Tag Archives: Varicam

Nissan GT-R High Speed Camera Car Reigns Supreme!

Nissan GT-R High Speed Camera Car

The Nissan GT-R continues to be unmatched in the high-end sports car world by offering a performance way above its price range.  For the new NISMO GT-R 2020 they needed to film the car at full performance. After looking for solutions in the market it was immediately apparent that they needed a car with a rig system that could keep up with the new supercar.

As it turns out the only solution would be to build a custom GT-R with expert and Drifting world champion Mauro Calo, with camera rigs normally used in big Hollywood productions as you have seen in the Fast and the Furious series. Nissan decided to paint the car Matte black so it would not reflect on the other car’s paint and or create unwanted flares on camera lenses.  The result is the best performing camera rig car ever made. It is capable of carrying a fully rigged camera system including but not limited to ARRI Alexa,  RED Dragon, Sony Venice, Panasonic Varicam or high-speed solutions like the Vision Research Phantom Flex 4k. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Canon & Sony stagnate at 120fps!

Canon & Sony stagnate at 120fps

The recently announced Canon 90D, Canon EOS M6 II, Sony a6100 and Sony a6600 are cameras that refine everything that is already a current technology but bundle it in a lower price package with great performance. However, it is clear from the spec sheets that high frame rates have stagnated for the past few years in these camera lines with a maximum of 120fps at 1080p.

Sure some of them offer full-time autofocus in slow motion modes and face tracking which in the case of Sony is so good that you may not even match it if you had the best focus puller in the business hired for your shoot. But the frame rate war seems to be left to other camera lines and brands. Panasonic, for example, offers up to 180fps in their new S1H camera which should be in theory the best Panasonic mirrorless camera ever made and it should also allow for outstanding quality in 1080p 180fps. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Panasonic GH5 vs Red Epic Slow Motion!

Panasonic GH5 vs Red Epic Slow Motion

The Youtube channel CRFTSHO has created a guessing video game that pits the Panasonic GH5 vs the RED EPIC Camera in a slow motion 1080p match.  The fun is that even for the trained eye there is no easy way to tell which camera is actually on screen playing until you get the revelation footage which is the 2nd part of the game.

What is interesting about the results is that the RED Epic a camera worth over 10 times more than the Panasonic Lumix GH5 is almost indistinguishable and in some shots the cheaper camera is preferable in sharpness and detail.  It probably has to do with the GH5 doing full sensor downsampling up to 120fps at 1080p vs the RED doing sensor windowed mode. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

NAB 2017 Sony & Panasonic Firmware Slowmo Updates!

NAB 2017 Sony

There has been a lack of big camera announcements at NAB 2017, with more and more saturation and less camera replacement by TV studios and Filmmakers there is talk of good enough gear already purchased for 4k and 2k/1080p production.  The Alexa, RED, Sony F55 and Varicam LT cameras released in the last few years already exceeds most delivery methods in quality and completely obliterates the compressed cable delivery streams for hove TVs.

However manufacturers like Sony & Panasonic have released information about new firmware updates that will improve high frame rate recording on some of their cameras as free updates. This in turn makes for a practical camera line refresh that gives more longevity to the existing hardware while permitting more high speed latitude to current owners. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Speedramp by Prolost Makes Video Ramping Easy!

speedrampplacard

Video ramping is not new, it is actually been here for quite a few years in cameras and widely accessible in modern video editors. The problem is that it is still a hard thing to do properly.  You either get choppy results, artifacts or pretty amazing ones by chance or by sheer trial and error and are not easily repeatable. This is where Speedramp by Prolost.com comes in!

After effects has had Time Remapping for a few years in the CS releases including Premiere Pro; but as with almost any built in feature in software it is hardly polished as well as it could be. Speedramp builds on top of the Adobe Time Remapping by incorporating a simple to use workflow that is capable of being tweaked and altered by simple parameters until you get the desired effect. → Continue Reading Full Post ←

Varicam LT offers up to 240fps in HD!

VaricamLT

Panasonic has released the specs of a new smaller version of their Varicam professional video camera with an S35mm sensor. The Varicam LT is the low cost version of the Varicam 35 which has higher end specs at a significantly higher price.  The Varicam 35 has a 4k mode that allows up to 120fps at full 4k resolution while the Varicam LT has less power at a maximum of 4k 60fps.

The LT is mostly identical after that 4k downgrade in the rest of it’s capabilities with dual native ISO of 800 ISO and 5000 ISO for extremely clean image quality at those native ISOs.  The Sensor itself is built for those opportunities that need higher sensitivity but also allow to shoot at reduced sensitivity for bright conditions.  This is great news for the use of the high frame rate feature. The inclusion of EF mount and PL  signify the seriousness of the product for an installed base of videographers and film makers with a growing arsenal of Canon and PL glass instead of Panasonic only lenses. They also state that EF lens compatibility will need to be tested and they will not support it directly. → Continue Reading Full Post ←