By D J Clark

Chinese newspaper photojournalists are increasingly shooting multimedia assignments

Dali is one of China’s best loved destinations and it’s also home to one of the country’s most prestigious photography events. Now the International Photography Festival has launched a multimedia contest to celebrate the best work from China and abroad. The competition is designed for, but not exclusive to, photojournalists working in the news industry and is driven by 26 of the largest commercial newspapers in China, who have made the festival their annual meeting place to discuss developments in the newspaper photography business.

Last year the discussions were largely about developments in multimedia news stories domestically, but this year the organisers are seeking to expand the event beyond China’s borders by inviting a group of international speakers and setting up the country’s first international multimedia competition. In doing so they are hoping to contextualise the progress of what is happening within Chinese newsrooms with the rest of the world.

The competition is divided into three categories:

1: Spot News: A video of no more than five minutes covering a live news event shot expressly to be shown on a digital platform (website, mobile, tablet) by a single photojournalist

2: Feature: A video by one of more people no more than ten minutes on a newsworthy subject shot expressly to be shown on a digital platform (website, mobile, tablet)

3: Interactive: A project by one or more people that includes multiple videos, audio, graphics, slideshows or both. Flash, HTML5, interactive projects and Apps should be entered in this category. Videos included
in the interactive section can not be entered into other sections

There is a top prize of 10,000 RMB (around £1,000) in each category and a special grant of 20,000 RMB for the best emerging multimedia journalist to work on a project to be screened at next year’s festival.

Entry is free. You just need to send an email to: contest@dipephoto.com with

· Your name & phone number
· The category you want to enter and whether you are a Chinese or International entrant
· The link to your multimedia entry

All entries must be received before midnight (Beijing time – 5pm BST) August 31, 2011. More information about the festival and contest at http://en.dipephoto.com.

Chinese multimedia award nominees at the Yang Xiaoguang multimedia workshop in Beijing

By Dan Chung

Just some of the many large cranes on show at BIRTV

So that’s the end of our coverage of BIRTV 2011. It was an interesting show this year and although there were a lot of Asian products that appeared to be imitations of Western brands I was pleased to see there was also some original thought from some manufacturers. It was also clear that quite a few Chinese and Korean brands are now trying to forge their own identities, rather than simply selling OEM products for rebranding by resellers. I want to finish our coverage with a few pictures of products we didn’t have time to video but thought were interesting.

Korean manufacturer Varavon was showing an enhanced version of their Armor EX DSLR cage which they showed at NAB 2011. The new version has a shoulder spar, pad and counterweight added to the basic cage.

Varavon shoulder rig system

Cheap LED light solutions were plentiful at the show but these inexpensive Falconeyes panels caught my eye. They were incredibly light, thin and cost about US $70. They were not the best light quality and are non-dimmable, but for the price I can see they might have uses.

Falconeyes inexpensive lightweights LED panels

Another interesting LED panel design was from Beijing Brightcast whom we interviewed on the first day. Somehow we missed this product. Called the Butterfly light it consists of two rotating panels that fold down into the size of a regular 1×1 panel.

Brightcast Butterfly lights

DiscoveryCam were showing an electronic follow focus for Canon DSLRs that seemed to work quite well. Price was around US $400.

Discoverycam USB follow focus for Canon DSLR

Swit had a new bright single LED camera light designed for ENG work. The S2040 is dimmable and has barn doors. They were also showing a new LCD monitor designed for DSLR use.

Dynacore had a new lightweight dual battery charger for the Sony BP batteries that power the EX1/3 and PMW-F3. They also had a v-lock power distribution plate for DSLR use – seems like most Chinese battery manufacturers have a version of this at the moment.

Dynacore dual Sony BP battery charger

Dynacore V-lock power system for DSLRs

And last but not least, possibly my favorite item at the show, the very bling HDC-1860. A Chinese made ENG camera that certainly stands out in a crowd.

The camera that Ali-G might own

By Dan Chung and Sarah Li

PCHood is a Chinese company that has been around for a while making monitor hoods for LCD screens and laptops. They have recently started marketing video products as well under the Cinematics brand name. The company sell a Mattebox that has gained popularity in budget film making circles as well as a range of DSLR rigs and an electronic follow focus. New for the show was an adapter to make stills lenses look more like a Cine lens and a portable workstation with built in sunshade and wireless HDMI transmitter/receiver.

The Cinematics electronic follow focus for Canon DSLRS

By Dan Chung and Sara Li

It seems like there is a new DSLR accessory manufacturer born every day in China, although some of them don’t seem to be doing much innovation. Sunrise is a brand I had never heard of before the show, and given the flimsy feel of their rigs I would not seek them out. They look very similar to existing American products but I personally wouldn’t use them.

The Sunrise range of DSLR products

Take a look at the video below and see what you think.

By Dan Chung and Sarah Li

Ruige were demonstrating their latest HDMI monitors at BIRTV. They feature the remote magnification switch that they previously showed as a prototype at NAB 2011. The monitors also had improved full screen viewing when used with the 5DmkII in record mode.

They also showed a new 4.8inch monitor which not only had HDMI and HD-SDI input and output but also had the ability to cross convert HDMI to SDI – all built into the back of the unit.

By Dan Chung and Sarah Li

Beijing based audio company MicW were showing a simple microphone setup for the Ipad and Iphone at BIRTV. It can be used with audio software from the App store to turn an Apple device into high quality portable audio recorder. Previous setups for external mics on the Iphone that I have seen have been somewhat more complex.

The i436 comes with a small splitter cable that allows the use of headphones to monitor what is being recorded, although the monitoring quality seemed variable. The mic is small enough to keep with you at all times in case you need to make an audio recording. It might also prove useful for dual sound recording for DSLR or live crosses over Skype from iOS devices.

The MicW i436

By Dan Chung and Sarah Li

Konova are a South Korean company that make a camera slider and skater dolly often found on Amazon and other places online. At this year’s BIRTV show they were showing a motorised skater dolly strangely named the Spaceship. It is designed for table top videography and uses a controller connected to the dolly to program moves. Interestingly it can also has a timelapse mode which would give some really interesting shooting options.

Also on show as a motor control upgrade to their existing slider. It does regular motorised moves and also timelapse. The one thing that struck me immediately was the exposed drive belt – one has to wonder how well that would live up to real world production.

By Dan Chung and Sarah Li

Wonderlan rigs are usually to be found on Ebay and are made in China. Offerings to date have usually been of the inexpensive variety. Their stand at BIRTV 2011 was showing their usual range of DSLR rigs as well as a camera stabilizer and a rig for the Panasonic AF100. They seemed pretty unwieldy and somewhat less than inspired. Suffice to say I don’t intend to buy one of these anytime soon.

Wonderlan 5DmkII rig

By Dan Chung and Sarah Li

Tilta are relatively new entrants into the DSLR and camcorder accessory market. The Shenzhen-based company is quite small and the brand has recently become known in budget filmmaker circles by selling an inexpensive follow focus. They have rapidly created a much larger line of products that caters for more professional gear like the Sony F3.

Tilta 5DmkII rig

Tilta's Sony F3 rig

I was particularly impressed by their universal handgrips which are fully adjustable and fit on both 15mm and 19mm rods. I’d like to test how they stand up to real world use.

Tilta's Universal handgrips

Also interesting was their bracket and power solution for AJA’s popular KiPro Mini external Prores recorder. It mounts directly to 19mm rods and allows a V-lock battery to power both recorder and camera – but unlike other solutions I’ve seen it has a cooling system to stop the recorder overheating.

Tilta products can’t be easily found in Western stores yet and most parts need to be ordered online.

By Dan Chung and Sarah Li

Movcam are an established Chinese manufacturer best known for selling camera stabilizer systems. Their quality is generally regarded as better than most other Chinese accessory manufacturers. That’s reflected in their pricing – some of their gear actually costs about the same as some Western equivalents.

This BIRTV they launched a whole range of DSLR and large sensor camcorder rigs designed with production in mind. Most eye-catching was their Sony F3 production rig with a cage design and multiple mount points for accessories to the camera and a carbon fibre mattebox. While many Chinese rigs look like cheap copies of Western designs it was good to see some original thought going into this one.

Movcam F3 production rig

Also on show was a follow focus which is articulated and has adjustable end stops.

Another interesting part is their power distribution box designed for DSLR users.

Movcam power distribution box