As I mentioned during My short video review from yesterdayThere weren’t a lot of noteworthy cinema camera announcements at NAB this year. Usually new camera announcements attract the most attention at trade shows, but things were a little lackluster in that regard this year. That said, there was actually an interesting “cine camera” announcement, but it wasn’t from a NAB supplier…
For some time now, Craft Digital Systems (a new camera brand) has been posting some vague-looking ads online promoting their new cinema cameras. The ads did catch my attention because the company mentioned a $1,000 movie camera, but for a while I wasn’t even sure if that camera was a real product – in fact, I’m still not sure it would carry What’s coming? But at least we finally get an official announcement from Craft, a camera that’s easily one of the most uniquely designed products I’ve seen to date.
craft camera
Unlike any camera I’ve seen, Craft Camera is completely modular, allowing users to build or perform actions using various components or “elements”. The images below will give you an idea of how these elements come together to form the camera body:
Craft offers modular elements that cover everything you need for a camera body: Image sensor, audio input, power supply, ND filter, monitoring, etc. The idea is obviously to allow users to configure the camera how they see fit, and upgrade/replace components as needs change. The cool thing about this design is that the camera can be stripped down to a very small size for use as an action camera, or built with all the elements to feel like a more traditional movie camera.
Elements is also priced quite competitively –
Here are the basic technical specifications released so far:
- HD video components, super 16mm CMOS sensor with global shutter (1920×1080, 1280×720)
- 4K video components, Super 35mm CMOS sensor with global shutter (4096 x 2160, 1920×1080, 1280 x 720)
- Frame rate 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 50, 59.94, 60
- Fast and slow frame rate speed intervals up to 120 fps
- Recording formats Cinema DNG and ProRes (other formats will be announced).
Depending on your budget and how much you’re willing to pay up front, this camera can be had for under $1,000 for the HD “studio” version and under $3,000 for the 4K “theater” version. The price is definitely competitive, and the specs seem to be competitive, but what really matters is how well this camera performs.
No test footage of the camera has been released yet, and while the camera looks exciting, investing in something like this is a bit risky, at least at this stage. As far as we know, this camera will never actually be released, and even if it is, its performance and image quality will likely be sub-par.
On the other hand, it could stand out and prove to be one of the most disruptive new cameras on the market. We won’t know until it’s released, but for now, I’m sure many filmmakers will be keeping an eye on it.
We won’t know where this will go until these cameras start shipping (or not) later this year… but for now, if nothing else, this is a pretty cool concept and highly Innovative, so I hope we see it coming to life in the near future.
For more information about cameras, check out www.craftcamera.com
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