NZVN December2014

DECEMBER 2014 Vol 209

awesome camera; a lot of similarity is drawn of coursebetween the Sony F5 and the FS7 based on it havingexactly the same image sensor. However, I believe theFS7 is going to fit a slightly different market to the F5and allow a lot more accessibility to people who want todo off-speed recording like the slow motion material thatwe saw today. Amazing skateboarding scenes done inslow motion, cooking that you can do in slow motion, allsorts of features which open up a whole new range of

There was quite a crowd inAuckland at the Sonypresentation for the FS7camera. There were somedemo reels from shooters whohad been given the camera tosee what they could make of itin a day or two; then followeda "features and benefits" fromSony's Nick Buchner andfinally, a chance for a "handson" – most appropriate sincethe FS7 is targeted at thehandheld cinema shooter.Yes, pause, if you think likeme, this market segment( that grew with peoplediscovering that certain DSLRscould record video ) is a nonsequitur, probably broughtabout by a search for a fashionstatement rather than goodimage quality. Having saidthat, with a carefully chosenlens for a particular shot, theFS7 is undoubtedly a veryversatile tool for a seriousshooter.

To find out how and more, let's begin by questioningStuart Barnaby from DVT.

Ed: Now Stuart, as one of the key Sony dealers inAuckland …

Stuart: “The key” Sony dealer in Auckland please.

Ed: Yes ... well … you’ve been waiting for this camerafor quite some time and there’s a good reason for that?

Stuart: Yes, since it was announced. It’s an

Sony PXW-FS7 on Show

Stuart and “grandpa” Ken with the FS7.

creative opportunities. There’s 4K recording onboardthe camera and heaps of lens options as well at a verylow cost.

You don’t have to go out and buy PL mount glass, youcan put relatively inexpensive E-mount Sony lenses onthe front, or you can spend a few extra dollars and putsome Canon or Nikon glass on the front with Metabonesadapters.

Ed: Now in the past, Sonyhas always had a ladder oftheir cameras showing “thisis the entry level and this isthe next one and this is thebetter model and thenthere’s the top model upthere.” Where does the FS7fit with the F5 and the F55?

Stuart: Well it’sinteresting. Since the FS7was announced, we’veactually sold two F5cameras, so it definitelydoesn’t displace the marketfor F5 cameras which is verystrong particularly in NewZealand. Obviously, with anF5 camera, there’s a list offeatures that the F5 has thatthe FS7 doesn’t have. Onenotable one of course is thatit comes with a PL mountadapter out of the box.

Ed: So with the range of Sony cameras now available,it really does fit a niche?

Stuart: Absolutely, Sony like pigeonholing exactlywhere all these cameras are going to go. The reality isthat the customers determine where they’re going togo. I can see a lot of F5 owners buying FS7s to use asa second camera. I can certainly see a lot of DSLRcustomers who have been struggling …

Ed: Really – struggling with a DSLR?

Stuart: Absolutely, with a range of issues –definitely jumping into the FS7. And I really ultimatelythink, today, the FS7 is just the current version of theEX3. It fits the market like the EX1 and EX3 did whenthey first came out and I think the FS7 will ultimatelybe a very popular camera of the future.

Ed: Except the main difference is that it’s a cinemacamera and we don’t want to blur that line do we?

Stuart: Aaah yes we do, because whether it’scommercials or corporate productions, general videoproduction is increasingly being done now with largeformat image sensor cameras.

Ed: Yes but they have to be done with a differentworkflow don’t they. They can’t be done in the sameworkflow that you use with an ENG style camera?

Stuart: I think that line is now very blurred and,with the way the FS7 can be thrown over your shoulder

straight out of the box, you can certainly trick that up alittle bit more and you can really do run and gun typeshooting with that camera.

Ed: Just as long as you’ve got the right lens – and wedid see a zoom lens from Sony that looks as though it’sgoing to make that more of a reality than by using thestill lenses?

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Stuart: I imagine a lot of the customers for the FS7will go with the Sony lens; they like the FS7 because it’sa package. It’s got battery systems, card systems, cardreaders, viewfinders, lenses all out of the box fromSony that they can easily put together – they don’thave to be a “tech whizz” to do it. The menu system isvery similar to an EX3 or an NX5. People who haveused Sony cameras in the past will be very at homewith that camera and I think the lens from Sony, whenit comes out, will be a very common accessory for theFS7 because it makes it very easy to use. I think it willbe used in that lower end corporate market and, really,it’s only a few thousand dollars more expensive thanthe current popular production cameras like the X160 orthe X180 … it’s only a few thousand dollars more tostep into an FS7 and I think many of our customers willwant to spend that extra $3,000 to $5,000 to have theadditional features – the slow motion, the shallowerdepth of field, when they choose to have it. There areways of shooting on the FS7 with larger depth of field ifyou know what you’re doing, and I think it will becomevery popular for that use.

Ed: Now one of the points Nick brought up, and I wasvery pleased that he did, was clearing up some nameconfusion. He talked about Alpha being a lens systemand within that lens system, there are two types ofmount – the A-mount and the more popular E-mount?

Stuart: Yes that’s right. The A-mount is probably alittle bit older and the E-mount is the current flavour for

motion capture lenses. When you look at the SonyAlpha lens systems, particularly the E-mount lenses,there’s an amazingly wide range of lenses available,and anyone with the Sony Alpha cameras will be awareof this. But for us in the video world, the fact that youcan buy a very inexpensive E-mount lens, put it on theFS7 and have servo control, like you’re expecting withan ordinary general video production camera, is reallygood. However, I think that most customers, whenthey look at the existing still camera E-mount lenses,are probably still going to go with the new SEL-P28135G lens with servo control and imagestabilisation. However, I still think there’s a largenumber of customers who have got Canon lenses orNikon lenses that are going to want to use a Metabonesadapter and that’s all possible with the FS7 … all theway up to PL mount lenses, you can stick anything onit, which is great. I think the attractiveness of the FS7is the low price point and, with the new Sony lens,you’re going to be able to get that at under four grandand put it on the front and have a complete systemreally easy.

Ed: But if you are going to use this camera in a moreENG type role, having the Sony E-mount lens with theautofocus and the image stabilisation must be betterthan having to use it with still lenses?

Stuart: Oh absolutely, definitely, for sure. It wasinteresting, talking to one of the DOPs here tonight andI asked “well, do you like that shallow depth of field, outof focus sometimes look?” And he said, “yes.”

Ed: I hope you then asked if it was important tocapture that look in 4K?

Stuart: Nothing makes out of focus video lookbetter than shooing it in 4K! Look, I think they want acamera they can shoot everything in … and you know,one of the other people in the crowd today asked “canyou shoot everything in focus, can you do that?” Theanswer with the FS7 is “yes, you can.” It’s got a widerange of uses and I saw some remarkable results on theFS7 back in our showroom when we were shooting withsome Canon lenses with a Metabones adapter. Youwould be amazed – and in fact, here tonight, theycouldn’t do justice to the camera because of theprojection set-up but if you come and see us at DVTand view FS7 material on our Ultra HD Sony 55 inchscreen, we will knock your socks off with the imagequality that you can get out of this camera.

Another Sony dealer’s point of view is Protel in Aucklandand Wellington tonight represented by Ken Brooke.

Ed: Ken, Protel is the other major Sony dealer in NewZealand ...

Ken: Did you say “the” major dealer?

Ed: Yes, well, that’s what the other person said, butanyway Sony FS7s, they’re flying out the door?

Ken: Yes there is a worldwide demand for stock. Asyou know we have two offices and so we received demounits for each office. At the same time we orderedadditional stock to cover potential sales, howevercustomer demand was so great, I happened to take twodays leave and when I came back they’d both beensold.

Ed: So why do your customers want them?

Ken: The Sony FS7 is a very well-designed product andonce customers get their hands on one they really don’twant to let go. The FS7 price point also fits well in theprofessional market, priced between the Sony F5 andSony NEX-FS700. So the FS7 fits right in the middle ofthe price range. Customers love getting the latest 4Ktechnology with high end features and the offer offuture software feature upgrades.

Ed: I guess that’s it – however you do have a widerange of cameras available that people can come in,have a look at and try. You’ve got the Sony’s andCanon’s, Panasonic, Blackmagic’s, GoPro’s so there’s awide choice there now?

Ken: Yes, we have a variety of camera stock atpresent. We’ve also noticed there’s been a short termincrease in the number of people interested in the SonyNEX-FS700 at the new reduced price point.

Ed: But you’re still getting people coming in for ENGstyle cameras?

Ken: Yes we certainly are and one of the new Sonycameras, the PXW70 XDCAM compact camcorder isproving a hit.

Ed: He’s a man of numbers, this Ken.

Ken: The PXWX70 has a beautiful single 1” 20megapixel CMOS sensor in it. Sony tonight announcednext year they are going to offer a paid firmwareupgrade to enable future ability to record in 4K UltraHigh Definition in the camera. The PXWX70 camera isonly $2,885 plus GST at present. They are physically

small and unobtrusive, very low cost, haveHD-SDI output and can record in variousformats – including HD XAVC Long GOP( for 422 10-bit sampling ), AVCHDTM,and DV® – to meet all particular needs.When it’s 4K UHD enabled, it’s just goingto be even better. As these moderncameras have their software/firmwareupgrades added to them it is difficult tosee where it will all end.

Ed: There was some buzz tonight aboutthe internal recording on XQD cards. Is itthat people are getting used to the qualitylevel of the internal recording and not somuch wanting those external recordersanymore, or is there still a big market forexternal recording?

Ken: We find there is a demand for both;we sell Atomos and have pre-sales for thenew 4K Shogun expected early Decemberand Convergent Design Odyssey externalrecorders. And yes we have a customerscome in for some DV tape.

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Ed: Oh, friends of mine?

Ken: We do advise customers still using tape to startlooking at new camera options basically because tape isgetting harder to get hold of and also when the tapemechanism eventually fails the parts are starting to runout. So there are still people transitioning from tape tocards and working out what they’re going to do with thefiles, and then of course you’ve got these new highoctane cards, XQD, CFast2, which are so fast you canrecord 4K on a single card and Sony have come outwith different flavours of those. It’s interestingdiscussing camera and recording options withcustomers.

Ed: It’s a moving target?

Ken: It moves so fast we have to watch our stocklevels as technology moves on.

Ed: So really, people do have to plan ahead; theycan’t come in and always expect that you’ve gotsomething sitting there, they do need to come and talkto you and then place an order?

Ken: Our stock varies on the day; obviously we getstock in regularly so sometimes we can say we haveone in stock. We do try and hold stock howeverbecause of the number of different cameras that areemerging each month – there’s a proliferation of newmodels – we’re tending to sell our stock quicker thanwe would have in the past as products are replacedmore rapidly.

Ed: But it doesn’t mean that the previous models areno good anymore, there’s still a lot of life left in many of

those older models and I understand the F5 is still apopular model?

Ken: Yes people who have bought any digital camerasin the last few years can be assured that there’s a lot oflife in all of them, because they’re not going to wearout. There’s no tape mechanism to wear out and youcan still get very good images. Often your lens can betransferred from one camera to the next or re-used withadaptors.

The Sony F5 is still a very current model and new V5.0Firmware is due for release in December which willenable Interval Recording and much more.

Ed: That’s it, and if they’ve bought them cleverly,they’ve bought them for a particular purpose, aparticular workflow and as long as that continues, thatcamera’s still going to do the job?

Ken: Exactly, basically buy to suit the application onthe day and expected future use and consider what youexpect to get back for hire over the next 1 or 2 years –obviously customers need to get a return oninvestment. We offer finance so customers can payover a longer term which can be beneficial.

Ed: So is there an opportunity for people to come intoProtel and have a look at some of these new cameras atany time?

Ken: Certainly there’s always an opportunity to dothat, please drop in. Our stock is moving so fast, itwould definitely pay to give us a call or call in to discussyour options. At the moment, if you’re looking atpurchasing the FS7 camera prior to Xmas, it would pay

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to actually order now, and if you then decide that youdon’t like it, we will sell it to someone else. With thisparticular product, there is a huge demand and weexpect it to continue until something else with acomparable feature set comes along in the market. Thecompetitors will no doubt be looking to build somethingelse – that’s just the way technology is moving at themoment, extremely fast, just like the computerindustry. Each of these cameras has a built incomputer; there’s not much any of us can do about thehigh speed technology racethat’s occurring.

Call us:Ken on 09-4140477 andJohn on 04-8019494

Now, to finish us up, MrSony himself, Nick Buchnerfrom Sony Australia-NewZealand.

Ed: Nick, a very successfulevening, lots of people herevery keen to hear about theFS7 and people are stillholding it, looking throughthe viewfinder and likingwhat they see. Are youhappy?

Nick: We’re veryhappy and probably moreimportantly they’re orderingthem. I really wish we

The F5 with the shoulder kit and Nick.

could get enough of these cameras – we just can’t.But, yes, it was great to see a turnout of about 70people here tonight who are keen about the PXW-FS7and I think that confirms the very strong position theFS7 has in the market for large sensor cameras. It’svery affordable, it’s not a major step up from a fullyrigged DSLR type system, but it offers the handling aswell as the performance that a motion picture camerashould deliver, without the compromises that a DSLR orsome other types of lower end video cameras impose.

Page 8

Ed: What I have heard from people tonight is thatthis is something that a DSLR user could take and say“wow, this really is a proper cinema camera?”

Nick: Certainly the features and functions giveyou that, but I also think it’s really important to talkabout lenses, because some people tend to get stuck on“well I’ve got this type of lens and it has to be used onthe same brand camera”, whereas one of the beautiesof our E-mount, which is part of Sony’s Alpha lenssystem, means that, not only can you use a huge rangeof E-mount lenses that we and others make – forexample Zeiss make lenses in native E-mount – butalso the very narrow flange depth or the distancebetween the sensor and the mount that the E-mounthas means you can fit adapters that allow pretty wellanything, whether it be Canon EF or Nikon or Leica orPentax or whatever to be fitted onto the camera, so youcan use any flavour of current or vintage glass thattakes your fancy.

Ed: That brings me onto the practical question that,here is a camera that is very versatile if it’s correctlyused and I would say that one of the main ways ofmaking it a very versatile camera is to get that specificSony zoom lens which gives you autofocus and imagestabilisation – so you can use it handheld?

Nick: In conjunction with launching this camera, wehave launched a new E-mount lens which is our firstone designed for motion picture shooting rather thanpredominantly for still shooting. We’re talking about a28-135 zoom which has independent iris, zoom andfocusing rings; it’s optically stabilised; the zoom is

servo powered so you can control it externally, forexample, from the power grip or top handle controls ofthe FS7. In addition, all E-mount lenses will autofocusas will this one, which is a feature that someprofessionals don’t need and other professionals saycomes in very handy and occasionally saves theirbacon. So it’s quite an exciting and versatile lens.Unfortunately, it’s coming a little later. The camerabody is already shipping, the PXW-FS7K kit version withbody and lens is expected next month and the lens onits own is expected in February.

Ed: What puzzled me was Sony launching a cinemacamera that is ergonomically designed to be handheld.To me, that didn’t seem to make sense, but I guessthere is a market for it and the arrival of this particularlens makes that make sense?

Nick: You said something earlier about “the righttool for the job”. People are now wanting to shoot witha large sensor look for documentary type content,reality television type content, current affairs fortelevision or even just handheld music video, drama orevent coverage. Obviously that leads to having todevelop a whole skill-set around operating, particularlyfocusing.

Ed: Do you offer lessons in skill-sets?

Nick: I’m no focus puller but focusing is certainlysomething that people have to be very conscious of indeveloping their skills when working single-handed.And as long as people do want to use large sensorcameras in more versatile fashion handheld or shouldermounted – then developing a lens that complements

Page 10

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that style of shooting at a much lower cost than atraditional EFP/ENG lens, and certainly at a much lowercost than a cine-zoom lens, I believe makes a lot ofsense.

Ed: It does. I guess the other major point that I gotout of tonight was your presentation about the range ofupgrades that are coming from Sony that will add tothat capability of this particular camera and the othersin the F series?

Nick: Most of the enhancements I talked abouttonight were in relation to the F55 and the F5. Rightfrom the outset with those cameras, we made it clearthat we were committed to seeing them evolve, not justhave a six month life and be replaced by somethingelse, and so we’re now heading towards two years intotheir life. We’re almost up to version 5 of the softwareand each upgrade has been free. At NAB earlier thisyear, we announced a range of enhancements whichare now just about to start shipping – for example, theoption for the F5 and F55 to record ProRes or DNxHDonboard; that will be here very early in the New Year;the build-up kit which we were demonstrating tonightwhich turns the F5 or F55 into a fully featured shouldermount style with a whole lot of enhancements; and alsothe ability to upgrade an F5 part of the way to being anF55 by adding the ability to do 4K onboard recordingusing the XAVC codec and provide live 4K output.These are all ways we’re demonstrating that thesecameras are evolving, not just standing still.

Ed: And that’s it … so you’ve bought the camera, it’snot going to be a lame duck. All of these cameras havethe potential to upgrade, keep up with pretty much thelatest technology?

Nick: That’s what I believe we aredemonstrating. Taking one step back from being acamera manufacturer and my role to market what weproduce, I can understand people’s consternation at therate that new cameras are introduced to the market.Unfortunately, that’s led to a situation where producerswill often demand or specify the latest camera becausethey’ve heard about it, read about it, some mate toldthem about it, and as a result, when they try and hire acameraperson, they say “we want the XYZ123” withoutreally understanding what is better or not better, whatit might bring to enhance their production – at the endof the day, a good cinematographer should probably beable to turn in a good result regardless of what camerathey’re using. I think it’s a shame thatvery good cameras sometimes haverelatively short lives because it’s notalways about having the latest, it’s moreoften about the hands that the camera isin. It’s an interesting paradigm where, ifyou go back not too many years, certaincameras were the industry standard for5, 8, 10 years. Now there continuouslyseems to be something new. The goodnews is that certainly with Sony’s Fseries, which we realise are considerableinvestments for both rental houses andindependent owner-operators, I believewe’ve shown quite resolutely that ourcameras will continue to evolve.

Ed: And the last question – an item forthe back of the FS7 caught my fancy,something that you can put a V-Lock onand …?

Nick: That’s the XDCA-FS7Extension Unit and it essentially does “Santa” Richards snapped asking Stuart if he’d been good this year.

three things. Probably the simplest thing it does is toallow V-Lock batteries to be used with the camera, sothat gives extended running time and also changes theweight and balance of the camera. The second majorthing this unit offers is a range of interfaces that are noton the camera, so extra audio ins and outs, power tapsfor running external devices, a four pin XLR input for DCpowering, timecode in and out and genlocking – allthings that you need if you’re doing a multi-camerashoot for example. All these interfaces are not presenton the camera without the extension unit, but you getthem easily by adding the XDCA-FS7.

The third key thing it adds is the ability onboard the

camera to record in the ProRes codec. That will be

added via a free software upgrade. The extension unit

should be available from December, the ProRes function

will be activated a couple of months later, adding just

another string to the bow of the camera to be able torecord not only XAVC and HD422, but also ProRes.

Ed: It just increases its versatility?

Nick: Exactly – it gives you flexibility to deliver

the format your client wants, or simply the format the

postproduction system is comfortable working with.

ProRes is fairly ubiquitous, but I did make the point

tonight that we see XAVC, which was first introduced

with the F5 and F55 about 18 months ago, becoming

more and more common.

It’s being included on pretty well all our latest procamcorders and people are discovering that XAVC is avery robust codec; being a 10-bit and 422 based codec,it stands up very well to grading.

Of course RAW is always the optimum, but there aresome overheads to be taken into account with RAW.XAVC is very efficient in terms of data rate and hencethe amount of storage required, and that’s becoming akey consideration. It’s also very well supported bypretty much all the major editing systems.

Of course, there are some people still using Final Cut 7which doesn’t support XAVC at all, so that’s possiblywhy they prefer ProRes but we’ll shortly have thatoption available for the FS7, F5 and F55. So it justincreases the total versatility of the whole system.

Ed: And if all that’s confusing you, go and visit your

dealer of choice?

Nick: Absolutely. NZVN

Page 12

Digital Video Technologies (NZ) Ltd | Phone: 09 525 0788 | Email: [email protected] | 45 Fairfax Avenue, Penrose, Auckland

www.dvt.co.nz

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DVT has solutions available from production to post to help you take advantage of the quality, productivity and creativity that the new 4K cameras from Sony offer. Our integrated solutions get you straight from the lens to the screen with workflows that are high quality, efficient and cost effective.

If you are interested in pushing your production and post production processes to the next level with the high resolution and high frame rate on these amazing new cameras then get in touch with the experts at DVT today.

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merry christmas

Hive PlasmaLighting

While wandering the showcorridors at IBC, I was waylaidby Robert Ruther-ford fromHive Lighting.

Ed: Now this is nothing to dowith bees is it Robert?

Robert: No, we admire thebee, and our lights are namedafter bees, but real bees arenot used nor harmed in theproduction of our lights.

Ed: What intrigued me andmade me stop and do thisinterview is that you mentionedthe magic word in lighting, andthat is “plasma”. So you’vecracked it have you?

Robert: Yes well, plasma islight. The sun is made ofplasma; lightning is a form ofplasma. Plasma is actually themost common form of matter in the universe, it’s morecommon than gas, it’s more common than liquid and it’smore common than solids because it’s the stuff thatstars are made of.

Ed: So you’ve trapped stars in your bulbs have you?

Robert: Exactly.

Ed: Well he is American folks. Keep going, dig adeeper hole.

Robert: What we’ve done is to create a small quartzcapsule that’s filled with a gas blend that we exciteusing a radio frequency driver, and it shifts the gasstate into a plasma state. It heats up and it turns intothe fourth state of matter. So it is a tiny little arcformed inside of our little “tic-tac size” bulb, but thedifference with existing technologies like HMIs andmetal halides is that it doesn’t require any electrodes ora filament like in a tungsten bulb, to illuminate.

Ed: And the main thing is that there are no wiresgoing in or out of the bulb, so it is completely sealedand therefore should last …?

Robert: Up to fifty thousand hours. So you can talkto my son about a replacement bulb if you need to.

Ed: So what then would fail in it after 50,000 hours?

Robert: It will get slightly dimmer and slightly bluerover time as some of the elements in the gas mix canadhere to the inside of the quartz capsule, but that is aprocess that takes 10, 15, 20 years to accumulatedepending on usage. The beautiful thing about plasmanot having electrodes, not having filaments is not onlyits very long lifetime, it’s its pure colour quality.Because there’s nothing to degrade, no little bits ofmetal to flake off over time and get into the plasmamix, we have a true full spectrum light source.

Ed: Aaaah, that was going to be my next question –is it mono frequency or is it multi frequency?

Robert: The light’s actually operating at 450 MHz,so it’s a completely flicker-free, full spectrum 94 CRIsource. CRI is a measurement of colorant but it has itsflaws – it’s only a measure of either 9 or 14 differentcolours. With a full spectrum light source such as ours,you can actually see the difference in that it’s not justthat we have this red and this yellow and this green andthis blue, we have all the nanometres in between. Ourlights are also colour temperature adjustable anywhere

in the daylight range, so you can simulate a warmsunrise, sunset, golden hour at about 4600 Kelvin; youcan pass through the noonday daylight at 5600 Kelvinand you can go all the way to a nice deep moonlighteffect at 7000 Kelvin, all with this dial on the back that’seasily adjustable. What this is doing is changing thefrequency that the bulb is operating at …

Ed: That the bulb is being excited at you should say,rather than “operating”?

Robert: Excited at, yes.

Ed: So that’s it … there are no filters, there are nophosphors, it’s how you excite it is what you get out ofit?

Robert: Exactly, it’s all happening inside the bulbitself, so you’re not dealing with any inconsistenciesthat can come up with other light sources when you usegels for example. It’s as if you are tuning daylight.

Ed: Okay, so what’s the catch?

Robert: The technology does not dim, so fordimming you need traditional methods. We’ve inventedsomething called wire diffusion scrims … not ourinvention but a trusty reliable one. The otherdisadvantage with any new technology is that it takes alittle bit of a learning curve to figure out how it works.It is not currently and is not ever going to be a 3200tungsten colour temperature replacement so, yeah, thebiggest disadvantage is it’s not going to replacetungsten directly, it does look great with gels, but it isfundamentally a daylight source and it doesn’t dimelectronically. Having said that, you can dim itmechanically or use any sort of traditional method todim it down.

We like to present this as a lighting instrument, as aprecise lighting tool. We do daylight in the range ofanywhere from a 400 Watt HMI replacement to a 2.5KHMI replacement and our lights use half the power of anHMI to achieve that output, so it’s also a very energy-efficient source as well.

Ed: So this one we’ve got here is a standard 12x12 …oh no, it looked like a 12x12 from the back, but in fact…?

Robert: It’s actually a parabolic beam reflectorinside of a square house, so it’s sort of a hybrid. Wehave a huge amount of output up on the ceiling …

Page 14

Robert with “tic-tac” sized plasma bulb.

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Ed: I can clearly see an area illuminated on the veryhigh ceiling of this hall – impressive.

Robert: This is only pulling 250 Watt. In Europe,you can plug 10 of these into a standard wall socketwithout having to worry. They can run on any voltage90-277 Volt, so you can plug them in anywhere in theworld; we have a series of different power supplies, sothere’s dual power supplies, you can run two of themoff a single power supply, you can run them off ofbattery packs for hours and hours at a time.

Ed: Now tell me, is it focusable?

Robert: The beam itself in the Wasp Par that wehave here is a tight 10 degree beam. The way that wecan adjust that beam is with a huge number ofaccessories as well as drop in lenses. So we actuallyhave holographic diffusing plastic lenses – they workgreat with glass lenses of course, but because there’svery little heat in the beam, the holographic lensesallow about 40% more light transmission than atraditional glass lens. This one here is a super wide soit’s diffusing the light out completely. We have spot,medium and other wide ones to be able to drop in fordifferent effects. The other thing you can do with it –you can put what’s called a Source Four Leko directlyonto the front of it and it works as a theatrical spotlight.You can put two different ones together which we callthe “killer configuration”. You can do a 2 light, a 4 lightor a 6 light killer to replace your maxi style fixtures,such as your 6 lights or 9 lights; and then it also workswith standard speed rings, so you can do square softboxes, octagonal soft boxes, we have an attachment soyou can attach a photo umbrella. It’s all designed towork with existing accessories, existing sizes, anyaccessory that works with a 400 Watt HMI will workwith the Wasp Par as well and so really it’s a veryversatile light source. Even though it’s a newtechnology and very cutting edge, we’re presenting it ina way that works traditionally so you know how to lightwhen you’re using it.

Ed: Alright, and the big question, the cost?

Robert: So the Wasp Par is US$2495 so it’s actuallyless expensive than many HMIs for an equivalentoutput, but half the power, full spectrum daylight,adjustable colour temperature and you never have tochange a bulb.

Ed: That’s got to be good and obviously you’re seeinghere whether there’s enough excitement from themarket to continue to develop, because clearly this isjust the start of hopefully something big?

Robert: Yes exactly. Right now we have this tic-tacsized bulb; we’re working on a bigger size – I don’tknow what the correct candy size is …

Ed: The size of a Mintie?

Robert: There we go, the size of a Mintie!

Ed: He has no idea what a Mintie is.

Robert: I do not, I do not.

Ed: Excellent. Now you were also telling me that thisis something that you can put out in the rain?

Robert: Yes, so while there aren’t holes in thefixture for ventilation, everything is completelywaterproofed and sealed on the inside, so water canjust pass through it. Don’t put it underwater, but it’scompletely fine out in any sort of misty conditions orany weather …

Ed: Because the power supply is a separate unit?

Robert: Exactly, the power supply is a separateunit; it’s also DC powered, so it’s actually safer in waterthan any other AC source would be. The otheradvantage is that it’s a fully flicker-free source. It’sactually operating at 450 MHz which means it is flicker-free theoretically up to 225 million frames per second.

We’re still waiting on the camera guys to get that slow,but I think it’s just still photography at that pointanyway.

So we do a lot of high speed commercial shooting,automotive crash testing, military testing, scientific andindustrial testing … these lights are great for everythingfrom table top work to rocket launches. Anything youwant to shoot in super slow motion where you needmore light, these are a great flicker-free source forsuper slow motion and high speed cameras.

My advice is that you keep an eye out for this plasmalighting technology – whether they make a Mintie ornot! NZVN

Page 17

When only anARRI will do

We are in Melbourne, Australia withMalcolm Richards from Cameraquip.Malcolm has been recommended to NZVideo News readers by Stefan from ARRIbecause Malcolm is surrounded by ARRIcameras – film cameras and videocameras; there are ARRI badgeseverywhere. To put it mildly, he’s verykeen on ARRI.

Ed: When did this relationship firststart Malcolm?

Malcolm: The first ARRI camera I usedwas probably in about 1968 when I wasat a film school called Swinburne, whichis still running today, albeit in a differentplace. They had a couple of ARRI 16BLcameras, one of which was the first ARRIthat I ever used. After that, I joined a film productioncompany owned by Fred Schepisi and the DOP was aguy named Volk Mol, a Dutchman who was also anARRI fan and that was the first time I used a 35mmARRI.

Ed: And you’ve been ARRI ever since?

Malcolm: Pretty much. I have been forced to useother brand cameras on a few occasions and each time,it was less than satisfactory. That put me off othercameras completely.

Ed: Okay, but I guess the chemical film market is notin a healthy state in Australia?

Malcolm: No, at the moment there’s very little filmbeing shot; the most is being shot by students as far asI can tell. Swinburne the film school and the MelbourneUniversity Victorian College of the Arts Film School areboth shooting film. They both have film cameras –ARRI 16SR3s, 435s …

Ed: So your business … I guess you started outrenting out film cameras?

Malcolm: I was a cameraman for almost 20 yearsfrom about 1969 through to 1988-89 and then thebusiness side of it overlapped from about 1983 when Istarted Cameraquip and bought my first ARRI cameras,which were originally for my own use. Then oneparticular cameraman, who shot TheMan from Snowy River, Keith Wagstaff,said “can I have a camera of yours for atelevision series for 6 months?” I said“oh, okay, but what am I going to use?”

Well, I ended up having to buy anotherone, just so I had one for myself and abackup camera for him, because as faras I could tell, I think it was probablyone of the first in Australia, the 16SR2.

Ed: So you had those film cameras andthen the digital age came along withtelevision cameras, and people started tomove into recording on video whereARRI was a late starter. What was yourfeeling about your business at that stagewhen film was slowing down, televisionwas picking up, but ARRI wasn’t in thegame … did you go elsewhere?

Malcolm: Not really, no, I stuck withthe film cameras. The rental trade infilm cameras actually stopped in

Australia very rapidly, it was almost like Christmascame along and it stopped. This is about 4-5 years agoand it was quite amazing how quickly it did stop.

Ed: So before that, there were very good televisioncameras around, but there was still a high demand forfilm?

Malcolm: Yes. Almost all feature films were shot onfilm up until when the Sony F35s and such or thePanavision Genesis came along from what I remember.I’ve always been a film person; I did shoot a lot of videowhen I was working as a cameraman and that kind ofput me off it a lot because I knew how bad it was.

Ed: Well that’s subjective Malcolm? Tell us – I’ve

never shot film apart from an 8mm wedding for a

relative, but the rest of my life has been video – what is

it about film that you find so wonderful?

Malcolm: It’s just got a lasting quality. Film that I

shot back in the 60s and 70s I can pull out of a can

today and scan it into a quite good high definition digital

format and it looks fantastic. Whereas, you get a bit of

video that was shot back in the 60s on a Marconi Mark

VIII on a 2 inch machine and it looks terrible. You

know you can get film from the 40s or 50s, scan it on agood quality scanner and it looks fantastic. I believe it’s

still better than most digital formats, even up to 4K.

Page 18

Malcolm in his camera museum.

Studio shoots were carefully managed in earlier times.

The important thing is the subject matter in the film,not really necessarily the quality of the picture. Thepicture’s important, in a sort of subliminal fashion, but ifit’s a little bit unsharp or it’s a little bit shaky sometimesit doesn’t matter, the story’s what really sells themovie.

Ed: It’s not what’s called shooting yourself in the footis it – admitting to that?

Malcolm: No I’ve always felt that way. What’s thepoint of making an incredibly visually high quality film ifit’s got no story? Nobody wants to see it, nobody willbuy it.

Ed: And the best ones, the ones that you rememberare the ones that have a good story, but also arecinematographically beautiful?

Malcolm: Yes, certainly that helps, but the story isdefinitely a very important factor. The digital age hasdefinitely had its advantages for the motion pictureindustry. Since film scanning in high resolution started,it allowed for better quality special effects and easierediting and such things. That’s where I always thoughtit was important, because the acquisition end was stillbetter on film and I think to a degree it still is. If youshoot 35mm I still feel it’s a better looking image thanmost digital cameras.

Ed: That’s something that’s always puzzled mebecause I would have thought that by going straight toa digital sensor, you are bypassing one step of theprocess …

Malcolm: It’s not just a step, it’s the material thatyou’re recording it onto. The film itself has its owncharacteristics which are extremely hard to duplicatewith a CMOS sensor or whatever. It’s getting better,it’s almost getting there in my opinion, but it’s not quitethe same. One problem, which will always be aproblem I think with digital sensors or any camerasensor, is it’s made up of a fixed array of pixels whichdon’t move. They’re all stuck in one spot and you shoota picture of a shirt like yours and you’re sure to getmoiré which you don’t get with a film camera, becausethe grain isn’t randomly moving over the image;whereas in a piece of film it’s all over the place andtherefore you don’t get that issue of horizontal lines orvertical lines starting to match up with a number ofpixels on the sensor.

Ed: So is this another example of a picture’s quality isnot just its resolution?

Malcolm: Yes I think so.

Ed: But then how do you justify that to Stefan who’sselling you ALEXA cameras with digital sensors?

Malcolm: He knows that I’m a film man; he’s neverargued with that one.

Ed: So still if you were to make the best possiblemoving image, you would shoot it on film and then scanit?

Malcolm: I would shoot it on film if I felt that Iwanted the best possible image, yes. I think you’ll finda lot of cameramen still will. There are a few who havebeen converted over who are at the top end, but I betyou could speak to a few top end cameraman andthey’d still say “I’d prefer to shoot it on 35mm.”

Ed: So if we take the comparison now, shooting afeature film with film or with digital, you would stillchoose the film?

Malcolm: I think it has its own particularcharacteristics that make it attractive. The film “look” isstill what a lot of cameramen are trying to achieve now,

even with digital cameras. Digital cameras still havethat sort of “plasticy” video look to a degree but one ofthe few cameras that doesn’t is the ALEXA. I dostrongly believe that, because it was developed by acompany that specialised in film cameras, the look ofthe image was very important to them – that it had thatfilmic look to it, and that was the reason I held back ona lot of the other cameras, because I just looked at thepictures and I thought “this just looks like a largeformat video camera; it will still have the clipping in thewhites and the crushing in the blacks and it has badgamma and it just doesn’t have that subtlety that goodfilm does.”

Ed: So it was the advent of the ALEXA that you saw…?

Malcolm: There was no choice really at that stagebecause, even though we had a D-21, it was notconsidered a good camera because it was too heavy, itwas too hard to use and it wasn’t fast enough in termsof ISO for most people of that vintage … although in ourday, when I was shooting, 100 ASA was fast enough,but these days they can’t shoot unless it’s 400-800ASA, so I don’t get that one, but that seems to be theway it is.

Ed: So in terms of your business, it must be quitelimiting if the ALEXA is the only camera that you’rerenting out?

Malcolm: It’s a bit limiting … I do sub-hire in othercameras from other companies whenever necessary.

Ed: But you’re seen as the ARRI house to go to inMelbourne?

Malcolm: Well I guess that’s up to people’s opinion,but I’ve always been just mainly ARRI cameras. I’vehad a few other film cameras like Mitchells andspecialised ones, but in digital cameras, I’m basically99% ARRI.

Ed: But then it’s also the other equipment that goesalong with it, because ARRI has the lenses, it has theaccessories?

Malcolm: Well definitely the beauty of buying anARRI camera for us, is that everything fits it except themagazine and the film. You can take all youraccessories, pretty much, off an ARRICAM or a 435 andthey screw straight onto an ALEXA, so you don’t have to

Page 19

It cost a lot when new.

reinvest in follow focuses, matte boxes, lenses, tripods,even batteries and things – they’re all interchangeableon the ARRI video cameras with the film cameras. Wehave a big stock of 35mm lenses, which obviously camefrom film cameras, and they go straight onto theALEXAs, whereas for companies that have beenexclusively video with small chip cameras, their lensesjust wouldn’t fit – their B format lenses don’t fit largeformat cameras.

Ed: I would imagine it was a fairly easy transition forpeople who are using ARRI film cameras to move to theALEXA?

Malcolm: The ALEXA is designed very much in a filmsort of style where it’s very user friendly for anoperator. They can look at the panel on the side of thecamera and they can immediately identify with ASA,shutter speed, you know all of those things are thereand really easy to control compared to a lot of othercompanies’ cameras. The menus in some of thoseother cameras are horrendous and you end up goinground in circles half the time trying to find out what youwant to do.

Ed: So is that the difficult part – explaining theworkings of an ARRI cinema camera to someone whohas come in from the video world … it’s easy to explainhow an ALEXA works to someone who has had an ARRIfilm camera, but to somebody who has come upthrough television and they’re looking for a camera fora particular job, is it hard to sell the benefits of theALEXA to them?

Malcolm: Not really I don’t think. You don’t tend to

find as many cameramen who are strictly video

experienced and have no film experience doing the kind

of work that we tend to do, or have tended to do, which

is mostly high end TV commercials or feature films, or

to a lesser degree, for the last 10 years, television

series, because series went largely from Super 16 to

video over a period of the last 10 years, which I didn’t

pursue myself because I didn’t really want to buy

Page 20

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television cameras as such. I don’t see the ALEXA

being classed in the same area as a television camera;

it’s designed differently …

Ed: They call it a cinema camera for a reason Iguess?

Malcolm: Yes I think so.

Ed: So are there jobs in Melbourne – you say featurefilms …?

Malcolm: Television series have come back again tothe large format sensor such as the ALEXA. TheALEXA’s probably the most popular camera for doingquality TV series now, and certainly for feature films,it’s definitely the main choice. I don’t know thepercentage, but it would have to be pretty high. TheSony F65s and those things are reputedly very goodcameras, but from my perspective, they’re still a littledifficult to use. To record the top quality recording, alot of the cameras need external recorders and, up untilrecently, that even applied to the ALEXA, but it doesn’tanymore, because it’s got the built-in Codex recorderwhich will record ARRIRAW which is about as good as itgets. Even though the camera’s technically not 4K, it’sstill very, very good. But it’s not just the number ofpixels in our opinion, it’s the quality of the colour, thelatitude of the exposure – you know 14 stops is gettingclose to film, it’s still not quite there yet, but it’s prettygood, which means that you’ve got a lot of latitude forgrading which you never really had with cameras thatjust recorded similar things to Rec.709. It was eitherthere or it wasn’t you know; it’s black or it’s white andthat’s it, whereas when you’ve got 14 stops you canreally manipulate it like you would a piece of colournegative.

Ed: You say “colour” – how does the ALEXA showgood colour?

Malcolm: That’s a tricky question I guess …

Ed: It is, I’ve never found an answer to it. You lookat it and you say “that’s lovely”, but how do you definethat?

Malcolm: It’s something probably that I couldn’tanswer. It’s probably too technical for me to answerthat one.

Ed: It’s just the look?

Malcolm: I t ’ s just afeeling that you get whenyou look at the image. It’smore cinematic looking, it’smore filmic looking … itlooks like film more than alot of the television or digitaltelevision cameras.

Ed: You mean there’s noringing?

Malcolm: Well they don’thave to enhance the imageso much, they don’t wind inaperture correction orwhatever they call it thesedays. I mean, there’s still alot of those middle of theground cameras ( withoutnaming names ) where youcan see they’ve put a lot ofedge on things just to makeit look sharper, butsharpness isn’t necessarilyalways what you want,because I think it makes

images look artificial. In fact, at the moment, we’refinding a lot of the young cameramen who have souredoff that look are renting old lenses. We’ve had arenaissance in old lenses going back to the 60s andthey’re out constantly – you know the Bausch and LombSuper Baltars which are off a 60s Mitchell and CookeSpeed Panchros which are 60s … anamorphic lenseshave been very strong too because they like the shallowdepth of field and they don’t like the excessivesharpness of a lot of the modern lenses.

Ed: So that’s it – you go 4K, you get the very highquality sharp lenses and then they soften them?

Malcolm: Yes.

Ed: Explain … it’s the look isn’t it?

Malcolm: It’s purely the look, yes. Everybody saysit’s the look you know.

Ed: What I heard from a filter manufacturer years agoat NAB, when high definition first came out, was thattheir biggest selling filter was a soft filter for the femaleTV presenters who didn’t like the detail on their faces.

Malcolm: And I’ve had that same experience. WhenRaquel Welch was out here a few years ago, sheinsisted that she be photographed with these filterscalled Mitchell Bs. So I had to buy in a set of MitchellBs from Los Angeles, specially to put on the camerathat was shooting the production she was on; and thenthey hired them again when she came out to do theLogie Awards or whatever it was and put them on theTV cameras to make it look the way she wanted.

Ed: Well when you’re at that level you can get whatyou ask for, can’t you?

Malcolm: Yes, exactly. There are certain aspects ofthe way you photograph things, or the way you lightthings that you could say are subliminal – peopleprobably don’t notice them, but in not noticing them, itprobably has some psychological effect that isn’t reallyplainly obvious. That’s something that is achieved by agood cameraman and a good director and a goodwriter. It’s a tricky one.

Ed: So you can even take a bad tool and you can tella story?

Malcolm: Oh you can definitely tell a story, butcertainly a bad tool is not a good tool. It needs to be a

Page 22

This is what sets used to look like.

reasonable tool to achieve it to a certaindegree I think. There’s a kind of levelwhere you need to get to before peoplewill notice it’s no good – it’s a poorquality camera, or it’s a poor qualityprojector …

Ed: That level that you’d say would bethe minimum, where does the DSLRstyle camera come on that range?

Malcolm: It depends on how it’s used.I think a DSLR can record pretty goodpictures, but it’s limited by what you cando with the movement of it and theexposure. They’ve got a limited latitudeexposure-wise, you know panning andshooting moving objects can be aproblem because of the way it recordsthe image. It’s not really designed formotion picture style images – you know,subtle things you see, like somebody’sstrapped a camera to the wing of anaircraft and you can see the propellerturning around and it looks all bent andtwisted because the shutter in thecamera is not a conventional style filmcamera shutter. It’s just stuff like that which can beirritating and maybe a lot of the young people don’tnotice it or think there’s anything wrong with it, but Ithink it spoils it a bit if you’re used to conventionalmotion picture images or even conventional videoimages. The difference between a DSLR and a propervideo camera is even quite noticeable in my opinion.

Ed: Now tell me, Sydney … the Sydney productioncompanies, rental companies, are they the ones thatget all the big jobs and Melbourne is second fiddle orwhat’s the relationship between your two big cities?

Malcolm: Well Sydney do tend to have a lot moreproduction going on up there, but there’s a lot morecompetition in Sydney as well between rental houses

Page 23

Crane used on ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ and it still works.

and production companies.In the past, there werecompanies like Panavision,Lemac and ourselves whowere doing most of thefeature films and top endcommercials and televisionseries, that kind of thing,but in the last 5 years I’dsay there’s a lot moresmaller companies, oralmost backyard operators,who’ve got one camera, whoare out there chasing workall over the country. They’lljump in their van and drivefrom Sydney to Adelaide orto Melbourne or to Brisbanejust to get work, andconstantly you’ll find you’recompeting with these guyswho have got 1 or 2cameras.

Ed: But are you reallycompeting, because surelythey can’t offer the sameservice?

Malcolm: They can’t offerthe same service, but thatdoesn’t seem to matter asmuch. These days, peopleare more worried about

Page 25

Malcolm with ALEXA fully kitted

budget than service I think and that’s one of the thingsthat’s really become disappointing with the business, isthat it’s all to do with how big a discount you can getrather than whether you can provide 2, 3 or 4 of thesecameras; or can you supply another one if that onebreaks down; or have you got another set of thoselenses? We do find that we’re constantly sub-hiringlenses to other people all over the country, evenbetween us and Panavision, Lemac – what we could callthe principal rental companies, they’re all hiring lensesand bits and pieces off us or off each other just toaccommodate what they don’t have.

Ed: But opening the industry up to the smalleroperators with their little cameras, isn’t this expandingthe market?

Malcolm: I don’t think so. I think the amount ofwork that’s available is still limited and, now that it’sbeing spread over a lot more operators, it’s causingprices to plummet. I’ve never seen prices drop so muchas in the last few years.

Ed: But then, with the number of TV channels thatare being added all the time, broadcast and nowInternet channels, there’s a huge amount of work outthere for low budget?

Malcolm: Possibly … we don’t do a lot of that kind ofwork and I haven’t gone out looking for it particularly.

Ed: But surely there are parallels in other areas ofbusiness where – for example car manufacture, yourtop end models are still there; the sales of BMW, RollsRoyce etc have always been good. Eventhough very few people can afford them,they’re still higher than what they’veever been, because the market’senlarged?

Malcolm: The problem being that thehigh end doesn’t really exist as much interms of equipment anymore. In thepast, 35mm cameras would costanything from between $150,000 to halfa million dollars. Now that was notaffordable to a lot of small companiesand certainly not to private operators,but now any man and his dog canpractically afford even an ALEXA,because they’re $80,000 or thereabouts.

Ed: Aaaah but then you’ve got to putthe lenses on them?

Malcolm: That’s right, you’ve still gotto get lenses, but you can always hirethose lenses from somebody else andthat’s what’s happening. As I say, lenses

are travelling all over the country. I was resisting it alot in the beginning, but I’ve just sort of felt well, youknow, you may as well make money out of the lensesbecause you’ve got so many of them, there’s no pointfighting it constantly and saying no, you can’t just havethe lenses, you’ve got to have the camera. Becausethere’s so many different low budget cameras aroundnow that take 35mm lenses, everybody wants to hirelenses because, quite often, one lens can cost 6 timesmore than the camera, whereas in the past that wasnever the case.

Ed: So where do you think the … I wouldn’t say theproblem, but where is the block? You say the budgetshave reduced, people are looking for cheaper andcheaper options, but at some point, the quality is goingto suffer. Who is making that decision that this isacceptable quality for broadcast or for a documentary orwhatever? Where is that problem – is it with the client,or is it with the producer?

Malcolm: Oh it’s even further than that. I think it’soften the distributor or the television station that willaccept almost anything now. And what they’rebroadcasting is quite often just rubbish. You know, youcould spend a fortune on the production, record it in12K and it will end up no better than you’d get on youriPhone, on reputedly high definition television, andthat’s what’s happening constantly. You look at thehigh definition channels here in Australia and you findthat a lot of the stuff they’re broadcasting is up-res’dlow quality.

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Hugo looks after the hire kits for Cameraquip in Melbourne.

Ed: Yes – I think it’s similar where I come from … I

could offer examples!

Malcolm: No well it’s true – I mean there are only a

few high def channels broadcasting in Australia.

Ed: But you’ve actually got a mandate from the

government haven’t you – there’s supposed to be so

much high definition on television in Australia at any

one time?

Malcolm: Well they’re transmitting high definition,

but it’s not necessarily from a high definition original.

Ed: Just sort of spread that pixel over a block of 4 or

9?

Malcolm: Yes, and you can look at any high definition

channel at any one time and I guarantee most of it has

come from low quality material originally.

Ed: But who cares?

Malcolm: Only a few people care; only a few people

actually notice.

Ed: Okay, but then who’s in the right?

Malcolm: Who’s in the right? We can only blame the

stations really, because if they have the material

available to broadcast in real high definition, they

should … but they don’t.

That’s my opinion and it’s even the same with cinemas

to a degree. I think quite often you’ll find what’s being

screened on the sheet isn’t necessarily as good as it

could be even if it is digital. It’s still got a lot of

compression in it. I was talking to a friend of mine who

is involved in that end of things and he said “you can fit

a whole feature film on a 150 Gigabyte hard drive” –

and what that means is there’s an awful lot of

compression going on, even if it is 2K or whatever it’s

supposed to be.

Ed: So what should be done about it – what’s the

future Malcolm?

Malcolm: It’s all to do with how much they can

squeeze onto a hard drive or

whatever they want to

squeeze it onto for broad-

cast or projection.

Ed: Because now you can

watch a movie on your

iPhone?

Malcolm: Yes, but how

good is that … it’s not very

good is it?

Ed: Do you think people

like us are dinosaurs?

Malcolm: No, no.

Ed: So you think there’s

hope?

Malcolm: I think there’s

hope for us. What’s ironical

really is that cameramen

still strive for perfection in

the original product; they’ll

insist on the best camera

and the best lenses and you

know “it’s got to be 4K” or

“it’s got to be 6K because I

want to do this, I want to do

that” … then by the time it

goes down the pipes, it comes out as something much

less. It might as well have been shot on an iPhone! I

just find it a bit depressing really.

Ed: Well then, we had better stop there. NZVN

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Malcolm has a real view through the lens.