For those who dabble in video but come from a photo background, you might not know the difference between a still lens and a video lens. If you do, you might not know why those differences exist. DSLR Video Shooter has this really informative video that breaks down the differences and shows you how to convert your still lenses into cinema glass.
Nikon today announced four new ambassadors to their rather impressive lineup of photographers who already included the likes of Dixie Dixon, Joe McNally and Corey Rich. The four additions include Fstoppers contributor and advertising photographer Blair Bunting, Bambi Cantrell, Doug Gordon, and Tamara Lackey.
The Lytro field camera was cute, but completely impractical for anyone who really wanted to take professional imagery. It was a weird rectangle that just never felt like anything more than a toy. Today Lytro intends to change that with the release of their professionally-focused Light Field Camera Illum. It comes with a 30mm-250mm lens equivalent with a constant f/2.0 aperture and will ship starting July 2014 for $1,599.
It's pretty easy to get caught up in the MoVI hype- it's an outstanding achievement in camera stabilization technology. Magnanimous Media, a large video rental house in Chicago, took some time to explain what the MoVI is really good at, while also tempering expectations on what it can do and what a traditional steady cam would better for.
Though no one at Sigma has ever told me they were gunning to best the Zeiss 55mm f/1.4 Otus when they released the 50mm f/1.4 Art, it's been pretty widely accepted that was their goal (since crushing Nikon and Canon glass doesn't seem to be a challenge lately). But recent DxO tests show Sigma fell short of this. But it's pretty easy to see it's still the best 50mm on the market.
WD, of the Western Digital Company, released what I thought to be an outstanding addition to their line: a thunderbolt-powered dual hard drive that promised speeds of up to 233 MB/s. No additional cables, small, user-selectable RAID and fast? The My Passport Pro looked like it could easily be the road-version of my Lacie d2. But it's more than that. It replaced my Lacie.
We saw specs for the Pentax 645Z leaked a couple days ago, but now we can compare them to the official announcement made by Pentax. The 645Z is a medium format monster of a camera featuring a 51.4 megapixel sensor, 3 frames per second shooting, full HD video at 60i/30P frame rate and internal 4K resolution recording (3840 x 2160 pixels; in Motion JPEG or AVI video format).
If you had to guess, you probably would have guessed $1200 for the upcoming and highly anticipated Sigma 50mm f/1.4. It's the most common guess I've heard. It's a good guess, and one that takes into consideration the quality that Sigma has been putting out recently and the pricing of competitors. But it would be a wrong guess. That's right, Sigma has decided to keep the lens in the sub-$1000 price range at only $949.
Earlier this year at WPPI, ProMediaGear showed us something we thought was really awesome: a slider that easily flips between curved and straight. It's a really simple idea that no one had ever thought of: why can't the two types coexist? Now ProMediaGear wants to get their slider to market faster through crowd-funding on Kickstarter.
Apparently Blackmagic has been busy this past year, as not only have we seen the URSA at NAB, but also they just announced the Studio Camera. Inside its magnesium alloy body you get a massive 10” viewfinder, 4 hour battery, talkback, tally indicators, phantom powered microphone connections and built in optical fiber and SDI connections that let you connect to your switcher with a single cable.
Blackmagic has announced a new camera, the URSA. It has multiple accessories built in, including a massive 10 inch fold out on set monitor, large user upgradable Super 35 global shutter 4K image sensor and internal dual RAW and Apple ProRes recorders. It also has a swappable sensor, so you can choose EF or PL lens mounts, or even a broadcast video sensor with B4 mount, or even upgrade the camera in the future.
Sony's newly announced a7S is shaping up to be a video behemoth. Yes, this video really impressed me. With its light weight and quality sensor, if they hit the right price point Sony could have the camera I would be tempted to leave Canon for. "Features newly developed, wide dynamic range sensor with awe-inspiring sensitivity.
For quite some time now Samsung has seemed content to sell their SD card tech unbranded and basically unknown to the public. You might be unaware you're using a Samsung SD or Micro SD right now, either locked away in your phone or branded under a different name. But starting today, Samsung has decided to change that, offering three new levels from consumer to pro, with the pro 64 GB card showing impressive specs for a first-time seller.
A little over a year ago, we showed you the original SOLOSHOT, a fantastic idea that made it so you could make video footage that followed you based on your location without a cameraman, via a small tracking device you strap to yourself. It's a brilliant concept, and SOLOSHOT is releasing a version 2 with some great new features.
This week at NAB, Adobe Premiere and After Effects are getting some new features, including Live Text Templates (After Effects text effects can be directly edited in Premiere), and keying effects in After Effects to provide better keying results with compressed footage among a host of other improvements.
This is kind of amazing and extremely unexpected: Freefly Systems has announced that it will give away 12 MōVI M5 camera stabilizers during the 2014 NAB Show. During the show (which is in Las Vegas) April 7th – 10th, they will be giving three away a day, but you don't have to be at the show to win.
In case you didn't know, the Nikon and Canon rebates are ending in two days and I've been told with absolute certainty that at least the Nikon ones won't be extended. Also, B&H has a small number of D800s in stock that have been refurbished by Nikon for $2400. Not a bad deal if you've been lusting for the Nikon flagship camera. Also of note, there is a special deal on the Sony a7 and a7R if you're interested...
WD, of the Western Digital family, has announced the new My Passport Pro, the first portable, Thunderbolt-powered dual-drive solution for you hard drive discerning folks. Designed For Mac systems, My Passport Pro has user-selectable RAID functionality, doesn't need power adapters or extra cables, and clocks in at up to an impressive 233 MB/s.
Schneider (no relation) is up there with Zeiss when it comes to recognized high-quality lenses. This year at NAB (the National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow in Las Vegas), Schneider is adding the 18mm, 25mm and 100mm lenses to its popular Schneider-Kreuznach Xenon FF-Prime family that already includes the 35mm, 50mm and 75mm focal lengths. They are purpose built for digital cinematography with cameras including RED Dragon, Canon C100/C300/C500, Arri Alexa, Sony F5/F55 and HDSLR cameras.
Though the lens doesn't have the best performance if stopped down more than f/10, the 40mm pancake has grown to be one of my favorite lenses, especially in tandem with my 70D (which is also on sale today for $300 off). The B&H refurb of this lens is only $150 right now and they only have a few of them. If you've been curious about this lens, now is the time to try it.
