Category: Epic

NAB, Red and lots of new products

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Black Magic, Canon, Epic, NAB, Red, Red One, Sony, Uncategorized, XDcam

NAB Vegas 2012Well NAB the huge TV gear / software show in Vegas has opened with lots of new gear announcements. Red has announced an upgrade to the only still very new Epic camera. The upgrade is a new sensor that will be available from the end of this year. The new sensor will have a higher resolution (increase from 5K to 6K) smaller pixels (for finer detail) and increased dymanic range ( from 13.5 stops to 15 stops) Red also announced a lot of other new accessories see red.com

Black magic has entered the camera market with an odd looking camera. This I see as an interesting move for a software company to move to making cameras.

Sony have brought out 3 new lowish cost large sensor cameras – great to have choices, but we have too many for some post houses to keep up.

Canon has announced a new camera, the C500. This would make me very unhappy if I had just purchased the C300 as that is now outdated. This must be one the fastest cameras to ever become outdated as they have only just hit the market about 3months ago.

So all in all there are today a heap of new options for production and post. Its exciting times !!

Epic – New Firmware V3.0

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Epic, Red, Red One

The New Firmware for the Red Epic has been released. The latest version is Version 3.0 for the Epic cameras. The major new addition is the new colour and gamma spaces of Red Colour 3 and red Gamma 3. These two give better skin tone rendition than the previous colour and gamma settings.

I am amazed how fast Red releases new updates for the camer and also for the post software like the free Redcine X pro software which has also just been update to version 12 to make use of the new colour and gamma setting too.

Its like getting a new better camera every few weeks !

Epic X shoots Furniture TVCs

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Epic, Red, Red One

Just finished working on a series of commercials with my new camera – Epic from Red. The Epic is the latest and by far best camera out in the market today. Its being used to shoot movies such as Spiderman, The Hobbit and Avatar to name a few. The Epic has features such as HDR which let you shoot scenes with 18 stops of Dynamic range. The next best camera can only get to 14 stops. This camera is what we all have been waiting for !

Red Epic Camera …..

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Epic, Red, Red One

Big news, my new Camera from Red (Epic X) is due in the next couple of weeks. I packaged up my Red One camera and sent it back to Red last week, so the amazing new Epic camera should be on its way anytime soon.

I have already have most of the accessories I need with it. Including :

– a new Follow Focus unit – Oconors CFF1 – the Rolls Royce of follow focuses

– a couple of Canon zoom lenses – 24-70 and 70-200 F 2.8 lenses for run and gun shoots

This plus the gear I already have will make my Epic package an outstanding camera kit. To find out more about my camera kit www.redcam.com.au or www.epiccamera.com.au

For those of you that don’t know much about the Epic camera a short list or projects its currently being used on may give you an idea of just how good it is. This camera can be used on any shoot all the way up to huge feature films. Its the first choice camera for the biggest name DOPs shooting the biggest budget projects today.

Its being used on  The Amazing Spider-Man, Bryan Singer‘s Jack the Giant Killer, Ridley Scott‘s Prometheus, Peter Jackson‘s The Hobbit, James Cameron‘s Avatar 2, David Fincher‘s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Måns Mårlind‘s Underworld: Awakening, Paul W. S. Anderson‘s Resident Evil: Retribution, Michael J. Bassett‘s Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, and Ajith Kumar‘s Billa 2 :

 

 

 

 

Another Canon 5D …

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Canon, Epic, Red, Red One, Sony, XDcam

Yes ….. I have a Canon 5D Mark II as well as a Red One and Sony F800 cameras. But I only have it mainly for stills. I am really enjoying shooting some lovely stills, just wish the weather was better. I hoping to shoot a few long exposure tests. So lovely to have a short depth of field, very cinematic. I got a couple of Lenses with it, 24-70 F2.8 and 70-200 F2.8. I have not shot anything  yet that hasn’t been at 2.8 I just love shallow DoF.

Red November 3rd announcement

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Canon, Epic, Red, Red One, Scarlet, Uncategorized, XDcam

Red is making a big announcement on November 3rd. There are no hints but they say its going to be big. Infact if you believe them it will out do Canon’s November 3rd announcement. We will all just have to wait and see and judge for ourselves.
Some of the news will be that you can order a Red “Scarlet” camera from November 3rd 6pm PST time. The Scarlet was a cut down version of the new Epic camera.

Alexa, RED MX, 35mm, F3, Canon D1 and 16mm side by side

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Alexa, Arri, Canon, Epic, Red, XDcam

Check out this video. Its a camera test of six cameras, Alexa, RED MX, 35, F3, Canon D1 and 16 side by side. Its a great test because they have shot the same short film with each of the six cameras  under varied lighting conditions.

See if you can pick which camera shot which version. At the end it lets you know which short was shot on which camera.

The Cameras used –
Aaton 35-3
Arri Alexa
Red MX
EOS 1DmkIV
Sony PMW F3 (was an engineering sample)
Aaton XTR PROD (Super 16)

Cooke S4’s were used except for the 1D, which had CP’s

This test was done by John Brawley. John has racked up an impressive and diverse range of credits working extensively in the United States, Europe and Asia. You can go to John’s web site and find out more about him.

Alexa Vs Epic

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Alexa, Arri, Epic, Red

Alexa Specs verus Epic Specs

Now I think this may get a few people talking. The specifications are from the Arri and Red.

I must admit the DTE, Direct-to-Edit, i.e. the Alexa’s number one feature is not mentioned. It’s still the one area Epic can’t touch (though 3rd party solutions are coming soon that will close the gap a lot, and of course RED will have a module of their own some day).

Oh, and the Alexa is also available today to anyone with the $$$, with all options and full kit. The Epic-M is still unavailable to most. The Epic-M also regularly ships without all of the parts — missing EVFs, REDMotes, etc.. This is not RED’s fault (Japan crisis, etc.) but it’s still a point of comparison today.

When Epic finally gets widely available with full firmware, it’s definitely going to be the camera to beat. I’m certainly waiting for mine. If I can’t wait any longer, I’d consider buying an F3/S-Log/Cinedeck over an Alexa at this point.