NAB 2013 should be very interesting this year. Heck every year it’s cool if your like me a gear head.
Last year’s big surprise for filmmakers was the Black Magic Cinema Camera. For editors (And yes I’m one as well) it was Premiere Pro CS6.
This year it’s a safe bet that 4K and 5K is going to be all the rage based on all the monitors and a few 4K cameras we saw from CES, and for editors Avid will try to make a come back. Maybe even Apple will try to appeal to the pros again with FCP X. I’m not going their. Two years ago was just plain sad. Not that it’s not good, but it wouldn’t work in a broadcast environment when released. It was a beta release at best, and that was not acceptable coming from FCP 7.
For me being a broadcast promotions guy 4K doesn’t have a place in my workflow. I struggled with the idea of getting a battle tested RED Scarlet when that deal came around and I passed. That was a hard pass by the way because I really wanted that camera! Even with the “deal” I couldn’t afford it since the support gear or extras needed was adding up to be so expensive. I also knew it would be hard to work it into my broadcast work flow because I deliver in 1080 HD. My work has a short shelf life so shooting in 4K really doesn’t make sense. Re-framing would be the biggest benefit and I can live without it. It’s the RED code that is what I lusted for.
If I was a narrative guy then yes it would make sense since my lovely short or feature could live on to be seen in a couple years on a 4K display. The reality is shooting RAW even at 2K is a huge burden that requires lots of computing power and storage space. Sure storage is cheaper than ever, but really you need a lot to archive your footage. I want higher quality from a camera internally. That’s what I lust for. 4:2:2 minimum. 10bit would be amazing. High frame rates a big plus. A better color space is great for getting rid of banding forever and giving your grades more room to work. AVCHD is fine if you bake the image and the Canon C100’s C-log is pretty good, but I don’t want to be limited. It would be great to have a format that gives me 2K with a compression that preservers the image. Remember how shooting in HD and delivering in SD looked? Okay, I know what you’re thinking who doesn’t want that, and how much will it cost? I have no idea but I do think that more DP’s are interested in great image quality verses higher resolution. Am I wrong on this? Alexa anyone? Well I know resolution will be the big deal this year and I’m sure I will be blown away by the images these new cameras will produce. The real challenge is how 4K will be distributed to the masses.
Here some hype you can sink your teeth into from Vincent Laforet’s blog. here is a quote from Vincent.
(But one important HINT: It’s NOT a camera… which makes it very interesting to thing: what could make almost EVERY film maker out there interested in this new technology, regardless of what they shoot, regardless of budget… that’s NOT a camera. And yes while I realize I’m posting this on April 1, this is absolutely not an April Fool’s joke.)
Oh boy! We shall see…….
Maybe this year the wildcard will be Panasonic. They had a prototype 4K Varicam S35 camera last year but nothing has come out that I remember ever since. They released an updated AF-100A a few months back but that’s it. Canon rumors are flying that a another camera will be introduced either between the C100 and C300 or another entry level camera under the C100. I’m betting on a C200. Sony has 6000 new cameras this year and the only one I wished they introduced was a better F3. I like that camera a lot but the ergonomics are bad. Picture is amazing. I think more $6K camera’s are needed in the market. It’s a strange time. The AF-100 gives you a lot of features for the price, and no other camera has as many. Would be good to see another.
The fun is always the surprises and I hope to see a few this year but what I’m really looking forward to is finally meeting the folks I have connected with over the year on social media. So many people that I know but have never seen. If your going to NAB hit me on Twiter @eriknaso and lets shake hands.
So what are looking forward to at NAB 2013 this year?
See you at NAB 2013!
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