First footage from the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera released

John Brawley, an Australian director of photography who helps Blackmagic with the development of their Cinema Cameras, has just released the first footage from the much-anticipated Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. He used it for “about an hour” at his local market and put together some shots in Final Cut Pro X.

It’s impressive that this tiny sub-$1,000 camera is able to record in ProRes (he used the ProRes film mode) with 13 stops of latitude with a Super 16mm sensor.

Lenswise he used an IS stabilized Micro 4/3 lens, the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8, plus a Hoya ND16.

Here’s the link to John Brawley’s blog for more detail.

The Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera is available for preorder from B&H – link see below!

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Leica’s first full frame HDSLR – M240 video capable?

Leica M type 240- video review.
(Non of the written here is relevant to the photo section of this camera)

Deep into the 4th year of the HDSLR revolution Leica released the M 240, their full frame camera costing $6950.

Spending a day with the camera left me wondering, was Leica ever talking to any professional cameraman before implementing HD recording for this unit or just decided to “join a trend” without really meaning this camera to be a capable working video tool?.

In my opinion the video quality coming out of the camera is very disappointing and its operation in video mode is not easy/logical. I hope features/video quality can be enhance with a firmware update.

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Vimeo on demand – Future of indie film distribution has started

The successful online video-sharing platform Vimeo has opened the gates of its new “video-on-demand” service, paving the way for independent filmmakers to market their work easily.

The video above is vimeo’s teaser for their new “vimeo on demand” service which has been opened to users who subscribe to vimeo’s PRO service.

The pro membership costs $199 (159€). Aside from that there are no additional costs. People who would like to watch your films can preview the work in the form of a trailer and pay an amount you set. The revenue is split 90% in your favour. To watch a film people are asked to register with vimeo in the process.

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Canon develops ultra-lowlight 35mm full-frame CMOS sensor

Canon just published a press release with a video showing off their latest development in sensor technology: An ultra lowlight sensitive HD sensor.

Check out the video above to see the sensor in a prototype housing. Too bad it’s only published in 640×360 and not HD as these images look very promising.

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