It’s been a pretty big week for product announcements, launches and developments in the camera world, so I thought I’d do a quick summary here for those of you who haven’t been able to keep up. First, I’m going to highlight a new lens from Rokinon that I’ve personally been waiting a long time to get my hands on.
Rokinon 50mm T1.5 cine lens
Available to pre-order through B & H for $549
Rokinon cine lenses have been one of my favorite budget glass lenses for some time. I shoot regularly with their 24mm, 35mm and 85mm lenses (they also have some wider options, including 12mm and 16mm), but they are sorely lacking in the much-needed 50mm lens. Rokinon can never truly offer a complete lens kit without covering the 50mm focal length, which is of course one of the most important and commonly used focal lengths in cinematography. In other words, after a long wait, Rokinon finally announced the launch of the 50mm T1.5 cine lens, which is expected to be available on September 15th for $549. I have no doubt this lens will be huge for filmmakers and will definitely help boost Rokinon sales – not just of this specific lens, but now you can buy the complete cine kit. Now that they have a 50mm lens, the next thing I’d like to see is a longer telephoto lens than their current 85mm offering… maybe a 105mm or 135mm T1.5, but that’s just wishful thinking at the moment.
Sony F5 Cracked
I’m always happy to hear about a good camera hack, especially when it’s as powerful as the latest hack for the Sony F5, which effectively allows the camera to shoot 4K internally! Until now, if you wanted to shoot 4K with the F5, you needed to buy the proprietary R5 recorder, which costs $5,500. This puts many people off investing in the F5, as the additional cost is considerable (especially when you consider that the camera body already costs $16,500), not to mention that the more expensive F55 ($29,000) can shoot 4K internally without the need for External audio recorder. Therefore, this new improvement will in many ways make the F5 a more direct competitor to its bigger brother, the F55. Yes, the F55 still has some advantages, like global shutter and higher frame rates, but it now has a less significant advantage over the F5, which helps justify its nearly double price tag. The best part is that the hack itself is very easy to implement on F5. All it requires is changing the .txt file containing the camera preferences to allow 4K resolution recording, meaning current F5 users will be able to hack their cameras very easily. Click here to learn more from Paul Ream, who explains the ins and outs of it in his podcast.
4k ali amira
The Sony F5 isn’t the only camera to get 4K functionality this month, as Arri has just released a new firmware that will give their Amira cameras a 4K (Ultra HD) recording option. Although no Arri cameras to date are capable of shooting in 4K, that hasn’t stopped them from becoming the digital cinema cameras of choice for high-budget digital productions. This may be because 2.8K or even 1080p images from an Alexa or Amira are arguably more pleasing to the eye than images from RED, Sony or other manufacturers offering 4K or 5K resolution in their cameras… That said, as more 4K technologies (monitoring, transmission methods, etc.) are innovated and adopted, Arri must undoubtedly feel the pressure to jump on the 4K bandwagon, and that’s exactly what happened. A new software update coming to the Amira will deliver UHD images by upsampling the 3.4K sensor to 3.8K, which means some internal processing is required to get 4K images from the 3.4K sensor. Some DPs are definitely on the fence as to whether this will yield the best results (versus using a true 4K sensor), but based on Arri’s track record, I believe the 4K images from this camera will be incredible. The software update is expected to be rolled out by the end of this year.
EF to MFT Metabones SpeedBooster
I personally have been waiting for this product for years and needless to say there are many others who have had the same idea. For those of you who don’t know, Metabones SpeedBoosters are a great lens adapter that makes your lenses faster and wider when used on a crop sensor. As of yet, Metabones has not offered an EF to Micro Four Thirds version of the SpeedBooster, so anyone looking to use Canon lenses on a GH4 or most other MFT cameras is out of luck. Nikon – The MFT version has been around for a while and is very popular, and there is already a pre-existing MFT version specifically for use with the MFT Blackmagic Pocket Camera, but as of yet there is no universal EF to MFT solution that many of us have been using Waiting adapter. Last year, as MFT cameras like the GH4 became more and more attractive to filmmakers, the demand for suitable EF-MFT lens adapters became huge, which certainly means MetaBones will be taking many orders for this product… not only This is so because of its unique ability to make lenses faster and wider, but also because it provides instant lens control and allows you to change aperture and use electronic/autofocus. This is a huge achievement in itself because until now, products like the RedRock live lens adapter were the only solution for adapting EF lenses to MFT bodies, and they were not ideal as they required additional power supply.
Project green light and other developments
On a personal note, I also want to announce that my short film The Machinist just passed the first round of the Greenlight program! It’s very exciting and I’ll be sure to share any progress made in future rounds. But now, if anyone wants to watch the original short film submitted, you can do so here:
Finally, last week I purchased the RED SCARLET set to add to my personal camera arsenal, I will be renting locally in Los Angeles. For local Los Angeles readers of this site, if you would like to rent this camera, be sure to let me know and I will give you the best price. The camera can be rented individually or in a complete kit including all accessories, lenses and mounts.
I’m also pleased to see that my Guide to Shooting Film Images with a Digital SLR Camera continues to provide readers of this site with an excellent resource for shooting more film images. To learn more, click here!
That’s all for now! Please check back later this week for updates on my ongoing feature film project and more.
