Tag: Sony

External recorder or monitor-recorder: why do I need one?

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Atomos, Black Magic, Dragon, Epic, Gear, Samurai, Sony, Sydney cameraman, Tim Bradley

best on camera recorder

Deciding on new camera gear is always tough and you have to focus on which product is right for you.

I have owned and used on camera monitor-recorders for a long time. I originally bought a Atomos Samurai when I bought one of the first Red One cameras in Australia. The reason this was a great option to add to the Red camera was because it allowed me record a video stream with matching file names and timecode (to the RAW recording) the Red camera was doing. This allowed more options in post production as well as allowing for playback on set. This was in the very early days of the Red before the cameras could play back the footage. These two features alone were more than enough reason to buy the Atomos.
Continue reading “External recorder or monitor-recorder: why do I need one?” →

Gear reviews

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Uncategorized

Coming soon are gear reviews. I will post what gear I use and why I use it. I will let you know how the gear stacks up to professional use on set. I’ll describe the advantages and disadvantages to any of the gear. I work on a wide range of productions, tv commercials, corporate and web videos so can recommend gear that’s versatile and worth considering taking on your next shoot.
Also if you have questions on film and tv gear let me know and I will pass on an industry veteran opinion.
With the range of gear options increasing everyday it’s important to know what works well and why.
First up I will let you know about my lighting gear and will give the pros and cons for HMI lighting.
Happy shooting til then.

Move it with Michelle

by North Coast Videographer, posted in April 2016, Gear, Sony, Sydney cameraman, Tim Bradley

Michelle Bridges

Unless you have been living under a rock, surely almost everyone is familiar with the kickass reputation of Aussie TV personality and trainer Michelle Bridges.

Tim Bradley at Minds Eye Films certainly knows now that she applies this can-do attitude across all areas of her life, and especially so in her training programs.

Continue reading “Move it with Michelle” →

Sony commercial shot on Red Epic

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Epic, Red, Sony, Sydney cameraman, Tim Bradley

Sony is no stranger when it comes to making magnificent advertisements. Their new commercial for the recently released A7 and A7R full frame mirrorless cameras, which features some magnificently choreographed skydiving action, is no exception. What’s even more impressive is the fact that none of this was shot on a green screen. In fact, the entirety of the spot was shot practically at an altitude of 15,000 feet, with an overcranked RED EPIC.

Sony commercial shot on Red Epic

Now here’s the behind the scenes

BTS Sony / Red Epic shoot

How much fun would it have been seeing a skydiver with an F65 strapped to their helmet 🙂

Red Sue Sony

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Red, Red One, Scarlet, Sony

Red_vs_Sony

Red Digital has started to sue Sony Corp for patent infringement. The Red’s complaint claims that three cameras made by defendants Sony Electronics and Sony Corporation “all embody the subject matter claimed in Red’s asserted patents without any license.” The federal court filing adds that “Red is informed and believes and thereupon alleges that the sale of Sony’s unauthorized, infringing cameras has resulted in lost sales, reduced the business and profit of Red, and greatly injured the general reputation of Red.” Alleging two instances of “willful and wanton” patent infringement on technology used in its Red One camera, Red is seeking a court order that its patents are “valid and enforceable” as well as an injunction against Sony’s F65, F55 and F5 cameras to stop their further sale and have them destroyed.

Jim Jannard, founder of Red says “This is a REDCODE RAW issue… one that many have acknowledged for years as a core invention of RED and incredibly important to what we all are doing…… REDCODE RAW is not “rounded corners”. It is fundamental to recording high resolution images on camera to small media. It is brilliant. And it is no surprise that others have finally figured out (several years later) that the only way to get where they need to go is through this path.”

This will probably take along time going through the courts, but may just make people reconsider their purchase of a Sony F5, F55 or F65 as if Red wins they may all have to be destroyed.

Samurai and Tim Bradley work together

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

www.sydneycameraman.net.auThe Samurai recorder is a great piece of gear. I bought this pro res and Avid codec recorder for two main reasons.

First it will let me offer 10 bit recording with my Xdcam F800 camera. This will be great for any green screen work, or work where there is high detail in the back ground. The advantage of 10 bit of 8 bit recording is that in simple terms the editor has alot more information to work with, therefor can push the limits further.

The second reason is to be able to offer a direct to edit option with my Red Epic camera. When the Samurai is used this way it will eliminate the need to transcode the Epics camera files (R3Ds) means a far faster post solution. Another use is to make proxy files for offline editing. I recently used the Samurai on a shoot with my Epic as a great, quick replay device. The director could replay any shots while I was setting up the next shot with the camera.

The Samurai is a leader in its area. It is small, easily operated and has the  lowest power consumption. It is a great addition to my extensive range of gear.

Field of View Comparator – Epic, Arri, Canon, F65

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Alexa, Arri, Black Magic, Canon, Epic, NAB, Panasonic, Red, Red One, Scarlet, Sony, XDcam

Ever wanted to know what the field of view of different cameras are and be able to compare them … well now you can.

Able Cine has made this great tool and they have recently added all the new cameras from NAB 2012. The new cameras include the Canon C300, C500, and 1DC. The C300 and C500′s sensor is almost exactly the same size as Super 35mm film; at 24.6×13.8mm it has a 28.2mm diagonal. The 1DC can record in both HD modes and in a 4K mode. The HD mode uses the full frame sensor area just like the 5D Mark III, however the 4K mode uses a smaller APS-H mode, like the 1D Mark 4. All these options are now available in our tool.

Additionally, they’ve added the Blackmagic Digital Cinema camera to the list, which has a sensor size somewhere between Super 16mm film and a 4/3rd sensor like on the AF100. At 15.8×8.9mm it has a 18.14 mm diagonal, which leads to a fair bit of cropping when compared to Super 35mm and full frame sensors. The Blackmagic Camera can record in both HD (ProRes, DNxHD, and uncompressed) as well a full 2.5K 12-bit Raw format. The Raw data is captured in Cinema DNG format at a resolution of 2432×1366, however the captured image area is the same, so you should get the same field of view in either mode.

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 !!

Sony released Android version of XMPilot Tool App that will not work on most devices

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Sony, XDcam, XMPilot

Sony has released the Android version of the XMPilot Tool App, but the App will only work on Sony devices. There is also a version of the XMPilot Tool App for iOS iPhone and iPads.

I find it digraceful the Sony has released a crippled Andriod version of the App, but has released the iOS version. I was told by Sony that the crippled Android version was to promote the use of Sony products, But if this is the case why did Sony release an iOS version? Really bad work with this Sony !

I have paid for the software key and WiFi adapter ($2,200) for my Sony XDcam PDW-F800 HD camera ($70,000) and I can not use with my HTC Android phone.

So all you other Android user out there that feel that this is wrong please let Sony know how you feel too!

XDcam Browser V2 released

by North Coast Videographer, posted in Sony, XDcam, XMPilot

XDcam camera

Sony has released a new version of XDcam Browser Version 2 (XDB V2). It supports XMPilot, live logging, XMPilot support, Mac Lion support and more. It should mean that I will be able to use my phone (or an Ipad) as a viewer, shot marker and logger on shoots! Very exciting as it can help reduce edit time.

XMPilot is a great powerful system when combined with a F800 XDcam camera and WiFi adapter. XMPilot is an advanced metadata workflow solution designed to significantly improve and speed up the overall XDCAM production workflow. It has connectivity via mobile devices such as smartphones and touch tablets.

With XMPilot, users can create planning metadata with the XMPilot Planner in advance and have the flexibility to transfer this metadata to a camcorder remotely via email and Wi-Fi, as well as directly via USB or file-copying onto a recording media.

The XMPilot Tool running on mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) enables live logging and post-shoot logging against the timecode.  The XMPilot live viewing option allows XMPilot users to select a target camcorder (with XMPilotTool GUI) and view live stream recording whilst away from the shooting set.

XMPilot planning metadata transfer, live viewing and live logging can be carried out with mobile devices.

I will test it all out as soon as I can get a copy of the new browser. Looking forward to this major leap froward in technology ! A Tweet from a Sony Guy in Europe says the software should be on their sites for download by next week.