Report from DV Expo

Had a pleasant day at the DV Expo yesterday. Nancy and I arrived around noon and parking was a breeze. The usual suspects were all in attendance: Panasonic (largest booth), Sony, JVC. Avid was there with a VERY small booth. I guess their new direction of spending resources on products and customer needs is evidenced by this.

None of the vendors announced anything at the show which is not surprising. Most save that for the bigger shows like NAB. Nance checked out some cranes and monitor mounts over at the Calumet booth as well as a nice little platform dolly system by Cambo that they have that is very slick - VERY fast to set up. Segmented/hinged track for fast layout stright, curved or a combination of both. And not too expensive at about $9000 for the track and dolly. They also offer a lower cost 3-point dolly as an option.

Next up was a look at the Lowel lighting systems. Softboxes that are using the flourescent "bulb" type fixtures. These softboxes are very nice. They do not use a speed ring but instead use a custom mount that is MUCH easier to deal with and have zero light leakage from the rear unlike the typical speed ring mount. These rigs were running about $800 with a stand and case with a tungsten fixture. The floursecent fixture is optional ($150) and will accomodate up to three 65 watt bulbs for a total effective output of about 600 watts. And, of course, the flourescent rigs are VERY cool and very low power.

Following this, we went to the Redrock booth to check out the Redrock M1 35mm lens adapter. nance and I had been tracking the development of this product since before they were shipping it. At the show, Redrock was displaying a new addition to their adapter. A prism image inverter that goes between the M1 and your camera.

They had an HVX200 setup with the redrock and this new adapter. They also had their follow focus unit installed. I have to say, we were both VERy impressed with this rig. One of the complaints that we have had in the past with these types of products was the image inversion issue. Not all of these types of products have this problem, but the M1 did.

The image inverter will sell for between $300 and $400 and is supposed to ship in February. Redrock also has some very attractive pricing for their indi bundles that is good through Jan 15th (i e. Rails/M1/HD lens adapter / Follow focus with full set of whips for $1800). If you have been thinking about getting one of these, now is a good time to take advantage of this great pricing.

We ran in to Larry Jordan (FCP instructor, author and editor par excellance) and had a nice chat with him. Larry has been co-hosting the Digital Production Buzz podcast recently and has made a GREAT addition to the show so be sure to check him out on iTunes.

Comments

Anonymous said…
hello i Have a question for you. I am looking into purchasing Redrock's M2 indie bundle for my canon xl2, I am relatively clueless towards specific camera lenses,(i.e. 35mm 50mm 75mm etc.) I'm researching at the moment. my question for you is, what would you recommend for film lenses with this adapter? would a lower price 35mm lens still give me good picture or should i drop 2 grand on a higher grade lens? Also what would you say is the most flexible lens? 35mm or a higher mm lens?
Thank ou for your help
B-Scene Films said…
Hi Jordan. I guess I missed this comment. Drop me an e-mail at mike@b-scenefilms.com and we can discuss.
Anonymous said…
Mike,
Ok, sounds good, I will e-mail you soon!
Thank you,
Jordan Bergren

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