Phil's NAB Journal 2015

[Phil Holland]

3AM Post NAB.

Greetings fellow REDusers. In what's become a bit of an annual tradition now (2013, 2014) I've decided to once again brave the NAB show floor and endure sore feet to discover new and interesting things that I or we might be using in the future.

Also, I got a few messages about writing something up again and I don't want to disappoint those who couldn't make it to the show

As always, I'll start with RED Related things.


RED WEAPON

Everybody here knows about Weapon at this point, but I want to share a few thoughts I've had about the new body, upgrade, and features.

What RED is doing is adding to the Dragon "family" of cameras bodies by producing a fully fledged production workhorse. Weapon is a brain, body design, and processing overhaul and adds a lot of new functionality that we previously didn't have before. And I suspect, much like our past history with Epic/Scarlet firmware upgrades over the years, that much more will be added into Weapon that we don't even know about yet.

RED's doing something interesting by having both the Magnesium and Carbon Fiber Weapons. Essentially creating two new lines of cameras that are both top tier bodies. Magnesium isn't as powerful when compared to Carbon Fiber Weapon, but it's still powerful and adds various new tech into the body. The cost difference between the two models seems to come down to internal processing power and bandwidth. You get a bit more with Carbon Fiber. Full 3D LUT support, better ProRes fps, higher data rates, Carbon Fiber, etc. Also it looks like you'll need to have the horsepower of the Carbon Fiber model to go to the 8K Dragon sensor later this year.

But there's also a lot of things the two models share. Real useful things. (big inhale as I try to remember and list everything I can remeber)

ProRes encoding has been a major thing and both CF and MG can record ProRes simultaneously onto the same MINI-MAG. Both will be able to also record ProRes without REDCODE RAW at 2K today and 4K is being worked on. WiFi is now built in and you'll be able to exploit some real potential with that and electronically controlled lenses with things like the 2-Axis Hand Control when it's released. There has also been a major improvement in Black Shading as it's now allowing for a 10 stop range (1/8-1/8000th!) and there's even a new Auto Black Shade feature in there. I'll have to dig into all that later. Additionally both Weapons are about 3.5lbs and are smaller than Epic and Scarlet brains, which is awesome btw. Also important is the fans have been removed from the front and the entire ventilation system has been redesigned. There's a newly designed Top Fan and rear vent at the base of the Weapon brain and the camera is much quieter than before. There's also two scratch microphones on the front of the Weapon brain which are very useful as there are no fans there to compete with the audio. There's a new module interface that removes the need to have module adapters which helps keep the rig size down and there's a slew of new optimized modules for various types of rigs. RED's also opened up the ability for 3rd parties to develop modules for the camera, which is really a first in this arena. And in an effort to simplify, speed up, and reduce cables RED has added "cableless" ports for new LCDs and EVFs which you can also use with LEMO connectors when need using adapters. At the booth there were a slew of new OLPFs shown as well and Weapon has an automatic OLPF detection system which makes that even easier.

Pretty forward thinking. What I truly think we are seeing here is the evolution of the DSMC concept.

Weapon is not an entry level digital cinema camera by any means, but it's perfect for productions of every budget level and provides solutions for many of the moderate to mountainous quibbles we've had in regards to features. Studios, producers, DPs, Directors, everybody will need to take notice of just what Weapon can do.

Jim was at the RED booth discussing Weapon and he's really excited about this beast.

And I want to echo Jim's words loud and clear as I fully agree with him on this particular subject:

** Just a couple more Weapon thoughts here in this thread:
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?130874-Phil-s-NAB-Journal-2015&p=1499835&viewfull=1#post1499835


RED WEAPON CF 8K DRAGON

Jarred is probably the only one who knows how truly excited I am about having a large format 8K Dragon sensor that covers VistaVision. It has always been my favorite motion picture format. It's something I've wanted in a digital cinema camera for years. If you sniff out articles i've written over time you'll find I've been practically begging for it.

2015. 8K and VistaVision+ coverage is here. And it's on the Dragon sensor, which for my money is the only real true film alternative or even replacement that we have access to today. Dragon has that pixel pitch that provides the film format to resolution relevance and that's a powerful and important thing for the industry, cinematographers, and really all of us. This isn't about "obsoleting" 4K, this is about creating a multi-format system that can shoot whatever resolution and format you want. DCI and UHD 4K and 8K are standards. We are seeing 4K adopted more and more everyday and 8K will be the "king" format for a long while when it comes to finishing motion pictures productions.

If you recall NAB 2014 when IMAX did testing of their 70mm 15-perf film against Dragon's 6K image they found that it was resolving "nearly" the same amount. With Dragon 8K, say hello to the future of IMAX-level visual quality. And it's literally in a camera package that fits in the palm of your hand. For any of us that have been around IMAX cameras you know exactly how big that news actually is.

On the show floor there was a lot of 8K around. Both displays and competing cameras. However, the visual quality of the 1.9mm pixel pitch of cameras like this are a bit noiser than you'd expect and the dynamic range isn't that "exceptional".

8K within the .R3D REDCODE RAW workflow will be very easy compared to a lot of other "paths" some are exploring. GPU Acceleration and for productions that need it, the RED ROCKET-X will support Dragon 8K images and push those files through.

Can't wait to be shooting this larger format and test out all the lenses I've been putting together for years. I've seriously been waiting for this and am very happy about what is possible here.


ELEMENT TECHNICA

ET is making accessories for Weapon and Epic/Scarlet and they make solid gear. Just ordered a couple 1030D dovetails a few weeks ago for my last shoot. Above is the AB Battery Mount for RED Weapon and there's also a V-Mount version as well. Also, they are currently working hard on completing a new Weapon Side Handle that will be a bit more ergonomic and there's already discussion about future Weapon AKS.

ET is has some nice things for Epic and Scarlet bodies as well.

That is a pop up focus hook.

And that is a new Mini XLR Front Fan.

They also have an AB mount coming out for Epic/Scarlet as well which we'll see surface pretty soon.

Can't wait to see what they have in store in the future.

 

[Phil Holland]

THE RED BOOTH

RED's booth this year was the best booth I've seen them put up at NAB. It featured a nod to Fincher's Zodiac film (and perhaps a courteous nod to the Thompson Viper as well?).

It was pretty awesome and I really wanted to grab a few shots of it to share with those who couldn't attend NAB. On the hour every hour a scene played out with detectives and the Zodiac killer in a two story production quality set.

This was captured by RED Epic cameras with the REDCAST Module and RED Weapon cameras and broadcast with 3D LUTs and all.

Really not kidding. This was the booth of the show.

NextVR was also broadcasting stereo from the booth and there was also a Dragon Monochrome Photobooth that was operated via REDCINE-X PRO and Ethernet Tether which was great. Plenty of blackmail photos were taken.

Frame.IO had a busy show and was setup at the RED Booth. They won Best in Show from Teradek this year. Congrats dudes!


RED also had a theater at the booth showing 4K footage. There was a make-up/fashion film art piece, the 2015 features reel, the very moving Collective piece on Ivan Agerton, and the RED X reel which featured 10 years of RED Camera footage from prototypes to the best of their customer's work. I was very honored to have a shot in there. And I won't sugarcoat it. I got a bit teary eyed in there. It's crazy to think things like Peter Jackson's "Crossing the Line", the "Milk Girls", and even older material hold up. No camera RED has released has become obsolete and this really was proof of that. At the end of that reel a couple shots that were beamed down from NASA via the RED Epic Dragon on the ISS played and that's were I pretty much lost it.


THE RED DSMC FIELD OPS GUIDE

This has been a special year for me in so many ways, but this is a thank you to those who have enjoyed my Data Sheets, Charts, and various Camera Usage Notes over the years. Thanks go to Jarred and Brent for pushing me to do it and everybody else who's thanked in the back of the book.

The RED DSMC F.O.G. is a little shooters guide with all of the things you've seen online and a bunch of new stuff like how to use GIO SCOPE, which I've been using a lot. I've also added a whole bunch of shots of camera setups from different shoots and a few words about 4K and 4K+ imaging.

RED is releasing it currently with the Rules of Engagement book in a slipcase that can be purchased here:
http://www.red.com/store/products/rules-of-engagement-bundle

It's a real honor to be included in that and I think we might be able to just get it up in the RED store on it's own as well. This should be real handy for rental houses, owner/ops, and anybody who is experienced or new to RED DSMC Mysterium-X and Dragon bodies. Hopefully this time next year I'll have a multitude of notes on RED Weapon 6K and 8K to share with you all.

There were a few handed out on the show floor. Mr. Curt Pair had the first one signed.

Very proud of this thing.

 

[Phil Holland]

Okay. Onto the other oddities found on the NAB 2015 show floor.

Weird year this year. Lots to see, lots I've seen, lots I personally am not interested in. However, here you will see things I am interested in


LENSES

I'm getting a reputation for being the weirdo lens guy and I'm always hunting down glass. However, this really wasn't as exciting of a glass year as the last two years of NAB honestly. But there are indeed interesting things going on.

Schneider Optics

I have news from the Schneider front regarding the Xenon-FF Primes. The 25mm is now out and shipping. It went through a redesign and turned out pretty excellent. The 18mm and 135mm are still in the works and won't be out likely until early 2016. The major hold up has been the 18mm T2.4. I have spoke with several members of the team behind these lenses and their dedication to the Xenon-FF Project is something I respect. They want the 18mm to be better than their prototype and they are working hard to achieve that goal. The 135mm should be a bit easier for them.

At the moment you have 25, 35, 50, 75, 100mm at T2.1 with the 18mm T2.4 and 135mm T2.1 on their way. I can see them added a few more lenses to this set and there's certainly talks about doing this down the line. I also know many people have asked for a Macro or two. Schneider is aware of this and that will likely influence them to get made. Still the only "new" cinema primes designed for VistaVision sized sensors and yes I'll be testing the coverage out on 8K Weapon when that time comes.


Zeiss

Also, nothing new from Zeiss this year, but.......

I just spent the last several months working with Zeiss Compact Zooms and much like the Schneider Xenon-FF Primes, these are still the first cinema zooms
designed for VistaVision sized sensors. And they are a T2.9 matched set from 15-200mm. That's impressive. Can't wait to get these on Weapon 8K as well.

That is what happens when you cut a Zeiss Otus 55mm f/1.4 in half. Zeiss is working on the wide angle Otus to accompany the 55mm and 85mm. I'd expect it to be announced around late October 2015 and likely for sale in December. Between the Otus Primes, Compact Zooms, and the Master Anamorphics; Zeiss has really produced some of the most bleeding edge and advanced optics in the last few years.

Speaking of Master Anamorphics:

Spent a whole lot of time pulling focus on the 135mm T1.9 Master Anamorphic. This is a lovely, lovely lens.


Cooke

Cooke announced their "unspecified" anamorphic zoom during NAB 2015. And it sounds like there will be two of them. They also had their new 25mm on display. These have a nice classic vintage-ish feel to them. The 25mm is incredibly wide and impressive. I need to shoot something with these shortly. I'm curious.


P+S Technik

P+S went out and did something weird. They have made a very strange rehoused yet modifed anamorphic zoom. I spied the video online pretty closely and it didn't appear to really "scream" anamorphic, but it is capable of covering pretty large formats. It's oddly a 1.45X which is somewhat close to the 1.5X ISCO concept, but wildly different looking. It's an oddity.


Leica

No new glass from Leica this year. However, they did have a new swanky PL mount for their M series cameras and they are promoting it's use as a directors viewfinder which is a novel concept that I can see being useful.


TLS

TLS showed off the rehoused Nikon 24-70mm again. Still not quite done, but it's very close.




LIGHTING

Always interested in lights.

Mole Richardson

I've been using the Mole Fresnel LEDs a whole lot in the last year on shoots. I like their quality of light as the quantum dot LED chips are pretty decent. They've now made a big LED Senior that is a 1200W+ HMI replacement that only draws 900W. Pretty freaking rad. Not the cheapest thing on earth, but I've been renting these and that's going to be a useful big booming source.


ARRI

ARRI had their new L10-C on display. These are also pretty nice. About a 400W draw for a 1.2K HMI replacement. They had their big new soft light as well. I use mostly fresnel sources these days because I'm weird.


K5600

That's K5600's new 1000Hz high-speed ballast that works with the Joker 400 and 800. This is very useful for high speed shooting and now comes standard on new Joker orders. That's flicker free up to 1000fps btw. The Joker 1600 already has this ballast.


ETC

ETC had the new Source Four LED Fresnel on display. I haven't seen the fresnel unit before, but it's a nice fit and build quality.


NiLA

NiLA had their new Arina light on display. This is a revamped and super powered version of the older SL. It's a bit thinner, but a much better design. I missed grabbing a shot of this because I was late for a meeting.


Fiilex

This is the new Fiilex Q1000 and they are saying this is about 1.2K HMI worth of light. I'll need to test that, but it's a nice unit. I dig what these guys are doing. They had this running off a battery on the show floor and the minimum power setting was very pretty light actually. A lot of LEDs under perform when dimmed. They tune across the curve which is nice.


Studio Fresnel LEDs

About 100 companies make these now. Not many have huge differences as they are mostly based on the same tech and even design. Some of these aren't flicker free when dimmed. Be careful out there.

 

[Phil Holland]

ACCESSORIES, SUPPORT, ODDS AND ENDS

Bright Tangerine

I spent a lot of time talking to Andrew and crew over at Bright Tangerine. These guys are passionate about making quality gear. The picture above is the upcoming Revolvr Follow Focus. It's really, really nice and built to compete with top tier follow focus units. Lot's of really nice features on there too. I know people were curious about it, but here's a few shots.

Everything is very well thought out. Even the extendable Speed Crank has a positive locking mechanism on it to remove any play that you would typically have in the standard accessory port. Andrew and I have very similar thoughts on pulling critical focus and he's designing this for a dude like me really. New gearing mechanisms, rubber focus wheels, adjustable hard stops with plungers. BT is also designing a single sided Revolvr Atom (last picture above) which will be released at a very competitive price. I don't envy what it takes to design and manufacture something of this quality level, but I do admire what they've done here.

Their new compact matte box, the Misfit Atom, was also on display. Rubber sunshade is quick to remove and you can smash two filters in there for a very lightweight matte box setup. Likely save to clamp on to even cine-modded lenses really without putting too much weight on them.


SmallHD

Checked out their 502 and also checked it in it's "EVF Mode". Pretty cool. It's certainly not bad for the price. Not as awesome as a few of the dedicated EVFs, but it is tiny and can be used for a few things.


Canon 4K Reference Displays

Canon's new 4K Ref Displays are very, very nice. However, they are also very, very expensive. They had C500 footage showing and occasionally those weird color uglies that pop up on magenta and blues popped up and danced the noise dance, but outside of that the displays themselves kick ass.


Konova

Konova had a pretty interesting slider, K-CINE SLIDER. Enclosed track, 12 wheels, rigged, handles, 100mn bowl, brake, tension, etc.. Extremely decent price. I'm still madly in love with my Dana Dolly, but this is certainly something to check out. It also comes with a hard protective case. i'm likely going to get one and see if it fits into my way of shooting.


Kessler

Speaking of Dana Dolly, this is Kessler's answer to the DD. It works with their motors and all that jazz. The wheels are, erm..., wheely hard though. Dig the transport tray though.


Mattthews

I use a fair bit of Matthews gear on set and always check out their booth. Their new car mount stuff is pretty cool. I also liked this Ronin setup. Had a bit of fun framing and controlling the roll, which is nice to do from the controller for framing horizon on 3/4 CUs. I see potential with this. Crap. This might make me buy a Ronin even. I don't do enough handheld to warrant that, but this was fun.


Adobe

The more I see from the Adobe's "Project Candy" the more I think of interesting possibilities of how to use it. It's a mobile app that can extract the color and general light direction from images that you can essentially use as a "look" tool to color match to by exporting it to the cloud and importing it to After Effects or Premiere Pro CC. I've already gushed about things coming to Premiere Pro CC before NAB, so i'm a happy camper. Really looking forward to the new RED Source Settings and the new color tools.


Tilta

I tried this on and regretted it. Not really finding much reason not to use a Steadicam with all this on the operator. And you have more camera mobility in terms of height even. I get it though, but I don't get it if you know what I mean.


GlideCam

On the flip side I had a thought when i walked by the GlideCam booth. I can likely get RED Weapon down to 6-9lbs rigged, powered, and with a lens. I have two GlideCams I haven't been using much, but I have a feeling they are going to get a bit more use now that my next camera is lighter weight.


Nikon

Hi Nikon. Nothing to really say. Saw some nice photos and lenses. But really took this photograph as it reminded me of that Normal Rockwell painting.


Wrap up

All and all this was a great NAB with a few surprises, not as much lens surprises. A bunch of new cameras. A lot more 8K presence and of course RED Weapon. It was really nice to see a good amount of REDusers on the show floor. I had a busy show, but it's wonderful when I get to bump into the physical avatars in the real world.

For now it's time to unleash these Genies and clean up the mess. Looking forward to next year, but mostly I'm looking forward to shooting 8K Dragon VistaVision in 2015. Crazy man. Crazy awesome.

 

[Alexandre de Mortemart]

Thanks Phil for your valuable coverage.
Hope to meet you once in LA or else in the world.
All the best
Alexandre

 

[Mark Phelan]

Thanks, Phil. As usual, you have given a great recap for those of us not at NAB this year. You are weird in the best way possible, keep it up.

 

[Bobby Farokhzad]

Thanks as always for all your contribution Phil, it is greatly appreciated.

 

[Michael Jarvis]

I love how all of Phil's example photos are all magazine quality. Phil, you do everyone who could not be there a major service.

Thanks man!

 

[Jordan Buck]

Thank you for always putting so much effort into all the information on this board, its much appreciated.
Looking forward to buying your book.

 

[WesG]

Legend Phil thanks for sharing.. Again!

 

[David Battistella]

Awesome as usual.

 

[ivan abel]

Thank you, very generous.

Ivan

www.ivanabel.com

 

[Jan Balster]

Thank you very much for sharing Phil. Also, thank you for clarifying that Weapon is an addition to the RED camera lineup rather than a replacement for the current Dragons.

I just got my Dragon yesterday and I love it!

- Jan

 

[Terry VerHaar]

2:56 AM, Phil?? WTF? You are becoming one of those RED Zombies (like Jarred) who never sleeps.

Thanks for this!

Next year I think I'll save the time and moony and just skip NAB and wait for your rundown. LOL

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

Thanks a lot for your personal insights of the NAB. Much appreciated.

I'm not sure where to post but since you posted in your round-up shots of the Red booth, it may be approbate to comment here. My initial thought were, OMG how forbidding.

... I find it very distasteful, and it’s a big reason that I’ve kept my distance from their cameras.

This is not a quote from me but pretty much sums up what I think.

---

I feel that Red left the right path. Like my Dragon a lot, brilliant piece of gear. Not so much the marketing and attitude. Hate meaningless horror films, military stuff, don't think that this is 2015. We live in very violent times, nothing to be promoted visually.

Here in Europe there is no one who appreciates such a marketing. Red's sales of cameras in the old world work despite of such marketing and not because of a booth decoration like in the photos. May be many people in US think differently. Those I know don't.


Warm Regards,


Hans

 

[Karel Šimůnek]

Phenomenal work as always, Phil :thumbsup:

 

[Ryan Sauve]

Phil, you are so awesome man! Do you think the Field OPS guide will ever be available in ebook format. While I'm still going to purchase the physical book for reading around the house. I'd love to have an ebook version so that I can immerse myself while traveling. Cheers man and ffrom those of us who couldn't make it to NAB this year, thanks for bringing NAB to us!

 

[Hal Long]

Awesome! Thank you!

 

[Martin Stevens]

Thanks Phil. Sorry I did not see you at the GLIDECAM booth, put I was not at NAB this year. I hope to one day actually meet you!

Also, we (Glidecam) have a new top-of-the-line hand-held stabilizer out that can handle cameras from 2 to 12 pounds.

see...

http://glidecam.com/product-devin-graham-signature-series

 

[Chris McKechnie]

Here you go again...blowing us all away with your NAB recaps. Gosh Phil...don't you ever sleep? Always appreciate your dedication to our craft sir.