NAB 2011 - Odds ‘N’ Ends

The chart at the top of the page shows the chromaticity coordinates of the wide-gamut LEDs used in the DSC Labs NorthernLights chart at the end of this video clip. The LEDs get around the problem of making highly-saturated reflective patches and allow you to test the limits of a camera’s saturated-color handling ability.

NAB 2011 - Plasma Lights, and The Problem With LEDs

Here’s the coolest “new thing” in lighting I saw at the show: Photon Beard’s Nova, a focusable Fresnel-type instrument using a LEP (light-emitting plasma). It’s unlike any other lighting instrument we use—other than the sun—in that it doesn’t pass electricity directly through the light-giving element (tungsten filament, diode junction, rarefied gas surrounded by phosphors, carbon arc, etc.).

NAB 2011 - SCCE Charts

Steve Hullfish has already nicely described the Single Chip Camera Evaluation that Robert Primes, ASC organized at Zacuto’s behest. I just have a couple of comments to add, along with images of the three charts of actual numbers that emerged from the tests.

NAB 2011 - Cameras

There wasn’t one overall theme to the NAB camera announcements. 4K cameras and HD-resolution LSS (large single sensor) cameras shared the spotlight with workaday small-sensor cameras packing ever more features into the same sorts of form factors we’ve seen for years. But Sony did make a leap into uncharted waters with the NEX-FS100, while Ikonoskop’s A-cam dII throws out all the rules, rethinking camera design from square one. [Updated 2011-04-30: corrected F65’s sensor size.]

NAB 2011 - Camera Support

Another NAB, and more camera support kit for cameras big and small. Here I look at just a few things that caught my eye.

NAB 2011 - Lenses

More lenses! Crikey, RED builds an affordable PL-mount camera, Sony and Panasonic bring out even more affordable PL-capable cameras, and suddenly there are PL-mount (or interchangeable-mount) lenses everywhere!

NAB 2011 - Stereo 3D

I’m a Chauncey Gardner when it comes to 3D: I like to watch. But as long as stereo 3D requires a bulky mirror rig, or a data cart like the one below, watching is all I’m likely to do. Fortunately, NAB shows that I’m not the only one who feels that way: there were plenty of [somewhat more] practical solutions for shooting stereo.

NAB 2011 - Recorders

If NAB had an unofficial theme this year, it was “the year of compact on-camera digital recorders.” And the subtext? Suddenly, silently: ProRes everywhere.