KitPlus | Articles

Zoom lenses and minicams

Finding a quality tracking zoom lens for the minicams made for the likes of Toshiba/Iconix/Hitachi/Sony has been an uphill battle. The cameras have been made primarily for the medical imaging market for microscopes and endoscopes but adopted by the broadcast industry as a high end minicam. However lenses were always a problem. Fujinon made the TF r...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2012

Wibbly Wobbly Waveforms

The very first analytical electronic instrument, developed in the late 1890s, was the oscilloscope. This used a cathode ray tube (CRT) to paint a graph of voltage on the Y axis versus time on the X axis. Once television became a practical reality in the 1930s, the same instrument was applied to the video output from the camera and became the very u...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 November 2012

Camera innovations from IBC

IBC 2012 – ‘Dam, that was a good showFresh from another trip to Amsterdam, Will Strauss picks his ‘best in show’ camera innovations from IBC. I know, I know. It’s October and the chances are that you’ve already had your fill of ‘round-ups’, ‘reviews’ and ‘what I saw in Amsterdam’ type articles. But with so much stuff to choose from at the show, hop...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 November 2012

tv-bay Questions

Name & Title?Giles Harvey DoPWho are you? (about yourself and who you work for)?With a degree in photography and BBC trained I run my own camera agency LUTTRELL PRODUCTIONS LTD providing crew for TV and film, documentaries and advertising. I tend to do most of my work for the terrestrial broadcasters as well as some of the largest ad agencies but a...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 October 2012

Pointing out the right colours

In the old days of PAL and NTSC analogue television, a vectorscope was an essential tool for examining chroma at every part for the programme production and transmission chain. This was because the colour information was carried as a phase and amplitude modulation which could be sensitive to a variety of transmission or recording non-linearities an...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 October 2012

Watch out for dead pixels

A dead pixel in a camera imaging sensor can manifest itself in a number of ways. Implying black, 'dead' is not necessarily the correct term for a pixel failure. This is because imager defects include hot pixels, sparkles, noisy or lazy pixels. These problems usually arise during the chip manufacturing process. Defective pixels can appear as unusual...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 September 2012

Testing times of a 4K world

The term '4K' applies to some five slightly different picture formats with around 4,000 pixel horizontal resolution: all much bigger than HD. In fact roughly four times the total pixels required for 1920 x 1080 pixel high definition. 4K has been around for some years but was until recently only affordable by producers with mega budgets. Advances in...

Submitted by Will Strauss#

Published 01 August 2012

4KTV The next bigger thing?

4KTV – The next bigger thing?The history of 4K digital moving images goes way back to the mid 1990s. That was when film effects started to be processed digitally and produced amazing results – maybe a bit too amazing for some. Of course the effects had to be seamless and so the digitised effects images had to carry all the required detail of the 35...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 August 2012

X 10 or X 3? - That is the question

X 10 or X 3? - That is the questionFor many years now, the sports programme producer has benefited from a triple speed (75fps) super motion replay facility. Initially replayed via specially modified BVW tape decks but once the industry standard EVS server acquired the ability to record the three phases of such cameras and supply a continual record...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 July 2012

STAYING AHEAD OF THE BBCS QUALITY CURVE

At True Vision TV, our tagline is “Films that make a difference” – and it’s been our guiding ethos since the company was founded in 1995. We strive to make television that engages viewers with issues that matter, and we produce character-led documentaries that entertain, but also inform and educate. As such, we’ve built a particular reputation for...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 May 2012

Light weight 3D side-by-side production

Whenever you see a typical publicity picture of a 3D production shoot, it invariably includes a very bulky and expensive-looking mirror rig. This can look daunting for the new initiate coming into 3D production and is not the sort of kit you might not want to risk using outdoors. The mirror rig arrangement allows two (usually large) cameras to be p...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012

BVE 2012 in no particular order.......

The big story at BVE 2012 was BVE 2013. With the Earls Court exhibition site scheduled for redevelopment, BVE relocates next year to the ExCel exhibition site in London’s Docklands. The distance is only about 10 miles but, in the minds of many BVE exhibitors, the move is comparable with moving the NAB Convention to the Mississippi Delta. If you rea...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 April 2012

tv-bay Questions

Anthony Bairstow – Senior Video Editor at MTV and Editor of Two and Two, BAFTA nominated short. Who are you?I graduated from the BA Film & TV course at Westminster University and gradually found my way into the TV industry, eventually working at MTV Networks Europe. However, I have always had numerous side projects on the go, one of the latest bein...

Submitted by Kieron Seth#

Published 01 April 2012

ARRI LED technology

With a growing range of LED products, ARRI is providing industry professionals with all of the benefits of using a Low Energy Lighting source with familiar characteristics. The L-Series LED Fresnel fixtures are so close to their conventional equivalents that they create a like-for-like replacement of traditional Fresnels with LED-based light engine...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012

Canon C300 Review

Canon's highly anticipated C300 camera is their first offering to the 'digital cinema' market. The camera was released amid a meticulously planned marketing campaign, which created a hype not seen since the Red One camera's introduction in 2006. Canon have since taken the camera on a global roadshow showcasing to all potential suitors, of which the...

Submitted by Bob Pank#

Published 01 March 2012