Is Shooting Handheld Still A Thing?

If a lot of TV and features are still being shot handheld, why have we seen such massive popularity in moving your camera with mechanical assistance over the past few years?

Daniel Brockett

A state-of-the-art handheld rig in 2019: The Arri Alexa Mini. Do you still shoot video handheld? It’s a valid question these days as so many shooters are utilizing gimbals, Steadicam-like devices, sliders and drones. It seems as if the new visual vocabulary demands increasingly growing amounts of camera movement to be considered visually relevant.... Read more

NAB Wrap Up, Part 5

And then there was editing

Michael Guncheon

Obviously, because I’m an editor, this final post on NAB has to be about editing. But, first, I want to mention something about a device from Tiffen that helps solve z-axis bouncing on stabilizers. I’ve cut a lot of material from apparent first-time users of single-handed gimbals like the DJI Ronin-S. If the camera operator isn’t walking properly,... Read more

NAB Wrap-Up, Part 4

Storage wars

Michael Guncheon

This continues my recap of my tour through the aisles of NAB. An important topic is where to put all those pixels. 4K, 8K and raw all demand more room. And, critically, they demand better performance. One way to get more performance from storage is to move from spinning drives to solid state memory. At the Lexar booth, they showed a portable SSD with... Read more

B&H Payboo Credit Card Reimburses Your Sales Tax

A new credit card for those who live in a state that requires collection of sales tax on internet orders

By Staff

If you live in a state that requires collection of sales tax on internet orders, B&H Photo has launched a new credit card that will credit your purchase for the amount of the tax. The official press release describes the process: “The Payboo Card delivers instant, immediate savings to B&H customers. For example, when a customer in Los Angeles... Read more

Avoiding A Comedy of Errors In Your Own “Game of Thrones” Production

Content-Aware fills in Adobe After Effects can remove unwanted objects from video…and, perhaps, unwelcome laughter from your audience

By Terry Sullivan

Making a film is almost always a group effort, which in many cases can work to your advantage, particularly in complex Sci-Fi or Fantasy productions that require many different teams with very different and specific skill sets. On some of these projects it seems there is truly strength in numbers when you have a cast of thousands—even tens of... Read more

NAB Wrap Up, Part 3

As cameras capture more and more pixels, where are we going to put them?

Michael Guncheon

While it’s great to see trends in production and display, as an editor I’m driven to several things at NAB. One of them is storage. As cameras capture more and more pixels, where are we going to put them? For storage on location, I saw displays of camera cards. CFast, an evolutionary step from the original Compact Flash card, is being used by... Read more

NAB Wrap Up, Part 2

More and more pixels

Michael Guncheon

When I talked about NAB 2019 last time, it was mostly an overview of what the show looked like to me. I promised I’d give some of my reactions to exhibits as I asked myself, “Where are we going?” For this post, it’s all about the displays. More and More Pixels When I was at CES in January, it was hard to avoid 8K, or so it seemed. At NAB, 8K... Read more

NAB Wrap Up, Part 1

Walking the floor

Michael Guncheon

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Convention is over. They’ve torn down the booths and shipped all the equipment and left-over swag back home. They’re now setting up for the Water Quality Association Convention and Exhibition at the Las Vegas Convention Center. I guess you’ll still hear about streaming but in a whole different context. I’ve... Read more

OWC Thunderbolt 3 Dock

Ports and ports and more ports

Michael Guncheon

I’ve been using docks for laptops—and desktops—for ages and am very familiar with the OWC brand. When I first started using Thunderbolt, I needed to expand my connections and I used their original Thunderbolt dock. Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the chance to run with their latest Thunderbolt 3 offering, the appropriately named OWC Thunderbolt... Read more

NAB 2019: Five Trends for Filmmakers, Cinematographers And Creatives

There are a number of trends taking place that will affect content creators working in video and film

Terry Sullivan

In the past two years, we’ve seen some extraordinary technology developments at camera companies, as some competed to hop on the full-frame sensor bandwagon. Yet, not every documentary or corporate project needs that type of sensor, and some content creators were also looking for alternatives. Overall, there was an emphasis on full-frame lenses, but... Read more

NAB 2019: Atomos Unveils Its Latest Monitor, Recorder And Switcher

The new 7-inch Atomos Shogun 7 touchscreen display impressed visitors to the Atomos booth at this year’s NAB

Terry Sullivan

One of the most popular booths at NAB 2019, which runs through the end of today, has been the Atomos booth, in part because of the new product announcement the company made earlier in the week: They introduced the new Atomos Shogun 7, a 7-inch monitor, recorder and switcher that’s been designed to be a 1,500nit HDR touchscreen with 1,000,000:1 contrast... Read more

NAB 2019: Sharp Surprises With 8K Camera

The electronics company produced a new interchangeable-lens 8K video camera

Terry Sullivan

Sharp hasn’t made many cameras in the past 15 years. The last one I recall was the Epson R-D1 from 2005: An odd digital rangefinder that even kept the vestigial film-advance lever on the camera. However, recently there was news (posted on the Japan headquarters website of Olympus) that the company was going to start making cameras with a Micro Four... Read more