Jonesy Jones

They didn't set up their booth. Just a couple tables and screens and the cameras. It's the little white booth in front of the yellow one. Compare that to just about everyone else really.

I was at NAB several years ago when 3D was going to be the next big thing. lol That year EVERYONE had a 3D rig at their booth. The next year was 4K and EVERYONE had 4K in bold somewhere on their booth (except Canon). This year I heard VR was going to be big and I figured I’d be seeing that everywhere. Since there was some interest from this forum about it I just assumed I see em and try em out. And….. on day 1…… I saw…… basically NOTHING VR related. There was the Helios (more on this later), but that was just sitting alone and ignored over at the Blackmagic booth. Point being, it wasn’t easy to get to these devices. I had to go waaay out of the way to the VR pavilion. I was there once and for a relatively short time, and I got the best info I could in that time. (Also, this tech ended up making me sick, see below, so again my time was limited.) On day 2 I searched the floor plan for VR booths and went and found quite a few together in their own corner of the convention. There were definitely a bunch of folks checking them out, but they would have got lots more traffic at another part of the show. So, the next couple paragraphs is my very subjective experience, and it’s brutally honest. I only include it because I think it’s probably worthwhile to know there are folks like me out there with my experience. But if you don’t care to hear this, just skip down to the nitty gritty (add Nacho Libre accent). _______________ So I walked over to the VR pavilion with no knowledge or experience whatsoever. NONE. I put on the first headset I could find. My first thought was “woah, I see why they call it virtual reality.” I was impressed. The Nokia OZO was streaming live to my headset and it was pretty cool. Again, I was thinking “Wow, this is pretty…” And then I took the headset off. I quickly discovered a couple things. First, it makes me very motion sick. I could last no longer than 20-30 seconds on any headset. It wasn’t a clarity thing or a 3d thing. The experience is the cause, and this alone is a complete deal breaker for me. No can do. Second, it gave me anxiety. Before even the sickness set in, the moment I put on the headset I felt disoriented and anxious. Even though the experience was cool, I couldn’t wait to get the headset off. The headphones didn’t help either, but I really don’t think it would change it much with speakers. Perhaps this is something I’d get over with more exposure to the tech. Maybe. But if not, another complete deal breaker for me. Lastly, it looks stupid on other people, and assume on me too. I was laughing at everyone else wearing those things. I would literally put my camera right up to their face to snap the photos below and they had no idea. I don’t like that. Perhaps this is the easiest to overlook. I am sorry if this has tainted my perspective on VR. All things considering it’s still an amazing technology, just not for me. But I do think I walked away with at least some valuable info…. hopefully. Here’s what I got. _________________ THE NITTY GRITTY You can see pixels on all units. Even the best ones still looked like you were sitting too close to a TV that completely surrounded you. And none felt completely in focus. I learned that there is both 2D and 3D VR, and there are some rigs that do 360, and some that do the whole sphere. I definitely preferred 2D over 3D. Maybe the 3D would be cool for video games, but for most other content I liked the 2D. And 2D was the better quality, least pixelated and clearest. VOKE was the best that I viewed. I did not notice a ton of wide lens distortion, maybe a little on the stereoscopic ones, but it wasn’t bothersome. I wasn’t impressed with the OZO quality. But it’s features are probably ease of use and live streaming. And it was only viewable through the crappy Oculus. The Samsung Oculus was the worst that I viewed. The others were better, and beyond the Oculus there wasn’t one that was just way better, other than that I think the 2D ones were better. The Helios rig looked great. (The one that I saw on day 1 was at the BM booth.) There actually was some footage available, but not on VR goggles. It was showing on a small half dome screen, which was an even greater vomit fest than the goggles. But the footage looked great for the short time I was there. Crisp and cleaner than the Gopro stuff. The 360Heros rigs looked great (they also made the Helios). Concept VR rigs were nice too. ________________ As I write this I realize that I didn’t get the best recon, but like I mentioned, I get distracted easily, and apparently motion sick. My take away is that 2D is cleaner than 3D. Nothing above the Oculus seems way better than the next one, relatively the same. All the rigs seemed comparable to each other. GoPros seemed better than the OZO, and BMMCC or A7S or anything else seemed better than GoPro. Below are some photos. The first one was a total accidental forced perspective.

So, this photo is obviously not the 120T, just to be clear. Not trying to be Captain Obvious or anything. This is the LS-C20 and is shipping in September.

I believe $600. I doubt it. I believe there are too few led's, perhaps just one, so that may not work, but who knows. Also of interest, these things are 97 cri. The daylight one may not be as high but again who knows. EDIT: btw, none of their lights have a CRI rating lower than 95. So my guess is that they are just doing their best to put this daylight one together while holding to their standard 95 or greater CRI.

Actually turns out there's more than that. I believe I have some info for you. I got home really late. Up early for work. Will deliver info as soon as I can.

Yes, but right now only available in tungsten. I was told daylight is coming but no date on that.

Definitely.

Maybe, but there's more to filmmaking than cameras. Of course we already know this, but when it comes time to buy the audio unit or light fixture, it's kind of nice to know you already handled it and it was nice. That was my perspective.

The accordion is so cool. It also has a 15' reach. I believe it folds into 2 little boxes. Pretty awesome. Ok. I'll find out the name of that mic. Check this out, they had their mic and the 416 right next to each other hooked up to one H4. With headphones you could switch back and forth. I'd give the 416 a slight edge (maybe) on the presence (I don't know what to call it). But I'd give the Aputure one the edge on directionality. Seriously. Very comparable at the least, for more than $700 less. You're very welcome. I purposely touched the mic to see about the handling noise. Very little. But, if you are looking for a wider pick up pattern, no bueno. I would say this one is just as narrow, or more so, than the 416, which is exactly what I'd want. I'm into isolation. At least it has me thinking that I could easily afford 2 and do a phase cancellation thing. Dude, it's like an LED jungle there man. There's probably 40 new LED fresnels, not exaggerating. Actually there's probably more than that. Aputure has a small fresnel that outputs like a 120w. Focusable of course. But the one I saw was daylight. I can see if they have a tungsten.

Ok. But there is nothing happening with that display. What you saw is all that it is. No footage. Just that rig in the case. But maybe I missed something. I'll go back and see.

There's a bunch of things to like about this camera concept, but as has been said, it's not a camera, until it's a camera. Ideas are easy. I thought they'd at least show us some footage from prototypes. Remember the digital bolex announcement? They had put enough of a camera together with like a computer chip in a cereal box to shoot a short film and at least give us a taste. But what is this render only nonsense? Craft, if you are listening, we're on your side, we're rooting for you, but you are going to have to do a LOT better than that. We need to see a prototype. We need footage. And lot's more info. Hopefully your business model didn't require a bunch of deposits, because if so, I don't think we'll ever hear from you again. But please prove me wrong. If this camera could possibly be a reality you'd be onto something. Lead the way.

DAY 1 Lilliput - released Q7, Q5, and A7 their new monitors. 2 are 7", and 1 is 5", guess which is which :). The Q's are SDI and HDMI. The A7 is HDMI only. The 7's are full 1920x1200, don't know about the Q5. They are definitely less bulky than 663 and feel pretty solid. Good looking monitors. No LUTs. CameTV - I know it looks funny, but I really love the Accordion. Makes the push in super easy. Moves with ease. It's hard plastic, but not fragile, but I think pretty light weight. Supports over 30lbs. Very cool. Atamos - Just a few years ago these guys had a tiny booth in the tiny booth ghetto. I think they've had one of the bigger booths, and more creative staging ever since. This year is a giant rock wall with climbers. Their HDR stuff looks really impressive. It seems like it is pretty useful, but I haven't been able to figure out if it is essential. I think the consumer TV sets will eventually go HDR, so we'll probably see more HDR monitors, like SmallHDR. But for now, I just can't tell if it's a luxury or a need. SmallHD - their new HDR's look amazing, but the price tag is ouchy. I don't see a day, pretty much ever, where I could justify that cost. So I move along. This is the first time I've been able to see the 702 Bright. I love it. Pricey too. Edelkrone - the jibplus looks amazing. It only supports 6 lbs, but there is a pro version in the works. Super easy to use. Set your target from 2 different points in like 7 seconds, and then it's locked in. You can also supposedly set 3 different targets for one take, but I'm not sure how that works, but that would be really awesome. Also pulls focus btw. Also doesn't come with jib, just the motors. standplus looks very handy too. Not flimsy at all, but also only supports 6 lbs. Seems like a product for a very specific kind of shooter and not necessarily for everyone. I need to go back and see the focus one. Blackmagic - no longer working on GS for mini or micro. Consider it a miracle if it ever happens. An HDMI EVF is a idea he is going to pass upstream. Magenta issues........ um..... they don't seem to have a clue, at least for the magenta vignette corners. I got the feeling they would recognize it as a flaw and RMA it if your's turned out to have this issue, but that wasn't a like a guarantee from the rep, just my impression. Seriously, I don't think they have any idea what's going on with these X File magenta corners. If you discover this in yours, they want a DNG from you. Aputure - I really like these guys. I recently bought the Lightstorm LS-S and love it. I was skeptical about the LS-C, but not anymore. This will probably be my next light. They also have a fresnel type fixture called the 120T. Super bright and has a plethora of front end accessories. But is only tungsten for now. Their monitors look great too. I think we already knew this. They have a mic, I'm not sure if its new or not and I have to go back and see it again. VERY comparable to the Senn 416. Very. For $289. DJI - I guess the X5R already started shipping. I didn't know that. I have seen no footage. But it's here and I really like it. In fact, I'm thinking crazy thoughts about how I could make this my A cam for everything. Somehow rig it to a tripod. Then boom, its on a gimbal. Then boom again, it's on a drone. and so forth. Please tell me this is stupid so that I can snap out of this ongoing loop of trying to make this work. I need to go back to this booth to prove this is not possible. DAY 2 Aputure - The mic I was talking about is called the D3 (coming this Fall). Great mic. I've got some test audio to check out that I still haven't, but at this point I still stand by my claim that this mic is very comparable to the 416. Similar sensitivity and very directional. I do think there is noticeably more handling noise, but that's super unscientific, yet if I had to guess I'd say more handling noise for the D3. Their lights are still awesome. I apologize, but I forgot to get the name of the smaller fresnel. I can get that soon. Zoom - The U-44/24 look great, but the F8 really surprised me. My experience with Zoom is limited to the crappy H4N, which sucked every which way. But the F8, and their other products seem to be a massive step up.... where have I been? Build quality is awesome. Time code. 8 XLR ins. Computer interface. App. Claimed high quality preamps. My big pet peeve though with Zoom is Line level. Are they allergic to a Line level switch? You can bring a line level into any XLR by plugging in a quarter inch instead, which automatically sets it to line. But I can think of several situations where this isn't ideal. What is up with Zoom and line level? Tascam - was also at NAB. Saramonic - tried to find these guys but couldn't. Sorry. Atamos - I went back. HDR looks great, but I wouldn't say its necessary. Just makes what you're looking at better while you shoot it, perhaps enhancing your exposure decisions, but not really altering your content. However, I'd say for roughly the same price as the SmallHD 702 bright, it's a better brighter monitor that can do more tricks. Zacuto - the new Gratical EYE is really nice. I think I heard someone say somewhere that you can see the pixels, nonsense. This thing is clean. Very very clean. Great software. It is clear they are much happier with this over the original Gratical. They didn't even bring one of the originals to NAB. However, for $500 less, I'm thinking the Blackmagic one is the way I'd go. Just as clean. Great software too. Both are SDI only. The BM one is obviously geared toward URSA, so I'm not sure if there are any compatibility issues with other cams. If not, I'd want the BM one, but the Gratical EYE is super awesome. Zacuto seems like a scaled back company nowadays. I think the lesser expensive and still great competition is affecting them. I hope Zacuto continues to excel. Edelkrone - the Focus One is light and very nice and solid. I think you can feel a difference in quality between the Focus One and say a Zacuto one, but it's fairly negligible. Focus One has little to no play and no backlash. No hardstops though. Their little baby slider is sweet. I could make use of this for sure. The break on it is stupid though. I'd probably fabricate a better break, and a hard stop solution for the Focus One. DJI - I finally saw footage from the X5R. It's gorgeous. They had some stunning footage from around the globe. Wasn't impressed with the highlight roll off though. I want to see more footage, and more grades. I'm still EXTREMELY interested in this! VR/360/3D - I may have enough to say about this for an additional thread. Sorry, too much to write for the moment. It's late. Blackmagic - went back. Very glad I did. More on this later too.

Jimmy, I saw this today in passing. I thought, "is this what he wanted to hear about" and then thought, "nah, he wanted a 1 camera solution." So, point being, I feel like I'm failing you here. I can go back there, but what should I get? To me, it looked like a few micros, not like a product. Like you could do that with any small, or large, camera. So I can't stress it enough, what exactly should I ask? I can easily get a few detailed shots. Also, I am going to visit the Nokia booth, which is where the other VR and augmented reality booths are. So I should do better tomorrow.

Remember, there's a language thing. So keep that in mind. What they said was the prores license has parts, I understood it as stages. So I guess they are through most of the process, but not all the way. The one they were displaying HAD prores on it. Full sensor for raw AND prores, but prores will be cropped for lower res on shipment but full sensor in camera down res later in firmware. I know what you mean about the global shutter issue. When I told them that everyone had their eye on global shutter they seemed surprised. I think hfr, hi dr and hi res are sexier specs. I bet they get it in, we'll see what it looks like.

I have added answers to some of those at the top. Some of this I don't know and will ask later.

Got through most, if not all of then. Let me know if you need anything else. Really appreciated that list. Btw, check out the OP, I added everything at the top.

These are the questions and responses I have gotten so far. If you have more let me know. Are there plans to expand their international sales channel and expand dealership of their cameras? Yes, in discussion with distributors at this time. Already in Europe hdvideoshop.com. How do English speaking countries get support for the cameras (with a language barrier?) Apparently they will use a distributor for that. Do they have a license to use ProRes and if not, when do they expect to get it? Prores license comes in parts apparently, and they have some parts of the license, but not all, working on final part. Does the global/rolling switchable shutter work in any protoypes/models? If so, is there a significant quality difference? Still working on global shutter switch, other than DR almost the same quality in global. Is there any loss in quality using Hi Speed modes, and if so, what will be compromised? (Resolution, noise, moire, aliasing). 1-2 stop loss in HFR, cab compensate a bit with ISO reduction Is every frame rate/resolution on the cameras available in both Raw and ProRes? yes, all resolutions and slo mo What is the functionality of the KineGrip? How long can a Sony battery power the camera for via the grip? Still working on Kinegrip, not here at NAB. 1.5 hours, res dependent How long does the Terra take to boot? 10-20 seconds How much more weight will the KineBACK and regular V-lock add to the overall camera? They didn't have an answer. Maybe they'll let me take it off the working model. What is the native ISO? 800 HFR 400 If I was to pre-order the camera, when can I expect to receive it? Summer/autumn, but someone else said a month, but I would lean toward Fall 2016 for the 5K, just my impression. What cost are we looking at if I order the camera with a Kinemount and an extra adapter? (Like EF or PL)? 5k $5000 body-$7000 package, 6K $6000 body-$8000 package, they're speed booster/enhancer is $300. Does the 6k model have a 5k mode? If so, why not? probably not, don't know why. Are lower resolutions and Hi-Speed modes crops of the sensor or can they be used with the full Super35 image area? windowed for raw, full frame for Prores, though at launch will be crop/windowed and will add full sensor readout later in firmware. What is included in the Wi-Fi functionality? What can we control? Every setting can be controlled with iPad, works now, iPhone and android still developing OLPF? internal OLPF, but not interchangeable Buttons? The feel legit, but you can press and rotate them. So that's why they looked crooked. But he specifically said they were preproduction buttons and this won't be an issue on production models. Overall. The camera looks and feels pro status. Solid, but light. Fan is nearly silent, but the camera isn't recording. Haven't seen it record yet. I've only seen the 6K, since they are just using the sensor from the Kinemax. RS looked bad on the screen, but could that be a combo of refresh lag? 5K will be same size and weight as 6K. They don't have most of their accessories here, so it's hard to judge those. Ok. I'll probably look at all the comments and ask more questions later. Let me know. I'm also trying to convince them to let me borrow a unit to test. Wish me luck.

But if it takes this module to get line level input it's worth it. Buy a nice preamp and record in camera with amazing audio.

I hope so. If they make a solid product that delivers, I could care less about sensationalized marketing.

In a little less than 5 hours I will have my hands on that camera and will take photos and let you know about the buttons, and everything else.

I just sold one on eBay.... so yes.

I'd like to request, if I may, an end to the negative back and forth. It's completely fruitless and I just don't understand it. The Craft camera has a ton of unknowns. We all understand that. No one is putting $500 down right now. It's possible that changes on Monday, but we won't know until then. And until then some of us are speculating as to what could be announced and are counting our blessings for living during a time where so many great opportunities are available. But no one is suggesting that anyone should buy this camera or put a deposit down. The Craft camera could be great, it could be a dud. None of us knows, but we should know more on Monday. I think EVERYONE on this forum has an interest in moving their filmmaking careers forward as well as their tools, and we enjoy the input from other filmmakers that help will both of those. With that said, we don't need 'yes men' and a thumbs up on everything, and the other extreme is just as pointless. If you have something critical to say, we WANT to hear it. Just not with the 'I'm smart you're dumb' or 'company x is so stupid' tone. So, please give us your thoughts, critical or otherwise, and please do so in a way that adds to the community, not subtracts. NAB 2016 is just around the corner. There is going to be an overwhelming amount of new info on new gear. I respect the perspective of everyone on this forum, and am relying on all of you to help me successfully sort it all out. And I will do my best to help you as well.

I have been trying to figure this out too. What could a new competitor bring to the table that hasn't already been done? Your idea is the only one I can think of. But honestly, if the image is super and the camera reliable, I don't need any new tricks. Also, I kind of wish they would have said there was a 4K and a '2K' instead of 'HD'. Yah, the nerve of guys like Steve Jobs and Woz. Idiots!

Dude, as will they. Monday. At 12pm EST. Are you not seeing that in the email?

Where are you seeing this?