Cine Gear 2013

Cine Gear 2013 was quite the experience. There were LED lights, plasma lights, motion control arms, motion control software, workflow software, workflow hardware, and even a mobile color correction suite.

Our friend Sam joined us about an hour after the show started. We checked out lights from Nila, Sunray, and Kino Flo. Nila’s LED fixtures did an amazing job filling in shadows in broad daylight. Sunray makes awesome HMI fixtures and beautiful new incandescent fixtures. They are working on making kits for their incandescent lights.

Kino Flo displayed their new Celeb 400. The Celeb 200 is about 2 feet long while the 400 is about 4 feet long. The Celeb is an LED fixture with built in diffusion. It casts a single shadow and is has a more uniform light than Kino Flo’s fluorescent fixtures. Both fixtures are also color temperature variable between 2700K and 5500K.

Sam and I spent a while at the Sony booth. We played with the F-55 and F-65 for as long as possible. Sam enjoyed auditioning the F-65’s various gamma settings. I played with the Slow and Quick (S&Q) settings on the F-65 and F-55. Changing the basic settings on the F-Series is very easy, and fun. Sony also had their 4K TVs, Action Cams, and DSLRs on display.

I got to play with the Movi for a bit. They had both single and dual-user modes on display. It is surprisingly easy to use without a second user. The Movi feels which way you want the camera to pan or tilt, and it makes it happen. It is much easier to wield than a Stedicam, and is much smaller. Due to its form factor, there are tons of places you could use the Movi that a typical Stedicam could not go. With the Movi, stable moving shots become much easier. There is no doubt the Movi will change the face of camera stabilization.

Probably my favorite booth of the day was Light Iron’s. They were demonstrating new versions of their Live Play and ToDailies iPad apps, as well as their new Sentinel application. Live Play and ToDailies are great for VTR, dailies, and collaboration between departments. Sentinel is a brand new file ingest and copying software. It competes with the likes of Shot Put Pro and R3D Data Manager, but bests them all in the way it handles the verification of file transfers and the speed at which it accomplishes those transfers. Sentinel allows you to track the verifications of every transfer of a file. If you end up with a corrupt file at any point in the workflow, you can pinpoint where the first bad transfer occurred. You can then locate a healthy version of the file to replace the corrupt file. It will provide verification for hard drives, LTO, and even Aspera or Signiant transfers (in the near future).

To finish the day, we watched After Earth with Sony at the Paramount Theater. After Earth is one of the the first movies with a fully 4K workflow, all the way through distribution. It was also the first feature shot on the Sony F-65, meaning it is the first to have 8K potential. The cinematography was beautiful. 4K projection still doesn’t compare to IMAX 70mm/15-perf, but that’s another discussion altogether (8K or IMAX?). All in all, Cine Gear 2013 was amazing.