The new Rycote shock mount with a Zoom H4n recorder

Tim Constable of Rycote has been in touch to let me know that his company have launched what he believed to be a first – an effective suspension to eliminate the biggest problem of portable recorders – handling noise.

He told me “The suspension will offer excellent isolation from all vibrations, shocks and handling noise. The suspension mounts directly onto any portable recorder with a 1/4″ screw thread. The suspension can then be mounted on a 3/8″ male thread, mic stand, boom pole, extension handle or be attached to a camera hot shoe. The 180° swivel allows for easy orientation of the recorder so it can point in the exact direction of the speaker.

It uses the patented “Lyres” to give unequalled isolation & robustness. Unlike rubber or elastic suspensions the Lyre is unaffected by temperature extremes, and so can be used in the harshest of environments. The suspensions are available in 2 kits- the Portable Recorder Suspension and the Audio Recorder Kit.

The basic suspension includes a hot shoe attachment that makes it easy to mount on a hot shoe directly or on the 20cm hot shoe extension offered by Rycote. The latter enables the use of the portable recorder and lite panels etc on the camera. The audio recorder kit also offers an extension handle, so that the recorder can be handheld and a mini windjammer to increase versatility enable use outside. This makes it ideal for most aspects of capturing video on HDSLR cameras.”

Rycote also make a wide range of mini windjammers to fit most portable recorders. You can see more details here.

By Omar Khalifa

I’m always trying to break the rules. This time I seized my opportunity during the shoot for Al Jazeera’s Rageh Omaar Report in Lebanon, building some side projects on the 7D. I was Assistant Producer for the programme and shooting second camera, particularly for interviews. I wanted to capture some behind the scenes footage for the web, but in the end was able to create something more unusual – a piece that was somewhere between a behind-the-scenes, a cinematic, and a brief of the programme. It was great to get our correspondent, Rageh, on the fly. It was more like Channel 4′s Unreported World than the usual piece-to-camera.

A POV shot of Rageh from a fun cam mounted on top of the 7D

I had a bag of the usual DSLR gear – including the Tokina wide zoom, Fader ND filter, Zoom H4n, and Rode video mic etc – but no Z-finder or shoulder mount. I like it rough and ready, but sometimes it can be a bit too rough and ready. I’m interested in Jag35′s new Monitor-X and Field Runner, as I’m not a fan of the current viewfinders on the market, and they seem affordable.

In action with the 7D

Mastering a DSLR as an AP for an international broadcaster is an extremely valuable thing. You’ll be caught up in co-producing, logistics, scripting and editing, as is expected of you. But if you can bring second-camera skills to the table, with an eye on web production, it will certainly put you in a good position going forward.

Above is a short BTS video from the shoot done using a little Harinezumi fun cam.

I should also mention that we’ve launched a new strand of programming at Al Jazeera English called Frames. It promotes short-form documentary content (between 2 and 4 minutes in length) and we are currently commissioning and acquiring films. Luscious DSLR shorts, like those by Jason Taylor – who I was fortunate enough to come across on Vimeo – are particularly what we’re looking for. Get in touch with me via Vimeo http://vimeo.com/groups/aljazeeraframes/.

Omar is a journalist and filmmaker with over five years experience in international news and programmes.
omarkhalifa.com
http://www.facebook.com/okhalifa

Beet.tv has an interesting video interview with Kevin Roach, the AP’s VP for Broadcast News. The agency has had it’s photographers shooting video segments on the cameras for a while now and so it’s interesting to see what AP have to say about it.

2011 promises to be the most exciting yet for professional shooters, aspiring film makers and hobbyists with several new cameras released and more scheduled. They include the Panasonic AF-100, Sony F3, Canon 600D, Panasonic GH2, RED Scarlet (hopefully), RED Epic and even a new mirror less high end Sony DSLR to name just a few.

Some of the many options available in 2011

All these cameras certainly have there good and bad points. Are we any closer to the perfect camera? Well companies do seem to be moving in the right direction but we are still a long way from the perfect camera. One thing is for sure, the technology is definitely there to build the perfect camera but we won’t be seeing it anytime soon. Large companies such as Canon, Sony and Panasonic are very successful for a reason. They know how to protect their product lines. Yes this isn’t a good thing for consumers necessarily but its the way businesses are run. Anytime you have a vast line up of cameras you are going to want to protect your high end sales. There is no point for example of Sony or Panasonic building a camera that costs $10,000 that is going to offer the same features and quality as a $60,000 camera. The other problem I suspect has been the case for a long time is that Japanese companies seem to have informal agreements with each other. No one likes to shame another company by bringing out something that is so much better than any one else’s product. For years the Japanese automotive industry had a gentlemans agreement to limit their cars output to 280 horse power, although this has since been scrapped. Yes this was partly to do with trying to limit road fatalities but companies were producing cars with more horse power and still putting down the power figures as 280HP. It does though go to show the sort of mentality that these companies have.  Does such an agreement exist with camera companies? Well no one knows. It is quite possible though that this is the case. All the companies have intelligence on what each other are doing and they all share very similar technologies – this is why you often have very similar features in competing product lines. This goes for cameras, cars, televisions, air conditioners and most other products we buy. The only contradiction to this rule seems to be smaller independent companies who try to create there own unique market. RED is sort of company. They originally targeted a hole in the market with their RED ONE very successfully. They provided a camera in a price range where there was basically no competition. The RED Scarlet would of done the same thing if they had of been able to get it out a few years ago when it was originally going to be released. The problem was that the whole DSLR thing took off and that market has now been well and truly saturated. Now RED has had to change some of the features in the Scarlet to again put it into a slightly different market. There is no doubt that the RED Scarlet will be a terrific camera but if RED had of been able to get it out 2 years ago they would of taken the market by storm. I don’t think RED nor Canon, Nikon etc. had any idea how big the DSLR movie making revolution would be.

The 5DmkII is over 2 years old - is there a replacement on the way?

Speaking of Canon there have been lots of internet rumours about an upcoming 5D Mark III or Similar – The hype about this camera is building every day. The rumours have been about a 3rd or 4th quarter release in 2011. The specs? According to the rumour mill apparently 28 megapixel stills and 7D autofocus were the latest. We also hear the term “RAW Video” being thrown around too. I very much doubt this but I’m more than happy to be proved wrong! Honestly I’m sure most people would prefer fixes to rolling shutter, moire and aliasing. The only trouble with RAW video capture would be the incredible size of the files and the problem of writing that information to a card. RAW video from a 28mp sensor would let you probably record very little footage on a 32GB or even 64GB card.  Maybe they will have full HDMI out but they will never put a HD-SDI port on one of these cameras. Another problem with RAW video would be what would you do with it? An almost 6K raw image wont play back on too many computers and you will never be able to view it in 6K. What would be exciting is if it features the same technology that has been used in the Canon 600D. The ability to be able to take a zoomed in image off the sensor at that sort of resolution would be invaluable. Canon may not do this though as it could potentially harm the sales of some of their longer lenses – why buy a longer lens if you can capture the image of the sensor with a shorter lens? time will tell.

People often ask me advice on buying cameras, lenses and other equipment. Basically there isn’t a right or wrong choice in many cases. The most important factors are what are you going to use it for? How much is your budget? What else do you need to make it work? The camera bodies will always come and go and they are normally the cheapest thing to buy. My BIG advice, don’t buy cheap lenses! You can keep lenses for a very long time. Basic lens optics have not changed much in recent decades. Yes there is auto focus and inbuilt stabilization but good glass is good glass no matter how old it is. You are better off buying a Canon 60D for example and paying more money for better lenses than buying a 5DmkII and just getting the kit lens. Another thing i hear a lot is “I’m not sure if I should buy this camera because something better might come out in 6 months.” Yes this is true, anything you buy will be superceeded eventually. If you are going to buy a camera buy it when it first comes out. That way you get the maximum use out of it before you need to upgrade. You would be stupid to buy a 5D mark II now as a new model will be out probably by the end of the year. The higher end cameras tend to come out less frequently than the lower spec versions. Canon brought out the 550D, 60D now the 600D in very short succession but 5D or 1D series cameras tend to come out only once every 2-3 years. I bought a 7D when they first came out and I still use it to this day. I’ve since used the 5D mark II, 60D, 550D and 1D Mark IV. Yes they all offer there good and bad points but i’m not so concerned about the actual camera. I’ve learnt its the lenses and how you shoot thing that make the difference. Learning what your camera can and can’t do is very important. There was recently a famous Korean director who shot a whole movie using the Iphone 4. It just goes to show you that it’s not so much the camera that gets you the results but the operator and how you use it. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather shoot a movie on an Arri Alexa or a Sony F35 than an Iphone – but it just shows you what can be done. Don’t think you need a super expensive camera to create great stuff. Yes it helps but it’s not the most important factor-YOU ARE, the person behind the lens.

Sony F3 with Duclos 11-16 lens and Genus sunshade

Lastly i’d like to talk about the new breed of hybrid cameras such as the Panasonic AF-100 and the Sony F3. There has been a lot of press, hype, praise and criticism of both of these cameras. I personally think both are great. They have both opened up a whole new market where previously there wasn’t one. Yes neither is perfect but they are cutting edge technology and the fore runners to what is to come. The thing to remember is neither of these are DSLR cameras, they are Video cameras. They have taken the things we like about using a DSLR and mixed them together with the features we like in a video camera. There was a market for DOF adaptors that could be added to higher end camcorders and this is pretty much what these cameras are. Both the Sony and the Panasonic are targeting different markets and users. What is good to see is that they have provided the opportunity for all types of different people to own one. At $5000 the Panasonic enables even hobbyists to buy in, while the Sony will probably appeal to more high end users. Yes people have complained that they don’t have this and they don’t have that and they only record in this bit rate but they are very unique and a massive step in the right direction. Will Canon jump in and make something similar? I’m not sure. There are a few trains of thought here. 1. They may be very happy with selling DSLR’s and don’t want to take away potential sales in that area. 2. It’s not cost effective for them to build a Hybrid DSLR/Video camera at this point in time.  3. They are waiting to see what everyone else has done and then respond. 4. They are planning on building a more high end camera to compete in a completely different market. If Canon bought out a Hybrid camera for $5000 that shot RAW, had HD SDI outputs, proper audio and was full frame, why would anyone buy a 5D or a 7D even for that matter. AS much as we would love a camera like this for this price it isn’t going to happen in the near future. If Canon do release something i would imagine it would be in the 10K plus category and maybe even higher. I also think that if Canon were going to do something that they would of done it already. I’m sure they are quite content selling millions of cameras. Below is stats of the top ten cameras sold in Japan that were compiled in May 2010

Source: BNC Ranking data for the month of May 2010

I recently took the plunge and bought a Sony F3 which I will be picking up in a few weeks when I’m in Tokyo. I’m very much looking forward to using this camera and seeing what it can do. I’m not expecting miracles and i’m not expecting it to be way better than a Canon 5D mark II. What i am excited about is the ease of use, proper audio, quick turn around times, the ability to do live streaming and having a super 35mm sensor in a video camera. Will this camera solve all my problems? No it won’t. I will still use other cameras depending on what the assignment is. With the world’s first rocker zoomable lens for a large sensor coming out at the end of the year or early 2012 this will enable this camera to be used in almost all situations. At the moment for me personally this camera will just replace a lot of the DSLR style work I will do. Once the zoom lens comes out I i’ll be able to use it on almost any assignment and that is the ultimate aim. Am i worried something better will come out? Of course, but as i said earlier if your going to buy something buy t when it first comes out.

2011 is certainly a break through year and i’m sure we are all in for a lot more surprises to come. With technology rapidly evolving and new exciting products coming out it can only be good for all of us.

About Matthew Allard, Aljazeera Senior Field Cameraman, Kuala Lumpur:
Matt has been a Camera/Editor in TV news for 20 years, previously working for both Channel 9 and Channel 10 in Australia. Twice Network Ten Australia’s cameraman of the year as well as being a Walkley Finalist for outstanding camerawork in 2006 (for coverage of the Cronulla Race Riots) and a Logie Finalist for outstanding news coverage 2006 (Bali 9). He has covered news events in more than 30 countries, from major sporting events to terrorist bombings. Based out of the Kuala Lumpur broadcast centre in Malaysia he is an avid user and follower of new technology, shooting stories on HD broadcast cameras as well as new Canon DSLR’s.

Redrock Micro have launched a great little accessory that I have been wishing they would build for a long time. It’s called the DSLR Mini tripod platform and it attaches to the company’s DSLR baseplate system to create a super compact way to mount a camera onto a rails system and still have it fit onto a tripod.

The Redrock Micro DSLR Mini tripod platform

The DSLR Mini tripod platform on a rig

If you have The Event rig or Captain Stubling then the DSLR Mini tripod platform is an essential in my book. Before this came out the only other way to do this with Redrock Micro was with a large and heavy tripod platform. The DSLR Mini tripod platform costs $59.

Cinevate’s Simplis DSLR Rig from Cinevate on Vimeo.

Cinevate have launched the Simplis line of DSLR rigs designed to be simple and yet adjustable. They use a Manfrotto style mounitng system as the core which allows you to bolt on ball jointed components that can be positioned in almost any directions. The rigs can be built up into various configurations and even be made into a shoulder rig with the right accessories.

By Oliver Wilkins in Egypt

Return to Tahrir from Oliver Wilkins on Vimeo.

When I left Cairo, there were reports of journalists being dragged out of hotels and offices and being beaten and arrested. There were a lot of rumours and even stories of Swedish and Greek journalists being killed (those have since proved to be incorrect, I believe). Having seen the city descend into anarchy in a matter of hours, it was bizarre to come back just over a week later to a Cairo on happy pills.

I went down to Tahrir Square to see the massive party to mark a week since Hosni Mubarak’s departure. What a great scene: everyone was so relieved, excited and keen to step in front of the camera. This was shot with the T2i/550D, Zacuto Z-finder and Canon 24-70mmf2.8 with Singh Ray Vari-ND filter. It was shot at 50fps and conformed to 25P with Cinema Tools for a slow motion effect.

Oliver’s original post from Tahrir Square is here.
His website is at http://www.oliverwilkins.com/
You can see more of Oliver’s work over on Vimeo.

By Duncan Sharp

Egyption Revolution – Duncan Sharp Sky News from duncan sharp on Vimeo.

This was supposed to have been a one-day wonder: a knock-on protest following the success of the uprising in Tunis a week earlier. We planned a quick “in and out” to cover the demonstration in the Egyptian capital. Instead, this first protest lit the fuse that ignited two weeks of sustained street violence that toppled the Mubarak government and left 140 crew members and journalists injured and an Egyptian reporter dead.

Cairo seemed calm that morning before the crowds began to gather. There was a heightened police presence on the streets but nothing overwhelming. We didn’t know where the protests were going to occur, but we knew the plan was to march to Tahrir Square. So we hooked up with one group and stuck with them down to the Square. There wasn’t much aggression – lots of shouting and chanting but certainly no violence. The police presence was pretty low-key. I certainly didn’t feel threatened and was moving between the police and the protestors, getting pictures from both sides. I even did what you really shouldn’t and got in between the two groups. It was all fairly low risk. But that was to change. Unfortunately we had to get back to the hotel to edit a piece for 17:00 GMT. Once we had got back to the hotel and I started loading the pictures, you could hear the volleys of tear gas down in the Square.

I really wanted to go back out and get more pictures but we were locked into the feed for the 17:00 GMT, one of the most important bulletins of the day. Our hotel was overlooking the square and although I couldn’t see much I could hear that things had definitely picked up. Our flights were changed that night to come back Thursday.

Wednesday, the police presence on the streets had tripled from the day before and we had to be reasonably careful since we were on tourist visas and had no official permission to film in the country. We drove around Tahrir Square (when you could drive round it) and filmed the lines of armed police through the taxi window. Again we didn’t know where exactly these protests were going to start, only that they were aimed at getting to Tahir square. We heard rumours that there were some protests outside the press syndicate building. On arrival you could feel that tensions were mounting. It certainly didn’t have the same feel to it as Friday. I started filming behind the police as they became quite hostile hitting the protestors with long sticks and truncheons.

What started out with the police keeping protestors inside the press syndicate soon changed to them being surrounded on three fronts. This got interesting because there was really no safe place to be. As I approached a group of secret police grappling with a protestor I got grabbed, the police trying to take the camera out of my hands. I got it out of reach just in time, then I was forced through the police lines and pushed into a group of protestors. As I looked up another cameraman using a large ENG camera was having to fight for his life to stop the police taking it and smashing it on the group.

Then the secret police approached the protestors for what can only be described as a smash and grab. Watching up to 6000 protestors scatter when approached by only about 8 men was quite astonishing. Things were getting very nasty very quickly. We hurried back to the hotel to edit and just made the 17:00 bulletin. The next few days brought the most noticeable change to Cairo’s streets. Shops were shut on normal working days. The hotel we were staying at had started to board up its windows, all in preparation for Friday’s protest.

That day started off like the previous few, quiet in the morning, not much going on, but we were waiting for Friday prayers to finish, knowing that this would bring a lot of people out onto the streets. The afternoon was the turning point. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets and the clashes with the police were very violent, lasting for hours. Several buildings were burnt down and shops looted. Hundreds of cars were set on fire across the city.

As a television crew the most frustrating moment of the trip occurred later that day when the government cut all internet connections across the country. We had no way of sending any of the pictures back to Sky and had to wait until a BGAN sat dish was brought into the country. That didn’t happen until the following evening. Our hotel, because of its location, took quite drastic steps to keep the guests and property safe from looting and fighting. The lifts stopped going down to the lobby, they made a makeshift barricade across every entrance to the hotel and also cut the lights to the first three floors. This made leaving and re-entering the hotel nearly impossible. The next day they had even called on the chefs armed with meat cleavers to guard the lobby.

Over the next few days things calmed down a bit, but the scars still remained across the city. The next flash point and probably the most dangerous turning point during the whole revolution, was the emergence of the ‘pro-Mubarak’ protestors. For the first time protestors were actually targeting foreign journalists. This made covering the story very difficult and there were numerous reports of journalists being assaulted or killed. By this stage the world’s media were in Cairo and the internet had been restored so it was far easier to get pictures out. The Army made no attempt to try and break up the fighting between the two warring factions. They just hid in their tanks and waited for the storm to blow over.

I spent the next few days within the square, which the time was probably one of the safest places to be. The protestors had set up checkpoints and were looking for weapons and any pro-Mubarak supporters that were trying to infiltrate the square. They seemed very happy with the foreign journalists’ coverage of the events and it gave me a chance hear more from them and get some nice images.

I left Cairo a week later and as I was flying back to the UK I really thought about the kit I brought, how well the 5D mkII performed and whether I would have done things any differently. My conclusion? Probably not. What really stuck out in my mind was how well the Canon 24-105 f4.0L IS lens performed and how steady all the shots were with no Zacuto Z-finder or support rig to speak of. Recording audio separately for all interviews and pieces to camera was very much out of my comfort zone, but after using it in anger for the first few days I was really happy with the results. I highly rate the Tascam DR100 recorder – it performed very well, although I was always worried that the levels would be too low or the mic could become unplugged. Of course I would prefer onboard audio with monitoring but I found that this worked just fine. The onboard mic was fine for background sound – we all know it’s not great but it was more than adequate. The key I found to shooting these kind of events with a 5D mkII is having a lens with an image stabilizer and also stopping down the aperture as much as you can. I was in no position to start following focus, so I dialled up the ISO and was consistently shooting in the late F-stops from f11 to f22.

As a consequence of this trip, I’m now looking into the video performance of the Panasonic GH2. I find that the main issue with the 5D mkII is the time it takes to get pictures into Final Cut before you can start editing. When working under such tight deadlines it’s the difference between staying on the ground that extra hour rather than returning to the hotel early to edit. I also feel that I was regularly wanting more telephoto range on my lenses and although fast, the 70-200 f2.8 lens just doesn’t offer enough range.

I’m sure it won’t be long until I’m back in the Middle East covering another revolution, the only difference being that maybe this time it will be with the Panasonic GH2.

Duncan Sharp has been at Sky News for 7 years as a Cameraman/Editor covering stories in Afghanistan, Libya, Burna, Sri lanka, India and South Africa. He also spent a year working in the company’s Beijing Bureau. He is working on solutions to covering news that don’t involve using traditional ENG cameras.

LCD monitor manufacturer Marshall have just launched their latest model with a couple of great new features for DSLR shooters. The first is a HDMI loop-through function; the second is a DSLR ratio adjustment feature. Vincent Laforet has the full scoop over on his blog.

Korean accessory manufacturer Varavon have released some pictures of their new line of DSLR loupes and rigs. Not much detail at the moment but the solution for the Panasonic GH1 and GH2 certainly looks interesting. You can check them out on the manufacturer’s website here.

***Update – Varavon have posted this video of their armor in action***

VARAVON ARMOR from varavon on Vimeo.

The Canon 600D/T3i

The big news of the week is the launch of the Canon EOS600D or T3i.  Basically an evolution of the 550D/T2i, it shares the same APS-C sized 18 megapixel CMOS sensor but adds a flip-out screen similar to the one from the EOS60D.

The 600D also has a new feature that is bound to appeal to Canon news shooters.  It’s something I have been asking Canon to build into its cameras for a few years now – a digital zoom-in movie mode that offers a 3x to 10x magnification without resolution or light loss.  The ‘zoom’ is achieved by ‘cropping’ the sensor which is 18 megapixels to begin with, leaving plenty of scope to use only a section of it while in theory still having more than enough resolution to output 1080p HD.

The only other HD capable stills camera that offers something similar is the Panasonic GH2 with its EX Crop mode.  It remains to be seen what quality the camera will output when using the digital zoom, whilst numbers of pixels may not be an issue, magnifying the image will also magnify any noise especially at high ISO.   The GH2 suffers here and I’m very curious to see how the Canon performs.

Even if the output is not 100% as good as regular HD on the 60D, I for one am glad to see it finally make an appearance in a Canon DSLR and am really looking forward to testing it. You can see more info over on Dpreview.

Canon have also announced the development of a new super-telephoto zoom lens, the 200-400mm f4L IS USM with inbuilt 1.4x optical extender.  This is another product I’ve been hoping to see for a while as Nikon have had a similar range available for a few years.  But I’m not sure how useful the 1.4x extender will be for video given the 600D’s digital zoom and I can’t help feeling I would have preferred some built-in ND filters instead. There are some pictures of the lens on Japanese site Watch Impress.

Sam Morgan Moore has obviously been busy developing his Halfinchrails system.  He is now teasing us with a preview of his follow focus bands.  They look to be a combination of a plastic gear and a zip tie.  Sam is currently offering beta/test samples for brave experimenters at £20 for four.

ABC DSLR Light Jib

Michael Schmidt contacted me to say that the DSLR Light-Jib which was previously featured is now available to order from ABC products in Germany.  It has a boom length of 1.52m, will take a payload of 4.5kg and despite this only weighs 3.9 kg.  It attaches to tripods with a 75 or 100mm bowl and should be very handy for travelling. More details here. Price starts at 1190 Euro + tax.

Finally, Yves Simard of crews.tv posted this short preview of the new Sony CML V-55 HDMI monitor.  Designed to fit a Sony Alpha DSLR, it can also be used with most other DSLRs and is shown working on a 5DmkII.  There is a full write-up here.