8 TVBEurope News & Analysis NEWS INBRIEF
New Pinewood home for Tiffen
Tiffen International, a manufacturer and distributor of accessories for the still imaging, motion picture and broadcast markets, has moved to Pinewood Studios. Having moved from its offices in Bicester, it is now operating from a purpose-designed office in the East Side Complex at Pinewood Studios. The London Filter Company, the filter rental company and a subsidiary of Tiffen International, will move from its current offices in South London to the new Tiffen International offices later this year. Responsible for the sales and marketing of all Tiffen products outside of the Americas, the company has also recently opened offices in Sydney, Australia and Hong Kong.
www.tiffen.com
Sonnet xMac ships Sonnet has announced the shipment of its xMac mini Server, a combination PCI Express (PCIe) 2.0 expansion system and 1U rackmount enclosure for Mac mini with Thunderbolt ports. “Improving on already rock-solid design and incorporating valuable feedback from partners and beta customers, our engineers did a phenomenal job of creating a transformational product that enables users to turn a Mac mini computer into something much more,” said Greg LaPorte, vice president of sales and marketing for Sonnet Technologies. “The added features and design improvements make the xMac mini Server an even more compelling product.”
www.sonnettech.com
Trilogy picks EMEA Gateway for ME sales Trilogy Broadcast has appointed specialist sales organisation EMEA Gateway to lead its sales efforts in the Middle East. EMEA Gateway will build on Trilogy’s strong reputation in the region to develop ever-more active sales channels in the region, ensuring that broadcasters and video professionals understand fully the benefits of using the company’s innovative products. EMEA Gateway is a specialist sales support business established in 2010 by industry veteran Guy Elliott. Building on a career that included extensive management experience with industry leaders including Harris and ATG Broadcast, he uses his sales expertise and contacts to build highly tailored channels to give the best exposure for client companies.
www.trilogycomms.com
www.tvbeurope.com July 2012
C300 kits cost from about £250 a day, including a couple of lenses
Canon C300: is it the budget Alexa?
Canon’s C300 appears to be leading the way in bringing large sensor shooting to mainstream television. David Foxlooks at recent moves
UNTIL RECENTLY, shooting with large sensor cameras either meant big budgets, using digital cinema cameras like Arri’s Alexa, or the compromised ergonomics and limited controls of a DSLR. Now, there are several mid-range S35mm cameras to choose from, including Sony’s F3, FS100, and FS700, and Blackmagic Design’s innovative, but slightly smaller sensored, Digital Cinema Camera. For the moment, Canon’s C300 is the most in-demand large- sensor camera for mainstream broadcast, even for observational documentaries — an area where you might think the shallow depth of field would be a disadvantage but where its low-light capabilities have proved useful. “The C300 is the most popular camera” for rental, according to Katie Thomas, Business Development manager, Pro Motion Hire. The C300 is “the most requested of all our cameras,” adds Olly Wiggins, DoP and managing director of S+O Media. “It’s a very affordable 35mm sensor that also hits the 50Mbps mark. A lot of people who used to shoot with DSLRs are using it.” Most users opt for the EF-mount version, as the PL-mount model requires more expensive PL-mount lenses — although they offer smoother iris control. “The EOS [EF] lenses stutter as the iris moves in changes of a third of a stop,” says Wiggins.
S+O has six EF C300s and
three PL. The quality is good enough for use on feature films. S+O hired two PL versions to the new Tom Hanks/Paul Greengrass movie, Captain Phillips, for use alongside Alexas and film cameras — mainly for night scenes or in confined spaces.
Safety net Freelance Lighting Cameraman and DoP Tim Sutton bought the first C300 in the UK. “Buying the first of anything is always a bit of a gamble,” but it has paid off, because the C300 is now flavour of the moment and is “perfect for TV”.
Popular choice: Pro Motion’s Katie Thomas with the Alexa and C300
for pretty shots and interviews and his Sony F800 for handheld actuality or fast-paced situations. The Super35 sensor look is
useful for him on high-end documentary work “where look and an emotive image is increasingly more important. A shallow depth of field helps make unfriendly small locations I’m often confronted with on current affairs programming look a lot better.”
Olly Wiggins: C300 “is probably the best camera out there for low light”
He didn’t consider buying any other large-format camera at the time as nothing else ticked all the boxes for picture quality, usability, cost and specification — mainly the TV friendly codec. “It delivers good looking pictures, is easy to use and producers are not bewildered with yet another format or codec given the C300’s workflow is identical to that of the XF305.” Sutton loves the safety net
offered by dual slot recording and that he can provide an affordable package with a large selection of quality prime, zoom and specialist EF lenses. However, the C300 does need to be used with a rig and other accessories, like the new TV Logic/Alphatron Viewfinder. Sutton has used the C300 for a
wide range of productions, from drama to commercials, and “increasingly on documentaries
and current affairs, alongside my 2/3-inch camera,” using the C300
Depth of field S+O still rents out DSLRs in large numbers, “but the C300 has cornered a huge amount of the market,” says Wiggins. C300 kits cost from about £250 a day, including a couple of lenses, only marginally more than a Canon 5D MkII kit (which then needs separate audio and still wouldn’t be accepted as HD by broadcasters). Shallow depth of field is a key attraction of the larger sensor cameras, but then you have “problems of holding focus,” he adds. “There’s a huge amount of
hype behind [the C300] because of what it offers for the price, but it doesn’t necessarily fit all filming styles. It wouldn’t necessarily be particularly easy to use it for documentary or reality or a fast- paced entertainment shoot.” It doesn’t have long zoom lenses (such as the 22x) that are available for the B4-mount. Typically, S+O’s clients take a minimum of a 24-70mm f2.8 and a 70-200mm f2.8, and often
an EOS 50mm f1.2 for extreme shallow depth of field, which Wiggins says is particularly good for portrait shots. However, “it is probably the best camera out there for low light,” he adds. “A lot of people are put off by the C300’s small size and number of buttons in comparison even to some of its direct competitors. For broadcast, connecting accessories like radio mics does prove problematic especially when operators have been used to the more traditional ENG-style cameras,” says Thomas. Like the Alexa, it has Log Gamma recording to help capture a higher dynamic range. “This is something normally seen in high end cameras. To be able to shoot log on a £10k camera is very impressive,” she says. Sutton is not tempted by the Blackmagic Design Digital Cinema Camera or 4K cameras like the C500. He doesn’t like the Blackmagic’s ergonomics, the way its connectors are mounted directly to the internal printed circuit boards and its sensor size, but “it is a clever bit of independent design thinking and will appeal to filmmakers who want to evoke a 16mm film look for cinema,” he says. Although “on paper it looks fantastic,” Wiggins points out the Blackmagic does have a more cropped sensor than the S35 cameras.
The C500 should arrive in
November, and Wiggins says he “will probably buy it, but not in the same numbers as the C300 — especially as it will need an external recorder for 4K, so will cost almost as much as a Red Epic but without many of the Epic’s features. “I think 4K recording will take a lot longer to take off. It will grow slowly, and probably for films first. The Alexa has shown that a 2K image is very usable. You don’t need to ramp everything up to 4K.” He believes that 4K will prove problematic in post, especially at TV budgets, where 4K would only be viable if you are doing a lot of effects work for promos or commercials. “Most people are happy with HD and 50Mbps.”
www.promotionhire.co.uk www.somedia.tv www.timsutton.tv
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52