Quick Look: Sony PVM-740 OLED Display

OLED—Organic LED—is said to be the display technology of the future… and it’s here today. The PVM-740 is the smallest of Sony’s trio of professional-series OLED displays, and Sony lent me one for a while when I was testing the NEX-FS100.

It’s nice. I mean, it’s really nice. Perfect? Well, not quite, but darned close; let’s just say I’ve reset my expectations when it comes to reference displays.

Quick Look: Alpha A-mount Lenses on the FS100

Sony sent me an NEX-FS100 to review , and included seven additional lenses: three A-mount zooms, three A-mount primes, and the E-mount 16mm pancake. They also sent two A-to-E-mount adapters, the $200 LA-AE1 and the $400 LA-EA2. Here’s a quick look at these lenses and adapters, and how they work for video on the NEX-FS100.

Review: Sony NEX-FS100 “Super35” LSS AVCHD Camcorder

Sony’s follow-on to the consumer-oriented, 1080/60i NEX-VG10 is the more professional NEX-FS100, an E-Mount AVCHD camcorder listing for US$5850, or $6550 with an 18-200mm lens. It shares the same sensor as the considerably more expensive PMW-F3, but nothing else—including its design. The FS100 abandons the problematic “overweight Handycam” form factor in favor of a compact, lightweight box-camera layout that works nicely on a tripod and readily enables cine-style customization and flexible lens choices. It’s a bold departure from the status quo and one that, with only a couple of quibbles, pays off handsomely.

Quick Look: Variable ND Filters

The Sony NEX-FS100 has no internal neutral density filters, and its telescoping 18-200mm lens doesn’t work well with matte boxes. Lens-mounted variable NDs are said to be the ideal solution: a single filter capable of 2 to 8 stops of brightness attenuation, thus replacing several conventional NDs.

Sony sent two variable NDs along with the FS100, and by sheer coincidence I had just ordered one myself, so I had a chance to try all three side by side. I’ve also explored one of them further on a PMW-EX1 and a DMC-GH2 EVIL (Electronic Viewfinder Interchangeable Lens) camera. Variable NDs are indeed useful, and are arguably the most important filter in your toolkit when shooting with electronically-controlled still-camera lenses—as long as you understand their peculiarities.

Third-Party Accessories for the FS100

The protean design of the NEX-FS100 cries out for customization, and the market responds… Whether you want a more comfortable and stylish top handle, a simple lens adapter, or a full-on, ruggedized wrap-around support system capable of mounting the heftiest cine zoom, somebody makes it. Let’s take a look at some of the options available.

Quick Look: Sony F65 4K Digital Cine Camera

Last week, San Francisco rental house extraordinaire Videofax took delivery of Sony F65 #15, and on Thursday BandPro’s Jeff Cree came up to show off the camera to local DPs, ACs, and DITs. I was able to shoot some photos and take some notes, which I have pulled together and annotated, in a somewhat scattershot manner, for your viewing pleasure.  [Update 2012.01.29: typo & terminology fixes]

Review: Panasonic AG-AC160 and AG-HPX250 1/3” 3-MOS camcorders

While all the attention is focused on large-single-sensor cine-style camcorders, Panasonic has come out with a line of high-quality 1/3” 3-MOS handhelds that leave little to be desired. The HPX250 is a handheld version of the shoulder-mount HPX370, while the AC160 and its simplified sibling, the AC130, bring the same fundamentals to the AVCCAM (AVCHD) world. [Updates 2012.01.30: SDI out is 10-bit only on 250, not 160; 2012.02.24: typo page 2, should be “or any of the other misfortunes possible with location audio.”]

Affordable PL-mount Primes Compared

If you’re in the market to rent or buy “affordable” PL-mount primes (e.g., under $10,000/lens), you won’t want to pass up this test.