CQ @ NAB 2013 Recap
Date: 4/15/13
Another NAB has come and gone
Another NAB has come and gone. One vendor described the weekend after
as "NAB detox" & I tend to agree. My back, feet and brain have mostly
recovered & now we're digesting what we saw and learned.
Cameras - Blackmagic Design wowed the crowds again this year
by introducing 2 new cameras that they say will ship in July (seem to have heard
that before). The first is the
Pocket Cinema Camera that has a Super 16mm sized sensor, Micro Four Thirds
lens mount, and records in ProRes or CinemaDNG Raw. Price is only $995
without a lens. Sounds like the original version of the Scarlet to us, but
packaged in a big "point & shoot" sized body. The second camera is the
Production Camera 4K. It's a camera packed in the same body as the
original camera, but has a Super 35mm sensor with a global shutter (but with
less latitude & speed), an EF lens mount, and records ProRes or CinemaDNG Raw.
Price is $3995 without a lens. CQ has both on order and can take your
preorders as we have just become a Blackmagic Design dealer.
With the exception of those 2 cameras & one from Ikegami, it was pretty
status quo with the big guys for production cameras. Canon & Sony we
putting emphasis on their existing products that have rolled out in the last 6
months. Panasonic showed a new 2/3" broadcast camera & some others in
prototype form, but still nothing large sensor. Their booth keeps getting
smaller... Ikegami (?!) introduced the
HDK-97ARRI, a camera that utilizes the sensor from the Arri Alexa that's
packaged into a traditional broadcast studio camera complete with CCU & paintbox.
Think of it this way - it appears that large sensor cameras might become the
norm even for traditional 3 camera sitcom style shoots. Arri even showed
an
Alexa conversion that allows you to configure an Alexa for studio operation
complete with fiber output and intercom.
Not to forget RED. They were doing $8500 Dragon sensor upgrades live in
their booth this year. At least the tattoo parlor was gone.
GoPro's booth was even bigger than last year, with a second story added on
one end. Just as busy as last year too. More & more competitors as
Sony, JVC, & Panasonic have joined the offshore cloners in producing cameras to
compete. Right next door to GoPro, DJI had a booth almost as big that
included a 30' x 12' diameter glass cylinder where you could test fly a
Phantom
Quadcopter. They showed a great looking gimbal attachment that will be
out in a few months too. Copters were everywhere this year. Sizes
ranged from quadcopters to one that looked about 1/3 scale. Don't forget -
CQ stocks & sells GoPro's and the DJI Phantom Quadcopter.
Lighting - Stars of the show were the new
LED fresnel series from Mole-Richardson.
Tweenie, Baby, or 8" Junior sizes were shown in Daylight & Tungsten versions.
The Tweenie only draws 100 watts, the Baby only 150 watts and the Junior only
200 watts. The Tweenie & Baby versions have light outputs equal to their
traditional tungsten versions. The 8" Junior performs more like a 1500w
tungsten. The LED's are remote phosphor, so the color temperature is very
accurate and the CRI is above 95 for pure colors. Pricing is lower than
any other LED fresnel available - Tweenie is $1595 list & the Baby is $1895
list. Retrofit kits are available to convert your old fixtures too.
We've got some of the Daylight versions ordered and expect to see them later
this month.
Just as last year, offshore versions of the Litepanels 1x1's were everywhere.
We saw versions from China, Korea, and Taiwan without trying. Still
nothing that really stood out in the clones. Kino Flo introduced the Celeb
400, a double-wide version of the Celeb 200 that puts LED's into a larger
source. AAdynTech showed the
JAB Hurricane, an
IP65 waterproof version of the Jab, in a tank with water constantly running on
it. They also showed the
ECO Space, a great looking tungsten LED spacelight. We're going to be
testing this one as it looks very good. We've been impressed with the
AAdyntech products in our rental department, and so are the customers who have
bought them.
MacTech was also displaying their
studio fixtures that utilize a T12 style tube that's filled with LED and
drivers. We expect to test some of these this spring as the product looked
great and the manufacturer is an old friend. Lots of other interesting and
weird looking LED's on the floor too. Still trying to figure out if they
have a place in our world. Plasma sources starting to become available,
but we were disappointed in the heat output, weight & size required to achieve
the same output as a 400w HMI. Maybe next year will be better for them.
Lenses - Anamorphic, anamorphic, anamorphic sums up Cooke,
Angenieux, and Arri /Zeiss lenses this year.
Cooke seems to have
hit a homerun with their new Anamorphic/i Series prime lenses as they sold out
the first year's production by the second day of NAB. For our production
world, a
35mm Canon Cinema Prime was announced with delivery in the 3rd quarter.
Schneider announced the
Xenon-FF Primes, a new series of full frame primes with interchangeable
mounts that will be shipping in the 4th quarter. Target price is less than
$4000 per lens. Zeiss showed production versions of both
Compact Zooms that looked better than last years prototypes. Fujinon
showed the 3rd member of the Cabrio family - this one's a
14-28mm
T2.9 due out later this year. All of these are available from
Cinequipt.
Production Tools - Even if you can't imagine it, it's
probably at NAB. From iPhone
stereo mics that turns your phone into a digital recorder to an iPhone PL
Mount depth of
field adapters, you'll find them there. We're just not sure what to do
if the phone rings. Lots of offshore camera accessory manufacturers,
tripod systems, and the lighting stuff we mentioned earlier. One of the
more interesting items was from Redrock Micro. They call it the
One Man Crew.
Simply put, it's a motorized slider for use in 1 or 2 camera interviews.
Their video does a great job of showing it's potential. We've got them
ordered for rental and sales.
Most Intriguing - We think the
MoVI stabilizer
has the potential to change hand-held shots with it's relatively quick learning
curve. Only the $15,000 price point will keep people away, buy maybe it's
more of a rental item?
Most Surprising - Lack of new camera introductions.
Seems like the manufactures aren't waiting to get drowned out by NAB and are
introducing cameras on their own timelines.
|