The recently announced ZEISS Supreme primes are here and we had a chance to go hands on with the new line of large format primes at Cine Gear 2018. Spoiler alert – these lenses aren’t only created for perfect sharpness and that’s very much by design. Reacting to filmmaker feedback that sharpness and a clinical look may not create the perfect lens, ZEISS set out to design a prime series that has character. Available in interchangeable EF, LPL (the new ARRI mount) and PL, only time will tell if DP’s are drawn to the unique characteristics of this new lens line, but the ability to cover a 46.2mm frame from the likes of Alexa and RED is welcome. The new ZEISS Supreme Prime 50mm on an ARRI Alexa. If you thought ZEISS already covered full frame, at least in the case of the ARRI Master Primes, you are only partially correct. It turns out that only some of the master primes cover full frame. Thus, we have the Supreme line aiming to do just that. Priced at $18,000 each (a CP3 goes for between $5,000 – $6,000), the full line from 15mm to 200mm will be released in various stages throughout the next two years and will include the eXtended data protocol first introduced with the CP3 primes at NAB 2017. For now, only the 25mm, 29mm, 35mm, 50mm, 85mm and 100mm will be available this year and all are T1.5. ZEISS Supreme Primes at Cine Gear 2018 Can you see yourself testing or shooting with the new ZEISS Supreme Primes, or are they out of budget? Let us know in the comments below.

In this episode of ON THE GO, I took a drive with Panasonic’s Nela Pertl and Luc Bara through Hollywood, talking about the new kid on the block – their upcoming Panasonic AU-EVA1 camera. Nela, Panasonic’s European Pro Video Marketing Manager, explains where the EVA1 stands in the Panasonic line-up – it isn’t a Varicam and it isn’t a Lumix MFT camera – so what is it? It records 4K 10-bit 4:2:2 internal, which definitely sets it apart from similarly-looking cameras like the Sony FS5, which can only do 8-bit internally in 4K. We talked about the great dual ISO feature that will also be built into this camera, which will likely make it a low-light beast like the original Varicam 35. I asked Nela why Panasonic was so late to the 35mm party – it’s a crowded market already, and Panasonic is kind of late in the game of sub $10K interchangeable Super35mm cameras. What do they see in the market to gain at this point, and what was missing for them what the EVA1 can fulfil? We take a drive through Hollywood with Panasonic’s Nela and Luc to talk abut the Eva1 Last but not least, Luc Bara explains why the camera has a 5.7K sensor but only records 4K – and why it makes sense to have more pixels to work with for a sharper recorded image in the end. In the next episode, we will go more in depth about the EVA1, its 4K recording capabilities and the workflow with the raw module, and much more.  Please visit our sponsors’ websites to keep new episodes of ON THE GO coming! FUJINON G-Technology Schneider-Kreuznach Panasonic Watch previous episodes of ON THE GO (& On the Couch) by clicking here. Visit our Vimeo and YouTube playlists, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes!

At Cine Gear 2017, I had a chance to look at the Canon C200 up close, and ask a Canon representative directly what were the thoughts behind creating this camera. Please read my recent post, “Who is the C200 for?”, in case you missed it. [Update:] I state in the video that you cannot have Log out of the HDMI and SDI. This is incorrect information and will be a useful feature for some shooters. We want to assure our customers that you can record in LOG over the HDMI and SDI ports on the camera. [Update 2:] Our Canon C200 Review has been published and you can see it here: LINK Canon C200 – Handling First of all, what’s really striking is how well thought-out the size and handling of the camera is – they have clearly enhanced the familiar C300 / C500 / C300 Mark II design since its inception. The whole handle part on top is now finally very sturdy and solid, along with the monitor itself. It feels like a serious piece of gear that won’t break under constant use, whereas the handle part on my original C300 got loose after a few months of shooting with the camera. Canon also managed to get rid of the screws that were used on the C300 Mark II, so you don’t need an allen key to remove the handle anymore – through a smarter thumb-screw design, you are now able to remove the handle and monitor on the Canon C200 only by hand. The camera body is more compact than a C300 Mark II but looks extremely similar. I can even see how people will mix up the two cameras when the top parts aren’t attached. One certain way to differentiate them is that the XLR ports on the Canon C200 are on the camera itself and not in the top handle/monitor section anymore. This is great news because it means we can finally have professional audio inputs when we want to stay minimal or when we go to a gimbal or something similar. Monitor The monitor itself is crisp and clear, seems to offer high resolution, and the new mechanism allows it to be twisted in virtually any position and even moved on the handle itself. The touch-screen functions work well in conjunction with the Dual Pixel autofocus, which seems to work remarkably well with this camera. Codec – high and low and at the same time I also asked the most apparent question: why is the only efficient codec in this camera of such low quality? Of course, it’s to protect the market of the C300 Mark II, which is still a more expensive camera. At the same time, it can do a raw light codec which will eat 128 GB of storage for 15 minutes of footage – great for high-end quality, but tough to deal with for the indie shooter. My questions to Canon about the camera focused on that fact. Conclusion With the C200, Canon certainly has a very strong offering in their hands and I can see this becoming a very successful camera. However, it could be much more successful if it recorded in the proper codecs like its bigger sibling, the C300 Mark II. We’ll do our best to get our hands on the C200 and shoot with it as soon as possible for a proper review, so stay tuned until later this week to see some footage from this new camera. How do you think the Canon C200 stacks up agains the recently-announced Panasonic EVA1? Let us know in the comments below!

We caught up with Zacuto at Cine Gear 2016 to showcase one of their latest products, the Grip Series Batteries. There is a 75Wh and 100Wh version, both featuring 2 D-tap outputs to power camera & accessories, and a fuss-free clip-on method for 15mm rod systems. Zacuto bill this the first of its kind. It’s actually the second, if you count the first time Hawk-Woods released them. Yes, for the eagle-eyed this is the same system Hawk-Woods produce, Zacuto has simply taken on the global distribution of the product. The Gripper Series Batteries fill a void that many shooters find themselves in. There is an ever-present modularity concept to cameras nowadays, every rig is different and is usually made up of several accessories from several different companies. Powering them all can be a task in itself. D-tap (or P-Tap, same thing) has been the industry standard for a long time; grab a V-lock or gold mount battery kit, get a distribution plate or simple D-tap splitter and power everything off one big battery. A great solution, but it’s expensive; a set of 4 good V-locks and charger will set you back $1000-2000. D-tap outputs via camcorder batteries have grown in popularity but they often don’t have the capacity/form factor to hold up. The Gripper Series offers a cheaper alternative to condensing all your power options, that doubles up nicely as a counter-balance weight for your rig. It’s fuss-free; simply clip it onto a pair of 15mm rods; the AC adaptor for the charger clips on in a similar way. There will also be a selection of accessories that enable you to connect additional cable-less D-tap ports. Check out this article where we caught up with Hawk-woods at BVE 2016. This is a similar battery system sold that uses the same concept, you can see the accessories in action here. Both Gripper series are available for pre-order now, check the links below. You can also pre-order the 4-way D-tap adaptor, fast charger and dual fast charger.

Watch previous episodes of ON THE COUCH & ON THE GO by clicking here! Visit our Vimeo and YouTube playlists, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! It’s always great to sit and talk with friends from the industry and chat about what’s on our minds regarding production workflows and issues. On this 16th episode of ON THE COUCH, I sat down with Jem Schofield from theC47.com, who is well known for his education and workshop classes in the filmmaking field. Apart from being an educator, Jem is also a producer and much of our talk focused on getting better audio for production – something that is constantly neglected by owner/operators who need to do their own audio. We touched on the fact that a lot of shooters who started with DSLRs were able to deliver great video all of a sudden because of the technical capabilities – while at the same time the level of audio got worse overall because people used the terrible built-in microphones with their low-quality preamps to record location audio. Jem emphasized the importance of understanding the differences between microphone pickup patterns when deciding on a microphone for your production. Many just go with one shotgun microphone for all their purposes, but there is no “one size fits all”. Like us, Jem loves to work with our sponsor Røde’s microphones as they provide some of the best value for money in the industry. My go-to boom microphone for my own smaller productions is the Røde NTG3, a shotgun microphone with a very narrow supercardioid pickup pattern. Jem argues it’s great for exterior recording but he prefers the NT55 inside rooms because it has a broader pickup (ideal when 2 persons are talking to each other) and it doesn’t have the “pickup tail” that the NTG3 has. While being super narrow with its pickup, the pickup tail also makes the NTG3 more susceptible for picking up sounds from behind the microphone (e.g. ceiling fans, air conditioning, …), handling noise and sound reflections – and that’s exactly where the NT55 shines. The new Røde SmartLav+ combined with the Røde Rec app for iOS was another product combo that Jem mentioned – a super easy and super inexpensive way of always carrying a very usable lavelier microphone with you as it records straight into your phone using the app – not a bad value for money considering the SmartLav+ is around $75 and their app another $5 (definitely much cheaper than dedicated sound recorders that are often left in the studio exactly when you need them for an occasional sound bite shot on a  small camera or DSLR).  We also talked about other subjects including camera stabilization and the discussion MoVi vs. Steadicam and how irrelevant it is considering the fact that both tools have their advantages and disadvantages (and the fact that Tabb Firchau from Freefly and Garrett Brown, the inventor of the Steadicam, are giving workshops together). Before we wrapped the show up, we discussed the fact that like me, Jem quite likes Final Cut Pro X and thinks he is able to work faster with it than with any other NLE. We also touched on the up- and downsides of Premiere and Avid. Lastly, Jem Schofield mentioned that he is going to do another extensive filmmaking workshop in Scotland for a week starting July 27th, 2014. This “Filmmaker’s Intensive” will deal with the science and art of telling stories and people will learn all about lighting, shooting and also getting the right audio for their productions. Head over to their website here to check it out: http://www.thefilmmakersintensive.com To watch all ON THE COUCH episodes so far, click here.

Watch previous episodes of ON THE COUCH & ON THE GO by clicking here! Visit our Vimeo and YouTube playlists, and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes! This is the first episode of ON THE COUCH from Cine Gear 2014 here from the Paramount Pictures Studios lot here in Hollywood, California. Thanks to our sponsor G-Technology we were able to welcome Alex Buono, director of photography at the Saturday Night Live film unit, and his colleague Adam Epstein who’s the editor on the show. We talked about the incredible turn-around times these guys have to deal with when producing the show every week. Alex and Adam and the entire team behind SNL have brought a high quality film style to the show for a lot of the sketches that air every week. The incredible thing about them is that they have to work in the shortest time frames to get these done – with preproduction done on Thursday, production on Friday and editing on the Saturday right before the show airs every Saturday evening at 11:30 pm. We also touched on the right equipment choices for these setups and how everything regarding technology, cameras and lighting has changed since Alex started working on SNL about 15 years ago. They went from film stock to Mini DV and then through the whole “DV revolution” and then the “HD revolution” and DSLRs until where we are today, where we have basically all the choices available. I found it interesting to hear that despite their crazy turn around times, they shoot on all kinds of cameras that produce all kinds of different data rates and codecs – so it is a process that needs to be adjusted every week depending on the piece they shoot. To watch all ON THE COUCH episodes so far, click here.

To watch all ON THE COUCH episodes so far, click here. On the go? Subscribe to the Cinema5D ON THE COUCH audio and video podcasts on iTunes! We are happy to announce that we are about to start recording the 2nd season of ON THE COUCH, our talk show format that we premiered only two months ago at NAB 2014. Together with Johnnie Behiri, our friend Misa Garcia and sound man Mike Jarzabek I am now here in Hollywood floating between the Cine Gear 2014 venue (Paramount Studios) and the W Hollywood Hotel – on both locations we will record a number of new shows for our audience. Thanks to our dear sponsors G-Technology, Rode Microphones, Vitec Videocom, Post Magazine and OWLS Media, we are able to bring you another season of our talk show. There are two special shows that will be shot on the Paramount Studios lot in a presentation suite, and you can be part of the audience – just stop by!! Here’s the schedule and guest list for the public recordings: • Friday, June 6, at 02:45 pm – Alex Buono & Adam Epstein (DP & editor at Saturday Night Live – Film Unit) Location: Presentation Suite No. 5 – Sherry Lansing Theater (see map below) • Saturday, June 7 at 03:00 pm – Shane & Lydia Hurlbut (DP of Need for Speed 7, Deadfall, Terminator Salvation …) Location: Presentation Suite No. 5 – Sherry Lansing Theater (see map below)   Here are the other shows that we are going to record at our suite at the W Hollywood (massive thanks to G-Technology for organizing this location!!) • Tom Guilmette & Kessler Crane’s Chris Beller • Jeff Cree, SOC & Randy Wedick • Michael Artsis, David Linstrom, Vitec Videocom: Sherry Fragomeni, Ali Ahmadi, Andrew Butler • Post-Production session (sponsored by POST MAGAZINE): The Voice & Discovery Studios: Robert M. Malachowski, Jr., Supervising Editor and Grant Masson, the Associate Online Editor, Justin Bloch, manager of media for Discovery Studios • Jem Schofield (speaking also for sponsor RODE) PLEASE feel free to send us questions you might have for any of our guests, we will do our best to ask all of them! Either comment on this post or drop me an email via nino[at]cinema5D.com. Watch out for the new episodes to be posted over the course of the next days. To watch all ON THE COUCH episodes so far, click here.

Cine Gear Expo 2010 was a great chance to see what some of the working professionals in the motion picture industry have done with our HDSLR’s. There were some great inventions like the universal mini remote head, HDSLR electronic view finder, 360 degree HDSLR rigs and every lens under the sun for HDSLR. Zeiss Compact Primes Version two seemed to be on many of the cameras on display. We even snagged one from Birns and Sawyer to shoot one of our interviews. Hollywood has truly embraced the HDSLR revolution and it is only a matter of time before we see HDSLR’s used everywhere. The small form factor seems to be the most attractive aspect at Cine Gear. The HDSLR on a boom pole was so cool. Sunbounce hooked us up with a hand held diffuser to use while were were there. Ryan Avery from Scheinder Optics gave us some gear to give away on Twitter. The was a cool Japanese film crew there checking out the goods. DV Culture interviewed us and had some mad coverage of the event. Check them out. Team C5D worked through both nights to bring coverage of the event. Chris Colins and Hunter Kerhart were at it again. Chris did most of the shooting and Hunter was stuck editing. I hooked up some of the B roll and a little bit of glidecam action. Our killer rig can be seen in the DV Culture interview and in our wrap up video towards the end. We were running a Canon 5D Mark II, Red Rock Micro Eyespy Rig with two handles, Zacuto Z-Finder 3X, Arri MMF1 follow focus. Zeiss ZE primes, Switronix DSLR Flex remote  and DSLR power cable with Canon DC coupler that powered us all day with one Anton Bauer Hytron 90 battery. We never had to change batteries. That was great. Thanks for all the comments and support. We really dig covering these events and hope to keep doing it as much as possible. Kevin Macleod from Incompetech Royalty Free Music supplied the reggae music for our interviews. Our B Roll Wrap Up Video. Thanks Hunter for putting this together. DV Culture had great coverage of the event. We got to show off our rig in the video. Thanks for that! Ulrich Goetze From Sunbounce. Thanks for letting us borrow the gear! DVJ Buzz TV Film Crew From Japan. Cool!