Blackmagic Design created a lot of buzz with the introduction of their camera line in 2012 when the Blackmagic Cinema Camera was announced. Due to the popularity of these cameras there was also criticism raising in some areas and users had questions regarding things like firmware updates, quality control and design decisions. In our frequent visits to the tradeshows we often presented these questions to the technicians and spokespeople of Blackmagic and had very interesting conversations off camera that helped us understand some of their decisions. This time at IBC a few weeks ago we had our camera with us and sat down to have an honest chat with Tim Siddons from Blackmagic Design. We’re happy Tim took the time to answer all of our questions in detail and that we can share this with you, giving you some more insights than the usual product presentation talks. Please let us know what you think in the comments below. Do you have more questions for Blackmagic that we can ask next time we meet them? The sponsors for our Tradeshow coverage were:

A few months ago, at NAB 2014 we’ve been reporting about one of the brushless gimbal stabilisation systems we currently find most intriguing, the Letus Helix. Hien Le, CEO of Letus gave us a complete rundown of all the features and advantages of the newest version of the Letus Helix. One of the things most interesting about this brushless gimbal stabilisation system is that it is very light and easy to hold and can be easily operated by a single person. Hien mentions all the other benefits in detail in the video above. Apparently the Letus Helix is currently on back-order, so if you place an order now you will most likely have to wait a while before it is delivered. The basic Letus Helix 3-Axis stabiliser is $4000 and can be ordered on the Letus Website.

With 4K becoming more and more a standard format filmmakers and editors need large RAID drives with a fast interface. We’ve seen many Thunderbolt and Thunderbolt 2 drives over the last months. Here’s an entirely new RAID solution by G-Technology. As Mark from G-Tech describes these new G-Technology G-Speed Studio XL drives can hold up to 64TB on 8 drives. That’s 56TB in RAID 5 which is a backup + speed hardware RAID configuration that requires a single 8GB drive to backup your data (backup is split equally across all drives and can always run with 1 missing or faulty drive) and gives you 1GB / second of speed on Thunderbolt 2. The G-Speed Studio XL looks really nice in terms of what it has to offer. There’s nothing comparable on the market that offers both this kind of storage capacity as well as the speed in a portable package. As you can imagine there’s a price for this kind of quality. The smallest version holds 24TB and costs $3599. The G-Speed Studio XL with 64TB costs $6999.

At IBC & Photokina this year it seemed like there was a bag company with new products at every other corner. One brand in particular caught our eye: Orca Bags make bags for professionals with durability and ergonomics in mind and they produce the first softbags with an aluminum frame construction. Orca Bags is a very new company that was founded earlier this year (!), and it was brought to life by the people who made the famous Petrol Bags, a company that was sold just a few years ago. Orca Bags look very interesting for people who are very serious about their work and spend a lot of time in the field. When taking a close look their products seem to come from people with working experience and are not just another copy of a copy. All bags are available in several different sizes. Ofer from Orca Bags presented the following bags: Orca Shoulder Video Bag Orca Backpack Orca Audio Mixer Bag For more information on Orca Bags check out their website: orcabags.com

China based camera manufacturer Kinefinity is known for their very affordable RAW shooting cameras that were released earlier this year. Now they introduced a new codec that improves storage space by 3x. Kinefinity has created a lot of headlines for their very affordable 4K KineMINI camera and the 6K KineMAX that is to arrive next. We notice that Kinefinity is still working on improving the camera firmware and eco system around it. The introduction of their proprietary KineRAW codec and the continued improvement of the internal color matrix is just another step in making their cameras more accessible to filmmakers. Previously users could only record uncompressed DNG files in camera, the KineRAW codec promises a 3:1 compression without loss of quality. The new codec will be available soon. For more information check out their website: www.kinefinity.tv image via newsshooter

We had the chance to get some hands-on experience with Sony’s new and long-awaited FE PZ 28-135mm F4 G OSS cine lens and talked directly to Sony’s cine product manager Sadanobu Ueda who explained all the details about the new lens on (see above) and off camera. Why is this lens important? Many users of large sensor cameras, be it dslr video users or those who use larger cinema cameras, have had to resort to photo lenses for large sensor video use. The new Sony FE PZ 28-135mm F4 G OSS cine lens is the first dedicated video lens for large sensor cameras. Here’s a list of the most important features: It has an ideal zoom range for most applications ranging from wide angle to close-up focal lengths. It has a continuous aperture of F/4.0. The lens can be controlled with accessories like motors or manual follow focus units due to it’s geared design, yet the focus rings are rubberised for easy handheld use. The focal length can be controlled with a built-in zoom rocker (zoom). The built in motors can also be controlled remotely from cameras with a zoom rocker (Sony FS7). With the flip of a switch the  aperture can be clicked or de-cllicked for smooth operation. The lens features an optical image stabiliser. Hands-On Experience We had some hands-on time with a prototype of the lovely new lens and we can tell you that it truly is a lovely and sharp lens. Unfortunately we are not allowed to publish the footage we shot, but will reveiew the lens more in-depth in the future. The aperture F/4.0 seems to go all the way through, unlike Canon’s own and frequently used Canon 24-105mm that gets darker at the far end. The images appear very sharp and clear and we couldn’t see any obvious chromatic abberation or softening at F/4.0. We were told it is made for 4K applications. The optical image stabiliser behaved very nicely and smoothly and a lot like the one we know from the Canon 24-105mm, probably even a little better. We could use the 135mm focal length and get an extremely stable image from a handheld A7S. A very very welcome feature is the fact that you don’t lose focus when you change the focal length. So you can zoom all the way in to focus and zoom out again to retain a focused image, just like on a proper ENG lens. The declicked aperture is a wonderful feature to have. Overall the lens feels very well manufactured and strong. What we didn’t like so much was its size and weight. The Canon in comparison is definitely a more compact lens. Also we realised that the zoom was always motor-controlled. So even if you change the focal length with the zoom ring on the lens itself, it’s always a motor inside that actually controls it resulting in less precise and slower focusing possibilities. The lens will be available early next year and cost $2.499. It is already available for pre-order.

Atomos just added a new product to their existing lineup of widely used hard disk recorders and camera converters. The power station is a small brick that helps power all devices on your rig including the camera itself. The Atomos power station seems like an intelligent approach. The common solution to powering a whole camera rig is to use v-mount or other third party batteries as base stations, but they are heavy and can complicate your rig. The Atomos solution uses adapters to accommodate your native camera batteries (2 at a time) as a power source for your camera and any additional accessories. We like the idea. The Atomos power station will be available at the end of next month October and cost $295.

During IBC 2014 this weekend Sony once again showed their increasing commitment to produce valuable tools for filmmakers.