We've shot a slew of new Video's and we will be posting this week sometime...

 We'll be reviewing the Element Technica Mantis, their Hybrid Baseplate, the Air Sea Land RIP and RIB, Zacuto gear, BSRT as well as some Monster Cine stuff!

For those of you looking to purchase stills glass for your Red/Scarlet/Epic, here's a great resource

 http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/50-comparison/index.htm

So it's finally here... was the wait worth it?  Sorta.  There are reports that you still can't export 4k files out of color... but there are also rumors that it could be coming soon...

 http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=32747

But it shows so much promise...

http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/whats-new.htm

 

You know how unlikely it is to have two hard  fail at the same time?  Well this weekend was proof that it CAN happen. 

The reason that the site has been down is because our hosting services had to restore their entire server from the tape backup due to the failure of two drives at the same time in their RAID 5 array. So if you haven't heard it three times this week already - Backup!

Our Red is still stuck in Customs after being repaired, so the moment they'll give it to us we have a  ton of videos to do!

 

So as you can see, we've done another major update to the site.  We've completely switched video systems, so now we'll have more flexibility with organizing and displaying videos.   We are still in the process of converting all of the older videos,  but don't worry - they'll all be there soon!  We also have new gear coming in from all over that we will be reviewing in the coming weeks!

UPDATE: All of the videos are now online!  Enjoy!

 

 Cheers,

 Colin

I have to say, I'm glad about the new 8GB memory limit on the new MBPs, but losing the express card slot is surprising.  

 

 

Now if Apple had replaced it with an esata port, I could understand - but a SD slot?  Come on guys.  Great option for stills photographers, but for those of us who want speedy access to drives, it's devastating.   I know it still has a FW-800 port, but despite Apple's best attempts, finding FW400 enclosures (much less 800) can be a royal pain.  Esata is the new hard drive connection of choice - and it's time Apple got with the program.

I also feel bad for people who purchased products that are Express Card reliant - like the MX02.  Now if you want to use one you have to haul around a 17" or a Mac Pro.

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1. Red Prime Demo. ( only 35mm )

Ted ( from Red ) started out with a discussion about some of Red's lens program's history and talked about how they thought the Red prime was in league with the best cine lenses, yet at a fraction of the cost.

There was a short demo comparing the Red 18-50 and the Red 35mm lens visually on a camera. Both lenses looked fine on the monitor, as one would expect - both being able to make a nice 720p image.

 

 

Then we were allowed a little bit of hands on with the Red Prime - build quality looked to be very good. The size and weight of this lens are not fully apparent when you see the pictures - It's a bit bigger and heavier than Ultraprimes or Cooke S4's. Size and weight wise made me think of the Cooke 15-40 T2. The 35mm was made with an internal floating focus element, a design which I believe should bring really good close focus performance.

Then there was a few minutes of unguided playtime with the lens. It looked to be very high resolution, mechanically excellent very good flare resistance, low distortion, moderate breathing, basically everything looked really good. If the 35mm is a good indication of the rest of the lenses and you are looking to buy a PL prime set: it's a no-brainer.

2. Jacek from Optitek had his Pro Nikon mount on display. It uses a locking ring driven system to pull the lens snug to the mount. The Iris on G series lenses can be adjusted with a simple external ring. He had a Nikon 14-24 on it and it worked well. It's a vast improvement on the stock camera mount - highly recommended if you are shooting with Nikons.

3. Jacek also had the prototype of the Optimator a flange focal depth checking device for the Red and other PL mount cameras. It works by projecting a focus pattern onto the cameras cmos sensor. You rack the mount's adjustment ring back and forth until you can see the highest number on the scale. It's a bit better in theory than the IBE Null Lens because you can use it anywhere - you don't need an infinity target, it gives a readable numeric scale to judge your accuracy, and the Optimator has a provision to see the sides of the frame also which lets you know that your mount / sensor are not askew in some other way. It's self powered with an internal battery or by a cable.

I want to have a look at Uniq optics Diascope and see what's up with that. Probably next week.

Aside from the lenses, there were a couple of other interesting things from RED at NAB.

I must admit, being able to see RED RAY in action was pretty amazing.  Especially after seeing it side by side with uncompressed 4k.

  Now it's true that I was a little ways away from the screen, but it was amazing.  The detail, the color... With a bit rate of 10 (vs 25 for miniDV), this has the potential to be revolutionary.  As more details come out it will be interesting to see where the technolgy leads.

 

Red Rocket was also annouced just before NAB, and this sub-$5k box will decode, debayer and play high quality real time 4k at 3fps (5k 25fps).  Works with PR, AE, FCP, and all red products.  Red workflow will now be quick and easy.

Of course we also looked at the new Scarlet and Epic mock-ups, and things are looking pretty good.   At first I was concerned because there were mini-xlr outpus on one of the modules, but I was assured that the "pro" version would be full size.  My advice to potential buyers - get the full sized XLR. It might add a couple of millimeters to the length of the camera, but that's worth it IMO to be in line with a universal standard.

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