Best of NAB 2014

Many of the best new product offerings from this year’s 2014 NAB! It seems that the big buzz on the floor was about 4k shooting/delivery/exhibition. There was also a sea of new LED light products.

Image: Sony

Sony A7S – $TBD – Full Frame DSLR with 4k output, 1080/60/30/24 and 720/120 internal. Super High ISO (up to 409,600) and SLOG2 Gamma. Announced on Sunday at NAB, this is a big step forward in an offering from Sony. Blackmagic Design URSA – $5995 – They’ve released a new camera again at NAB and a lot of buzz is surrounding this camera. With a unique 10″ built in screen, QuadHD up to 60fps, Prores and CinemaDNG recording options, an almost-ENG friendly ergonomic body, this camera will make some waves coming in at $6,000. My big question on this system is whether or not the sensor will be improved over the Blackmagic Production Camera, which despite it’s 4K recording and $3000 price tag, has many buyers disappointed in image quality. A friend of mine got his recently and wasn’t able to shoot beyond ISO 400 without noise issues. We’ll see how Blackmagic handles the new sensor in this camera!

AJA CION Camera – $7995 – Another shoulder mount offering has arrived, and it’s the AJA CION camera system. It offers 4k global shutter, 12 stops of dynamic range, frame rates of up to 60 fps even at 4k, and an option of a meaty 12 bit 4444 Prores codec. My only concern with this camera is that it potentially uses a similar or same sensor as the Blackmagic Production camera, which was a bust due to noise issues (rated at only 400 ISO and noisy at 800). That’s just my personal conspiracy though and I hope that AJA has found a better sensor, or at least better implementation of that sensor to make a solid 4k offering.

Image: Lumos

Lumos Hawk 61 LED Fresnel light– Price TBD – This LED light comes from a company that focuses on one of the greatest challenges for LED lights… CRI. Many lights on the show floor were advertising a 90+/- CRI rating while the Lumos lights tout 98. That’s the highest I’ve seen, and their new light puts out the equivalent of a 1k Tungsten light but draws only 150w. You could safely put 8 on any standard clean US circuit.

Alzo 300W Par LED – ~$700 – Coming this summer, Alzo will put out a 300W LED light that puts out a massive amount of light, something like 18000 LUX at 1m (about 5 times as much as similar lights). They call the light the “HMI Terminator”, and I happen to agree. I’m excited for this product and looking forward to seeing it on set.

Arri L5 LED Fresnel – $TBD – Ranging from 2800k to 10000k, this versatile little brother of the already available L7 by Arri has hit the show floor at NAB. They state it is roughly 45% brighter than a 300W tunsten light, while using only 115 watts of power. This will be the preferred choice of light for many studios and crews, though the price range (historically with Arri lights) sets it above the price range of the new companies producing LED systems.

Image Panasonic

Panasonic GH4 – $1700 – Not fresh news, but the Panasonic GH4 advertises internal 4k and a wide set of features for a small but well built camera body. Available for preorder.

Image Atomos

Atomos Shogun – “4k under $2k” Atomost released a new 4k recorder with many features similar to the likeminded Odyssey 7Q but at a cheaper price point. They also revealed a tiny $295 titled the “Ninja Star” that will record Apple Prores “in your pocket”. Angenieux Optimo 28-340 $ by quote ($80k range) – The 28-340 is a great zoom lens offering from Angenieux in their “Optimo” series that touts S35 frame coverage and a “perfect homogeneity of colorimetry, contrast and resolution”

PAGlink Stackable Batteries Starting at $490/battery – These new stackable batteries allow for a series of inline power that will allow your camera to run continuously for longer durations. The batteries can also charge while stacked, great for those long shoot days when you don’t have enough chargers for all of the depleted batteries!

Teradek Cube Pro and Timecode Buddy $TBD – With higher bit rate transmission and timecode embedded, the new Cube Pro from Teradek is another leap forward in wireless video for the industry. More details to come soon.

Andra Motion Focus System -$17k and up – This was a new offering at NAB that really had some amazing buzz behind it. Essentially it’s a focus pulling system that uses two “nodes” around camera, providing a 16×24 foot working area that will focus your lens precisely at the distance the subject is relative to camera. Very cool. Check out their website to see some examples.

DJI Phantom 2 – $1300 – The little GoPro quadracopter that has changed aerial video forever. DJI released a new version with new safety features, refined little pieces here and there, and a new Lightbridge 2.4Ghz downlink system is available to watch footage as it’s happening from the sky.