NAB ’12 – Shape, Red Rock, & MORE ARRI

Tim Wu — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 00:47:00 +0000

I was super excited to visit the Shape booth over at NAB because I absolutely LOVE their handgrips. They don’t have an unnecessary amount of articulation (like the O-connor’s O-grips or the Zacuto ones), and because they use rosettes instead of a ball-and-joint lock, they’re rock solid. Plus they’re only $300!

They’re my zombie apocalypse weapon of choice (if I had to choose between parts of a camera rig to defend myself against zombies… otherwise my zombie apocalypse weapon of choice would be this sound cannon thing that can implode things). Aw man, if only there were some sort of establishment in Vegas that made available all my favorite zombie apoc- OH WAIT.

THANK. GOODNESS.

My only irk with the handles was that they could only be used with 15mm setups, and not 19mm studio setups. I’ve always liked the idea of accessories that can adapt across systems, whether it be DSLR or RED or a camera mounted on the head of a chicken.

So I was pumped to hear that Shape just announced a new hybrid 15mm/19mm rod block that adapts to their Arri rosette handgrips.

The price-point is miles above their 15mm grips unfortunately, at $1499 for the handles and $269 for the rod block. To be fair though, I imagine these would be the last set of handgrips you’d ever have to buy. SLOT MACHINE TIME.

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Over at RedRock Micro, they had working demos of their wireless follow focus system, which, I hate to say, is not as horrible as I thought it’d be. I remember seeing videos from NAB last year of their prototype iPhone remote thing and was like, YOU STOP THAT. YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW, BRIAN VALENTE.

But they have managed to create something here which, at the very least works like an electronic follow focus should.

With the airwaves clouded up by so many electronics (particularly in the sound dept, DAMN YOU SOUND), most vendors actually couldn’t even demo any wireless products. So I’ve yet to see the wireless transmitters and receivers in action, but the guys over at RedRock say they have a range of 300ft.

Their motors are actually smaller than Heden motors, and they say they perform just as well… SKEPTICAL.

I will say though, I’m not a big fan of their receiver design. On this and their remotes they use these buttons that feel like your grandma’s tv remote buttons after she wrapped it in 13 layers of plastic wrap because you kept spilling juice on it whenever you’d visit. There’s not much physical feedback to denote that it’s been pressed, and in the dark, the near-flush buttons may become hard to see.

The remote too is curiously un-ergonomic. It can be powered internally, but the power input as well as the input for if you wanted wired control is right where your hand would naturally hold it.

It has its design flaws, but here’s the kicker, IT’S ONLY $2400 FOR THE WHOLE KIT. Considering a Bartech sans motor is already $2100, with a motor running you at least another $2600, it’s quite the attractive option for entry level users.

Again, how it stands up to actual production, we’ll have to see~

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Finally, some more things from Arri!

Here’s an aks block that has a 1/4 20 and 3/8 16 taps to mount whatever your heart fancies to your MMB-2 (I use mine to arm out a mirror to make sure no zombies are attacking me from behind). This way you can get monitors a better distance away from your face as opposed having to crane your head back all the time like you’re avoiding the mouth of that girl at the club who more than likely has mono who’s trying to drunkenly make out with you. Plus it’s only $30! (the aks block, not the girl at the club)

HDMI cable locks are getting pretty popular these days, because it turns out people really like breaking HDMI cable. I KNOW I DO This makes Germans frown though, so here’s Arri’s cable lock system. What sets this apart from most is that it doesn’t mount flush to the body, which often blocks the other ports on the camera. Instead, it mounts to Arri’s DSLR cage. I for one have never been a huge fan of cages. I find it completely defeats the purpose of shooting on a small body~

And lastly, here’s Arri’s shoulder pad. I’m not a huge fan of the actual pad, but I am a fan of the quick release rod block it’s attached to. You can use it mount other accessories such as battery plates or what have you. Its design allows you to attach and release it at any point on along your rods, instead of having to slide them all the way off one end.

While the idea is nothing new, it is by far the smoothest version of this I’ve played around with~ It’s essentially the same way the Arri MFF-1 attaches to rods.

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Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to continue my win streak at these awesome new official Dark Knight slot machines. Because, you know, that’s why Christopher Nolan even made that movie in the first place.

SONAR VISIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

NAB ’12 – Canon, Sachtler, and Arri

Tim Wu — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 06:18:00 +0000

It’s NAB 2012 tiiiiiiiiiiiiiime. I actually didn’t have much time to browse the showroom floor because I got to Vegas later than expected today. On a completely unrelated note, there are delightful sales going on right now at the Tanger Outlets just outside of Las Vegas.

In the hour I did have before closing though, I did get to check out some of those items at Canon that EVERYONE AND THEIR MOTHERS RAGING OVER. (My mom was not as impressed D:)

So here’s the 1DC, Canon’s latest and greatest in tiny sized movie making technology. In a nutshell, all the hub-bub is surrounding its ability to shoot 4K in a DSLR body. ZOMG. It’s that DSLR form factor that by now we’ve all (by force or not) have come to know and love, but with more flavors of recording. A lot more, actually~

Along with 720p, 1080p and 4k, you can also shoot in a Super35 aspect ratio. This S35 option allows you to use cinema lenses that don’t quite cover full frame sensors (which ironically includes some of Canon’s new cinema zooms). I was gonna type out the full specs, but then I saw it was long… Soooo, I took a photo of it instead.

(Click on it to see it IN STUNNING 4K) As you can see, there’s a lack of frame rate options, which is a shame~ For that, you’ll have to turn to the C500. BUT, the C500 can only capture 4K 4:2:2 into an external recorder as opposed to the 1DC, which can do it straight to CF cards. I didn’t get the chance to see the C500 up close and check it out, but this is what the guy in the Canon polo tells me, SO HE MUST BE RIGHT.

Here are Canon’s new cine zooms~

And primes!

Here’s a 400mm (I think?… I’m the worst blogger ever) on a 1DX, the stills version of the latest in the 1D series. The photo rep guy told me was he was sad that everyone kept coming over thinking it was the 1DC, and would leave when they found it wasn’t. “This camera is cool too!,” he said. To which I responded with, “Ooh, Sachtler makes steadicams?!?” and walked over to try one on.

I actually didn’t even know they made Steadicams. They’re part of a line they call the Artemis, and they come in at pretty curious price points. Their mid-range level model, for example, which is supposed to compete with the Glidecam X-22 or Steadicam Zephyr comes in at under half the price point (~$4500). They didn’t have one on display, unfortunately, SO I CAN’T JUDGE IT WITH MY HANDS.

Before the hall closed, I got the chance to take a look at some of Arri’s new swag. With new camera bodies coming out more often than George Takei updates his facebook (ducks, whaaaaaaaaaaaat), I’ve found that more recently I’ve turned my financial attention towards BLING. Here are Arri’s latest grips, essentially their version of O-grips, with ball-joint handles that lock in an infinity number of positions.

They adapt to lightweight 15 and studio 19mm rods, so you’d be able to use them with both DSLR rigs as well as larger Alexa or Red rigs, which is ideal sauce.

Plus the handles and rod bracket are tapped with 3/8 16 holes all over, which allows you to Noga arm off all sorts of things, like a monitor, an evf, or a piece of chicken.

And here’s Arri’s 15mm base plate for the Epic/Scarlet. I was wondering when they’d come out with support for those cameras, considering Wooden Camera seems to have a monopoly on aks for those bodies at the moment~

I’ll be more productive tomorrow, I SWEAR.

But I did just get a coupon from Banana Republic…

Tim Wu » arri

NAB ’12 – Shape, Red Rock, & MORE ARRI

NAB ’12 – Canon, Sachtler, and Arri