If you’ve been watching for pre-NAB announcements and rumors as closely as we have, you’ve surely seen some of the big news. A couple of the biggest morsels being Sony’s NEX-FS700U, which can shoot up to 960 frames per second, and some rather cryptic invitations being sent out from Canon which contain nearly no details on what they might be talking about. Rumors are swirling about the possibilities.

Canon has been getting a lot of press recently for their C300 and EOS 5D Mark III, but many were expecting more from the new 5D in the way of video. Some are speculating that Canon is planning on announcing a 4k cinema camera to compete with Red. That idea surely makes sense. Considering Red’s hold on the digital cinema market, it stands to reason that Canon would want to get a piece of that pie. To make things even more interesting, the C300 is priced at $16,000, while the 5D Mark III is at $3500. A digital cinema camera priced right in between would be a strong competitor to the Red Scarlet, which is currently priced at $11,700.

Of course, the biggest piece of evidence we have is Canon’s own press release from November 4th, 2011. The release announces plans to release a so far unnamed EOS-series DSLR which will feature a 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor capable of recording 4k video at 24 frames per second. Canon goes on to say that the scheduled launch date is undecided. Based on the image provided by Canon, it certainly doesn’t look like they’re referring to the EOS-1D X, leaving the implication that this may be the beginning of a new EOS model.

Videomaker will be attending both major Canon press events at NAB 2012, so you can be sure as soon as we do what exactly they’re planning on telling us.

It was a busy week in camera history when both RED and Canon announced new cameras last week. Canon was the first to announce their new C300 camcorder for professional film-making, but that wasn’t the only great camera announced for the market. RED also decided to steal a bit of the limelight by announcing their new Scarlet X 5K camera and pricing.

Believe it or not, this isn’t the first time that the filmmaking community has seen the Scarlet announced. All the way back in November of 2009, RED first announced Scarlet to eager filmmakers by showing off pictures of the body, lenses, and accessories that looked almost too good to be true. Well….it almost was. RED soon found that most filmmakers wanted more than just a 2/3rds inch sensor capable of doing 3K. They wanted a full frame sensor that could do 4K if not more in true RED Digital Cinema style. As such their founder Jim Jannard announced a total redesign of the product and an inevitable production delay. Many professionals thought that would be the end of the Scarlet, but then rumors began to circulate about a total refresh to the line.

On Tuesday of last week, RED finally announced what that refresh was, and it’s a doozy. They’ve upgraded the sensor size to include a 14 megapixel (or 5120×2700 pixel) array, have included the option to mount almost any type of lens including Canon’s popular EF mount, the ability to capture images in 5K FF REDCODE RAW, frame rates ranging from 23.98 to 59.97, HD-SDI and HDMI outputs, 18 stops of dynamic range,  wireless control, and more for only $14,000. Though this may sound expensive, it’s easy to forget that you have to pay for good build quality and professional parts. In fact, the newly announced Canon C300 costs $6,000 more and only shoots in 1080p.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few caveats with RED’s new design. For whatever reason, instead of having their flagship black body, RED has switched to using what they call “battleship gray” for the brain of the unit. Though it’s not the most attractive look, it will undoubtedly not matter to serious filmmakers. The more serious issue is that the camera only films at a maximum 6 fps in 5K mode, effectively making that resolution worthless for video (though useful for still photography). Even so, it does include the ability to shoot at 23.98 fps in 4K which should make many professionals happy and even at 120 fps when shooting at only 1K.

Nonetheless, the RED Scarlet is a real contender for the most affordable cinema-style camera on the market today. It films at not only 24 fps at 4K resolutions, but it’s also built like a tank, has a RAW (uncompressed) file format, and is modular meaning you’ll be able to use it for years to come even after new camcorders have been announced.

The Scarlet X brain plus an SSD will cost $9,750 while a kit with a battery, controller, and LCD will be around $14,000. RED expects the camera to begin shipping in December.

Leave it up to James Cameron to shell out almost 3 million dollars on new camcorder equipment. Recently, Jim Jannard announced that the Avatar director bought 50 of his company’s Epic-M cameras for production on his newest Avatar films. This puts James Cameron in the same camp as Peter Jackson who bought 30 of the cameras for his two-part adaptation of the Hobbit and Jon Schwartzman who announced he’d be shooting the latest Spiderman movie on the Epic.

Of course, you might be asking yourself why the director of Titanic would need 50 cameras to make two films when you and I can usually make do with one? Well, it’s hard to tell for sure but he’ll be needing two cameras for every rig since it will be shot in 3D, will inevitably use some as backup camcorders, and will be most likely using the others for his motion capture needs. That’s still a lot of camcorders so unless Cameron will be shooting 25 simultaneous 3D films, it is safe to assume that his new movies will be sporting some crazy new filmmaking technology. In fact, we already know that he is thinking about filming his next two Avatar installments at 48 frames per second which breaks the coveted 24 frames per second tradition. Though most of us would agree that 48 frames per second handles quick motion and panning much better, filmmakers are primarily using 24 frames per second as an artistic tool so I don’t see this going away anytime soon.  However, it could be welcome technology for 3D movies since quick panning in 3D can be hard for the eyes to handle at 24 frames per second.

If you want to check out some of the videos we took at NAB of the RED Scarlet and Epic cameras, take a look at these two videos on our YouTube page to get a glimpse of what James Cameron will be using.

RED Epic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-2dbDj_IgI

RED Scarlet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV2YyLBkaWQ

Well, this was a long time coming. Apparently, Canon brought out a 4K 8 megapixel camera at their 2010 Expo for shooters all around the world to drool over. While the body may look like an oversized hair dryer, it’s what’s on the inside that will make Canon blow you away. The camera can shoot in 60p at a full 4K resolution, a 2/3rds inch CMOS sensor, and a fully functional flip-out HD LCD. Unfortunately, this is just a concept camera and Canon has said that they have no intention of bringing it to market so those of you who already started to count the remaining savings in your bank account, can safely deposit your money away. I can’t say for sure why Canon would ever dangle the 4K carrot in front of us without a solid release date, but they are definitely not the first to do so (read: RED cameras). All of the ranting aside, the camera is actually not meant for video capture (as if anyone really believes that) but instead is a “multipurpose image capture device.” This means that one is supposed to use the device like a camera that is constantly taking photos giving users a ton of potential pictures to choose from when it comes time to edit. Capturing photos this way sounds mildly innovative but one still can’t help but think that the camera would just do better as an incredibly high resolution camcorder. Nonetheless, this camera at least marks Canon as an intentional competitor in the emerging 4K camcorder market while at the same time proving that 4K is the next big revolution to hit video. I have no doubt that we’ll be seeing more of these kinds of cameras soon so keep a keen eye out on the market.

This is a very exciting time for videographers, cinematographers, and filmmakers alike. With the introduction of video DSLR cameras by Canon and Nikon in the past few years, along with RED’s announcement of their high resolution digital still motion picture cameras, traditional camcorder manufacturers have no doubt been feeling some real pressure to rethink their approach to filmmaking. With their announcements, Canon, Nikon, and RED proved that prosumers were looking for more than just a new recording medium, they were looking for the flexibility of super high resolution images and the beauty of interchangeable lenses. Not to be undone however, ARRI, Panasonic, and Sony have come back in full force with their exciting new high resolution camcorders.

At this year’s National Association of Broadcasters show, or NAB, ARRI surprised everyone by announcing the specs on a new camcorder named the Alexa. This camcorder, with its 3072 x 1728 resolution, was the first indication that traditional camcorder companies were finally listening to the prosumer world. It wasn’t hard to figure out that there was a high demand for such a product. All over the blogosphere, there were people literally begging Panasonic, Sony, and JVC to put their DSLR technology inside of a traditional camcorder body. With the superior depth of field and image quality, DSLR camcorders were the natural progression camcorder companies all around the world. Videomaker first realized this when we received both the Canon 7D and 1D Mark IV for review a month back. As soon as we turned these cameras on and saw the images they produced, it was obvious that filmmaking had reached a whole new level. It even took our productions up a notch when we used them for our weekly vidcasts. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sure we’re all familiar with the excitement that hits when someone is on the verge of discovering something new, when Christmas is fast approaching, or when a client tells you that your project turned out “beautifully.” That is the kind of head to toe excitement many videographers felt when Oakley billionaire Jim Jannard unveiled some astonishing details about the RED Scarlet camera back in 2008. It’s also the same kind of excitement that many digital cinematographers are feeling even now.

At first glance, this camera seemed to have it all: a 3K resolution recorded to a superior codec, virtually no compression artifacts, RAW recording, a highly modular design for added functionality, more dynamic range than you probably know what to do with, and a good price at $4,750 with a fixed lens or $2,750 without. Even with a $2,750 price tag, for a camera that can shoot at higher resolutions than anything else on the market, it was and still is a real steal.

Unfortunately, there is no fairy tale ending to this story. Unfortunately, in order to get the kind of fully functioning camera you’re used to, you would have to get a lens, a battery, an audio interface, a viewfinder, and grips for shooting. All together that high quality equipment can cost upwards of twenty grand – a very steep price for those who want to make great looking films on the cheap. Also, one of the biggest complaints about the RED camera is its post-production workflow. In order to have a chance at editing the footage from a RED camera, an editor would first have to make low resolution proxies from the original 4 or 3k files. Otherwise, these files are usually too large for any computer to handle successfully. As you’ve probably figured out already, this proxy rendering takes an awful lot of processing power and time which is often a real deal-breaker for getting projects done on a tight deadline. On the other hand though, super high resolution files above 1080p are a problem for any computer and RED founder Jim Jannard does have a knack for making very high quality equipment in which he spares no expense. As a result, you can expect to definitely get what you pay for with these products.

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