KitPlus | Articles

Ground breaking production tool

with Stefan Lange Issue 106 - October 2015 NEO¢, the latest product from British LED manufacturer Rotolight, is a revolutionary on-camera or location LED lighting fixture designed for the most demanding of professionals. NEO¢ includes several industry first features that set it apart from the field, notably amongst which is an arsenal of Cinematogr...

Submitted by Stefan Lange

Published 01 November 2015

Sony PXW-FS5 Review

by Alister Chapman Issue 106 - October 2015 I was lucky enough to get some hands on time with a prototype FS5 in Amsterdam at IBC. In case you havent heard about it, the PXW-FS5 is a compact interchangeable lens, super 35mm camcorder from Sony that can record in HD or UHD 4K. It shares many of the features of the already incredibly popular PXW-FS7...

Submitted by Alister Champman

Published 01 November 2015

The future is smaller, more powerful batteries

by Steve Emmett Issue 106 - October 2015 High-quality cameras are getting smaller and lighter all the time, making them suitable for new applications. Nearly every production we see today includes shots acquired by drone and gimbal mounted cameras. The batteries required to power these cameras have to meet new criteria. They must be able to withsta...

Submitted by Steve Emmett

Published 01 November 2015

4k storm chasing

by Alister Chapman Issue 103 - July 2015 15 years ago I got my first big Broadcast Commission. It was to produce a 1 hour special on Tornado Chasing vacations. Yes, people pay to go on storm chasing holidays. In 1999 this was a new thing, today its a booming business. Ive always been fascinated by natural extremes and filming tornadoes seemed like...

Submitted by Alister Champman

Published 01 August 2015

On-camera monitors for today and tomorrow

by Paul Isaacs Issue 102 - June 2015 1) Why is monitoring so important for productions?Image quality is a central concern for users of any video product, so monitoring should be one of the foremost considerations for cinematographers and videographers. Along similar lines, the ability of consumer televisions and a range of personal devices to displ...

Submitted by Paul Issacs

Published 01 July 2015

Finding the Oracle of audio capture

by Simon Tillyer Issue 101 - May 2015 With over 300 hours of YouTube video uploaded every 60 seconds it\'s not hard to understand why any manufacturer would be looking closely at the new generation of emerging filmmakers whether they be in the consumer (creating content for "fun") or prosumer (creating content for a fee) markets. You might however...

Submitted by Simon Tillyer

Published 01 June 2015

A wide spectrum of choice

by Andy Clements Issue 101 - May 2015 Without microphones, in-ear monitors (IEMs), intercom and distribution systems based on wireless technology, many of today\'s large-scale television studios, outside broadcast and film productions would be very difficult, if not impossible, to stage. Wireless solutions provide convenience and, in the main, grea...

Submitted by Andy Clements

Published 01 June 2015

Ride on time

by Alistair Horne Issue 100 - April 2015 The highly competitive sport of track cycling emerged in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th century as a way to continue the sport year round, and velodromes soon became a common sight on the Continent. Whether indoors or out, track cycling is one of the world\'s most intriguing spectator sports and, as...

Submitted by Alistair Horne

Published 01 May 2015

Ask the experts: Batteries

by Kieran Foster Issue 98 - February 2015 1. What steps has the battery industry taken to make their products more environmentally friendly? Is there any more that can be done? In our industry, the best way to tackle any environmental issues is to focus on the efficiency of the battery. Maximum product life is part of the design philosophy of Anton...

Submitted by Kieran Foster

Published 01 March 2015

How full is your spectrum?

by Ian Muir Issue 98 - February 2015 Colour tuneable (Bi-Colour) LED based lamps are now increasingly commonplace in the world of Film and Broadcast. Their capacity to provide a choice of colour temperatures, usually in the realms of 3200K to 5600K, can be extremely useful. This is particularly beneficial when working in environments where setup ti...

Submitted by Ian Muir

Published 01 March 2015

Open Source for Film and TV Production

by Dan Mulligan Issue 98 - February 2015 There\'s nothing like a new project to make you feel excited about life, and excited is definitely how I\'ve been feeling since I adopted an Open Source policy to my companies\' camera and workflow divisions. My background is in cameras. I started out assisting and focus pulling before moving up the ranks to...

Submitted by Dan Mulligan

Published 01 March 2015

The business of University: Or lack thereof

by Ashley Golder Issue 97 - January 2015 University. Finally a time of critical thinking, training for your future career and coming out with enough knowledge to confidently acquire a job... or rather that is the plan. But what if that doesn\'t happen? When the £9,000 a year tuition fee, plus the expense of living costs rear their ugly heads and th...

Submitted by Ashley Golder

Published 01 February 2015

Eye to Eye: Video Post-production

Video post-production has long been one of the fastest developing subsets of the broadcast business. It was among the first to lead the shift from hardware into software, bringing huge advantages in terms of affordability and ease of use. I can still remember the high cost, heavy weight and low quality of the early analogue tape to tape video editi...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

IDX E-HL9 Battery review

Author: Jon BoastManufacturer: IDXModel: E-HL9 BatteryShort Description: 88Wh Li-ion V-Mount High Load Battery with PowerLink & Digi-View. Why was it needed and what did it replace: I'd had my IDX E-10 batteries for a long time and so I needed to re-invest in new batteries to power my cameras, monitor and glidecam. What other systems did you consid...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 January 2015

REVIEW: Portaprompt 365 Personal

by Sam Dierckx Issue 95 - November 2014 InSync are an online video strategy and video production company. Our roots are in the production of Television programmes, but we left that boat early because of the opportunities that presented themselves online and of course because TV budgets here in Belgium have become smaller and smaller due to online c...

Submitted by Sam Dierckx

Published 01 December 2014