Choosing and using Lithium Ions

Treat your Lithium Ion batteries right and they’ll return the favor, with longer life and optimum operating time.  Herewith, the secrets to maximum performance.

Oh! LED.

NAB attendees are generally well advised to stay away from dark alleys.  But we can make an exception when the alley in question is the side aisle of Sony’s massive booth and the reason for low ambient light is to show off a new monitor, the PVM-740, Sony’s first professional monitor with Organic LED (OLED) display technology.  In a particularly nervy head-to-head comparison, the new 7.4-inch monitor (viewable area, measured diagonally) was shown next to a comparably-sized BVM Series CRT monitor and a third-generation LCD model.  The comparison, as they say, was no comparison.  OLED has arrived.

Sony HVR-Z7U: Zoom lens, prime lens, or both?

I cut my teeth on film, before the camcorder era. At that time, swapping lenses on 16mm and 35mm motion picture cameras was commonplace. Perhaps that’s why I still think in terms of both prime lenses and zoom lenses.

2/3-in. camcorders always had bayonet lens mounts too, but until the arrival of HDCAM in the late 1990s, fixed focal length or “prime” lenses were rarely used on them. That’s because Betacams, introduced in the early 1980s, were designed for electronic newsgathering. Zoom lenses with high zoom ratios and 2x extenders seemed adequate for ENG. And adequate was good enough back then.

June 12, Wireless Mics and the FCC

Effective June 12, 2010, operation of 700 MHz wireless mics is no longer legal.  For the Consumer Alert and additional valuable links, visit us here.

Winning the Gamma Game

How do you capture high-contrast exterior day shots without blowing out the highlights or crushing the blacks?  What’s the secret to recording low-key scenes without unwanted color shifts in the highlights?  How can you keep shooting without periodic tweaks of Knee and Slope?  A growing number of DPs are finding the answers in gamma adjustments, such as Sony’s HyperGamma curves.

3D Live Production

If you’ve been eager to get educated about 3D, this video is a great introduction.  Learn the basics of 3D from Sony’s Peter Ludé, senior vice president of solutions engineering.  In just over an hour, Peter walks you through how we perceive depth, the history of 3D, the gotchas of 3D camera work and the basics of 3D production planning.

To see other Sony videos from NAB, please visit VideON, Sony’s Online Video Network, at sony.com/VideON.

HEARST ROLLS OUT SONY XDCAM EX CAMCORERS ACROSS ITS STATIONS

Hearst Television is adopting Sony Electronics’ XDCAM EX™ solid-state memory camcorder as its primary ENG and news production technology. The company is rolling out more than 80 shoulder-mount camcorders across several of its stations – a combination of Sony’s PMW-350 2/3-inch camera, as well as 65 of the just-introduced PMW-320 ½-inch cameras.

SONY XDCAM HD IS “CORPS” TECHNOLOGY FOR NEW NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY

Sony’s XDCAM HD optical camcorders have performed in a range of challenging environments – from extreme weather to combat zones around the world. Its latest test under fire was a six-week shoot in Southern Helmand, Afghanistan, where a four-person production team from National Geographic Television, led by experienced DP Thierry Humeau, was embedded with the 2nd Marines Expeditionary Brigade (MEB).

The show “Camp Leatherneck,” recently aired on National Geographic Explorer series. The program’s goal was to go past the newspaper headlines and TV news accounts, and document what it is really like to serve on the front lines of this conflict.

NEW SUNDANCE CHANNEL DOCUMENTARY “BRICK CITY” SHOT WITH SONY XDCAM EX CAMCORDERS

A recent documentary premiering on The Sundance Channel was shot entirely with Sony XDCAM EX series cameras (the PMW-EX1 and PMW-EX3). “Brick City,” the nickname for Newark, N.J., is about the fight by Mayor Cory Booker and other city leaders against gang wars, corruption and poverty.

The movie, which is executive-produced by Oscar®-winning actor and producer Forest Whitaker, is the latest major documentary shot with the compact EX cameras. Filmmakers Mark Benjamin and Marc Levin and their director of photography James Adolphus chose the EX cameras for their size, image quality and HD resolution, as well as the use of ExpressCard-based SxS PRO™ recording media, which presented the team with the perfect solution in the field.

Like many documentaries, they were shooting in low light and typical “run-and-gun” style. One unique aspect of the production is that the team shot more than 600 hours of EX-1 and EX-3 footage, and did not use a tripod or a light during a year of shooting.

“We were on the move constantly, from bright sunlight to extreme low-light at night,” WHO IS HE? he added. “I didn’t want to ruin a mood with too many lights. With this camera, you can achieve very interesting moods.”

He added that the camera’s memory-based recording format – specifically the SxS PRO™ cards – significantly enhanced his work on location.
“The production would not have turned out the way it did without this camcorder,” Benjamin said. “We were able to discreetly capture even the smallest details that make the footage come alive on the screen.”

Benjamin noted that Peter Abel, of New York City-based dealer Abel Cine Tech, played an invaluable role in helping him and his team choose the right cameras.  “He got us the first EX cameras that were ever available in New York, and worked with us to determine the right workflow.”

In the five one-hour episodes of “Brick City,” the lives of Mayor Booker and Police Director Garry McCarthy intertwine with “Jayda”, Blood gang member turned youth mentor, who lives with her Crip boyfriend “Creep”, and other Newark citizens. 

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