NAB 2016 = Boring

[Ed_David]

Where are all the surprises?

The fireworks?

The blackmagic cameras that take 2 years to come out, then don't work as well as we thought they would in our minds?

The 6k global shutter CCD 5000 ISO camera for $2k?

Has NAB gone back to just being another techy dork-fest that introduces a bunch of side-handles or a recorder that can do 4k?

It hasn't been this boring since 2007, the year before the Red One was introduced, and later took 5 years to release in a useable form with a new sensor.

 

 

[BrorSvensson]

i just think that last year and the year before were incredibly highly packed and this is more like it used to be, but i also expect fotokina to be awesome.

[Inazuma]

Could it be that finally, RED and BM are both busy with actually manufacturing their cameras? :D

[cantsin]

Well, if companies like BM no longer focus on announcing new cameras, but put their efforts in fixing issues and improving their existing cameras, this can only be good news.

For example, the BM Pocket had sensor calibration issues, lacked raw recording, produced false colors in Rec709 mode and had faulty LUTs for the Log mode, lacked audio levels and a histogram when it came out. Thanks to a large and vocal user base, all this was fixed over time, and the Pocket turned from a problematic to a truly great camera - IMHO the most (positively) disruptive camera after the 5D MkII and the GH2. Seems as if this history now needs to repeat itself with the Ursa Mini.

[MountneerMan]

I worked extra hard last week so I would have more time this week to watch videos and read NAB news witch is almost non existent. Hence my increased activity on here 

 

EDIT: Actually I was wondering, what does everyone think about the new Sennheiser stero shotgun mic? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1248110-REG/sennheiser_506258_mke_440_compact_stereo.html

The price seams right.

[sanveer]

Does this count? There's Still a Lack of a good dual sound recording microphone (on an SD or MicroSD). The Shure Lenshopper is good, but not directional enough. This is cheaper by $100, and even records a safety track. And either headphone or mic input  (I am guessing only 1 of the 2). Looks terrible, but who really cares about how it looks?

 

http://tascam.com/product/dr-10sg/overview/

[jax_rox]

I agree - there's no big 'key thing' that everyone's going insane about this year... But then, I guess that was bound to happen eventually. Next year will bring with it affordable VR systems and the like, I'm sure.

Even Canon's 'surprise' fizzled. What was it? An 8k proof of concept, hooked up to 4 Odyssey's? Boring. Haha

I'll also guess that maybe there's a reason. Maybe the things that excited us in past years just aren't exciting anymore. REDs offerings have always been pretty impressive for the price, but that very first one was amazing - we'd seen nothing like it before. 

Blackmagic broke new ground, bringing affordable raw to the DSLR market. Then, again, it brought even more affordable raw to the same market, and each year its products have been much talked about, as they are hugely affordable cinema cameras. The product cycle was evolutionary, rather than necessarily revolutionary (after the first one), but each product offered something different, something great, and something not seen in a <$5k camera previously.

We're more sceptical now. We take the Craft camera with a grain of salt. The Kine feels a bit 'seen it all before' despite the fact that it will probably be a decent (enough?) camera.

To me, this NAB feels more like one of those ones mid-3D era, where Panasonic and the likes had their 'prosumer' 3D cams, and there were 3D rigs etc etc. This year, it's just moved to VR

Actually, I think the big thing this year is HDR. But it's boring to talk about, and hard to write about. 'Oh my god guys, there's a TV/monitor that looks so much better than other TVs...!' is significantly less exciting than 'check out this amazing new camera with this laundry list of killer specs'

[Andrew Reid]

Plenty of good gear at the show but Ed's right.

It's definitely the most boring NAB in recent memory.

Several major products cancelled and not a single interesting major new camera from the big manufacturers. Kinefinity Terra looks good but we needed new stuff from Canon, Panasonic, Sony, Blackmagic, even a surprise announcement from someone like Nikon, JVC or RED and didn't get it!!

I think the industry in general has reverted back to a boring pre-DSLR revolution focus on broadcast and high end production kit. Just look at Blackmagic!

[TheRenaissanceMan]

It feels like this was the year of useful tools > sexy toys. I can see why that could feel disappointing or boring, but personally I like it. New lights, lenses, rigs, microphones, software, monitors, and recorders are far more interesting than cameras, for which we have more then enough great options (imo).

[Ed_David]

Anything new on the VR front?  

I'm shooting a commercial on the Nokia Ozo this week.

[tugela]

1 hour ago, jax_rox said:

Even Canon's 'surprise' fizzled. What was it? An 8k proof of concept, hooked up to 4 Odyssey's? Boring. Haha

Canon's "surprise" was that people still are falling for the line that big things are coming "soon" 

 

[squig]

3 hours ago, Ed_David said:

Has NAB gone back to just being another techy dork-fest that introduces a bunch of side-handles or a recorder that can do 4k?

It hasn't been this boring since 2007, the year before the Red One was introduced, and later took 5 years to release in a useable form with a new sensor.

With Trump and Clinton running for president developers are all busy designing war toys.

The Kinefinity Terra could be cool. The specs and body are at least. I'm kinda glad there's not much on the camera front. Less testing, more filmmaking.

 

[Ak Ns]

Pansonic released same 1inch sensor cameras with 30mm wide end. I think they are rehousing old cameras with digital chips in it.

[wolf33d]

Photokina will be awesome.

sony A9, 5D4, GH5 anyone..?

[hijodeibn]

Well, the dream of an affordable 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 camera has been buried, all companies decided to protect their professional lines, and looks like we will see the same patron the rest of the year, I have no hope, most probably GH5 will be another 8-bit 4:2:0, we will have to live with what we have, which is certainly a lot, but for some reason I still feel is not enough, strange, and why the stupid A6300 can only be used in the arctic?, my hopes now lie in the NX1 hack…...  

[independent]

4K 10-bit Prores - This is what the blackmagic ursa mini 4.6K is about. It's the only one that does that in the price range. It lacks the lowlight and autofocus, but those are specific features (some would say niche) for other cameras. It has a few bugs, but so does every new camera that pushes  boundaries. Some of you are looking for a perfect solution for features, performances, and price, and it doesn't exist. You demand it like some God-given right. "Why can't X, why can't Y" - because these are companies that operate in a market, as do we, in various segments, and these products also must obey the laws of physics. The Sony A6300 is a prime example of that. It's both brilliant and terrible, an incredible value and useless. But somebody is probably going to use it to make a movie, that will also probably be terrible but not because of its visuals.

[IronFilm]

On 4/19/2016 at 9:36 AM, sanveer said:

Does this count? There's Still a Lack of a good dual sound recording microphone (on an SD or MicroSD). The Shure Lenshopper is good, but not directional enough. This is cheaper by $100, and even records a safety track. And either headphone or mic input  (I am guessing only 1 of the 2). Looks terrible, but who really cares about how it looks?

 

http://tascam.com/product/dr-10sg/overview/

So basically it is a Tascam DR-10X with a microphone glued on permanently, and a hotshoe.

Still, a really good idea. A strong competitor to the Shure VP83F LensHopper & Saramonic Vmic Recorder Video Microphone.

But I just wish Zaxcom had not crushed legally the sales of Tascam DR-10C in the United States, as that is what this link I'd hoped would be about.

[Mattias Burling]

I was actually a bit relived. Even though I bought the LS300 at a pretty decent discount and it is still getting upgrades like the upcoming 120p, I small part of thought what if...
So in a way the FS5, C100ii and C300ii are still its only competitors in my view, and I had already made that choice.

[richg101]

The Kinefinity Terra is more exciting than anything that was unveiled last year IMO, but only to those who can see themselves ordering one.  It's a bit like when Ferrari introduce a new car.  - it's cool and car enthusiasts get excited but the excitement soon fades, but on the whole most people couldn't care less about a car that costs more than their house and they can never see themselves ever buying one.   I think the consumer level purchase boom (bmpcc, bmmcc, a7sii, gh4, etc) has died since the release of the A7Rii and A7Sii.  Both cameras deliver more  than consumers want and need.  NAB is primarily a consumer show - very few real shooters are there looking at gear because they're actually shooting.  Most real shooters are being paid to be there to promote gear to the consumers.  

 

I'm not particularly excited by anything in NAB because my investment in a Sony F3, a BMMCC and a A7Rii fulfil every requirement of mine.  My investment in these cameras was 1/3rd of the cost it would have cost me to get a entry scarlet W.  If I could afford and justify purchase of a red 8k weapon and some hawk 65mm anamorphs, I'd probably be more excited.  But because most of us here now have access to cameras that are affordable and also capable of surpassing their requirements, the consumer within has become desensitised.  I can't see a point where anything they create will make me feel the want I felt before the A7Rii arrived.  clean high iso, wide dynamic range, full sensor readout, stabilisation, compact, affordable, full frame, clean hdmi out, etc etc etc.

[Phil A]

To be honest I'm kinda surprised that there's nothing regarding cameras with 10bit recording (ProRes, Raw, whatever format). Currently there's basically the GH4 with external recording, the stuff from Blackmagic and then it gets humongously expensive... at the same time we get shoved 10bit and HDR TVs into our faces as the next big thing.

Even all external recorders have marketing material mentioning again and again how they record 10bit color depth but they always get shown on cameras doing 8bit 4:2:2 like the A7s.

 

People discuss how the next cameras should be 6k or 8k resolution but we won't even get 1080p with good colors and better compression codecs?!

 

Edit: I think this NAB is only interesting for the non-camera stuff. Great new LED lights, gimbals, jibs, etc etc.