KitPlus | Articles

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

Driving the Bandwidth Conundrum

At the time of writing, there is a story on the IBC website with the headline "In five years the problem won\'t be bandwidth, but knowing what to do with it". That seemed to me to be an interesting assertion, so I read on. Now I appreciate there are few who are as old as I am, but if you are you may remember the claim, in the early days of nuclear...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs - new

Published 04 April 2017

The future of post production

Love it or hate it, 2016 will certainly be a year to remember, for many reasons. In the world of post-production, we\'ve seen high dynamic range become incorporated into UK studio pipelines for the very first time. We watched Ang Lee demonstrate exactly what you can do by shooting at 120 frames per second in combination with stereo 3D. We\'ve even...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 15 February 2017

Selecting the right broadcast minicam lens

So we all know that HD and 4K (and beyond) is the norm for content creation and delivery, with the need for unique and versatile shots being offered to increase the audiences participation and visual experiences. A major factor aside from the camera itself is the selection of lens, for some of the UHD sensor formats a broad spectrum of "off the she...

Submitted by Steffan Hewitt

Published 10 November 2016

Dick looks at the faster future

I really enjoyed IBC this year. The fact that I barely set foot on the show floor is, of course, entirely coincidental, and I should take this opportunity to apologise to all those people I did not see in Amsterdam. One of the jobs I do at IBC is produce the awards ceremony, and this year that meant I got to meet some really nice people. We gave on...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 10 November 2016

IBC - how was it you

IBC 2016 was very much a launching show, with more new products and updates than in many recent IBC\'s or NAB\'s. With so many of these announcements directly in the remit of a cameraman, blink and you\'d miss the next big thing in camera and lenses news. With this in mind, this review focuses on camera and lenses only. One consistent factor among...

Submitted by Duncan Payne

Published 10 November 2016

Self contained and expandable commentary systems

Adopting innovative technologies and techniques is always fundamental to the control of capital and operational costs - the key to broadcast facilities or technology providers gaining competitive advantage. Sports commentary has continually suffered from high operational costs, whether at the sports venue itself or "off-glass", due to the need for...

Submitted by Chris Collings

Published 26 September 2016

Interrontrons - a prompting gimmick or a real production...

The first question for many is what is an Interrotron? Essentially it is the use of a traditional prompter but instead of the words in the script the presenter sees the interviewer\'s or director\'s face. This technique was pioneered by American film director Errol Morris in his film The Fog of War which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Fe...

Submitted by Jon Hilton#

Published 24 August 2016

Females In The Broadcasting Industry

by Samantha Arlow Issue 112 - April 2016 Everyone has heard of the FBI right? The US Federal Bureau of Investigation that inspires images of hard talking detectives in dark suits and sunglasses. But if you work in Broadcast, there\'s another FBI you should know about. This FBI, as the name spells out, is an organisation specifically geared towards...

Submitted by Samantha Arlow

Published 25 April 2016

Getting real with virtual

It's only February (or it is when I am typing this) but already we are suffering from exhibition overload. I did not go to Mobile World Congress, having no real desire to be mugged in Barcelona. But I did look in at BVE somewhere near London where a conversation with an exhibitor and old friend set me thinking. And perhaps wishing I was at Mobile W...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 April 2016

The 4K Conundrum

by Eric Achtmann Issue 108 - December 2015 2015 has confirmed once more that 4K remains the TV industrys Holy Grail. While 4K TV screens are becoming more affordable and Netflix, Amazon Prime and even YouTube are beginning to offer some 4K content, mass adoption is still sluggish as the increases in bandwidth required for distribution make 4K busin...

Submitted by Eric Achtmann

Published 17 December 2015

UHD HDR HFR WCG Made for each other, or too much too soo...

by Bruce Devlin Issue 108 - December 2015 The majority of LCD screens rolling out of the huge factories are now 4K-ready. They have a lot of pixels, and were not going to be chopping them up with a hacksaw to make small screens in a hurry. Even cheap mobile phones have more pixels than the big TV set that hangs on the wall of the front room in my h...

Submitted by Bruce Devlin

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

Hold up the weather

by Dick Hobbs Issue 105 - September 2015 Its no go my honey love, its no go my poppet. Work your hands from day to day, the winds will blow the profit. The glass is falling hour by hour, the glass will fall for ever,But if you break the bloody glass, you wont hold up the weather. It is not often I inflict poetry upon you, so why have I turned to Lo...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 October 2015

Picking the right prompter

by Jon Hilton Issue 104 - August 2015 There is so much choice available today for prompting devices. From phones and tablets to full Broadcast Studios systems and with non-word prompting techniques like Interrotrons becoming popular choosing the best prompting system for your productions needs some serious consideration. 1. The Talent comes first...

Submitted by Jon Hilton#

Published 01 September 2015