May is a good month if you’re looking for an excuse to examine gear up close and personal, get some free training, and meet up with other industry professionals. All these events are free, but require registration for admission.

Canon / Codex, May 3

Codex Digital offers free training on the Codex Production Suite at Canon’s Burbank, CA location (Canon’s C700 and C700 FF cameras will likely be featured). “Training in Production Suite will provide you with the valuable skills needed to work in the motion picture and television industries, and allows you a chance to connect with other professionals involved in the industry. This free session will be held on Thursday, May 3rd, 10 am to 2 pm with lunch provided. To reserve your seat, click here and use the password TRAINWITHCANON. Please bring your MacBook Pro running OS X 10.10 or later. Downloading the latest Production Suite from codex.online/software before the class is strongly recommended.”

PNW Lens Summit, May 5

I’ve already mentioned the PNW Lens Summit at Koerner Camera in Portland, Oregon, this Saturday, May 5 from 10am to 5pm. What’s new? More vendors have signed on: Gecko-Cam Full Frame Lenses, Letus, Motorized Precision, PLC Electronic Solutions, Cmotion, Atlas Lens Co., and Camadeus. (Motorized Precision builds camera robots, so this should be especially interesting. I, for one, welcome our new camera-flinging, focus-nailing, highly-repeatable overlords.)

Post NAB Road Shows, May 15, 17, 22, & 24

Key Code Media runs a post-NAB roadshow with vendor booths and stage presentations. Vendors include Sony, JVC, Blackmagic Design, and Newtek, among others. Presos include panel sessions on choosing the right camera for live events and Michael Kammes on the state of remote and cloud-based editorial.

• Seattle, Tuesday May 15, 1pm – 4pm
• Los Angeles, Thursday May 17, 1pm – 5pm
• Chicago, Tuesday May 22, noon – 4pm
• Detroit, Thursday May 24, 3pm – 7pm

Don’t Forget to Register

Did I mention that all these events are free, but you need to register? All these events are free. But you need to register.

The usual disclosure: nobody paid me diddley-squat to make noise about these events.