Jackson Wong - April 11th, 2013
Videomaker's Best Camcorder of NAB 2013 is the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. The team at Blackmagic Design has been hard at work preparing the release of the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. We may begin with this one by looking at the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, which looks virtually the same save for a 4K insignia.
Jackson Wong - April 11th, 2013
Videomaker's Best Post-Production Software of NAB 2013 is Avid Media Composer 7. Videomaker gets to see lots of different editing software programs, and Avid's Media Composer 7 is a revamped version of a trusted product. We also take notice of trends and though its no price drop like Autodesk's Smoke 2013, Media Composer 7's starting price at $1,000 definitely reaches a larger base of potential editors.
Jackson Wong - April 11th, 2013
Videomaker's Best Light of NAB 2013 is the Zacuto PlaZma light. It's hard not to like the light from the Zacuto PlaZma light. This technology has been in development for some time with Zacuto, and shipping models are sure to be scrutinized since the plasma element in video lighting is so young.
Jackson Wong - April 11th, 2013
Videomaker's Best Support of NAB 2013 is the Manfrotto 500 Fluid Head. Manfrotto wants better balance and control with the 500 Fluid Head. The MVH500A 60mm halfball and the MVH500AH flat base both feature a wide base to match the wider base of DSLRs.
Jackson Wong - April 11th, 2013
Videomaker's Best Accessory of NAB 2013 is the VariZoom Stealthy. The VariZoom Stealthy could really be called the versatile - it is really designed to meet many different needs.
Jackson Wong - April 10th, 2013
Little LED lights are always nice to have on set. Having some of the smallest LED fixtures available is even better. The Spectra LED panels have a handful of configurations including spot and flood versions. As far as handy goes, LED lights are some of our favorites because they are cool enough to handle, simple to operate and can provide the ability to change color temperature and be dimmed.
The Spectra L 1x1 400F has 576 LEDs and an output angle of 50-degrees. Daylight temperatures are reached with this one at 5600K. Here are two ends of the spectrum, the Spectra S50 has 12 LEDs mounted on the surface for 500 lux at one meter, and they have a boost mode for 50 percent additional light. The 1,152 LEDs in the Spectra L 1x1 400B contribute to the bi-color nature of this one. There is a lot to be said about being able to adapt, and having color temperature range from 3200K to 5600K is as handy as lights get. If you're going for the brightest light possible - you'll just diffuse or redirect extra light as needed, then you might land on the Spectra L 1x1 400S with its focused 1700 lux light at one meter and 30-degree spread.
Jackson Wong - April 10th, 2013
ikan has a host of floating camera rigs and new gear to carry your camera. Here's the skinny on a few substitutes for sticks. The EV2 Grip Handles are a pair of actually skinny products, aluminum at their core, and mountable with any 15mm rod.
Jackson Wong - April 09th, 2013
Panasonic resizes the P2 card to a microP2 card, and is not to be confused with SD media cards, even if they're now the same size. These microP2 cards may remind you of their same-size relatives the SDXC card, this time with two capacities at 32GB and 64GB. Panasonic creates these with the broadcaster in mind, the type of shooter that goes into harsh environments of negative 4-degrees F and 140-degrees F areas. The durability test concludes with 1,500G impacts and vibration.
Jackson Wong - April 09th, 2013
With workflows for film and animation distributed, big productions have become decentralized. To help understanding, the major software producer - Autodesk gave us a brief outline of the life of a 3D model. A 3D model will have an example in reality, this would be:
1) a photo or video of someone or something
2) that media would then be recapped via a cloud service that allows viewing and commenting
3) this image gets its structural base in the Mudbox
4) then in Maya the details of the model are finished, textures and more are added.
Maya 2014 has DirectX 11 and new tools like a shader, grease pencil and new paint effects for surface and volume attributes. MotionBuilder 2014 helps creators pre-visualize, and create virtual cinematography. MotionBuilder has seen development with James Cameron and Weta Digital, and has Linux OS support. The new tools for this builder are a ruler, custom renderer API, and file referencing API which is more interactive. Softimage 2014 features a camera sequencer and crowd FX enhancements. The FBX support is extended to help a project move between programs. Mudbox 2014 provides digital sculpting, advanced retopology tools, and more multi-touch in the workflow. Finally 3ds Max 2014 has DX11 viewport rendering, uses an augmented particle flow system and can help you populate crowds, even put people in paths or in idle areas and each with individual motion.
Jackson Wong - April 08th, 2013
If you've never seen video from a Vision Research camera, you're in for a treat with their test video shot with the Phantom Flex4K. Now if you're casualing shopping for a camera, maybe you want to pick one up on the side, you'll be stuck window shopping.
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