first ever sale of contemporary photojournalism works to honor Anton Hammerl – a South African photojournalist who disappeared in Libya last year while on freelance assignment.  I have donated a print to this auction (shown above), along with many other photojournalists, whose company I am honored to be amongst: Sebastião Salgado, Susan Meiselas,Alec Soth, Christopher Anderson, Ed Kashi, Yuri Kozyrev, Larry Fink, Lynsey Addario, Ron Haviv, David Burnett, Joao Silva, Bruce Davidson, Greg Marinovich, Samuel Aranda, and Roger Ballen.  Proceeds from the auction will be donated to Hammerl’s three children.   

For more information on the auction please visit HERE or to support Anton’s children directly please visit HERE.

Apologies for the recent radio silence!  Following the week at NAB I have been on the road from San Francisco, to New York, to Chicago, to Boston, and finally back again.  

That being said, I didn’t want to let NAB 2012 pass without mentioning a few of the products I saw there this year that stood out.  In the list below you will find some new cameras and lenses.  Expect a follow up post in 48 hours or so that will cover support accessories we saw at NAB.  I have tried to highlight items that caught my eye and  bring new features to the table in both the HDSLR market as well as the cine market.

		Black Magic Cinema Camera	B&H	Mfr. Site
	The Black Magic Cinema Camera was acquiring quite a bit of buzz on the show room floor at NAB this year.  The camera has a 2.5K sensor and shoots a 2.5K RAW image, or a 1080p image in ProRes or DNxHD.  The camera also has a huge built in LCD touchscreen on the back and is compatible with either EF or ZE lenses.   And the cost? $3000 US.  Which is an excellent price point for the ability to acquire a RAW image and considering that Davinci Resolve and UltraScope software (about $1,600 of software) are included for free with the camera.  I look forward to seeing this camera in action and what images it produces.

		Zeiss CZ.2 70-200mm		Mfr. Site
	Like the CP.2′s this lens has interchangeable mounts, from PL to EF, and is intended to be a Zoom companion to the compact prime set.  It is encased with cinema style lens gearings and hard stops so that it works like a cinema lens lens.  Unlike its photographic counterpart (the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8), this lens opens to a T/2.9 – which is pretty much identical (T stop measures tend to be more accurate than f-stop FYI.)  This lens is available sometime in Q4 of this year.

		Zeiss CP.2 Super Speeds		Mfr. Site
	In addition to showing off its new zoom lens, the CP.2 line also added three new super sped lenses to its lineup.  The lenses open to an aperture of T1.5, which give you almost two more stops of light from the T/2.1 apertures on the original CP.2 lenses.  The super speeds will be available in focal lengths of 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm.   These are extremely exciting lenses as you now can shoot in very low light with what is still one of the highest quality yet affordable cine lenses in the market… Ultra Primes and Master Primes have been around for awhile but are significantly more expensive (and of course perform at the highest level – that you probably don’t need unless you are projecting on a 30+ foot screen.)

		Zeiss CP.2 additions: 15mm and 135mm	B&H B&H	Mfr. Site
	The CP.2 line also has expanded its range of focal lengths, adding a 15mm T/2.9 and a 135mm T/2.1.  At T/2.9 – the 15mm is much faster than the 18mm T/3.6.  It is also impressive that the 135 maintains the common aperture of T/2.1 that most of the CP.2′s share in common.  It is great to get an even wider range of focal lengths in this already great set of lenses.  The CP.2 lenses continue to be a smart long term investment given that they can be used on both PL and EF cameras.     If and when you move to the more expensive cine lenses (that sell in the $8K-20K per lens range!) you can still use the CP lenses on your B camera.

		Zeiss Anamorphic Lenses		Mfr. Site
	Zeiss had its prototype anamorphic lenses on display at NAB.  The particular lens they were showing was a 50mm T/1.3.  However no focal lengths or apertures have been set for the entire range of lenses.  The only thing that is certain is that these lenses will have a 2:1 squeeze and be priced significantly higher than the Zeiss CP.2′s, between $20k and $30k per lens.  This puts these lenses in league with Zeiss and other high level cinema lenses.    I sure can’t wait to play with these!!!

		Schneider Cine-Xenar III Lenses (18, 25, 35, 50, 75, 95)		Mfr. Site
	I was fortunate enough to get to try the II series of these lenses last year and was extremely impressed with the optic quality, but was disappointed by the fact that the lenses did not maintain a constant volume when focused.  The front element of the lens telescoped, increasing the length of the lens depending no the focus distance, which made these lenses incredibly difficult to use with a  matte box.  However, Schneider has re-engineered the lenses to hold constant volume while focusing and has added an 18mm to the original 25, 35, 50, 75, and 95mm.  These lenses are all manufactured to be the same size, so that switching lenses is easy and requires no changing of position for your follow focus or any other accessories for that matter.  Looking forward to getting my hands on these as well.   The new lenses are also smaller and lighter than the previous generation – very similar to the Cookes in size.   These are supposed to live right in the middle of the Zeiss CP.2 and Cooke series in terms of contrast.

In the studio we have been working exclusively with Adobe Premiere for a year now, and haven’t looked back. The ability to natively edit video formats and dynamically link between different applications has made our workflow much smoother as we shoot a variety of different formats, from the H.264 to R3D codec. Last week, Adobe announced CS6. We have been fortunate enough to play with betas of Premiere and After Effects for CS6 for the past couple months, and in the above video – Jon Carr outlines some of our favorite features of  the new Premiere Pro and After Effects. CS6 Production Premium applications also includes After Effects, Audition, Bridge, Encore, Flash Professional, Illustrator, Media Encoder, Photoshop Professional, and two new applications: Prelude and Speedgrade.

Premiere Pro has some cool new features – the most noticeable of which is the new default "two up" workspace, which places the source monitor and program monitor side by side at the top of the screen.  Both monitors have also been given a sleek, new look, with panel bars that can easily be reconfigured. You will also notice that the Audio Mixer has undergone a redesign – acquiring some features from Adobe Audition. It is also now easier to browse and reorganize your media with resizable 16:9 thumbnails in the project window. Users will also notice notice an improvement to the shortcut keys and the customizable shortcut sets.

Sequences have also seen some improvements. You can edit blazingly fast in 5K (which was possible in CS5.5, but the feature has improved speed here) due to native support for RED’s .R3D files. There is also native support for ARRIRAW and Canon XF MPEG-2. You can also now use CS5.5′s Warp Stabilizer plugin directly within your Premiere timeline.  This is a fantastic tool and it is now easier to access without having to roundtrip your project through After Effects to stabilize footage. Warp Stabilizer, as you may know, also allows you to smooth out shaky shots. Users will find that a new sequence now updates to match clip settings, and effects are easier to apply with adjustment layers.

For a full breakdown of the PRemiere CS6 features – check out the Press Release.

The above video details the Marshall V-LCD56MD 5.6 inch monitor, which we recently took out with us on a shoot.  I have been waiting for this monitor for a long time..  The form factor is perfect for an on board monitor, but it includes a lot of the features that before now were typically only found on larger monitors.

The monitor is set up to receive an HDMI in, and can also loop the signal, but also includes a modular input/output.  The compatible modules include an HDMI-SDI transcoder, and a 3G-SDI loop through.  The monitor which we used on our shoot had the 3G-SDI loop through module – which I prefer when I am shooting with the EPIC, so I can loop out the signal via SDI.  However, the inclusion of the HDMI input is also helpful, as we were also able to configure this monitor so that it was received an HDMI input from the EPIC, while the SDI was supplying a feed to the EVF.  This worked well for allowing me to operate via the EVF while an AC pulled focus via the onboard monitor.

Of course, the 1280×800 LCD monitor also works well for single-user operating.  It supports 720p resolution, which is a nice resolution to operate and pull focus with.  However, it also supports the reception of a 1080p signal through both its HDMI and modular 3G-SDI inputs, so there is the inclusion of an improved pixel-to-pixel feature which blows the image up to show its native resolution.  To show Full HD it will punch into the image, and smaller resolution it will center them in the middle of the screen.  The default view scales everything down to 720p.  However, there are also other scaling options that allow you to further adjust the image.  An Input crop setting allows you to crop in to any portion of the image based on a customizable crop area that is user adjusted with the knobs no the front of the monitor.  There are also aspect ratio crops for 4:30, 16:9, and full screen, as well as a custom aspect ratio crop that you can adjust using the knobs and is graphically represented by a scale.  

An expanded marker function allows the user to set markers at the following aspect ratios (4:3, 13:9, 14:9, 16:9, 1.85:1, 2.35:1, 2.39:1), as well as show from 80% to 95% broadcast safe areas.  Again, there is a customizable marker that can be user defined using the knob on the front of the monitor.  Additionally the user can set line width, color, and transparency.  

There are also multiple features to assist you on obtaining a well-exposed/sharp images.  For exposure – there is the False color feature, which we have seen on prior models of Marshall monitors.  It displays IRE based on a gradient scale of colors, from fuchsia (<0 IRE) to red (>101 IRE).  This is great for seeing where you’re blacks and whites are clipping and there is a loss of information.    Also to assist with exposure, there is a Clip function that displays over/under exposed areas with a Zebra filter.  The user can definite the upper and lower ranges of this Threshold.  An inverted setting, will flip it so that what is exposed between the lower and upper threshold shows a Zebra pattern.  The coolest inclusion for exposure assist though is the inlayed waveform monitor.  To assist with focus there is the inclusion of a peaking filter that reacts to defined edges of color through R-G-B-W adjustable lines and variable thickness feature.

The battery module on the back can be customized with a variety of different modules to accept different battery types.  However, as you will see in the video above, I prefer to power the monitor off the same battery as I power my camera using a D-tap from the Anton Bauer mount to a DC input on the monitor.  This keeps the monitor light, and the weight of the battery centered with the mass of your camera, rather than with the monitor – throwing your rig off balance.  Additional features for this monitor include two-channel audio metering, and a headphone output.  

On the whole, I have to say that I am also extremely impressed by the menus on this monitor.  They are sharp, well-laid out, and incredibly easy to navigate.  Furthermore the customizability of each feature set really lets you set up this monitor specific to the needs of your project and/or operating style – which is exactly what you want out of an onboard monitor.  You can check this monitor out at NAB, along with a number of other monitors that Marshall has recently released (and that can also be found on the Gear Page).

This morning, Canon announced two cameras that it will be showing at NAB, along with their specs, the EOS-1D C and C500 – both 4K capable cameras.

I have seen footage from the 1D camera and it looks great.   An interesting point here is that I have only seen that footage at 1080p – not 4K, and that’s going to be a consideration for most people going forward.    The cameras are ahead of the monitor/projector/TV resolutions that almost all of us have today.   While RED was far ahead of the curve and pushed 5K a few years ago, and now Sony, Canon and others are joining the 4K world – few if any of us can truly experience the beauty of 4K on any of the monitoring devices we currently use – and I think that’s significant.  

While there’s no argument against the fact that shooting at 4K has numerous advantages for post (repositioning/pan & scan, stabilizing etc.)  it’s a little bit like Apple with the Thunderbolt port – there is still a dearth of small portable drives and accessories in the Thunderbolt family…  Although you can expect that to change at NAB.

Is 4K the future?  Very likely so.  But it’s going to be an uphill battle to get production houses to upgrade their computers, graphic cards, and monitors to fully support 4K on a first level (most systems can support it now – but RAW is another issue.)   Then we’re going to need bigger pipes to deliver the content via the web.   Then comes the viewing public – they too are going to need higher resolution displays and televisions, and theaters are going to need a new generation of projectors to fully appreciate these magnificent higher resolutions.    The point is:  it’s going to take a little while for this to happen – years, not months for most.   And of course these monitors and projectors AREN’T cheap – and that’s another significant factor.   I know of one friend who has shot an entire film in 5K – but it’s quite an undertaking to project it at 4K – so he’ll be projecting it at 2K in the end which I’d imagine is a tough pill to swallow.   That of course will change with time…  as will the prices.

The first announcement was for Canon’s 4K capable DSLR, now called the EOS-1D C.  We had heard tidbits dropped about this camera back at the launch of the C300 in November, but now it’s out in the open.  According to the press release, the 1D C is essentially the same 18.1 MP 1D X (but with a full frame sensor capable of shooting in Super 35mm size for video) with advanced video features.  These include the capability of recording 4K to CF cards, and 60p (50p in PAL regions) recording at Full HD (4K at 24p).   It also comes with the Canon Log Gamma option.  These inclusions make sure that the 1D C can be used as a B-Cam to the C300 or new C500 (below).  The camera records 8-bit 4:2:2 4K as a Motion JPEG, as well as Full HD.  However, when recording to the CF card, Full HD is only 8-bit 4:2:0.  However, the 1D C still includes only an HDMI out – so you can only pull a 4:2:2, 1080p image to an external recorder, but this also means that you can’t get a 4K out, and can only shoot to the internal CF card.  You can read the official press release here.  The price is to be set around $15,000.00

The second announcement was for Canon’s continuation of the C300 line – a 4K raw camera called the C500.  The camera will be capable of acquiring a few different formats including, Full HD, 2K, 4K (both standard and Quad HD).  Both 2K and 4K RAW (12-bit RGB 4:4:4) output can be captured to an external recorder via dual 3G-SDI ports, and an additional two HD-SDI port can be used for live monitoring.  It seems RAW out of the dual 3G-SDI is the only way of recording 4K, but HD and 2K can be recorded to dual CF cards.  However, while outputting 4K, the camera can record 50Mbps HD proxy to the internal CF card that can be used in post.  The camera also supports frame rates of 60 fps for 4K formats and 2K formats.  2K can be shot up to 120 fps (10-bit 4:2:2).  You can read the full press release here.  There is no price on the C500 yeah, but both of these cameras are slated to be released later this year.  The one difference from the C300 is that the side grip cannot be removed.  The price will MSRP at $30,000.00

What is impressive with these two cameras is that Canon has retained their low light performance with these high resolutions – something that is very difficult to do given how much smaller each individual cell is on the sensor (the smaller the cell – the less light it can capture and therefore the less sensitive to light it tends to be.)  

In addition to these two cameras, Canon also announced new cinema zoom lenses to support them.  These lenses are made to shoot 4K, and are lighter and more compact than their predecessors which were released with the C300.  The first is a 15.5-47mm T/2.8, and the second is 30-105mm T/2.8mm.   Both lenses will be available in EF and PL mount variations.  I have read that they will be in the $10K-$15K price range.

Also to support this move into 4K cinema, they have announced they will be exhibiting a 30-inch, 4K monitor – which is the next big piece of the puzzle. 

Lastly – I think this is a very tough time to be a camera buyer.   Which camera should one buy?  With the C300 having just become available to most – now Canon has leapfrogged that camera with 4K and more importantly a camera that supports a RAW file format…   Between the Canon 5D MKIII, Canon 1DX, Canon 1D C, and C500 – not to mention the RED Epic, Scarlet and Sony FS700 – there are a LOT of choices out there.   And now we don’t only need to buy new cameras – but also new glass for some… and definitely new monitors, hard drives/servers to store this massive amount of data, and perhaps computers.    This is not a small incremental update – but potentially a very sizable investment for individual operators and big production houses alike.  Given the state of the market and the economy, it’s not the easiest pill to swallow for many.   That being said, these cameras are likely aimed at the higher end productions – Hollywood and TV shows.    So, as I said with the Canon C300 – the world of HDSLRs is here to stay for most of us because the quality is still impressive – and for the single biggest reason:  it’s affordable to most.

I look forward to seeing the footage in full 4K at the Canon event this Sunday – and I’ll be commenting some more.    What we SHOULD be celebrating as Canon shooters – is Canon’s entry into a RAW workflow for film/video – now that’s something I’ve been waiting for for a LONG time – and it’s very exciting.  We should all be excited with this new technology and how it will trickle down to most of us in time.