The 2013 Fletcher Digital Camera Comparison Chart
The 2013 Digital Camera Comparison Chart is a great resource for anyone who wants to quickly see what sort of specifications they're looking at for a particular digital cinema camera.
Showing posts with label Camera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Camera. Show all posts
Trifocal Camera Readied for Live 3D
The days of stereo 3D mirror rigs could be numbered if new technology being devised by Arri, the Fraunhofer Institute and Walt Disney Studios comes to fruition.
The trio of companies have just begun a second phase of tests in Berlin on a trifocal camera system that comprises a single Arri M camera sandwiched between two micro HD cameras developed by Fraunhofer, alongside a computer processor.
The dual witness cameras capture enough information on set to be combined into depth maps by Fraunhofer's STAN Stereoscopic Analyzer software (which features in the DVS Clipster post tool), for the post production of live action content in 3D.
 |  |
The concept would negate the need for cumbersome 3D camera rigs, allow an on-set 3D workflow similar to 2D, and in theory help produce 3D content without the glitches inherent in lens misalignment. Disparity-estimation techniques based on the three captured images should allow a second-eye view to be rendered at a virtual interaxial distance that is defined in post.
“If successful we will go into a third test in April this year and if that is successful it will be used on a major film production,” revealed Kathleen Schroeter, executive manager 3D Innovation Centre, Berlin Fraunhofer Institute.
She said this was currently planned to be a 20-minute short film or a 20-minute sequence within a longer feature, both produced by Disney.
“The current trifocal system is for post production, but the next step is to render the data in real time so that we can produce live broadcast programming without rigs,” she added.
Curiously the initiative has come from Disney in Hollywood, rather than Disney's own research institute in Zurich, which is also exploring ways of creating 3D content using plenoptic lenses and computational cinematography.
By Adrian Pennington, TVB Europe
Digital Film Tour: Canon C300/C100/5D Mark III, Sony FS100/FS700, BMCC, RED Scarlet X
Source: ImpulseKitty Productions
Comprehensive Guide to Rigging Any Camera
An interesting free guide.
By Sareesh Sudhakaran, Wolfcrow
Canon Cinema EOS Lens & Camera Charts
Canon launched its Cinema EOS product line last year with the C300; since then, it has expanded to include the EOS-1DC, C100, and C500. Each camera fills a different need and production environment, from B-cameras to documentaries to feature films.
To help you get a better idea of each camera’s features and see how they compare to each other, we’ve put together this Cinema EOS Camera Lineup chart. We’ve included information on sensor size, internal codecs, recording capabilities and more. You can click on the image below to see a larger version, or you can download a pdf version.
Canon’s EF lenses have had a large following in the HDSLR world, where they’re known for producing pleasing skin tones and a nice gradation to the blacks. In more recent years, their popularity has extended into the cinema world, with many filmmakers seeking out special adapters and rigs to use the photo lenses in a production environment.
Now, Canon has created a line of Cinema EOS lenses that feature the trademark “Canon look,” but are designed specially for professional production work. So, to complement the camera chart above, we’ve also put together the Cinema EOS Lens Lineup chart. The chart includes details on mounts, minimum object distance, image circle coverage and more – click on the chart to see a larger version or download the pdf.
Blackmagic Cinema Camera Review – DSLR killer?
The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is the most Apple-like camera I have ever used, in fact the only camera. Like the iPhone it stands out on the market as better than the mass market clones, at least on paper. Is it worth the wait?
When the Blackmagic Cinema Camera appeared out of nowhere back in April the first thing I thought was “finally a camera designed from scratch for filmmakers that does not cost $15,000″ and my second thought was “this is the future, better pre-order it quick”.
The short wait to a July release date now seems like a different era altogether but if ever there was a camera worth being patient over, this is it.
Despite being a niche product, at $3000 the Blackmagic Cinema Camera has Apple-like mass market potential. Apple themselves have seemingly embraced it as a flagship product for Thunderbolt and earlier this year during a major product launch the Blackmagic Cinema Camera was seen pictured on a keynote slide hooked up to new MacBook Pro via Thunderbolt. In the same way musicians now use affordable software to mix and record, cinematographers have the Blackmagic Cinema Camera.
DSLR Killer
They also have DSLRs of course, and these are readily available at a huge range of specs and price ranges. Does the Blackmagic Cinema Camera beat them on the image quality front? The short answer is yes.
Even in low light it is a performer, which surprised me. This is genuinely a mini Alexa and going back to compressed 8bit 1080p afterwards with less detail, a less organic look, blotchy noise and all those burnt highlights and crushed blacks really is shocking the first time you compare a DSLR to the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. This is a big subject and I am doing a very broad shootout in Berlin with Slashcam at the moment which will be online in a few days. I can’t cover everything at once in one review so I am spreading stuff out – low light, dynamic range, resolution – it will all become clear. I’ll round up my thoughts about image quality in this review, under the image quality section later in the post.
Disruptive
The BMCC has a minimalist approach to design. I’m a big fan of simplicity.
This camera is a disruptive piece of technology that moves things forward. Hopefully the big companies will follow its lead – not in 4 years, but now.
Technology has made cost effective digital cinema cameras a reality but not many companies have actually made one!
Panasonic have served us well with the filmmaker orientated GH3 ($1299) and before that the GH2 punching well above its price tag – but there’s no escaping that these are predominantly still photography cameras, rather than dedicated filmmaking tools. Sony with the FS100 (now $4000 used) comes close to ‘prosumer’ pricing but at launch it cost twice as much as the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. GoPro meanwhile are doing a superb job in the area of extreme sports filmmaking and also with their CineForm raw codec. Canon blazed a trail with DSLR video in the consumer camera business but then seemed to backtrack massively in order to focus on maintaining huge margins on Cinema EOS products. I’m concerned their DSLRs haven’t moved forward or innovated enough for filmmakers and they will lose sales.
I think the competition for this camera is the Sony FS100, Panasonic GH3, Canon 5D Mark III and Nikon D800. Aside from the ill-fated Panasonic AF100 most other cinema cameras cost a minimum of $15,000, including the ‘bargain’ battle tested Red offerings when you add up all the bits. For the 1% of filmmakers, price isn’t a factor but for the 99% of us it is. The consumer market is larger than the professional market and Blackmagic Design have taken a good business decision with this low pricing.
Jim Jannard of Red once tried to make such a camera, the aim was 4k for $4k. Blackmagic Design, a post production company from Australia until now had no camera division and no experience of making one. Yet here they are delivering a near-3K raw image for $3k where Red did not. Pretty impressive!
Grant Petty seems to be leading a very engineering orientated company at Blackmagic Design, they’re more nimble than giant corporate manufacturers and less political. Canon, Nikon and the rest of the big guys can really take a lesson from Blackmagic when it comes to cinema and video. Already Blackmagic Design have responded to demand for a Micro Four Thirds mount version, no committee meetings or 2 year lead times… They just did it.
The Apple-like nature of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera (BMCC) is in a multitude of aspects. It shoots ProRes, the native editing format of Final Cut Pro. The build quality is up to Apple standards. In fact there’s no plastic on the body at all. Rubber is used where plastic would be on a DSLR and the chassis is really tough aluminium. Apple’s other major strength is software and the software side on this product is unbelievably good. You will not be getting an application like Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve with your DSLR any time soon. Silkypix anyone? Canon EOS Utility? Blackmagic’s great strength is not just in hardware but in software. So important.
The large touch screen is more like a stand-alone monitor for a DSLR but built in. Much more practical than a tiny DSLR LCD but a shame it cannot be articulated to a different angle. It is slanted upwards for tripod use which is better than dead-on straight like the 5D Mark III’s screen but shots above eye-level are tricky. The other quirk is that on my EF Blackmagic camera I’ve had a few aperture-related bugs and the iris control system is more awkward than it should be. You hold the iris button and use the bottom back / forward playback keys to change the iris. Auto-iris is set upon a single press of the iris key, which usually gives you roughly the right exposure depending on shuttle angle, etc. But I prefer to set exposure with NDs not aperture. Why not have dedicated up / down keys instead of the one iris button, or better still a jog wheel?
A lot has been said of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera’s ergonomics being odd… But iris quirks aside, I don’t agree it is ergonomically poor. The extra weight over a DSLR really helps the look of handheld camera work. The controls have very positive feedback so you know that camera is reacting to input. It needs a rig where a DSLR or an FS100 needs a rig – where’s the drama? The boxy form factor isn’t a problem, rather an advantage because it is malleable to individual needs, it doesn’t box you in and the camera is very compact.
The screen is crisp and the double-tap magnified focus assist shows superb quality at 1:1 pixel level. Unfortunately with the current firmware it only magnifies the centre and you can’t drag it around on the screen like you can on the Panasonic GH3. This hopefully can be changed in a firmware update. There’s also focus peaking on the press of a single physical button and that tends to work well, and stays on in the magnified focus assist too. Generally the camera lets you get on with the shoot and it saves the complexity for post. Just what I want.
The user interface is very responsive and quick to use, with no nested layers of menus to scroll over or dig down through. Despite this simplicity and Steve Jobs-like minimalism on the surface, there’s a massive amount of power and depth to it as well. There’s no way I can cover everything there is about this camera in a review. There will be books written!
Latitude and 2.5K Raw
Shooting with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, you have to throw the DSLR rule book out of the window. Until now I’ve tended to expose more with the highlights in mind, preventing any over exposure which results in these blowing out. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera goes deep into the highlights and I expose by bringing up the blacks and if parts of the scene are over exposed I just don’t worry that much. This is an extreme example but just look at the latitude this thing has in raw…
I assumed this shot was dead. No way to bring it back. I was wrong!
You basically get the full extent of ISO from 200 to 1600 in post… And more.
Imagine over exposing a DSLR shot at ISO 1600 which should have been done at ISO 200. You’d not be able to recover that later but with this camera you can.
All this dynamic range (in post!!) and the 2.5K resolution are wonderful to have but you absolutely cannot mess around on the post side if editing raw. You need the right hardware especially the right dedicated graphics solution and tons of hard drives if you plan to archive regular work in raw format.
Editing Hardware for Raw
At the bottom of the price scale you can get away with a $150 NVidia GeForce 560 Ti 1.5GB. Resolve doesn’t run well on my 2011 MacBook Pro / ATI Radeon even though the graphics card was cutting edge in the Apple line-up only last year. ATI cards use Open CL and Resolve prefers NVidia CUDA to process video. (The solution for 2011 MacBook Pro users is to try Adobe SpeedGrade instead – this is a big subject and I will write more about this in a future article).
I’d happily shoot ProRes or Avid DNxHD on this camera because the image in 1080p is very good. Good detail, grades well from the flat film-mode profile. There’s also a Rec. 709 video gamma mode if you want punchy material straight out of the camera like on a DSLR rather than grading from a flat image profile.
The dilemma however is that 2.5K is a big step up from 1080p and you see this on a display which supports 2.5K like the Dell U2711 or new MacBook Pro Retina. It is hard to go back to old 1080p when you see this. 2.5K raw also upscales to 4K better than 1080p.
There’s no 2.5K ProRes mode so you have to transcode the 2.5K raw to 2.5K H.264 or CineForm in Resolve. Then you are left with a difficult decision – whether to dispose of the raw material or archive it. At 7GB per minute or 45 minutes per 240GB this isn’t a decision taken lightly.
If you’re a creative filmmaker doing one very important short film a year, this is less of a problem. If you’re a production house or a regular shooter churning stuff out in 1080p it makes absolutely no sense to shoot raw. But artists like Tom Lowe of Timescapes or myself love the challenges and the extra image quality is FAR more important to me – despite the slower workflow and insane space requirements.
Of course it is entirely up to you to decide which format is right for you and what kind of shooter you are. The camera gives you a choice! A lot of the fuss about both the ‘difficulty’ of shooting raw and whether it is needed should be entirely ignored. It isn’t difficult at all. You press a button, and your hard drive fills up! This situation will change as time progresses.
I need raw. I love raw. And so will a great deal many more users of this camera, especially professional photographers at the highest level who are used to a raw workflow in their stills day job and don’t want to compromise when it comes to motion. It can save your ass, speed up a shoot, save on the lighting complexity and costs, take the risk of out operating the camera and in the end save you possibly more money than it costs in hard drives!
Windows Rig for Raw
The most effective way to edit raw without throwing out your Mac or breaking the bank is to invest in a Windows PC. Just be aware that you will lose your hair after a fortnight of constant FAFFING about. Windows is not OS X. It never ‘just works’. You need to make sure drivers are updated and that the planets are aligned. If you buy a very fine Dell XPS second hand like I did only to discover it lacks built in WiFi and the operating system is in German, all I can say is – be prepared for hell. Nothing is simple in Windows land. Those who like tinkering will understand and have probably long mastered this (as I did as a PC user 6 years ago) – but those from a predominantly Mac background will likely weep several times with unrelated-to-editing system tasks before their PC DaVinci Resolve editing rig finally works properly. Or even pairs with their Bluetooth keyboard. Or read the BMCC SSD because the camera only reads Mac formatted drives and Windows… You’ve guessed it. You need a $50 driver for that! Check out Mac Drive 9 Standard – works great.
The pain is probably worth it to most. To get the same performance on a Mac Pro as I do on my $999 Windows PC, I’d have to give a hard earned $5000 to Apple… AND have the hassle of swapping out the ATI graphics cards for NVidia with CUDA support. Truly crazy situation and something Apple really need to address. Their iMac GPUs are based on mobile models and their Mac Pros are rather over priced. You really need a beefy desktop NVidia graphics card – the ones gamers use – to edit raw with Resolve on a Mac.
Resolve as an Editing Tool
DaVinci Resolve may conjure up thoughts of little understood Hollywood colourists and production hardware which wouldn’t look out of place on the bridge of USS Enterprise but it isn’t actually that complex. It even has a Final Cut Pro 7 style multi-track video timeline and editing functionality, so you can deliver the entire film from Resolve if you need to without further work in Premiere or Final Cut. I found myself very happy to use Resolve for editing raw as well as grading.
The only thing missing for me was multiple audio tracks, added plugins and features I use in Premiere, for slow motion, etc. You can simply render out the footage (with camera recorded audio) from Resolve’s timeline and fine tune the edit in the usual NLE package of your choice. With a suitable graphics card the final rendering performance in Resolve is much faster than Premiere Pro CS5.5 delivers a DSLR timeline with the CPU, almost real-time 24fps in fact.
Image Quality
Strangely, I really don’t feel this camera has had the plaudits it deserves on the image quality front yet. Why not? It is utterly incredible.
Resolution in 1080p is up to the standard of the Canon C300 which is remarkable enough for a $3000 camera yet in 2.5K raw it exceeds this camera and almost every camera on the market aside from 4K models and the 2.8K Alexa. It isn’t just 2.5K, it is good 2.5K.
Also, for 1080p delivery ProRes is a better codec than on the Canon C300 and it also records in Avid DNxHD. Apple and Avid native editing right off the camera is a far superior solution to any so-called broadcast ready MPEG codec!
All this is huge stuff!! And $3000!
In terms of moire and aliasing it stands up well. On this fine brick pattern for instance, no real issues. In fact I haven’t had any real-world problems yet but that isn’t to say there aren’t any. There’s some issues with micro-moire on very fine textures (very faint outlines of red or green pixels which don’t shimmer and can be removed in post) but you have to really pixel peep and it isn’t noticeable otherwise. If you remember the 5D Mark II and the way it used to give some false colour aliasing and false detail over very fine textures, this is similar but the output is giving far more detail to begin with and there’s not the same propensity to flare up in moire hell because the sensor isn’t downscaling like on a DSLR.
One of the biggest surprises I had was to have my trusty Panasonic GH2 throw up moire where the Blackmagic Cinema Camera had none. This happened whilst setting up the next test shot below. Now in real-world shooting outside of just tests and charts the GH2 hardly ever suffered from moire. I never had any real issues in all of the 2 years I was using the GH2!! It is pretty safe to assume this isn’t going to be a big problem on the Cinema Camera.
Smoother Gradation, More Film Like Image
The following shots aren’t a moire test, I plan to do one later this week on a chart with Slashcam.de.
These are to test gradation, banding, highlight fall off and colour.
Bear in mind these centre-crops are an 8bit JPEG on the web so it doesn’t really do the Blackmagic Cinema Camera proper justice but still the difference is clear.
All test shots are F2.8, ISO 800…
I have 2 remarks. First is that 2.5K does make a different over 1080p – much nicer resolution and a finer grain of noise. Look at the silver lens barrel bottom right and the black grip on the Fuji X100. Secondly, with 12bit raw you really can have as gentle or as steep roll off from the highs and lows as you want, all in post. Here I tried a very gentle slope, bringing the shadows up and recovering the highlight in the middle. On the FS100 shot believe it or not I did exactly the same and look what happened… It fell apart – badly. The highlight roll off is practically in 3 stages!! I wasn’t able to get it as flat or as organic looking. And I like the FS100!
The Blackmagic shot isn’t as punchy as the FS100 in this example nor is it meant to be. That punchy contrast is a shortcoming of the FS100. I graded for a low contrast, gentle roll off and the FS100 was not capable of giving me that. The Blackmagic stuff can be graded for a punchy high contrast look if you need it.
Keep in mind the above Blackmagic shot as we turn our attention to the GH2 and 5D Mark III.
Now the 5D Mark III does better than the FS100 in the highlights but the shadows are crushed and noisy. On the GH2, shadows and gradation can be weak-points and it shows pretty badly here. Trying to match it in post to the Blackmagic on this test was impossible. There’s some banding where smooth gradation should be and absolutely nothing there in the shadows despite my attempts to lift them. Exposure was identical on all shots but those blacks just were not recorded on the GH2. Look at the camera grip, it is jet black, the detail has gone. As with all the other cameras aside from the Blackmagic, highlights are also burnt on the GH2 and there’s a much harsher electronic look around the edge of objects next to the light source.
Even when converted to 8bit JPEG for the web, the Blackmagic is in a different league to the FS100 and the current cream of the crop DSLRs for handling of smooth gradation.
Now if you’re wondering what this has to do with a cinematic image, the key to this is how the eye sees. None of the distracting electronic artefacts you see in the strips of tones and shades above should be there. They’re not natural. Not cinematic. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is more natural. When you want more contrast between bright and dark areas of the image you simply use a steeper curve in Resolve – and in doing that, the image responds beautifully. It doesn’t get a bad case of banding or weirdness and it doesn’t get burnt out.
The resulting full frame is smooth and cinematic, and looks more organic than the same shot on a DSLR.
Of course the bottom shot is from a DSLR.
When you chop all this stuff up and present it on a blog by the way, the differences are far less than when you see it on a job, or in a theatre, or on in motion on a 2.5K display.
The verdict is clear – this camera is an extremely cinematic beast.
Next I have graded two shots the same in Resolve, to reveal optimal highlight and shadow detail just before the point where the noise in the shadows got too much or the highlights began to fall apart. Unfortunately on the 5D Mark III the highlights fall apart by default in-camera before grading, so easily do they burn out. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera here is all over the 5D Mark III producing a far more life-like image as the eye would see it, tons more latitude, crisp detailed blacks and none of the extremely sudden fall off in the highs and burnt out highlights.
How much of the dynamic range is usable? To my eye – a lot. How good is it in low light? Actually very good. From my early impressions of low light, you have to boost a DSLR to ISO 6400 just to match the black level on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera at ISO 1600. In doing that you get far less dynamic range on the DSLR and any normal-light areas or specular highlights get burnt out. Not so on the Blackmagic.
(Click to enlarge)
Sensor Size
The Blackmagic Cinema Camera has the same field of view as the Olympus OM-D E-M5 in video mode (with IS enabled you get a small further crop on that camera). The Blackmagic is 2.3x crop. Micro Four Thirds is 2x crop and the Panasonic GH2′s multi-aspect sensor is 1.86x crop in 16:9 allowing for a wider than 4/3 ratio sensor.
Canon APS-C is 1.6x, Super 35mm and the FS100 is 1.5x and full frame is of course 1.0x, no crop factor to consider.
I was able to match the field of view on the BMCC to my 5D Mark III, Sony FS100 and Panasonic GH2 by using the Canon EF 40mm F2.8 pancake on the Blackmagic, 90mm on the 5D Mark III, 58mm on the FS100 and 45mm on the GH2. The BMCC has noticeably less of a shallow depth of field at 40mm F2.8 than a full frame sensor enjoys at 90mm F2.8. To compensate you need to shoot from further back with a longer focal length and faster aperture, it also helps to bring your subject closer to the lens.
Is this a deal breaker? No way.
This is precisely what I’ve been doing for the last 2-3 years on my Panasonic GH2. It is just that the shallow depth of field effect is more pervasive on the 5D Mark III. This can work against the image as well as for it. It isn’t always desirable to have. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera is certainly easier to focus. In low light where stopping down to F5.6 would kill the exposure on full frame, you can keep it at F2 and enjoy manageable focus.
I feel with any sensor smaller than 1″ (Nikon J1, Sony RX100) or smaller than Super 16mm you reach the point where the aesthetic drops off in a bad way. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera’s sensor is not at that point and can safely be considered ‘a large sensor camera’ in video terms.
Lenses
Here’s what I’ve been using so far on the Blackmagic Cinema Camera:
- Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 – versitile wide angle on the Blackmagic camera, not that there are many other alternatives. Less distortion than the Sigma 8mm and faster aperture
- Samyang 35mm F1.4 – a good standard lens, not too long. Sharp wide open and that fast aperture comes in very handy for both shallow DOF and low light
- Canon 135mm F2.0L – not a cheap telephoto option but a very very good one
The new Canon EF STM 40mm F2.8 pancake works on the camera even though the focus ring is fly by wire. I’ve had no issues with it. Prefer the Samyang though! The pancake is far better on the 5D Mark III where you get a nice mild vignette wide open and a much more shallow depth of field.
The 11-16mm Tokina is equivalent to a 24-35mm wide angle on the 5D Mark III.
What about the camera mount version – EF or MTF? The Canon EF mount is actually quite adaptable, you can use Contax Zeiss, Nikon F, M42, Leica R and Olympus OM. Your Canon EF and EFS lenses won’t work on the Micro Four Thirds mount without an adapter which does aperture control electronically and there’s not really a decent one of these on the market yet in my opinion. What is enticing for me about the Micro Four Thirds mount Blackmagic camera to come in 2013 is that I can use OCT 19 anamorphic LOMO lenses on it, as well as PL and Leica M, plus Canon FD glass. To use my Voigtlander 25mm F0.95 and SLR Magic 12mm F1.6 on this camera would also be great for low light.
However a Blackmagic Cinema Camera Mark II with E-mount and Super 35mm sensor would be even more desirable. The Metabones adapter for EF to E-Mount allows your Canon glass to work pretty much perfectly on E-mount. This way you have best of both worlds and no crop factor to consider over the normal cinema standard. You could use the same cinema lens on an Alexa and BMCC Mark II and the field of view would be the same.
Conclusion
12bit raw might be the headline spec but it isn’t all the camera does well.
When people didn’t have 24p, frame rate was what made the fabled cinema look. When people didn’t have large sensors, shallow DOF was suddenly the cinema look. Inundated with large sensors and shallow DOF, some might now consider a raw codec as an essential part of the cinema look. All this kind of thinking is flawed. The cinema look is about carefully balancing every single aspect and minimising the weird stuff. Get rid of the compression, get rid of the banding, the stepped fall off to highlights, increase the resolution, use a sharp lens, an intra-frame codec, 24p, the list is almost endless!
Thankfully the Blackmagic Cinema Camera does exactly that – minimising the weird stuff and making the most of the good stuff.
The Blackmagic Cinema Camera produces the most organic, least electronic looking and most cinematic image ever outside of Arri, Red and Hollywood – and it costs just $3000. Extraordinary stuff.
Like the people at Arri, the design team at Blackmagic clearly knows what makes a cinematic image. None of the DSLRs have the same organic feel and lack of digital artefacts that the Blackmagic Cinema Camera is blessed with. Why can’t they give us that better codec? Why can’t they give us less moire, a finer grain of noise, more detail? Why can’t Canon, Sony and Nikon put high bitrates and intra-frame codecs in there? The answer is that they have carved up the market into consumer / pro and stills / motion. Blackmagic are not carving up the market, rather creating a niche for themselves. It just so happens that their niche is a lot better in terms of performance than the entire mass market put together.
It isn’t without pain though. The pain of waiting. The pain of investing in hardware to edit raw on. The decisions about rigging, batteries, SSDs. The pain of learning a raw workflow, of transcoding, rendering, of getting to grips with the admittedly very intuitive DaVinci Resolve for the first time. Actually pain isn’t the right word. I’ve enjoyed all of this process, it has been an adventure – but some may not.
If you don’t have a selection of lenses to suit the sensor size or lens mount that could be a considerable extra investment too and a selection headache. It won’t be worth the artistic gain in image to some.
This camera and especially future versions have the potential to challenge the big players in cinema cameras and DSLRs – but in my view the sensor supplier should be changed in light of ‘dirty glass’ issues and CMOS updated to Super 35mm size. Aptina (supplier of the only good part of the Nikon J1 mirrorless camera) do some interesting CMOS sensors and custom designs, it would be great to see Blackmagic partner with suppliers who can help them mass produce this camera without diluting the raw power it wields in terms of the image.
If I were to sum up the Blackmagic Cinema Camera it would not be a DSLR killer or Canon C300 competitor. It is a completely new class of camera. It is a baby Arri Alexa. And there’s no higher artistic praise to bestow on a piece of camera hardware than that.
Pros
- Cinematic overall output
- Under the price of a ready to shoot Scarlet it beats everything for resolution & dynamic range including Canon C300
- Film like noise grain
- Much more latitude in the highlights than a DSLR
- Black detail can be pulled up more than on the FS100 and DSLRs
- Very high build quality with no plastic used at all (rubber and metal)
- DaVinci Resolve is superb editing package and colourist’s dream
- Responsive in-camera playback of raw
- Responsive touch-screen and user interface
- Thunderbolt and HD-SDI, no wobbly HDMI. Robust SSD port and card door
- Large screen negates need to use external monitor or EVF in many situations
- Straight forward and minimalist approach to design of both software and hardware
- Superb battery life with external battery solution, internal battery useful to have as a back-up
- Affordable media
- Affordable raw editing with correct GPU on a PC
- The camera has ‘soul’ unlike many mass produced products
Cons
- Potentially large extra investment in lenses, hardware, etc. for some shooters
- No built in ND filter
- No Super 35mm sensor size
- No HDMI port for lower end external monitor / EVF options
- No global shutter mode, rolling shutter not the best
- Cinema DNG raw not as space efficient as GoPro CineForm compressed raw
- No 2.5K recording option other than raw (2400 x 1350 80Mbit Intra-frame H.264 would be nice option for those who only do minimal grading)
- Screen not articulated (difficult to see from low angle when camera is above eye-level)
- Narrow viewing angle of LCD panel compared to DSLRs (polarises quite easily)
- Poor screen visibility in strong sun light
- Electronic aperture control on EF lenses is fiddly – should be two buttons or a jog dial
- Final packaging issues – debris inside the lens mount on some cameras shipped so far
- Fluff and debris tends to cling to rubber on rear of camera and cannot easily be wiped clean
Source: EOSHD
Super Hi-Vision at 120fps for Olympics
NHK is developing an 8K image sensor for its Super Hi-Vision Ultra HD system capable of 120 frames per second, which it plans to unveil in Tokyo on 23 April and should be ready for use at the London Olympics.
The new 33-megapixel (7680x4320 pixel) CMOS sensor will use an advanced two-stage (4-bit then 8-bit) cyclic analogue-to-digital converter to deliver a 12-bit image at the higher frame rate (twice that of the current SHV cameras). This architecture also allows it to reduce power consumption, with the ADC drawing 800mW (out of a total drive power of 2.5W). To deal with the high number of pixels involved, the sensor outputs alternating rows of pixels to ADCs on either side, each of which has 48 parallel outputs.
The sensors will probably still get rather warm at these frame rates, so heat management will be a significant issue. Each pixel measures 2.8 x 2.8 microns, and the 26.5 x 21.2mm chip (which is about the width of a Super35mm sensor, but taller) will use a 0.18-micron manufacturing process. The chip is being developed with Shizuoka University, and engineers revealed details of the sensor at the recent IEEE International Solid-State Circuit Conference in San Francisco.
Two SHV cameras will be used to capture parts of the 2012 Olympics, with transmission to three large screens around the UK (plus one in the International Broadcast Centre) and three in Japan. Having the 120fps sensor will reduce motion blur and allow for much better slo-mo replay.
However, as the resolution increases (and 8K is 16 times the resolution of HD), motion defects become much more noticeable. “300 frames per second might just be acceptable, but 600fps would be better,” said colour scientist and camera consultant, Alan Roberts. At 300fps, the material would also be easily compatible with both 50 and 60Hz display.
Using Long GoP compression, which typically combines a group of pictures in half a second, would lead to a GoP of 150 or 300 frames, but this wouldn’t lead to huge bandwidth requirements. “The motion between frames is very small, so the compression is much easier,” he explained, which means the increase in bit rate needed to convey high framerate material is minimal. “The problem is in the shooting and the editing, because of the monstrous data files you have to deal with,” he added.
By David Fox, TVB Europe
Large-Sensor Camcorders and DSLRs
When Canon announced its EOS C300 camcorder, which has a 4K2K sensor but does not record 4K2K video, the company also announced it was developing a DSLR that will record 4K2K video. Although it may seem a bit strange that a camcorder designed to employ high-quality cinema lenses is limited to full HD video recording yet a still camera will be able to record 4K2K video, it's not strange given the history of DSLRs.
When large CCD and CMOS chips replaced an SLR's 35mm film, the next logical step was to place an LCD on the digital camera so one could review shots in the field. The next logical step was a “live view” mode that allowed one to view what was being recorded. It was only a small step to compress live view images and record them as video.
Large-sensor digital camcorders have evolved from DSLRs. It is primarily a marketing decision whether to release digital motion picture technology in a still camera package, a camcorder package or both. However, one clear advantage of a camcorder package is space for a mic jack (even XLRs), a headphone jack and manual audio controls.
When a potential buyer who is in the process of learning about 4K2K production and post production encounters the same technology in two different packages, it may prove confusing.
When a videographer shoots with a still camera, he or she will find expected camcorder functions missing. For example, every professional camcorder has some form of ND filtration; DSLRs do not.
A primary differentiator of DSLRs and traditional camcorders is their optical system. This is true for current HD and future 4K2K products.
Frame Size
While video cameras have frame sizes that relate directly to sensor size, such as 2/3in, DSLR frame size relates to 35mm film — in particular, 35mm still film. When shooting 35mm slide or negative film, each 36mm × 24mm image is placed with perforations above and below the frame.
DSLRs with 36mm × 24mm sensors are called full-frame cameras. The Canon EOS-1D X, announced for March 2012, employs an 18-megapixel 28.7mm × 19.1mm sensor. Canon calls it an APS-H sensor.
There are small variations in APS frame size: Canon APS-C (22.2mm × 14.8mm), and Nikon/Sony-C (23.4mm × 15.6mm). Both full-frame and APS sensors, when taking photos, have a 3:2 (1.50:1) aspect ratio. Panasonic uses a slightly smaller sensor for its AF100 camcorder and GH2 still camera called Micro Four Thirds (M43), which has a 1.33:1 aspect ratio and a frame size of 17.3mm × 13mm.
Sensors smaller than a full-frame sensor reduce the potential minimum DOF. Minimum DOF, of course, is a function of the maximum aperture size. A large-sensor camera does not directly provide a shallow DOF.
When a lens designed for a full-frame camera is mounted on a camera with a smaller sensor, the lens' focal length is multiplied by the lens crop factor. (Crop factor equals the ratio of a 35mm frame's 43.3mm diagonal to the diagonal of the image sensor.) A Sony APS-C camera, for example, has a crop factor of 1.5. A 50mm “normal” lens becomes a 75mm tele lens.
When shooting video, a 16:9 window on the sensor is employed. This has three ramifications. First, the viewfinder image will shrink when switching a DSLR to video mode. (This shift can be minimized by shooting 16:9 photos.) Second, the number of pixels read out will be reduced, which is a positive. Third, the lens crop factor will slightly increase. For example, when a Sony APS-C camera is switched to video mode, the crop factor increases to 1.8, thus a 50mm lens acts as a 90mm lens.
The earliest 35mm movie film had a 22mm × 18mm image, with perforations on the sides of each frame. In 1929, the Academy ratio was established. It has a 21mm × 15mm image that has a 1.37:1 aspect ratio. To obtain wide-screen, but not anamorphic, images, a Super 35 frame can be employed.
A 24.9mm × 13.9mm Super 35 frame has a native aspect ratio of 1.79:1 — a perfect match to 1.78 (16:9) HD. It also matches Quad-HD (3840 × 2160 pixels) and almost matches 4K2K, which is 4096 × 2160 pixels — a 1.90:1 aspect ratio. Not surprisingly, frame sizes that come from cinema cameras do not require the use of a 16:9 window when shooting video.
Lens Zoom System
While the videographer likely knows that DSLR lenses do not have power zoom, he or she may not know that photo lenses have other issues. For example, the zoom ring may have high friction because of the need to significantly extend the lens when zooming. Pressure exerted to start a zoom while shooting can easily cause a visible disturbance.
Better Sony lenses, such as A-mount lenses that use micro ball bearings, may cause noise that will be picked up by an on-camera mic.
AF System
Photographers are used to trusting auto-focus — even on action shots where the shooter is following a moving subject. When a DSLR's mirror is in the 45-degree-position in order for the shooter to see the subject, AF is possible. A portion of the image passes through a semitransparent area of the mirror, reflects off a small mirror mounted on the back of the mirror and is cast onto a small sensor at the bottom of the camera. The sensor, in conjunction with a processor, sends commands to the lens' AF motor to move to a position calculated to be correct for precise focus. This system is called phase detection AF.
and a processor to calculate precise focus.
DSLRs employ a different AF system when shooting video because the mirror must be continuously up. The processor, therefore, obtains information from the CMOS image sensor, which is why it is called contrast detection AF.
Mirrorless cameras such as the Panasonic GH2 and Sony NEX-5N must use contrast detection AF. (Strictly speaking, digital cameras without a mirror do not have a reflex system and, therefore, are not DSLRs.)
Contrast detection AF systems work by having a microprocessor rapidly command the lens servomotor to step forward and backward by a tiny amount. The processor notes whether contrast increases or decreases. If contrast increases, then current focus is not perfect. Therefore, stepping forward and backward continues. When there is no change in contrast, the current focus is the best possible.
Contrast detection tends to be slower than phase detection and becomes slower at low light levels. And, unless the lens is designed to be quiet, AF noise may be recorded.
Aperture System
Photography lenses are designed to click into key f-stops: f/2.8, f/4, f/5.6, f/8, f/11, f/16 and f/22. Cinema and video lenses are designed so the aperture changes in a continuous manner. One solution is to use camera lenses designed by the camera's manufacturer for video shooting. The other solution is to use cinema lenses.
ND Capability
To obtain a shallow DOF with a large-chip camera under bright light — at the slow shutter speed required for the correct amount of video motion blur — an ND is a must. (ND filtration also will be required to keep the aperture under f/11 to minimize diffraction.) When a camcorder does not have a built-in filter, a shooter has three choices: mount the camera on rails on which a matte box is mounted, attach one of several ND filters to the lens or employ a vario-ND filter.
Lens Mount Type
Both cameras and camcorders that employ large sensors use a lens mount designed to work with their brand of lenses. For example, Sony's NEX family — including the FS100 and VG20 camcorders — uses Sony's E-mount. Sony markets the LA-EA2 adaptor, which enables the use of Sony and Minolta A-mount lenses. The LA-EA2 has a translucent mirror system that provides phase detection AF to many A-mount lenses.
For most interchangeable lens cameras, third-party adaptors are available. These enable you to use your favorite photo lenses on a new camera or camcorder. For example, a Sony NEX camera can use Nikon F, Canon 5D, Leica M, Leica R, Pentax, Konica Minolta MD, Olympus and Contax/Yashica lenses by using an E-mount adaptor.
Only a few adaptors, such as the LA-EA2, provide electrical signals to a lens. Without electrical connections, in-lens optical stabilization, AF and aperture control cannot function and no information from the lens is received by the camera. Therefore, modern photo lenses that send the aperture ring's setting to the AE system cannot do so.
Solutions to these issues include working with still camera and cinema lenses in a fully manual way (which may be a camera operator's first choice) or using a manufacturer's lenses that have electrical contacts.
Bringing it Home
No matter whether you shoot with a still camera or camcorder, images from the sensor must be compressed and recorded. Currently, two codecs are used for recording 4K2K: the Sony F65RAW (16-bit RAW) codec to a docking SRMaster field recorder that records to SRMemory cards or the RED R3D wavelet codec to a REDMAG solid-state drive.
Future 4K2K codec options include H.264 (as a single stream or as four HD streams) and 4K2K versions of current HD formats.
By Steve Mullen, Broadcast Engineering
Global Technology Moves to the Motion of Israeli Sensors
At the end of August, there were only four major players competing over the dominance over the 3D motion sensor market which develops technology for capturing body motion and converting it into digital information for games, home appliances and cellular devices.
Three of the four contenders, which own leading patents in the industry, are well known giant corporations Microsoft, Apple and Qualcomm. The fourth is a small Israeli company named XTR otherwise known as Extreme Reality. The Israeli company developed technology that can turn any digital or web camera into a state of the art 3D sensor.
XTR, however, is not the only Israeli company which deals in motion capturing technology. The most well known Israeli company in the field is PrimeSense which sells 3D motion sensors to Microsoft. The company supplies Microsoft with millions of PCBs at $10 a piece and estimates are that it cut a $100 million coupon on the sales of 10 million unites of Kinect – Microsoft's motion sensor which is based on Primesense's technology.
Military Vision Systems
Sunday Calcalist revealed that another Israeli company is joining the war between the technology giant over the 3D sensor market: Intel is negotiating with Invision for the $50 million acquisition of the small Israeli company. In the long run, Invision's technology will enable Intel to launch 3D vision chips and software and market them to television, game console, smartphone and tablet manufacturers.
The three Israeli companies are not alone: a number of other Israeli companies deal in the development of image processing technologies that incorporate complex algorithms and electro-optics to produce 3D vision systems.
"Many of these technologies came out of the army", explains XTR founder David Geva in an interview with Calcalist. "Many military engineers migrated to the civil industry and it is only natural that the industry is developing in Israel".
'Now They All Want a Piece'
PrimeSense CEO Inon Bracha has another take on the profusion of companies in the digital imaging industry – the success of his own company.
"When Ceragon Communications was established, many companies were founded in an attempt to reproduce its success but there is only one Ceragon. Most companies in Israel were not able to raise funds until the Kinect became a success and now everyone wants a piece of the action."
Izhar Shay from Canaan Partners VC fund, a key investor in PrimeSense, believes that image processing expertise is not enough and attributes Israel's success to the required multidisciplinary know-how that the local market can offer.
"In order to develop a 3D vision controller, you need knowledge in video, signal development, electro-optics, ergonomics and cognitive psychology on top of expertise in all aspects of the program. It's hard to find such a combination of fields like Israel has", he says.
Shay was not surprised by Intel's intention to enter the content field and notes the giant's expansion strategy, acquiring, for example, McAfee security software developer for $7 billion and more recently its acquisition of two Israeli companies unrelated to the PCB industry – Graphtech which develops technology for the transfer of video and data from PCs to cell phones and Telmap which develops navigation applications.
However, Bracha still recalls Intel's last floundering attempt to penetrate the smart-home market when it acquired Israeli Oplus for $100 million. "Intel cannot change its skin and become a different company. Some things money can't buy".
Aside from PrimeSense, all the companies below are up for sale. As they develop small components for large systems which give the competitive edge to technology giants such as Microsoft and Intel, chances are high that the acquisition spree will continue. Calcalist marks the candidates for the next exits.
PrimeSense: the Chip that Found its Way into Kinect
In 2009, Microsoft's hardware division execs had to make a decision which sensor technology to incorporate into the Kinect system, the popular Xbox 360 motion sensor. They deliberated between two Israeli companies, 3DV and PrimeSense and eventually decided to go with both and acquired the 3DV employees and a license to use PrimeSense's technology as the latter turned down the acquisition offer.
However, Microsoft was more impressed by PrimeSense's technology – its chip met the high performance standards and could capture body movements of more people from greater distances and under various light conditions. 3DV was dumped at a loss and its employees stayed on to support PrimeSense's technology.
The rest is history: since Kinect's launch in the beginning of the year, over 10 million devices have been sold – 8 million within the first two months – a Guinness world record for the sales of a single electronic device.
PrimeSense is not stopping at computer games though. The company is examining smart house technologies for hands-free operation of consumer electronics.
In the meantime, PrimeSense has launched pilots with megs manufacturers such as Asus, Lenovo and Chinese giants Haiel and Hisense. However, entering new markets is no mean feat. Bracha notes that global slowdown effects consumer indices and considerably impedes the introduction of 3D into other areas of life.
Product: 3D motion controller that captures body motion and detects facial features
Founded in 2006 by Aviad Maizels, Alex Shafonet Dima Reis, Ofir Sharon and Tamir Berliner
CEO: Inon Bracha
Location and employees: Tel-Aviv, 200
Capital raised: $80 million
Investors: Silverlake, Canaan, Genesis, Gemini
Clients: Microfost, Asus, Lenovo
Estimated earnings for 2010: $80 million
MobilEye: Impact Alert
Mobileye was founded by one of Israel's leading specialists in image processing, Professor Amnon Shasua from the Hebrew University and colleague Ziv Aviram who is the company CEO.
Over the past decade, the company raised $157 million and became a global leader in impact detection sensors. Mobileye technology does not translate body motion to VR data like the rest of the companies mentioned here but it uses body motion to detect nearby pedestrians or vehicles.
Product: Vehicles impact detection sensors
Founded in 1999, by Professor Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram
Location and employees: Jerusalem, 200
Capital raised: $157 million
Investors: Glenrock, Leumi Partners, Goldman Sachs, UMI, Yacov Shahar. Ari Steimatzky, Israel Kaz
Clients: Clal Insurance, Eldan, Hertz, Avis, BNP Paribas
Invision: Intel's Response to Microsoft's Kinect
Last sunday Calcalist revealed that Intel is negotiating over the acquisition of Invision Biometrics – an upcoming company previously unpublicized which operates under a cloak of secrecy.
The company's products are based on patents developed in the laboratory of Professor Ron Kimmel's, a Technion image processing expert. The company's initial development was a 3D human model developed in Professor Kimmel's lab.
Only after PrimeSense's success, its founders conceived the idea to register their technology as a patent and sell it to technology giants. The Technion is on of the company's prime shareholders.
Intel will probably incorporate Invision's patent with other recently acquired patents by Israeli startup Omek Interactive which raised $7 million last summer. Invision's technology will constitute the "eyes" of the motion sensors.
It should be noted that while the market dubs Invision Intel's PrimeSense, Invision is a young company which has yet to develop an existing product and is surely not on equal financial footing as PrimeSense.
In fact, Invisions holds PCB design patents but has not yet produced one. The first chips based on the company's technology will probably be developed by Intel in the event that the acquisition comes to fruition.
Product: 3D sensor PCB patent
Founded in 2011, by Sagi Ben Moshe, Professor Ron Kimmel and Lior Ben Hur
Location and employees: Yokneam, 10
Capital raised: $2-3 million
Investors: Olaf Roge, Nutcracker
XTR: A Real Alternative to Primesense
Extreme Reality (XTR) is the developer of gesture control interface and motion capture software which can use input from 2D cameras. The technology aims to make high cost sensors such as the Kinect redundant. XTR's software can be installed on cell phones, computers, tablets and television sets with simple 2D cameras.
Since the company's technology can process a wide range of information and costs only several of dollars, it may to be a real alternative to Primesense's chip that sells for $10 a piece.
Similarly to PrimeSense, XTR's technology captures real time 3D full body motion and converts the information into player motion. XTR provides external developers with a software bundle to which they can tack on their own applications. Texas Instruments has already begun incorporating XTR's technology in its top box and cell phone boards.
Recently, the company has undergone expansion and reorganization which placed former executive at Modu and Next Technologies Elad Dubzinski at the helm.
Despite being a veteran company, XTR has yet to take a leading position on the market and it is PrimeSense that created a market niche with a successful product with sales in the tens of millions of dollars.
Product: 3D capture software
Founded in 2005 by Dor Givon
Location and employees: Headquarters in Herzliya and sales office in Tokyo; 28
CEO: Elad Dubzinski
Capital raised: $4-5 million
Investors: Texas Instruments
Clients: Texas Instruments
EyeSight: Change Channels With a Gesture
Eyesight delivers short range gesture recognition technology and deals in 2D motion analysis. Eyesight's technology enables touch free operation of cell pones and television sets.
In its former years, Eyesight focused on cell phone technology and developed hands-free interfaces for Nokia smartphones enabling users to operate their phone using hands gestures.
Recently, the company expanded its operations and as Chinese TV manufacturer Hisense has begun delivering the technology in its television sets. Eyesight had also signed a cooperation agreement with Chinese content company Huan TV which develops applications for digital TV.
Product: Gesture recognition based software
Founded in 2004 by Zvika and Itay Katz
Location and employees: Tel-Aviv; 20
Capital raised: $4 million
Investors: Eli Talmor and Rami Lipman
Clients: Hisense and Huan TV
Omek Interactive: The Brains Behind the Sensor
Whereas Inovision is considered Intel's future 3D sensor hardware supplier, startup company Omek Interactive is regarded as the "brains" behind the sensor. The company's software maps image depth and the company develops a software bundle which may be used by external developers to develop image depth based applications.
Omek's application operates on 3D cameras such as the Kinect but cannot operate by 2D cameras such as cell phones or web cams which makes the company's operations complementary to that of Primesense rather than posing competition.
The company plans to further develop the technology for digital set-top boxes, mobiles and game consoles but depends on the incorporation of 3D cameras in such devices. So far, Omek Interactive has recruited several business partners among them Lenovo and Panasonic.
Product: 3D sensor technology which maps image depth
Founded: 2007, by Janine and Gershom Kutliroff
Location and employees: Beit Shemesh; 55
Capital raised: $14.4 million
Investors: Intel, Zitlman, FF Assets, Everett, Chestnut
Clients: Lenovo, Panasonic
Side-Kick: 3D Game Developer
Side-Kick is a global 3D gaming pioneer – even before the Kinect stormed the markets last year, the company launched two of its games for the Chinese game console iSec produced by Lenovo's subsidiary, Eedoo.
Side-Kick's technology can operate on any motion controller, especially Kinect which is installed in over 10 million Xbox devices.
Side-Kick's founders are well seasoned game developers: Bendov founded prominent gaming companies in Israel such as Double Fusion; Raviv worked at US gaming company Eidos and Sela founded the animation lab at the JVP media compound in Jerusalem.
Product: 3D sensor-based games
Founded in 2010 by Gay Bendov, Asaf Sela and Tal Raviv
Location and employees: Bnei Nrak; 7
Capital raised: $600,000
Investors: Jasmine Group, Kima Ventures, Tevel and Wekix
Clients: Eedoo – A Lenovo subsidiary
By Assaf Gilad, Calcalist
3D Broadcasting Dominates IBC
3DTV was arguably the hot topic at IBC, thanks largely to the presence of James Cameron who made at least six public appearances and explored further in this IBC round up.
The central message from the show was that if 3D is to go mass market then a hardboiled business model needs cementing. The emphasis was on the production aspect of that model in acknowledgement that without practical and inexpensive technology and workflows the content gap needed for 3D channels will not be filled.
“The current phase of 3D began with the clunky, cabled and complex approach,” noted Sony’s senior VP of engineering and SMPTE President, Peter Lude, in a conference session examining 3D’s future. “We are now into phase two which is about greater automation and computer analysis with the aim of making it easier to use rigs, correct errors and reduce manual convergence.”
That is something that Cameron Pace Group (CPG), 3ality Technica and others are working toward in the outside broadcast environment although the substitution of all convergence ops and stereographers by machines, which appears to be CPG’s line in the interests of economic efficiency, is a bone of contention.
“Just as you wouldn’t replace the creative skill of a camera operator who is framing a scene in accordance with the context of the action in front of them, so a convergence puller’s critical judgement can’t be easily replaced,” insists stereographer Richard Hingley.
Greater automation and more agile kit is needed and there is an argument, acknowledged even by their manufacturers, that stereo rigs are a rung on an evolutionary ladder.
“Rigs are large and cumbersome and heavy and a greater degree of electronics will help streamline the systems but quality stereo work can only be achieved using top of the range imagers and mirror systems which give a wide range of interaxial distance and control,” observed Florian Schaefer, product specialist at P+S Technik.
The counter argument can be heard from companies like Meduza Sales which has begun taking orders for its dual lens 4K-capable imager although cinematographers have yet to provide public feedback.
“It’s clear that rigs have a limited lifespan,” claims CEO, Chris Cary. “Today’s S3D rigs are great cousins of the ones invented in 1905. The industry needs to move on and find the next generation which in our view is portable, high resolution, truely flexible systems.”
Panasonic says it has no interest in allying with a rig developer and is also strategising for a day when rigs become obsolete.
“Our starting point is to make 3D acquisition easy and mobile,” European Product Manager, Rob Tarrant stated. “That’s what we are doing with our first generation of integrated 3D cameras. With our range you get easier operation, mobile operation and truer 3D because the interaxial distance mirrors what we naturally see.”
Panasonic now has three integrated camcorders on the market, the latest of which the HDC-Z10000 prosumer unit includes a ‘black box’ technology which makes it seem like the interaxial distance between the fixed lenses are adjusted during the shoot.
“One of the issues with twin lens cameras is the fixed interaxial which this macro convergence function helps overcome,” Tarrant added. “With it we can shoot objects as close as 45cm from the lens.”
Sony’s first professional integrated camcorder, the shoulder mounted PMW-TD300 is also shipping priced around €25,000 and with an optional wireless link permitting remote control by MPE-200 processor. Devised by Broadcast RF, the link will make steadicam action more feasible, and is something that Panasonic does not yet offer.
Presteigne Charter made the first purchase in Europe of this unit and will put the RF functionality to test. According to Sony's 3D sports expert, Mark Grinyer: "By using the link the camcorder effectively looks to a convergence operator in a OB truck as if it were a 3D rig. This is something that live 3D sports productions in particular have been crying out for."
3D Rig Tweaks
Rig manufacturers continue to tinker with design to aid ease of use. P+S Technik was showing an adjustable riser as an accessory which enables Freestyle rigs to be tilted up and down. For live OBs the rig can now be integrated with Sony’s MPE-200 and HDFA-200 fibre multiplexer so that all the rig parameters including power, sync and genlock can be managed by a single cable.
Fellow European rig vendors were also showing expanded ranges usually with lightweight versions for steadicam and sturdier ones for mounting heavier camera configurations. As one IBC visitor put it the EU manufacturers “are finally starting to pull themselves out of the hobby market, to build a few rigs and rent them into a proper business world.”
For example, the Production Rig from Screen Plane is now being manufactured and sold by lens control specialists Cmotion with a compact Stead-Flex rig available from year end. Similar to the P+S riser, the tilt angle of the Production Rig can be adjusted from the rig’s centre of gravity in increments of 2.5 degrees. It can also be side-mounted on an accessory devised by Italian firm Cartoni for even greater tilt range.
Binocle’s Brigger I and its bigger brother Brigger II are well respected but still largely confined to the French feature and TV market. They are being put to use on an ambitious semi-fictional feature in the Amazon.
After two years R&D, Bournemouth’s Teletest launched the Binorig, at €10,000 claimed to be the world’s most affordable. “We designed a complete package contained in two flight cases for stereographers or cameramen with little experience shooting S3D,” says MD Nick Rose. “It produces images which are as good as those produced by rigs costing ten times the price.”
CPG Ally with GVG
The star wattage of Cameron and Pace’s IBC presence masked the fact that CPG wasn’t actually exhibiting. It inadvertently masked a little of what could have been IBC’s biggest 3D news which was the merger of 3Ality Digital with Element Technica announced just a week before.
The benefits of the marriage, which unites ET machining with 3Ality software engineering, were demonstrated with Sony F3s mounted on an ET Pulsar connected to a SIP and showing a wide range of data. “It’s great for our customers who have been mixing the two technologies anyway, but they had to integrate them themselves. Now that we can offer them fully integrated technology,” said 3ality Technica CEO, Steve Schklair.
In the show’s biggest news impacting outside broadcasters (signed literally a day before IBC), CPG flagged a partnership with Grass Valley which will see them jointly develop equipment and equip new scanners. CPG runs three dedicated mobile units and has a stock of 100 3D camera systems in the US but its GV pairing will enable it to export its Shadow systems and business model into Europe.
“Our message is that you can use our equipment for 3D just the same as for 2D - there are no special bolt-ons,” said Grass Valley 3D specialist, Lyle Van Horn. “For example, we have internal flipping of the image, standard on our LDK 8000 series cameras, so there is no external processing needed to flip the image and put another kink in the chain when mounting on a beam splitter rig.
The Kayenne and Karrera switchers process each eye as two separate 2D streams paired, so an operator is using the same standard set of buttons for both 2D and 3D. 3D is complex enough without adding a separate set of equipment to do the same job which is why we have the only Super Slo-Motion system, which again handles both 3D & 2D sources with the same hardware (a combination of the Summit server and Dyno replay control system).”
The view that 3D rigs have a limited lifespan for non-live projects at least was given heavyweight support by Walt Disney Studios' VP, Production Technology, Howard Lukk. “There are enough things for the DOP, director and camera operators to try to track on the set as it is, without having to track interaxial and convergence,” he argued. “We are making it more complicated on the set, where I think it needs to be less complicated.”
Lukk suggested a hybrid approach which would supplement a 2D camera with smaller ‘witness’ cameras to pick up the 3D volumes, then apply algorithms at a VFX or a conversion house to create the 3D and free the filmmaker from cumbersome on-set equipment. It is something that Disney is researching.
Source: TVB Europe
Walt Disney Exec Predicts End of 3D Rigs
Walt Disney Studios' vice president of production technology believes that 3D rigs have a limited lifespan and that a more post-production oriented approach to filming stereo feature film is required.
Disney’s Howard Lukk argues for a hybrid approach to stereoscopic filmmaking which would supplement a 2D camera with smaller ‘witness’ cameras to pick up the 3D volumes, then apply algorithms at a visual effects house or a conversion company to create the 3D and free the filmmaker from cumbersome on-set equipment.
For Lukk, the problem is that 3D rigs are complicated to build and harder still to calibrate for true accuracy.
“There are enough things for the DOP, director and camera operators to try to track on the set as it is, without having to track interaxial and convergence,” he said. “We are making it more complicated on the set, where I think it needs to be less complicated.”
There should not be a battle between natively captured 3D and conversion, he contends. “We should start to ask if there is another method – even combine the two? We really should be looking at all methods to make better quality 3D. In the end, if 3D is not good quality, we are going to kill this stereoscopic industry just as it is re-emerging.”
If 3D camera rigs are not the future of the industry, Lukk suggests that a hybrid approach will develop which will be a combination of capturing volumetric space on set and being able to produce the 3D in a post-production environment at the back end.
“This will give you much more versatility in manipulating the images. This idea feeds on the idea of computational cinematography conceived by Marc Levoy (a computer graphics research at Stanford University) a few years ago. Basically this says that if we capture things in a certain way, we can compute things that we really need in the back end.
“You can be less accurate on the front end. Adobe has been doing a lot of work in this area, where you can refocus the image after the event. You can apply this concept to high dynamic range and higher frame rates.”
Disney is currently researching this method at Disney Research in Zurich, Lukk added. In addition Lukk says that research is also being conducted at the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany.
“I think eventually we’ll get back to capturing the volumetric space and allowing cinematographers and directors to do what they do best - that is, capturing the performance,” he said.
Source: TVB Europe
Camera-Mounted Recorders Comparison
One of the big stories at NAB 2011 was the release of numerous Camera Mounted HD recorders. From the AJA Ki Pro Mini to the Sound Devices PIX 240, a huge variety of portable recorders are becoming available.
These recorders all aim to increase recording quality and ease workflow needs, but they differ greatly in their form, function and price point. To help navigate these different options, we created a Camera Mounted Recorder Comparison Chart that compares several of the different camera mounted recorders.
The chart includes details on recording format, media, inputs and other information that should help you decide which might be right for you. We also included the high end recorders from Codex and S.two, which feature ARRIRAW recording capability. ARRIRAW is a 14-bit RAW Uncompressed format that can be sent out of the ARRI ALEXA camera.
NOTE: Several excellent recorders from Sony, Panasonic, AJA and others are not included, because we wanted to focus on recorders that are designed to be mounted on a camera for production.
By Ian McCausland, CineTechnica
3ality Digital at NAB 2011
3ality Digital intoduced new technologies at NAB that will dramatically change the landscape for S3D live production. These innovative new solutions will bring S3D production crews an unparalleled level of automation and flexibility, ultimately providing broadcasters better, faster, and less expensive solutions for successful S3D production.
IntelleCal automatically aligns the two cameras on a rig at the push of a button, which enables a super fast and precise set up without the intervention of a technician. It does this by profiling and matching lenses and performing alignment on five axes through the entire zoom range.
IntelleCam automatically controls the convergence and the interaxial spacing of the cameras, without the need for a separate convergence puller at each rig, cutting the number of personnel needed by half or more – dramatically reducing costs.
IntelleScene promises automated management of transitions and scenes for S3D comfort. By managing realtime depth-specific metadata, IntelleScene prevents painful-to-the-eye transitions between shots, increasing viewer comfort and helping broadcasters avoid potential safety issues that arise with poorly managed S3D geometry
IntelleMatte provides S3D production crews the ability to insert a graphic between objects in the foreground and background for true S3D compositing via automated composite scene depth management.
IntelleMotion provides real time S3D motion stabilization which enables broadcasters to use powerful long lenses to capture motion from great distances without causing unnecessary viewer discomfort. Since IntelleMotion can compensate for IS/VR tracking, special lenses are no longer required, which opens up the “standard” long lenses that outside broadcasting (OB) clients demand.
IntelleMatte and IntelleMotion are standalone systems that can be used with any S3D Left Eye/Right Eye program feed, and are not dependent on a 3ality Digital acquisition system for usage.
NAB 2011: 3-D Cameras for Broadcast
The industry as a whole is clamoring for operator-friendly, light and single-body production equipment that can replicate the 2-D HD production experience, and there was clear evidence this year that vendors understand the requirements and are working to make cost-effective production a reality. Here are a few notable cameras that were presented at this year’s show.
Panasonic’s current handheld camcorder, the AG-3DA1, will be joined in the fall with a second integrated 3-D camcorder, the AG-3DP1. Featuring a larger imager and using the P2 memory format, the new shoulder-mount model is intended for use in live productions, sports, independent films and documentaries. The AG-3DP1 can record 80 minutes of stereo in 10-bit AVC-Intra to dual 64 GB P2 cards. It contains two 1in, 2.23-megapixel CMOS sensors. By contrast, its predecessor contained 2.7-megapixel chips and records to SD cards.
Sony introduced a new shoulder-mount 3-D model that will be available this fall. The PMW-TD300 3-D camcorder features a twin optical lens equipped with three half-inch CMOS Exmor sensors for each eye view. It was developed in cooperation with Discovery for its new 3-D channel.
This summer, Sony will also ship a compact 3-D DAM camcorder intended for videographers and corporate videos. The HXR-NX3D1 incorporates two quarter-inch CMOS sensors, twin 10x zoom lenses and an internal flash memory of 96GB for about 7.5 hours of 3-D recording.
JVC unveiled the new GY-HMZ1U ProHD 3-D camcorder at the show. With an integrated 3-D twin lens design powered by JVC’s large-scale integration (LSI) chip for high-speed processing of HD video, the GY-HMZ1U can simultaneously record each left and right image in 1920 x 1080 resolution. The handheld camcorder features dual 3.32-megapixel CMOS sensors, one for each lens, and delivers 34Mb/s AVCHD recording in 3-D or 24Mb/s in 2-D. Video can be recorded with time code at 60i to provide smooth motion, for sports and other fast action, or 24p for a film-like effect. The GY-HMZ1U can also capture 3-D time lapse and 3-D digital stills.
Meduza introduced a “beyond 4K” camera that will be available in September. Content for the camera is acquired at 3072 x 4096 pixels and covers everything from 15/70mm giant screens to general theatrical screens, as well as 3-D TV.
By Michael Grotticelli, Broadcast Engineering
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
