Camera News Round-Up

Cameras
Posted by Admin on 13, September 2013 with 3 Comments
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Some of the latest news on cameras has been coming from all different places. Some big, some small, it’s been a big few weeks in the world of cameras!

The BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera has been popping up all over, Jared got his hands on it and in his short BTS clip you can see some of the weak points of the camera, including dim matte screen, poor battery life, and the scary black peaking dot and white blooms.

Sony just announced a few cameras. Including two 4K (One 4096×2160, the other limited to 3840×2160) 60P cameras for under $7K! The FDR-AX1, is a QHD 60p camera for $4.5K, and the PXW-Z100 is full 4K 10-bit 422 camera coming in at $6,500. They share a small 1/2.3″ sensor (basically 1/2″) and 20x zoom, XAVC encoding, and all the usual bells and whistles from their similar HD cameras. PXW-Z100 is professionally oriented with 3G-SDI and S-log among other features, FDR-AX1 is their first 4K “Handycam”.

Arri announced the brand new Arri Amira on Friday. It features the same 16×9 Alexa sensor, shoots log images in 422 and 4444 with various ProRes flavors and is rumored to potentially be coming in under $20K, but I expect a working camera to clock in around $30K based on the price of the AlexaHD. It’s aimed more at documentary filmmaking, but with 200fps capability, it seems like it might be the Arri camera for music videos and action sports also. It uses a new recording format called CFast 2.0 that Sandisk currently supports, it’s the “World’s Fastest Memory Card”.

GoPro dropped the price on the Hero 3 line-up, the Black is now $330 and the Silver is $250, this might be a move to sell-off stock before the Hero 4 is announced, which is expected before the end of the year since they released Hero 2 and 3 around this time, or might simply be a move to keep competitive while they hold-off on the Hero 4. I expect a Hero 4 but wouldn’t be shocked if they waited till 2014. Jared speculated on the possible features we might see in the Hero 4.

The Canon C100, C300, and C500 now has ISO 80,000 coming in October along with many other features in a new firmware update.

A one of a kind S16 digital camera is available for rent at Rule Boston now. Called Black Betty, it’s an SI-2K Mini and Mac Mini frankensteined together into shoulder-mounted camera case. It’s a unique beast and I love the DIY work.

That’s just a taste of what’s happening in the professional camera world lately. Enjoy the delicious images.

Admin
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Jared Abrams is a cinematographer based in Hollywood, California. After many years as a professional camera assistant he switched over to still photography. About two years ago a new Canon camera changed the way the world sees both motion and still photography. He just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
  • Martin

    Why is the Amira not marketed for cinema given the fact that he has the Alexa sensor?

  • http://natums.com Nate Weber

    I believe their reasoning is that it’s intended for ENG and documentary-type work with cinematic image quality. They recognize a demand for Alexa-quality images in worlds where the camera design of the Alexa and the cost of it are prohibitive to using it. Being designed for shoulder-mounted shooting doesn’t make it ineligible for cinematic use, just serves a wider audience.

  • natums

    I believe their reasoning is that it’s intended for ENG and documentary-type work with cinematic image quality. They recognize a demand for Alexa-quality images in worlds where the camera design of the Alexa and the cost of it are prohibitive to using it. Being designed for shoulder-mounted shooting doesn’t make it ineligible for cinematic use, just serves a wider audience.