I have finally overcome technical difficulties enough to bring you some exciting updates from NAB Las Vegas, 2012! The exhibit halls have been packed to the gills for the last three days with eager filmmakers looking to play with the latest toys. Here are a few of the highlights:
It is rare that you find a booth out of place at the show, but even less often is there a product that doesn’t seem to belong to a certain company.
- Black Magic CInema: Yes, it is real. And it ships in July.
Showing up out of nowhere, Blackmagic Design, known for their video breakout boxes for post production and DaVinci post production boards has conjured up a new camera which fills the void left by Red hopefuls who thought the Scarlet would deliver at a cost they could afford. This camera is not vaporware….I played with one of the 4 that they had on display at the show, and I can say it is well thought out, designed for simplicity and 2.5k image capture with 13 stops of dynamic range! Frame rates of 24, 25, 29.97 and 30.
- It’s a 2.5K camera with all the bells and whistles for $3K!
Formats CinemaDNGRAW, ProRes, and DNxHD. The camera takes SSD cards, has a built-in thunderbolt connection and will cost $3000 when it ships this JULY. Seriously! The camera has a built in 7″ monitor which also acts as a touchscreen menu for the cam itself. It currently has a Canon or Nikon mount, and they are experimenting with other options.
- Black Magic Surprise 2: The options are almost limitless…almost.
To prove that it’s real, I have to point out the single negative in the camera, which is that it is a cropped sensor. This means that your lenses will seem ‘zoomed in’ much like the cropped sensor on the Canon 7D. But for this kind of quality at this price, that’s not much of a negative. I don’t think anyone expected to find an exciting camera in the post-production hall at NAB, including Red who must be pursing their lips in failure.
- The large display also doubles as a touchscreen menu.
I will be writing about several other cool things here at NAB, but this was worth breaking immediately.
Check out a gallery of this camera taken by another patron of NAB, Andy Yardy:
[flagallery gid=1 name=”NAB2K12_BlackMagic”].
AJ Wedding
A.J. Wedding is a graduate of Western Michigan University and has won festival awards for his first feature film, "Pop Fiction". As a writer/director, he has won several awards for his short films, and recently garnered worldwide distribution for a feature film titled “The Disappearance of Jenna Matheson” releasing this year. His hit web series, “Infamous” created an instant fanbase, and spawned interest from networks to create a tv series based on it. A.J. currently works with The Production Green, directing and editing commercials as well as developing his next feature film, "Junior Crew."
1 Comment
Oooh, Shiny.