KitPlus | Articles

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

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

Talking Steadicam and Exovest

by David Crute Issue 105 - September 2015 Q: When did you first get into using Steadicam?There were only about 10 UK Steadicam operators when I started, and very few that owned a rig. It was a massive investment for me as a young cameraman. The reason I did it was very simply that I found myself in this unusual position of doing both film and video...

Submitted by David Crute

Published 01 October 2015

McDonalds goes live multi-camera

Issue 105 - September 2015 Earlier in 2015 SIS LIVE was central to the London section of an ambitious 24-hour global entertainment campaign by McDonalds, involving a surprise open-top bus gig by Jessie J. Fans worldwide shared the excitement of the 24 continuous gifts of joy in synchronised public events, across 24 cities around the world over a 24...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 October 2015

Digital and analog in harmony at Pama Studios

Issue 105 - September 2015 Pama Studios in south east Sweden is a leading example of a facility that fully embraces the power, flexibility and ease of use of digital technology, while also harnessing analog technology to bring something different to its recordings. Founded in 1988 by managing director Magnus Maxe Axelsson, Pama is a long-time Avid...

Submitted by KitPlus

Published 01 October 2015

Shoot safe, shoot dynamic

by Nick Allen-Miles Issue 104 - August 2015 Todays craze for shooting from a UAV or drone is not for the faint hearted. Unless used legally and in very limited situations, its a dangerous way of capturing dynamic shots. Wherever people are involved or height restrictions apply, there are more useful ways of filming safely that deliver a more intere...

Submitted by Nick Allen Miles

Published 01 September 2015

How we got live streaming to work for us

by Larry Jordan & Megan Paulos Issue 103 - July 2015 We originate three hours of live programming from our studios every week. In fact, everything we do is designed for live web streaming. For the last several months, we have been exploring a number of options that would enable live video streaming with live audio mixing and support an unlimited nu...

Submitted by Larry Jordan#

Published 01 August 2015

Distribution in the UHD Era

by Paul Briscoe Issue 103 - July 2015 Once upon a time, there were few broadcast TV standards. Each used its own regional image formats, color encoding scheme and sound and vision modulation standards. High-power over-the-air (OTA) transmitters broadcast the signal on internationally coordinated and regionally allocated radio frequency (RF) channel...

Submitted by Paul Briscoe

Published 01 August 2015

UHD: a long road travelled

by Julian Fernandez Issue 103 - July 2015 Theres no denying it, Ultra HD (UHD) is impressive and the clarity of image is captivating, but its going to take a while for UHD to become mainstream in the home. A fairly expensive large screen TV is a must to get the best picture quality and since the majority of the world isnt yet watching television in...

Submitted by Julian Fernandez

Published 01 August 2015

Back to the future

by Dick Hobbs Issue 103 - July 2015 I was recently talking to the estimable James Gilbert, who runs the equally estimable graphics and automation specialist Pixel Power. He said something that made me think. We were talking about scalability, and he said that it works in two directions. There is the sort of scalability that we all readily understan...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

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

Those pesky scientists

by Dick Hobbs Issue 102 - June 2015 This month\'s picture is of something I was given on a visit to the Grass Valley camera factory in Breda, maybe 10 years ago. I think it is a thing of beauty, which is why it sits in pride of place on top of the wine cabinet. It is the sharp end an HD system camera: the optical block and a CCD imager. We saw in t...

Submitted by Dick Hobbs.

Published 01 July 2015

Crossing the TV Divide

by Kieron Seth Issue 102 - June 2015 From corporate to TVFor years, Reels in Motion has been associated with producing high quality live events and corporate video. Its ongoing project with The Property Investors Network is typical of the kind of long term projects the midlands-based company is involved in. Tasked with recording all day training wo...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 July 2015

Hungerford and the 10 rules of making a Microbuster

by Miles Bullough Issue 101 - May 2015 On April 27th 2015 Wildseed Studios\' debut feature film, \'Hungerford\', launched on iTunes and begins what we hope will be a digital voyage around the world to success. We coined the term \'Microbuster\' to describe movies made on micro budgets but with blockbuster ambitions - and it perfectly captures what...

Submitted by Miles Bullough

Published 01 June 2015