KitPlus | Articles

CVP Helps Productions Choose the Right Lens for the Job

CVP Technical Specialist, Sam Measure, on how the company’s free online Lens Coverage and Camera Comparison tool is giving something back to the filmmaking community. One of the standout trends over the past year has been the move to shooting Full Frame, with more and more productions choosing to go down this route for the special look it brings to...

Submitted by Sam Measure

Published 27 January 2020

REVIEW Canon UJ111x8_3B UHD Lens

Shooting in ultra high definition and high dynamic range has become the preferred option for all television productions with a potentially long commercial life. The hir-ing charge and indeed the outright purchase cost of cameras of this standard are not significantly greater than those of high definition standard dynamic range models. With half the...

Submitted by Andy McKenzie

Published 10 September 2019

Interview with Peter Rowsell, Polar Graphics

If you don’t recognise the name Peter Rowsell instantly you no doubt would recognise him in person, from the famous ‘Pink Coconut’ parties during IBC (Brighton) in the 80s or the name ‘Polar Video or Polar Graphics’ both companies which he’s built up over the years. Entering his 43rd NAB (yes 43rd, that is NOT a typo!) who better to catch up with t...

Submitted by Polar

Published 26 March 2018

Canon CN-E 18-80mm T4.4 Review

i The Canon Cine range of lenses have been around for quite a few years now. The CN-E Cinema Prime lenses became an early alternative to using PL adaptors or the Zeiss Compact Prime lenses. Other than that the choice was rehoused stills lenses or maybe if you were lucky a set of Zeiss super speeds. The cine lens set became a cost effective offering...

Submitted by Ben Sherriff

Published 07 September 2017

Public Speaking - do not be afraid

May 24th saw the first FBI Members ' event held in London, with guest speaker Jo Hind channeling her Media and Marketing experience gained from a career spanning TV and Digital for big hitters including AOL and Google into an entertaining and inspiring presentation titled 'Why women should speak in public, and how to do it '. Whilst women currently...

Submitted by Samantha Arlow

Published 14 June 2016

Out with the new, in with the old

by Peter Savage Issue 110 - February 2016 Out with the new, in with the oldGetting the film look with a digital camera requires the correct lens: and sometimes that means going back in time, writes Peter SavageFor consumers and professionals alike, a digital camera offers convenience and immediacy. But when youre using one to shoot a movie or TV dr...

Submitted by Peter Savage 2

Published 16 March 2016

Lenses cant be that complicated can they? Part 1

with Graham Reed Issue 108 - December 2015 Many people who use lenses have very little understanding in the complexity or the science that goes on behind them. I do not pretend to be an expert on optics but I have spent some time in trying to understand just how complex they are. I think its first just a good idea to remind ourselves of what light...

Submitted by graham reed

Published 15 December 2015

Circles of Confusion

by Graham Reed Issue 106 - October 2015 We seemed to have gone from SD to HD to UHD in a very short time but has lens technology kept up?Most camera manufactures now produce 4K cameras but they often look very similar to HD cameras, are they just the same with a 4k chip and also have they added 4k lens? They publish very little information about th...

Submitted by graham reed

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

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

Sony PXW-FS7

by Alister Chapman Issue 94 - October 2014 At IBC Sony launched a new camera. In fact Sony launched several new cameras. This is nothing new, every year Sony launch cameras. But this year Sony really created quite a stir with one camera in particular, the Sony PXW-FS7. So what is it about the FS7 that is so special? Looking at the specs alone this...

Submitted by Alister Champman

Published 01 November 2014

Everything you need to know about Anamorphic Lenses

by Les Zellan Issue 94 - October 2014 Back in the late 1940s and early 1950s, film studios and theatre owners panicked. Television was the emerging new technology and as it expanded in popularity they feared audiences would shun the theatre to stay home and watch TV instead. What could they do to beat that? They needed a competitive edge to draw au...

Submitted by Les Zellan

Published 01 November 2014

Shooting Cinematically

by Ben Baldwin Issue 93 - September 2014 One Monday morning in July I headed to Pinewood Studios to spend an hour in the company of Den Lennie and Philip Bloom for a Sony Webinar - Shooting Cinematically. Both DOPs share a passion for helping aspiring filmmakers grow their skills and confidence and both have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to c...

Submitted by Ben Baldwin

Published 01 October 2014

Big hands small head

by Graham Reed Issue 91 - July 2014 A long time ago, in a place that no longer exists, BBC Television Centre, we had large cameras E.M.I. 2001, They were often referred to as the cameramans camera, as at the time they gave what was considered excellent pictures in 625 lines (SD), but of course they suffered from many problems. They needed constant...

Submitted by graham reed

Published 01 August 2014

The Next Generation of Image Aqisition for Live Broadcast

by Klaus Weber Issue 86 - February 2014 Today, there are many discussions focused on next generation broadcast formats. This is mainly driven by the fact that the consumer industry has already launched 4K (UHD) TV sets. Beside the question is the market ready to accept a new broadcast format? One question still remains: what is the best solution fo...

Submitted by Klaus Weber

Published 01 March 2014