Other Thoughts from NAB 2016 - UPDATED!

[Jonesy Jones]

DAY 1

Lilliput - released Q7, Q5, and A7 their new monitors. 2 are 7", and 1 is 5", guess which is which :). The Q's are SDI and HDMI. The A7 is HDMI only. The 7's are full 1920x1200, don't know about the Q5. They are definitely less bulky than 663 and feel pretty solid. Good looking monitors. No LUTs.

CameTV - I know it looks funny, but I really love the Accordion. Makes the push in super easy. Moves with ease. It's hard plastic, but not fragile, but I think pretty light weight. Supports over 30lbs. Very cool.

Atamos - Just a few years ago these guys had a tiny booth in the tiny booth ghetto. I think they've had one of the bigger booths, and more creative staging ever since. This year is a giant rock wall with climbers. Their HDR stuff looks really impressive. It seems like it is pretty useful, but I haven't been able to figure out if it is essential. I think the consumer TV sets will eventually go HDR, so we'll probably see more HDR monitors, like SmallHDR. But for now, I just can't tell if it's a luxury or a need. 

SmallHD - their new HDR's look amazing, but the price tag is ouchy. I don't see a day, pretty much ever, where I could justify that cost. So I move along. This is the first time I've been able to see the 702 Bright. I love it. Pricey too.

Edelkrone - the jibplus looks amazing. It only supports 6 lbs, but there is a pro version in the works. Super easy to use. Set your target from 2 different points in like 7 seconds, and then it's locked in. You can also supposedly set 3 different targets for one take, but I'm not sure how that works, but that would be really awesome. Also pulls focus btw. Also doesn't come with jib, just the motors. standplus looks very handy too. Not flimsy at all, but also only supports 6 lbs. Seems like a product for a very specific kind of shooter and not necessarily for everyone. I need to go back and see the focus one.

Blackmagic - no longer working on GS for mini or micro. Consider it a miracle if it ever happens. An HDMI EVF is a idea he is going to pass upstream. Magenta issues........ um..... they don't seem to have a clue, at least for the magenta vignette corners. I got the feeling they would recognize it as a flaw and RMA it if your's turned out to have this issue, but that wasn't a like a guarantee from the rep, just my impression. Seriously, I don't think they have any idea what's going on with these X File magenta corners. If you discover this in yours, they want a DNG from you. 

Aputure - I really like these guys. I recently bought the Lightstorm LS-S and love it. I was skeptical about the LS-C, but not anymore. This will probably be my next light. They also have a fresnel type fixture called the 120T. Super bright and has a plethora of front end accessories. But is only tungsten for now.  Their monitors look great too. I think we already knew this. They have a mic, I'm not sure if its new or not and I have to go back and see it again. VERY comparable to the Senn 416. Very. For $289. 

DJI - I guess the X5R already started shipping. I didn't know that. I have seen no footage. But it's here and I really like it. In fact, I'm thinking crazy thoughts about how I could make this my A cam for everything. Somehow rig it to a tripod. Then boom, its on a gimbal. Then boom again, it's on a drone. and so forth. Please tell me this is stupid so that I can snap out of this ongoing loop of trying to make this work. I need to go back to this booth to prove this is not possible. 

DAY 2

Aputure - The mic I was talking about is called the D3 (coming this Fall). Great mic. I've got some test audio to check out that I still haven't, but at this point I still stand by my claim that this mic is very comparable to the 416. Similar sensitivity and very directional. I do think there is noticeably more handling noise, but that's super unscientific, yet if I had to guess I'd say more handling noise for the D3. Their lights are still awesome. I apologize, but I forgot to get the name of the smaller fresnel. I can get that soon.

Zoom - The U-44/24 look great, but the F8 really surprised me. My experience with Zoom is limited to the crappy H4N, which sucked every which way. But the F8, and their other products seem to be a massive step up.... where have I been? Build quality is awesome. Time code. 8 XLR ins. Computer interface. App. Claimed high quality preamps. My big pet peeve though with Zoom is Line level. Are they allergic to a Line level switch? You can bring a line level into any XLR by plugging in a quarter inch instead, which automatically sets it to line. But I can think of several situations where this isn't ideal. What is up with Zoom and line level?

Tascam - was also at NAB.

Saramonic - tried to find these guys but couldn't. Sorry.

Atamos - I went back. HDR looks great, but I wouldn't say its necessary. Just makes what you're looking at better while you shoot it, perhaps enhancing your exposure decisions, but not really altering your content. However, I'd say for roughly the same price as the SmallHD 702 bright, it's a better brighter monitor that can do more tricks.

Zacuto - the new Gratical EYE is really nice. I think I heard someone say somewhere that you can see the pixels, nonsense. This thing is clean. Very very clean. Great software. It is clear they are much happier with this over the original Gratical. They didn't even bring one of the originals to NAB. However, for $500 less, I'm thinking the Blackmagic one is the way I'd go. Just as clean. Great software too. Both are SDI only. The BM one is obviously geared toward URSA, so I'm not sure if there are any compatibility issues with other cams. If not, I'd want the BM one, but the Gratical EYE is super awesome. Zacuto seems like a scaled back company nowadays. I think the lesser expensive and still great competition is affecting them. I hope Zacuto continues to excel.

Edelkrone - the Focus One is light and very nice and solid. I think you can feel a difference in quality between the Focus One and say a Zacuto one, but it's fairly negligible. Focus One has little to no play and no backlash. No hardstops though. Their little baby slider is sweet. I could make use of this for sure. The break on it is stupid though. I'd probably fabricate a better break, and a hard stop solution for the Focus One.

DJI - I finally saw footage from the X5R. It's gorgeous. They had some stunning footage from around the globe. Wasn't impressed with the highlight roll off though. I want to see more footage, and more grades. I'm still EXTREMELY interested in this! 

VR/360/3D - I may have enough to say about this for an additional thread. Sorry, too much to write for the moment. It's late.

Blackmagic - went back. Very glad I did. More on this later too.

[IronFilm]

35 minutes ago, Jonesy Jones said:

released Q7, Q5, and A7 their new monitors. 2 are 7", and 1 is 5", guess which is which :).

hahaha, well that is obvious!
But would have been funny if their "A7" monitor was a small 5 inch one to match the use of it for the A7 cameras ;-) :-P 

35 minutes ago, Jonesy Jones said:

CameTV - I know it looks funny, but I really love the Accordion. Makes the push in super easy. Moves with ease. It's hard plastic, but not fragile, but I think pretty light weight. Supports over 30lbs. Very cool.

So it is like a slider/jib? Nifty! But damn does that look ultra WEIRD!!

http://www.came-tv.com/cameaccordion-p-820.html

35 minutes ago, Jonesy Jones said:

They have a mic, I'm not sure if its new or not and I have to go back and see it again. VERY comparable to the Senn 416. Very. For $289. 

How do you know it is "VERY comparable" to the Senn 416? That is a BIG ask! Could you find out its name?
Doing a search for their current products did nothing:
http://www.adorama.com/l/Video-Equipment/Audio-for-Video/Aputure~Video-and-Shotgun-Microphones

[Policar]

44 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

hahaha, well that is obvious!
But would have been funny if their "A7" monitor was a small 5 inch one to match the use of it for the A7 cameras ;-) :-P 

So it is like a slider/jib? Nifty! But damn does that look ultra WEIRD!!

http://www.came-tv.com/cameaccordion-p-820.html

How do you know it is "VERY comparable" to the Senn 416? That is a BIG ask! Could you find out its name?
Doing a search for their current products did nothing:
http://www.adorama.com/l/Video-Equipment/Audio-for-Video/Aputure~Video-and-Shotgun-Microphones

It's new so I wouldn't expect it to be listed. But definitely a tall order. Even the NTG-3 isn't 416 quality. The 416 is the benchmark. 

Even if it's close enough it's cool to have good quality that anyone can afford, although it takes a more skilled operator to use a 416 than an NTG-3 etc. "Better" often also means "harder to use well." So something a bit worse but more forgiving at $289 would possible even be a bigger hit. 

[IronFilm]

It depends a lot on how it is "worse". If it has higher self noise, or worse handling noise, or etc etc then all of that is bad news. But if it has a slightly wider pick up pattern, then that is not necessarily "bad" news, but could be "good" news for some people (not me though). 

[Policar]

13 minutes ago, IronFilm said:

It depends a lot on how it is "worse". If it has higher self noise, or worse handling noise, or etc etc then all of that is bad news. But if it has a slightly wider pick up pattern, then that is not necessarily "bad" news, but could be "good" news for some people (not me though). 

Exactly. A wider pick up pattern and better behavior off axis would be a nicer mic for me because when I'm chasing "good enough" I also don't have the budget to bring on a dedicated recorder/mixer. But it wouldn't be better for the high end–not at all. And yet it would still be good enough for most purposes in good hands, and even better for those whose budget is $289. Sounds cool. A good back up for the high end and an even better mic for the low end if it's something like that.

(Btw, I own a 416. And love it. Really beautiful sound. But unforgiving.)

[kaylee]

@Jonesy Jones dude thanks for your time and effort in posting all this interesting information and feedback, its a great perspective

ill prolly never go to NAB because i hate las vegas, but id love to go, but thats kinda bullshit bc even if their show came to LA id be useless as a voice from the floor..... id just be walking around the whole time super high like "Wow..... oh man......so many Ks for so few Ks..."

 

[IronFilm]

20 minutes ago, Policar said:

Exactly. A wider pick up pattern and better behavior off axis would be a nicer mic for me because when I'm chasing "good enough" I also don't have the budget to bring on a dedicated recorder/mixer. But it wouldn't be better for the high end–not at all. And yet it would still be good enough for most purposes in good hands, and even better for those whose budget is $289. Sounds cool. A good back up for the high end and an even better mic for the low end if it's something like that.

(Btw, I own a 416. And love it. Really beautiful sound. But unforgiving.)

I already have a NTG2 as the "more forgiving mic", what I want now is a 416 :-D Or even better, a Sanken CS-3e :-D Which is what I have my eye on at the moment. 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/406096-REG/Sanken_CS_3E_CS_3E_Short_Shotgun_Microphone.html

[squig]

2 hours ago, Jonesy Jones said:

They have a mic, I'm not sure if its new or not and I have to go back and see it again. VERY comparable to the Senn 416. Very. For $289.

No way. Sounds like they ripped off the 416 design. I've got an NTG-3. My mic collection is gonna start to look like my lens collection.

Seen any new LED fresnels other than the Came and Aputure? I'm looking for something like the old dedo 150w tungstens. Thinking of going for the Litepanels Calibers if there's nothing better at NAB.

[IronFilm]

I'd LOVE to find some affordable dedolight clones!! 

[Jonesy Jones]

8 hours ago, IronFilm said:

So it is like a slider/jib? Nifty! But damn does that look ultra WEIRD!!

http://www.came-tv.com/cameaccordion-p-820.html

How do you know it is "VERY comparable" to the Senn 416? That is a BIG ask! Could you find out its name?
Doing a search for their current products did nothing:
http://www.adorama.com/l/Video-Equipment/Audio-for-Video/Aputure~Video-and-Shotgun-Microphones

The accordion is so cool. It also has a 15' reach. I believe it folds into 2 little boxes. Pretty awesome. 

Ok. I'll find out the name of that mic. Check this out, they had their mic and the 416 right next to each other hooked up to one H4. With headphones you could switch back and forth. I'd give the 416 a slight edge (maybe) on the presence (I don't know what to call it). But I'd give the Aputure one the edge on directionality. Seriously. Very comparable at the least, for more than $700 less.

6 hours ago, kaylee said:

@Jonesy Jones dude thanks for your time and effort in posting all this interesting information and feedback, its a great perspective

You're very welcome.

7 hours ago, IronFilm said:

If it has higher self noise, or worse handling noise, or etc etc then all of that is bad news. But if it has a slightly wider pick up pattern, then that is not necessarily "bad" news, but could be "good" news for some people (not me though). 

I purposely touched the mic to see about the handling noise. Very little. But, if you are looking for a wider pick up pattern, no bueno. I would say this one is just as narrow, or more so, than the 416, which is exactly what I'd want. I'm into isolation. At least it has me thinking that I could easily afford 2 and do a phase cancellation thing. 

6 hours ago, squig said:

Seen any new LED fresnels other than the Came and Aputure? I'm looking for something like the old dedo 150w tungstens. Thinking of going for the Litepanels Calibers if there's nothing better at NAB.

Dude, it's like an LED jungle there man. There's probably 40 new LED fresnels, not exaggerating. Actually there's probably more than that. Aputure has a small fresnel that outputs like a 120w. Focusable of course. But the one I saw was daylight. I can see if they have a tungsten.

[Cinegain]

Thanks for playing reporter!

Concerning...

Quote

I guess the X5R already started shipping. I didn't know that. I have seen no footage.

have a looksie here:

-- Also, maybe you can report on what the hell those ImagineVision Tech (anyone remember that 'meh' Z Cam E1?) guys are up to?

[TheRenaissanceMan]

Thanks so much for all this info, Jones. Really great stuff.

Anything that particularly stands out in terms of affordable LED fresnels? Or new LEDs in general? Sounds like the Aputure stuff is pretty rad for the price, but the rest is harder to sort through.

[squig]

10 hours ago, Jonesy Jones said:

Dude, it's like an LED jungle there man. There's probably 40 new LED fresnels, not exaggerating. Actually there's probably more than that. Aputure has a small fresnel that outputs like a 120w. Focusable of course. But the one I saw was daylight. I can see if they have a tungsten.

It's daylight I'm after, just using the dedos as an example of size/power which would be around 30w on an LED. I'm after something in the 100w range too with a 12-15v input.

[Dave Maze]

Most underwhelming NAB ever. Maybe it's just cause the last three years have been so crazy, but I've been walking around the floors and it's so chill this year. No crazy mobs other than the Philip Bloom fanboys. Nothing that wets my pants this year like I have the last few years. If you didn't make it out this year, you didn't miss anything. The after parties are what it's all about tho and that's why I always come. To make connections and hang out with the best filmmakers in the world. 

[jax_rox]

19 hours ago, IronFilm said:

So it is like a slider/jib? Nifty! But damn does that look ultra WEIRD!!

http://www.came-tv.com/cameaccordion-p-820.html

 

Looks like a crappy technocrane lol

11 hours ago, Jonesy Jones said:

Check this out, they had their mic and the 416 right next to each other hooked up to one H4. With headphones you could switch back and forth. I'd give the 416 a slight edge (maybe) on the presence (I don't know what to call it). But I'd give the Aputure one the edge on directionality. Seriously. Very comparable at the least, for more than $700 less.

Not really a scientific test But good to know there's at least a decent option for a very small price available

[Jonesy Jones]

5 hours ago, DaveAltizer said:

Most underwhelming NAB ever.

Maybe, but there's more to filmmaking than cameras. Of course we already know this, but when it comes time to buy the audio unit or light fixture, it's kind of nice to know you already handled it and it was nice. That was my perspective.

[squig]

Those little and big Aputure fresnels are just what I'm looking for to light my feature with. I've already got their little camera mountable LED panel: cheap, bright, and high CRI. The best LED I have quality of light wise is a fiilex P180E, but the damn thing has a noisy fan and costs as much as 3 of those little Aputure fresnels. Gimme!

[AaronChicago]

1 hour ago, squig said:

Those little and big Aputure fresnels are just what I'm looking for to light my feature with. I've already got their little camera mountable LED panel: cheap, bright, and high CRI. The best LED I have quality of light wise is a fiilex P180E, but the damn thing has a noisy fan and costs as much as 3 of those little Aputure fresnels. Gimme!

Yeah I'm interested in this too. Especially the brightness. I use Arri 650 and 1k fresnels, but if the CRI is good enough, and it's bright enough, I'd consider switching.

[Cinegain]

I feel like the guys at Aputure noticed... 'geez, what are they charging for that sorta gear? I thought cameras were starting to allow more people an entry into filmmaking... guess it's up to us to make the rest of the gear follow'. Monitors... LEDs, accessories (like DEC schtuff). Not too shabby at not too shabby prices!

(oh and how many times I notice myself saying 'aputure' when I meant 'aperture', speaking of branding that sticks)!

[AaronChicago]

Whoa. Equivalent to a 1.5k. Impressive.