I’m not going to lie to you: I’ve been sitting on this review pretty much all year. If I had to distill the “why” down to a simple answer, it’s that the C70 is great. It’s just a great camera. You want one? Get one. It’s worth the money, and you won’t be disappointed. Even in 5 years I don’t see this being a camera left by the way-side. I certainly want one, even as a C500mkII owner. I also know plenty of people who traded their Komodos in for a C70, if that means anything, plus the C70 is actually available *cough* and currently holds LensRentals.com’s top most rented new camera and apparently wins by a mile. Chris Ray and I were chatting about it at the recent Filmtools Cineshred event, and he was saying it’s become his workhorse. He talked about it recently with Filmtools in regards to shooting his new documentary. In any case, we both agree that the C70 is a top-tier camera worthy of any filmmakers toolkit. 

But that’s not a review, that’s an opinion. Where I was really waffling was in the “lens” this article was going to use: was it going to be from the perspective of production or indie creators? Everyone loves to read about how a camera can give them a big budget look for the least amount of money, but at this point almost every “cinema focused” camera that comes out these days can do that. So now you’re on to ergonomics and features, right? Clearly the C70 can be used by solo shooters, that seems to be who it’s aimed at, but could it work on the aforementioned “big budget set”? It is Netflix-Approved, for whatever that’s worth. The line has just gotten so fuzzy.

On the one hand, you’ve got image/codec concerns when looking at a camera, and on the other hand you’ve got workflow/hardware concerns. Since the image of any modern camera is pretty much up-to-snuff for nearly any project, I guess what truly makes a “cinema camera” is the workflow stuff nowadays (as long as the codec is good enough). Technically all cinema cameras are video cameras but not all video cameras are cinema cameras. There’s gotta be a line somewhere, so let’s see if we can define it.

Now, I want to be clear: I’m not saying “Cinema camera good, Video camera bad” I’m saying we shouldn’t get caught up in marketing hype in general, and we should strive to be objective and think about our project’s needs when it comes to making purchasing or rental decisions. I also don’t think making an aspirational purchase is a good idea (like buying an Alexa or RED to help “jump start your career” as a cinematographer), but as camera tech is kind of meeting in the middle, I don’t think that’s as much of an issue as it would have been, say, 10 or even 5 years ago. Now you can really focus on doing more projects and less on being “a product” to to speak. Get back to networking, ya know what I mean? In any case, I think the easiest way to define a Cinema Camera right now is to simply look at the cameras being deployed on film sets and just go with the most-used features. I certainly don’t think the ability to replace the lens on a video camera instantly makes it a “Cinema Camera”, and a DSLR is a photo camera first, not a video camera. That’s fair, right?

So, looking at the features sets of the RED Raptor/Ranger, ARRI Alexa Mini/LF/65, and the Sony VENICE, I’ll say that an “ideal” baseline cinema camera, intended for film and television work, has the following:

– Super35 or Full Frame 6K+ Sensor (4K is acceptable)
– 2+ SDI Ports minimum
– Audio of some kind (2x 3pin XLR or 1x 5pin XLR or Similar)
– 2+ Accessory Power Ports (12v and/or 24v)
– Timecode & Genlock via LEMO or BNC
– RAW and 10bit+ LOG modes (ProRes is the clear favorite for compressed)
– XLR or LEMO Power (a built-in V or Gold mount would be nice too)
– PL Mount (native or adapted)
– 14+ stops of Dynamic Range
– Robust Build Quality
– Reliable Recording Media
– Full Image Control (ability to manually adjust all parameters)
– Internal NDs are optional but common these days
– FIZ also seems to be common but I’ll put that in the “optional” category as well

That seems like a reasonable checklist definition by my eye. Granted any camera can be a “cinema camera” if it’s used to make a movie, and certainly not every production will need every single feature (or will have a decent workaround ready), but again I’m just trying to come up with a definition for the sake of making comparisons on hardware and its viability on a traditional set, not drawing conclusions on the viability of a camera to help create an amazing story. For instance, my C500mkII ticks nearly all those boxes except for accessory power (although I have Dtap coming off my Full Frame Camera Co V-Lock plate) and FIZ, so I’d be comfortable saying it’s still a Cinema Camera as both of those things can be easily worked around without much compromise. And I know someone is going to clutch their pearls at the 6K/4K thing, obviously 2K is totally fine ala the Alexa Mini, I’m just drawing conclusions from today’s top of the line, most-used cameras on film and TV sets to make a workable definition.

I’ll share a quote I agree with from Steven Soderbergh: “Cinema is not about format, and it’s not about venue. Cinema is an approach. Cinema is a state of mind on the part of the filmmaker. I’ve seen commercials that have cinema in them, and I’ve seen Oscar-winning movies that don’t. I’m fine with this.” Richard Linklater said something that also fits here: “You can now just point and capture things, and that’s a great thing, obviously, for the world and communication, but it doesn’t necessarily equal art… There’s a skill involved, and one of the first things people find out in filmmaking is that the skill isn’t being able to push a red button on a camera. The real skill is in storytelling.” So while our definition has the word “cinema” in it, we’re not talking about the art we’re talking about the hardware. I just want to really hammer that home before the angry comments start.

Also, it should be noted that I’m really only using the C70 as one example here, because my intent is to also use this article to set a framework up for my camera reviews going forward as there’s a bunch of cameras that don’t fit the bill (something like a R5C, Pocket 6K or an FX3 are far further removed from the realm of “cinema camera” for instance) but still make amazing images and I feel like it’s worth the effort to make these distinctions so you, the consumer, can be better informed more easily. Now, all that being said, Greig Fraser, ACS, ASC just shot a little short for Apple with Kathryn Bigelow with the iPhone 13 and was very impressed by it, and recently on a podcast said he’s about to shoot a project on an FX3, so to reiterate: any camera can be a cinema camera if you shoot a movie on it, but not every camera is a “Cinema Camera.” You get what I mean? I can guarantee Greig isn’t shooting Dune Pt.2 on a any of the aforementioned cameras. ANYWAY!

So where does the C70 sit objectively? Is it a “cinema camera” as we’ve been calling it? Seeing as monitoring is a pretty big issue for film sets, and locking ports even more so, the lack of SDI or “proper” power solutions was pretty glaring. It also saves to SD cards which could scare some productions. BUT AS OF NOW THERE IS RAW! plus you have timecode, plenty of DR, a sturdy build quality, internal NDs, and you can easily adapt PL lenses to it. 

After careful consideration, I’m confidently saying the Canon C70 is a “Cinema Quality B-Cam” or by another definition, a perfect video camera for a solo-operator or indie production. The image, codecs, and bitrate are all up to snuff for traditional Television and Film use, but the body just barely isn’t. Does it need to be? No, of course not. Like I said before, any camera is technically a cinema camera if you make a movie with it, but based on our hardware definition it just barely misses the mark. Something like the XF series cameras might have SDI, but the image certainly isn’t as beautiful as the C70 and you’re stuck with that one lens. I think we both know which one we’d go for if given the choice. Going forward I’ll likely come up with more specific or elucidative ways to categorize these cameras, but this article’s already long enough as it is.

With all that out of the way and to start the actual review part of this review, I’ve gotta say I’m a big fan of this camera and it falls right into the same spot that my C100mkII fit when I was doing a lot of work on my own, although it’s packing way more punch than the C100mkII ever did. I think this thing is absolutely killer for any solo operators/indie outfits, certainly music videos, definitely documentaries, events, and obviously as I said, a B-Cam for any existing Canon or even ARRI set as Canons are often used. I’ve spoken at length about my love for the C100mkII, and the C70 is everything that camera was and more. Way more.

First off, the image is fantastic. You can read my review of the C300mkIII as it compares to the C500mkII, and as the C70 has the C300mkIII DGO Sensor in it the image is functionally identical and you’ve still got your 4K 10bit 422 XFAVC codec in MXF wrappers (and now raw). Amazing. The compressed files are incredibly gradable, no macroblocking or anything to speak of, smooth gradations between colors and exposure levels, plenty of latitude and all with a very low noise floor. You’d never know just by pushing the footage around in post that the image came from such an affordable “prosumer” camera. Even cranking the saturation or pushing the curves to absurd limits, you really only see some noise-like artifacts. Obviously it’s going to break at some point, but by my eye it’s hard to get much better “data collection”, especially at this price point.

The body is small with all the re-assignable buttons right at your fingertips, which I adore. It’s got built-in NDs, which for me is a requirement in a modern video camera, as well as built-in Mini XLR jacks which are easy enough to get an adapter or cable with full-sized XLR on the other end. The lens mount is RF which means your lens options are pretty vast, with EF and PL being the obvious standard choices. The RF lenses themselves seem pretty nice, with something like the compact L-Series 24-105mm f4 being a solid all-arounder choice for run and gun event work. I wasn’t given time with it, but I’ve seen the similarly tiny L-Series 24-70mm f2.8 get great reviews and I personally was a fan of the 35mm f1.8 Macro, which focused silently and had OIS like the 24-105mm but with the added benefit of the wide aperture and macro focusing capabilities. It wasn’t an L-Series lens though, and I did notice a touch of green Chromatic Aberration, but nothing horrible. The L-Series 50mm f1.2, by comparison, is an enormous lens and seemed to focus rather loudly, although it did say it needed a firmware update which I didn’t know how to do as I was just borrowing the setup for a couple days. All-in, the RF lenses likely will see some refining but as it stands the optics are fantastic by my eye and the mount itself is clearly the future for Canon (as well as other camera manufacturers), setting the standard as they did with EF.

Auto Focus on this camera can be great given your subject is properly lit. I noticed it would immediately start hunting if I tried to focus on my black cat in some situations, even during the day. My C500mkII doesn’t have this problem, and while different lenses definitely have an affect on AF performance, I was somewhat disappointed in that regard. As with the C500mkII and C300mkIII, the face tracking is blazingly quick and in the C70 seems to also include head tracking, so when your subject turns around it keeps the AF lock. I also noticed you could have 5 or more faces in the frame and it would recognize all of them and give you the option to toggle between them. The C70 also has a sort of “object tracking” mode where you can assign a point to something in the frame and the camera will hold on to that, which is a really cool feature I could see myself using quite often.

The flip-out monitor is small with a high quality display (if a little flimsy feeling), and I enjoy the touchscreen features/UI added to the C70 that are absent from the other offerings from Canon. I’m not the biggest fan of the fixed nature of the monitor, preferring the detachable style of the C500mkII and C300mkIII, but having used the C100mkII extensively I was able to get used to it pretty quickly. I also didn’t have too hard of a time using it outside during the day, although I’d still recommend a shade of some kind to be safe. Direct sunlight would likely overpower it, but I was shooting my brief tests towards golden hour so I was just fine.

As I mentioned, I consider built-in NDs a requirement for any video camera, and one thing I did notice about the C70 was that it swapped between the ND strengths (10 stops in total, in 2-stop increments) lightning quick. My C500 is rather sluggish in that realm, and I really appreciated how quickly I could flip between them on the C70. It doesn’t really matter, but why wait when you don’t have to? You could possibly get away with chopping out those few frames that the edge of the ND is in the shot, whereas on the C500/300 it’d be harder.

In regards to Picture Profiles, I noticed there’s a new feature in the CP menu where you can add (and conform) a LUT to your footage. So let’s say you’ve got a show LUT and you actually want it saved with that look, you can just toggle that on. Oddly enough though, and unlike the C500mkII or C300mkIII, it doesn’t seem to allow you to just monitor with that LUT, you have to bake the look in. In that regard, there’s no custom monitoring LUT option in the regular menu, instead being given three options of BT.709, 1600% HDR Assist, and 400% HDR Assist. Essentially you’re either conforming a Show LUT to the footage, or monitoring with a standard BT709 LUT and applying your look later. Or using an HDMI monitor and putting your LUT on that. Not the end of the world, but another little tick against the “cinema camera-ness” of this camera. That being said, if you added all those “missing” features you’d basically have a C300mkIII, which is double the price.

Based on my brief test I got 41min of 4K XFAVC footage from a 128GB card (which basically lines up with their stated runtime of 156min/512GB Card), with about 200min of runtime on a BP-A30 battery, which isn’t bad. One thing that the C70 shares with my C100mkII is a barrel connector for power, so running a Dtap to DC would be precarious in situations where it could get yanked, such as shooting handheld or in an area with a lot of movement, but will significantly boost your up-time. In any case, if you’re going to be shooting on the C70 (especially now that it can shoot raw) you’ll need to make sure you’re using a V90 card, something like the offerings from Angelbird, ProGrade, Sandisk, Lexar, or similar.

As I mentioned there’s a ton of customizable buttons all over the camera, as is standard with Canon C-Series cameras, and I love that. I’m absolutely one to start heavily manipulating a piece of equipment or software (or anything really) the second I get it to better serve my uses and make the product in question “disappear” leaving way for me to just get the work done, but that being said I only really re-mapped one or two of the buttons on the C70 as most of them are my most-used features already.

I am perplexed by the decision to put a ⅜” thread on the bottom instead of a standard ¼” one. I suppose you could just use an adapter, but still a weird choice considering most consumer/prosumer tripods and gimbals and the like use ¼” plates. There is also a thread on the side so you can easily shoot vertical content, which is a cool consideration. Another thing: I don’t necessarily like the new joystick. The traditional ones from their other C-series cameras are rubbery and seem kind of soft, whereas this one seems to be made of a more solid plastic, but I’ve never had a problem selecting the correct “direction” on the old joysticks, whereas this one will sometimes select as if you pushed it in, or go up/down instead of left/right. Obviously that’s annoying, but they do give you the thumb wheel and the touchscreen which are kind of faster to navigate with anyway. I also, overall, am not a fan of the “DSLR-Style” body although I’ve been told by a few friends that they actually like that so it might just be a “me” thing. I’d much prefer a rotating handle, ala the C100… actually if the C70 was just in the C100 body I’d be thrilled. As it stands the body style makes it kind of hard to rig out without a cage and even then it’s almost too flat, but having seen (for instance) Chris Ray’s setup below, putting a cinema battery on the back kind of elongates it and makes it a more “normal” size, which in that case is a net positive as doing so doesn’t make it annoyingly long. You do have to decide if the monitor is in or out though, if you go that route. Maybe rotated out, pressed up against the side of the battery with an external monitor on top is the move.

Also, apropos of nothing, using a focal length reducer (such as a Speedbooster) doesn’t make the camera “full frame”, I’ve seen too many people say that online. It just makes it so you can use the entire imaging circle of a full frame lens. Your sensor size, obviously, remains the same so you’re not getting the benefit of the extra physical resolution, so to speak, that a FF sensor gives you. You also don’t suddenly get shallower DoF, you’re simply getting the FoV that the lens is intended to show. That’s it. An internet acquaintance of mine, Alex Stone, has a great writeup about Focal Reducer myths here. Alex makes those C500/C300 battery plates I mentioned using on my C500 at the top of the article.

Anyway, there honestly isn’t a lot to dislike about the C70. Certainly some specific things that might trip up higher-budget sets but in general, and especially for solo/doc/indie shooters, this thing is an absolute beast. In that vein, and in-line with my diatribe at the top, I did wonder what a daily content creator might think of this camera, so I given the opportunity and took a minute to hop on the phone with Sawyer Hartman (who just got engaged, congrats bud), a nearly 2 million-subscriber YouTuber/Photographer/Filmmaker who had recently taken the C70 for a test run, to hear his thoughts on it, specifically where he says he found the perfect intersection of video-capable stills cameras and cinema cameras:

A few years ago YouTube gave me a 70D because I had won the YouTube next creator program, the next step program, and I was beside myself excited. And then I won a RED Scarlet in an action film directing contest shortly after that, and then upgraded to an Epic, and that kind of introduced me to the world of cinema cameras, which is, you know, storytelling-wise exactly what I needed. I kept buying every Canon camera that came out just cause I do a lot of reviews, but I was looking for something special; that perfect camera. After that I got my 1DXmkII and that was right when I started traveling the world, shooting a film every day, and for some reason that camera is just right. The video autofocus is flawless. The photo autofocus seems to just always be there. It never has problems. It never overheats… I’ve literally wrecked a motorcycle in Indonesia and slid on my 1DX, 50 feet on the concrete and then stood up and started capturing what had happened on the camera. I never even sent the camera in for any service. That’s when I started getting torn and I would use cinema cameras when I had a shot list and a script and for all other things, which was my career in YouTube, I would use the 1DXmkII.

Then I saw that the C70 was coming out. And that was interesting to me because it was right at the crossroad I needed: it had cinema camera features, with a proper Super35 sensor, but it had built-in NDs. It had all of the features, and LOG, and everything that I knew I loved from all of my time on set, but in a body that was small enough that I could sneak it into Disney if I needed to. So I reached out to Canon and I was like, “Hey” you know, “I’d love to try this camera.” And at first I was trying to use it like an R5 and I almost struggled with it for like two months trying to find its perfect place in my workflow.

And then a project came up for a client that wanted a short film-style commercial. So I decided to start shooting on that camera as if it was my cinema camera and that’s when I really fell in love with it. That’s when I was like “oh wow.” I kind of had that same love that I’d had for the 1DXmkII. It was just kind of a crossroad where, you know, if your needs are more specialized, there might be something more proper for you, but if you’re like me and you need a well-rounded tool that can cover all the bases, it’s almost the obvious choice now.

He further clarified to me what he meant by “shooting as if it were my cinema camera”

I took off my zoom lenses and went straight back to my Cine Primes, I used the adapter which made them “full frame”, I started using Clog, I started making lighting modifications… on a DSLR oftentimes just shoot what’s there, you know? You might pick the right angle, but you just shoot what’s there. And with the C70 I started making little modifications: putting a bounce here, or adding a rim light there, and shooting in Clog and using the preview Sso I could actually see what my grade would look like. Stuff like that made it infinitely… not only easier, but just more efficient. By far, the biggest game-changer for me is the built-in ND filters because I’m shooting on Cine primes with a speed booster in the middle of Hawaii daytime sunlight on Glidecams! The last thing I ever want to do is be messing with a mattebox and filters and different weights. This has literally changed my life where I can walk around, you know, go somewhere with a friend and I can literally just take the one camera with 50mm on it. And I can go from shooting at f12 all the way down to like f1 and I never have to modify the camera. That’s huge for me.

Another thing that was a game changer for me is my ability to run third party professional-level microphones straight into the camera because time is money. Unfortunately on YouTube, especially with what I specialize in, oftentimes time is a commodity you don’t have enough of, so there’s always a risk for me, when I’m shooting, that something will happen with my external recorder. Since I don’t have a dedicated audio guy there to monitor it, when I get home and edit sometimes all my professional audio is just not there. And I’m left with on-board camera, audio across the room with fans on, you know. Now I can take my Sennheiser microphones. I can run them straight into camera!

That’s kind of what I keep pointing at and tiptoeing around is… this is the perfect digital creator’s camera. Like, if you’re a YouTuber like me and you’re not just taking photos everywhere, but you’re actually trying to have a go at making real professional video content, It’s like… this is the one stop shop. This is the one where you don’t need Pelican cases of gear to make it real. You can just pop this thing out, go to work, the battery life’s nuts as well… as you can tell, I’m just a huge fan [laughs]. I think I’ve been let down by so many cameras in the past, I built up my idea of what it could be and then it completely bypassed it like 2, 3 times over.

I then asked him what his Epic isn’t giving him, as a solo creator, that the C70 is.

The Epic is sitting on my wall and everyone’s like, “well, why don’t you use that, it’s beautiful!” And there’s a ton of reasons: First one being audio has to be separate. In-camera audio is just not even a possibility on RED. I fully believe, from my experience of making content online, a lot of [the audience] leaves the room during the video and they’re still listening. We actually gain more information through audio rather than video. So I needed audio first. Another huge component is that the RED camera doesn’t have auto focus! I really enjoy shallow depth of field, so even if I set my focus, oftentimes during the 40 minutes of filming I’ll readjust or lean forward or something, and there’s nothing worse than getting in the editing bay and realizing your entire brand deal is out of focus. That’s what I realized, you know, it’s not just the finished product that’s important to be in focus but as a solo creator I have a ton of jobs: I have to be my own audio guy, I have to be my own camera guy, I have to be my own, you know, tech guy, whatever… but the hardest part is to let all that go and then actually be able to be the personality in it as well. There’s a confidence that you need. It’s a confidence that was given to me by the 1DXmkII. You know, that thing… you could be in the middle of the hail storm, running backwards in the dark and you’ll be in focus. So many other cameras hunt for focus or they have a delay or even for me, the biggest thing is… you know how a lot of cameras “jump” to focus? Or they just rush to focus? The 1DXmkII almost “unfolded” where it looked like, if you blew past your focus point and it came back, it almost looked like an artistic rack. The C70 did that too and that made me so confident as a creator, that I could set up my framing, hit record, step in front of the camera and be very confident that both what I’m saying will be heard and professionally recorded and I’ll be in focus and the camera’s not going to randomly stop recording because of an error. Like those three things, from a technical standpoint, they’re something that most creators don’t know and it’s the reason that creating is hard for them.

Noting that speed seemed to be the name of the game in his work, I asked about his process of grading Clog2 footage as opposed to simply shooting 709.

In all honesty, I’ve done tests, and shooting a Canon Vivid Profile or shooting Log and throwing on the factory 709 LUT, I’ve found that it’s a very comparable image. The Log image is a little less saturated and it has a lot more dynamic range. I actually don’t really like sharp, saturated contrasty video so I just shoot in log with the preview LUT on ‘cause exposing in log can be very difficult for beginners which, you know, I even struggled with my first week with the camera, but then when I realized there’s the preview LUT it changed the game. So for me, it’s not even really part of my workflow, just I edit my project and then the last step is I just copy paste the attributes with the Rec709 factory LUT across the video. Obviously short films are going to be very different, but for the sake of YouTube videos, that’s definitely a great approach. We have a couple of our own little presets that we might add on top, and it might be because of also where we’re filming, just being in Hawaii, but with the C70 we really haven’t seen a need to grade anything beyond the factory LUT.

I then asked what he’d want to see in a theoretical C70mkII. I mentioned SDI at the time, but I’d add a locking power connector too.

Yeah that’d be great… you know, when I’m working on a project, especially if I can only bring one primary camera, I need it to be able to handle everything in the script. So even if it’s only a three second burst record, I would love some sort of 300fps mode, even if it’s just like a one second end trigger. A lot of times in narrative film, especially narrative film that utilizes voice over in the way that I do, that ability to almost freeze time and allow people to see things that usually go by too fast is my favorite tool in my toolbox. Even some of the highest-end RED cameras can’t do that without cropping in like six times.

I was kind of surprised to hear that because the C70 does 120fps in 4K (which my C500mkII doesn’t even do………..) and that seems plenty slow to me. Sawyer clarified:

It’s actually to adjust to what’s going on in the world. What I mean by that is, when everyone’s cameras only did 30 frames, 60 frames was enough. When everyone’s cameras did 60, 120 was enough, but now that everyone’s shooting 120 in order to really like, make an emphasis in the narrative for some kind of visual device, I think you need almost 300 now. If it’s Scorsese and it’s, you know, right before someone gets shot in a Godfather type scene, you need that almost time frozen feel. And 120 is time slowed, not time frozen in my mind.

We spoke a bit more about being in the moment when shooting with non-actors and how the size of the camera or amount of equipment can become intrusive to the point of “scaring off” your subject (something documentary DP’s have echoed multiple times on Frame & Reference) which the C70 doesn’t suffer from, but that brought our conversation to a close.

It was interesting to hear Sawyers perspective on camera technology as it pertains to the “competition” as the biggest moments for me that I can remember, technology wise, were when we got 24p, moved away from tape, and got interchangeable lenses. Everything since then has been a bonus in my mind, and honestly I never really thought about what other folks were doing. 300fps would be awesome to have, sure, but I don’t see myself using it very often. It’s interesting, when we were in film school we were basically taught to ignore the camera itself because it was going to be too expensive to rent (it would have been film, in this case, or a couple years later the RED One) so knowing we just had to work with the camera we had, we mainly focused on lighting, audio, and production design. We absolutely wanted to get hands-on with “real” cameras but couldn’t, instead just using our MiniDV cams as best we could. It kind of makes sense, then, that amazing cameras being so affordable has made the upcoming generation (or perhaps the “YouTube crowd” lets say) so camera-centric as it’s where the excitement is. Lighting techniques have been the same forever, more or less, but the quality of images from just upgrading a camera alone has exponentially increased every year even since I graduated college a decade ago. Back then the best camera you could get at an “affordable” price point was (arguably) the AF100!

To that end I’ve noticed, and Sawyer kind of touched on it telling me his field is becoming saturated, that the aforementioned YouTube community is becoming restless with camera technology, and I wonder if that has to do with the fact that there’s not a lot “new” happening. There was the race for higher resolution, that’s behind us, the race for higher frame rates, that’s largely put to bed, we’ve got raw recording internally in most cases, so there’s that… there’s just not a lot to do now except… shoot your film. Let’s hope that’s the next wave. With cameras like the C70 out and in peoples hands, there’s absolutely no excuse! And on the higher end, now that every image can be “perfect”, we really need to start thinking about where that camera’s being placed; what we’re doing with composition, what that’s saying. Start exploring more but remembering the fundamentals. It feels like digital cinematography can lead to a lot of “sameness” but also a lot of “unnecessary exuberance”, we could call it. The ability to move fast and shoot long with digital acquisition doesn’t seem to have, in many cases, given us time to think and experiment and go dreamy with it and instead just makes people want things faster, or work without a solid vision. “Cover the hell out of the scene and we’ll figure it out later” is certainly something I’ve heard, which isn’t how you make something with intent. These new technologies, camera or otherwise, also seems to have given some people the opportunity to over-complicate their project since you can now easily get super stable sweeping shots, drone shots, crazy lighting… in my conversation with DP Andrew Wheeler for Frame & Reference, he mentioned a quote from Gordon Willis, ASC where he talks about doing things simply (but not simplistically). I think that’s a great thing to keep in mind now that we have all these fancy tools. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should. We used to really struggle for added production value (remember the kid from Super 8?), but that was because we were battling against cheap looking cameras and limited tools in post. Today? Wholly different world. That production value is gonna come from Production Design, Costuming, considered lighting and great casting not gimbals, vfx, and hyper-real visuals. At least in my mind. And obviously there are cases where you NEED those things! I’m just speaking generally and musing, not prescribing. 

Anyway, just some thoughts to leave you with. I hope this writeup has been informative or at least entertaining to some degree. The C70 is great, you’re great, film is great, technology is great… let’s make some great things this year, shall we?

The Expert RAW app for the Galaxy S21 Ultra brings 16-bit RAW support for all cameras and allows for manual control of all lenses, a feature that will be available for other Samsung smartphones too.

First announced last November, the Expert RAW app takes, according to Samsung, the power of the Galaxy S21 Ultra to even greater levels of epic. The app is only compatible with the Galaxy S21 Ultra running Android 12 for now, but Samsung says it will be available for other models in the future. The app, which has only been available in Korea, through the Galaxy Store, will also be available worldwide. An updated version of the app will be available on January 22, so maybe we will see Expert RAW being available for users in other countries besides Korea.

To promote the Expert RAW app Samsung released a video with wildlife photographer Shaaz Jung, showing how the photographer uses a Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G and tames the unpredictable beauty of nature and masters its imagery with a few taps. ProVideo Coalition readers will remember that last month Samsung released a video of wildlife photographer Yashas Narayan tracking and photographing tigers with help from his Galaxy S21 Ultra, for a documentary created in partnership with Discovery, as part of the Capture the World With Galaxy S21 series.

In the new video, wildlife photographer Shaaz Jung talks about the experience, and says that because in a safari “your subject could be as large as an elephant, or as small as a spider” the Expert RAW app is a welcome addition to the options available. “Switching between the lenses is important and now with this app, I have full control of my settings with each of these camera lenses” he says, adding that it’s “an absolute game-changer, especially for smaller subjects”. Furthermore, he adds, “the best part of the app is that it saves the photographs as linear DNG 16-bit RAW files”, and that Expert RAW “is also well-integrated with Lightroom and allows you to edit your pictures with ease.”

A real optical 10x telephoto reaching 240mm

With a price around $1200, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G costs more than some real cameras, a price that may deter those who, more than a smartphone, want a portable camera to carry with them all the time. Still, if you don’t want or need to compare smartphone pixels with those from regular cameras, than maybe this is a solution to consider, as the Galaxy S21 Ultra offers one of the most versatile camera setups available, including a real optical 10x telephoto (periscope type) able to reach 240mm, besides a real 3x telephoto (72mm), both paired with 10MP sensors, and the usual wide-angle, at 24mm, working with the 108MP sensor, and the 13mm (ultrawide) with a 12Mp sensor.

Covering, whit the quartet of lenses/sensors a focal range from 13 to 240mm, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G also does video at 8K@24fps, 4K@30/60fps, 1080p@30/60/240fps and 720p@960fps. Here are some of the features of the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra:

• The S21 Ultra has one of the most versatile camera setups, with real 3x and 10x optical zoom that bring faraway subjects closer. With the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s powerful zoom functionality, you can also reach 100x – called Space Zoom -, which includes 10x Hybrid Optic Zoom and 100x digital zoom with AI Super Resolution technology. Be aware that zooming in past 10x – which is already an exciting 240mm equivalent – may cause some image deterioration, Samsung warns.
• The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s next-level camera comes with a function that helps even the most amateur of photographers produce high-quality shots – Pro Mode. Pro Mode lets you calibrate your camera’s shutter speed, contrast, saturation, ISO value and more manually, meaning that you can capture near-professional-level photos, all without the need for any external professional help or other equipment.
• The Galaxy S21 Ultra also features a Pro Video function. Pro Video lets you adjust your camera’s resolution to a stunning 8K, as well as manage the camera’s focus to be on your desired subject when shooting and even choose which direction you are recording sound from as you go, so you can be sure that your video recording is high-quality.

The upcoming Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G will also feature, it seems, the same lens quartet, meaning Samsung has found the ideal compromise for the moment in terms of camera.

ZEISS will kick off their 2022 virtual Film Festival Week today, Friday, January 21 with an in-depth roundtable featuring six cinematographers. The festival is is free of charge.

The pandemic does not stop film festivals from happening. Here is another example:  ZEISS will kick off their 2022 virtual Film Festival Week on Friday, January 21 with an in-depth roundtable featuring six cinematographers—each with a project screening at the Park City festival. Guest cinematographers and their selected films include: Melinda James, Work; Charlotte Hornsby, Master; Alex Disenhof, ASC, Alice; Andrew Wheeler, God’s Country; Jordan Parrott, Chaperone, and Wyatt Garfield, Resurrection.

Moderator Snehal Patel will talk to the filmmakers about their selected films’ including workflow, creative choices and more, followed by a lively Q&A with the audience. The free event will be held at 12 pm PST/3 pm EST.

ZEISS Film Festival Week continues Tuesday, January 25 (12 pm PST/3 pm EST) with featured guest cinematographer, Matthew Chuang, ACS. The artist’s captivating immersion into the horror genre with You Won’t Be Alone, (Focus Pictures) will make its world-premiere at Sundance 2022. Known for exquisitely crafted features, music videos and award-winning commercials, Chaung will cover creative choices and technical solutions for the new entry as well as previous works including The Babadook and The Nightingale. Also on the agenda is his collaboration with director Allen Hughes on the five-part FX Network and Disney documentary series Outlaw: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur, scheduled for spring release.

Tony Wisniewski, ZEISS Senior Manager of Marketing, adds “Although most years we are on the ground in full support of the Park City worldwide event, we are enthusiastic about this year’s Film Festival Week. Now the audience can enjoy virtual festival closeups with cinematographers who speak candidly about their projects which are honored official selections of the Park City festival.”

ZEISS Film Festival Week is free of charge. Follow the link to register for the January 21 Cinematographers Roundtable. Follow this other link to register for the Matthew Chaung event visit.

Frame & Reference is a conversation between Cinematographers hosted by DP and PVC Contributing writer Kenny McMillan. Each episode dives into the respective DP’s current and past work, as well as what influences and inspires them. These discussions are an entertaining and informative look in to the world making films through the lens of the people who shoot them. You can listen to Frame & Reference where all the best podcasts are listened to like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. Each episode can also be found in video form on YouTube. Follow Frame & Reference on Twitter and Instagram for more content, and check your favorite app every Thursday for new episodes.

Today, Kenny is talking to Tommy Jackson, the creator of “Last of Us: Ellie’s Revenge.” Adapted from the extremely popular “Last of Us” video game franchise, “Last of Us: Ellie’s Revenge” has racked up more than a million views on YouTube. He then followed it up with “Last of Us: They Will Come“. In this episode, Kenny and Tommy talk about the process of creating a fan short, the struggles of creating in the traditional Hollywood system and about the gear they use to create. Enjoy the episode!

Experienced editors know the value of minimizing clicking and keystrokes: they can edit faster and focus more on crafting a story instead of getting caught up in a lot of button-pushing. If you are able to execute a certain command that you may do hundreds of times a day in two clicks instead of three, the time saved adds up quickly.

While there are keyboard shortcuts available for many of the tools (e.g. Select, Zoom, Trim) and “modes” (e.g., skimming, snapping) in Final Cut Pro that make it faster to switch tools or modes than it would be to click an icon or select from a drop-down menu, there’s another option that is even faster: pressing and holding a key to temporarily invoke the tool or the “mode”, performing the action, then releasing the key to return to your original tool or “mode” without needing another click or keystroke.

In this week’s MacBreak Studio, I demonstrate this “press & hold” technique for all 7 of Final Cut’s tools and 3 of its “modes”. For example, rather than switching to the Trim tool to perform a roll edit (or a slip or slide edit) and then switching back to the Select tool, you can press and hold the T key, make your edit with the mouse, and release the T key to return to the select tool. Not only does this technique save a keystroke, it also saves you from accidentally making another trim edit because you forgot that the Trim tool was still active.

By memorizing a few keystrokes that are usually closely related to the actions they perform (e.g. Z for Zoom, H for Hand, S for Skimming) and using them with the press & hold technique, you’ll find yourself editing faster, using the mouse less often, and probably enjoying editing more. If you have a favorite time-saving editing technique in Final Cut Pro, leave a comment. I’ve already learned one from a viewer that I never knew: double-tapping the touchpad on your MacBook Pro, instead of pressing Shift-Z, will fit the timeline to the window!

A week or so back we were lucky enough to spend the afternoon with the Canon EOS R5C, the latest addition to the Canon EOS line of cinema cameras. Now, we only had the camera for a few hours so we didn’t get to do everything that we wanted but we were able to test out some of the most exciting features including both 8K 60p RAW Lite & 4K 120p recording, time-lapse shooting and some of the stills mode functions. We were shooting with a pre production model so there might be some changes to the camera before it officially hits the market in March of this year. With that disclaimer out of the way, lets dive into the camera and our thoughts! 

As mentioned, the R5C supports internal 8K 60p RAW recording. For you R5 shooters, you know the frustration around limited recording time and with the R5C Canon has acted! The internal cooling fan gives you the ability to shoot uninterrupted 8K 60p so you no longer have to worry about recording shut off in the middle of a take. In our time shooting we ran into no issues with fan noise though we were outside at a skatepark and a lake with lots of noisy birds.

Now the footage we shot in 8K 60p was pretty clean. Honestly we might have slightly missed focus on our shots and we were fighting the Sun so its hard to judge without having a bit more time to dial in our shots. We were shooting handheld and took note of the electronic image stabilization. It was impressive to see how little shake was picked up with the IS enabled.

We also took some time to shoot 4K 120p of the water feature and swan boats at Echo Park lake. Because we were trying to shoot under the radar we didn’t have a wide array of lenses at our disposal. But we weren’t out of luck! With the full frame sensor of the R5C we were able to punch in and shoot super 16 to get the glimmer of the falling water and the action out on the lake.

Next, we tried out the time-lapse function where we shot 1 frame every 5 seconds over a 20 minute period to get a few seconds of footage. We’re not time-lapse experts but found it to be super easy to set up. We also liked that we could preview the clip in camera without having to use a stitcher in post. 

Of course we had to try out the stills mode on the R5C. Canon has made it super easy to switch from video to stills mode with the toggle switch at the top of the camera. There is a bit of a delay as the camera boots up, we timed it at about 4 seconds, so be wary of trying to quickly switch from stills to video to capture a time sensitive frame. 

In stills mode we tried out continuous shooting in the silent electronic shutter mode so as to not disturb the ducks and geese as they fed on some water plants. The R5C is a more than capable stills camera with a 45 megapixel full frame CMOS sensor and Digic X processor. We captured some great shots of the birds that, even when we punched in, looked amazing.

Now the R5C is certainly an impressive hybrid camera, but like every camera there are some things that we don’t love. To start, the R5C uses LP-E6NH batteries. Though they are very easy to get (and not too expensive) the R5C chews through them in very short order. Shooting 8K 60p we found that we went through a battery in around 30min and over the 3 hours we were shooting we went through about 4 batteries. There are some solutions, for example the R5 battery grip is compatible with the R5C. If you are looking to power the camera off of cinema batteries you can use the Anton Bauer D-Tap to DC in which we hope to test in the coming months! 

We also found the flip out screen to be a bit small. If you plan to use this as a cinema camera we suggest getting an external monitor like the Atomos Ninja V. The added bonus of using an external monitor is 8K RAW via the micro HDMI port which is a great to have.

Speaking of micro HDMI, the other IOs on the R5C are; USB-C port which you can use to power the camera, 3.5mm mic jack, headphone jack, PC sync and a timecode port. In our conversation with Canon they stressed that the time code port only works (currently) with Canare time code cables and not with the Blackmagic cables. 

Staying on the topic of the R5C body, there are 13 programable buttons. Over all the shape of the camera is pleasant and it fits nicely into your hand. Its also very light at just 2.97lbs and is just slightly deeper than the R5 as it does have that added cooling system. There are two memory card slots which can take a CFExpress 2.0 type B and a SD card. If you are shooting any high frame rate footage, make sure to get a V90 SD card! You can read more about why you should use V90s here.

Overall we were really impressed by the R5C. We always like to think about who a camera is “made for” and for this one we see it hitting a few different types of creators. For the traditional filmmaker, this is a more than capable cine camera. For someone shooting stills, who perhaps want to dabble in video, the R5C certainly does the trick with its photo capabilities. Over all we see this as a great hybrid camera for the modern content creator. Its versatile yet extremely powerful and an absolutely welcome addition to the already stellar line of Canon cinema cameras. You can pre order the R5C today from Filmtools, it is priced at $4,499 and is expected to ship in March. 

With three new models added to the award-winning fluid head built for speed, Sachtler confirms that that camera operators with heavier payloads up to 16kg can use its flowtech tripod range.

The new aktiv10T, aktiv12T and aktiv14T 100mm fluid heads bring the speed and control benefits of aktiv to camera operators with heavier payloads up to 16kg.  The revolutionary aktiv fluid head – with SpeedLevel and SpeedSwap technology – allows camera operators to mount, level and lock the head in seconds and to switch quickly from tripod, slider or hand-held shots in an instant to capture the widest range of shots in the shortest time.

“With the addition of these three new fluid heads, together with our flowtech tripod range, the world’s fastest camera support systems are now available to a wider range of camera operators than ever before.” said Barbara Jaumann, product manager – Vitec Production Solutions. “Camera operators with heavier payloads can now set-up faster and be more flexible. The aktiv12T and aktiv14T heads have a greater payload range and more counterbalance steps than the DV12 and Video15 heads that they will replace in the Sachtler range. More flexibility and control means that operators gain more time to capture the perfect shot.”

The latest additions expand the aktiv fluid head range with three additional models, aktiv10T, aktiv12T and aktiv14T. The heads are compatible with all Sachtler 100mm tripods (except for HotPod) and all feature the popular Sachtler ‘Touch & Go’ camera plate to quickly attach and release a camera. All aktiv heads support payloads starting from 0kg, and the three new models support up to 12kg for the aktiv10T, 14kg for the aktiv12T and 16kg for the aktiv14T and all feature 15 steps of counterbalance and 7 steps of drag making the heads ideal to work quickly with heavier payloads in electronic newsgathering, cinematography, and documentary productions.

Quickly switch between a tripod or a slider

Just like the existing 75mm aktiv fluid heads, the 100mm aktiv heads feature Sachtler’s unique SpeedLevel technology – which replaces time-consuming bowl clamps – allowing operators to release, level, and lock their head tightly into the perfect position by simply lifting a lever never missing a second of action.  With no bowl clamp required, aktiv heads, combined with flowtech tripods, can go flat to the ground for the perfect low-angle shot.  Clear confirmation that the camera is level comes from the illuminated PrismBubble visible both from above and the side, making levelling easy even when the camera is positioned above the operator.

With the aktiv system’s revolutionary SpeedSwap feature, operators can quickly switch their camera between a tripod or a slider in seconds to capture shots that have previously been unavailable with limited time.

“The speed of set up of the flowtech and aktiv system is beyond anything that I’ve ever used.” Said Geoff Nelson, lighting cameraman.  “The aktiv series and flowtech combination really has no competitor; the flowtech tripod is ready in seconds and the levelling system of the aktiv 14T is lightning fast.”

Like all Sachtler camera support systems, aktiv is tested in extreme ranges of temperature and humidity and precision-engineered using quality materials to the industry renowned Sachtler standard.

The 100mm Sachtler aktiv fluid head range is priced from £2,150 (+/-$2,900) and can now be pre-ordered from Sachtler resellers as a head only or as part of a flowtech system.

Designed as a solution to moments when there is no second chance to get a shot, the NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S makes a nice pair with the Nikon Z 9. Price for the lens? $13,999.95.

A high performance super-telephoto prime lens for the Nikon Z system, the NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S is a fast S-line lens that arrives just in time to complement the unstoppable potential of the Nikon Z 9, and opens creative possibilities for professionals photographing sports and wildlife where there is no room for compromise on extreme reach and incredible sharpness.

The NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S is the lightest lens of its type, engineered with superb balance, intuitive controls and weather sealing suitable for professional use, according to Nikon. This lens is also the first to employ Nikon’s newly developed optical technologies such as a Silky Swift Voice Coil Motor (SSVCM), enabling high-speed, high accuracy AF with near-silent operation. This new S-Line lens also features Nikon’s new Meso Amorphous Coat, which offers the highest anti-reflection capabilities in NIKKOR history.

The Silky Swift Voice Coil Motor is a new AF drive system actuator that combines a voice coil motor (VCM) and a guide mechanism developed by Nikon. The voice coil motor is a motor in which a coil reciprocates in a strong magnetic field created by a strong magnet. The system comes with a word of warning: Do not use this product if you have a pacemaker or use other medical devices. The magnets in this product could cause medical devices to malfunction.

Built in 1.4x teleconverter

“Nikon’s engineers continue to bring new and exciting advancements to image creators and working professionals. Immediately following the extraordinary response to the Z 9, the NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S lens features the latest technologies resulting from our expertise in optical engineering,” said Jay Vannatter, Executive Vice President, Nikon Inc. “The customers for this lens often find themselves in situations where there is no second chance to get a shot; this lens takes full advantage of new technologies made possible by the Z mount and gives professional shooters an edge to capture the decisive moment with remarkable image quality, under any kind of light.”

Nikon says that the NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S has unprecedented rendering capabilities, combined with a myriad of new optical technologies that enhance the image quality and performance. The lens features a constant f/2.8 aperture that provides “stellar low-light capabilities as well as beautiful bokeh and subject isolation from the background. For extended reach, this is the first NIKKOR Z lens to utilize a built in 1.4x teleconverter to instantly increase the focal length to 560mm. This feature allows photographers to seamlessly adjust as an athlete moves downfield, or to capture environmental and close-up shots of nature without changing lenses or positions.”

Price and availability

Primary features of the NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S:

• A built-in 1.4x teleconverter enables a seamless and rapid switch from a 400mm to a 560mm focal length, using a switch conveniently located close to the camera operator’s right hand. The increase in focal length can be made without changing posture to avoid disturbing wildlife, while minimizing the intrusion of dust often associated with conventional teleconverter assembly.  For even more reach, the lens also accepts Z TELECONVERTERS TC-1.4x and TC-2x for a maximum reach of 784mm and 1120mm, respectively.
• The lightest lens of its type with a built in teleconverter, weighing in at approximately 6.5lbs (2950 g), which is nearly two pounds lighter (approx. 20% less) than the NIKKOR AF-S 400mm f/2.8FL ED VR. The use of Fluorite elements also contribute to its reduced weight.
• The newly developed Meso Amorphous Coat offers the best anti-reflection performance in NIKKOR lens history. Regardless of the directions of incident light, this advanced new coating offers an anti-reflection effect that’s superior to that of Nano Crystal Coat, greatly suppressing ghosting and flaring caused by incident light from various directions.
• The new SSVCM enables fast, highly accurate, quiet AF control, and is optimized to move large elements with the utmost precision. The SSVCM works in conjunction with a new guide mechanism that enables the elements to move smoothly, further increasing accuracy.
• The lens construction consists of 25 elements in 19 groups; two ED glass elements, a super-ED glass element, two lightweight fluorite lens elements and an SR lens element are incorporated in the optical formula, helping to compensate for aberrations effectively, including chromatic aberration.
• Built-in Vibration Reduction (VR) provides up to 5.5 stops of compensation, even when the built-in teleconverter is in use. Synchro VR is available when paired with the Nikon Z 9.
• Designed with a rugged magnesium alloy body and robust weather sealing on various portions including movable parts of the lens barrel and a rubber gasket around the lens mount, ensuring superior dust- and drip-resistant performance. Additionally, a fluorine coat with antifouling performance is applied to the surface of the front element, repelling water droplets and dust.
• Offers multiple customizable function buttons, including a control ring and a new Fn Ring that can recall a focus position quickly with the Memory Recall function.

The NIKKOR Z 400mm f/2.8 TC VR S lens will be available in late February 2022 for a suggested retail price (SRP) $13,999.95.

Today Canon announced a firmware update for the EOS C70 4K Digital Cinema Camera with the added feature of Cinema RAW Light internal recording and Frame and Interval recording modes. With the announcement of the Canon EOS R5 C, the Canon C70 needed a feature update to keep in line with the raw recording capabilities of all EOS Cinema Cameras.

EOS C70 Cinema RAW Light Internal Recording

The addition of Cinema RAW Light internal recording to the EOS C70 camera further enhances the recording capabilities of a powerful digital camera. This compact cinema camera can now capture 12-bit Cinema RAW Light internally to compatible SD cards. Cinema RAW Light captures the widest dynamic range from the Dual Gain Output sensor (16+ stops total) and allows the most flexibility to grade captured content. Three quality settings of Cinema RAW Light will make their way into the EOS C70 via the firmware update. The settings are: RAW HQ (high quality), RAW ST (standard quality), and RAW LT (light recording). All three modes are 12-bit regardless of frame rate. Lastly, Cinema RAW Light is compatible with Proxy and Double-Slot recording.

Frame and Interval Recording Modes

The addition of Frame and Interval Recording modes is a direct result of user feedback, and adds even more recording flexibility to the EOS C70 camera by allowing easy creation of stop motion and time-lapse sequences when recording in the XF-AVC and MP4 formats. Frame recording is for stop motion capture, and every press of the record button captures a user-determined number of frames. Interval Recording sets the interval and number of frames to be captured for time-lapse sequences. Both recording modes help operators further tell their story in a more creative and inspiring form and are easy to use.

The firmware update will be available for download in March 2022

Canon is doing something interesting. They listened to customers and responded by releasing a mirrorless camera capable of recording non-stop, uninterrupted full-frame 8K/60p. And, they’re doing it for a price less expensive than anyone else’s mirrorless 8K/30p cameras, by quite a bit. Today, Canon finally announced the long-awaited EOS R5 C Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera. The EOS R5 C is the first Canon camera to provide internal 8K (8192×4320) 60P Cinema RAW Light recording.

Canon EOS R5 C Highlight Features:

• Internal Full-Frame 8K (8192×4320) 60P Cinema RAW Light recording
• Active Cooling System
• HFR up 120fps at 4K in 4:2:2 10-bit without cropping
• 3 Raw 12-bit recording options
  • RAW HQ (high quality)
  • RAW ST (standard quality)
  • RAW LT (light recording)
• Estimated retail price of $4499.00
• 2.9K crop for S16mm shooting

The key to the new Canon EOS R5 C camera is the built-in cooling fan. The dedicated cooling fan did force the design of the Canon EOS R5 C to be a bit bigger than the original Canon R5 but adds uninterrupted 8K/60p. I consider the larger size and inclusion of the dedicated cooling fan quite the addition, if I may, and worth it. 

Yet, the Canon EOS R5 C camera is not just a fan + R5; oh no, it is much more than anything that simplistic. In fact, the Canon EOS R5 C inherits features from Canon’s EOS Cinema Camera system. The EOS Cinema Camera system includes frame per second choices from 1 frame to the chosen resolution max frame per second, 1 – max fps. Whereas, the Canon R5 has 8K frame rate choices like 29.97p, 24p, and 23.98p.

Canon EOS R5 C HFR

The EOS R5 C camera can record High Frame Rate (HFR) video up to 120P at 4K resolution in 4:2:2 10-bit without cropping the sensor. Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF is functional even in HFR shooting. During HFR shooting, the EOS R5 C camera can record WAV audio as a separate file from video, definitely a handy feature. Of note, Canon’s Dual Pixel CMOS AF is more than likely to be functional at “common” frame rates.

Anamorphic Shooting

The Canon EOS R5 C Camera supports anamorphic shooting as well. The anamorphic setting uses the entire sensor and gives users a de-squeeze in the LCD Monitor and EVF for easy monitoring anamorphic shooting. This setting makes anamorphic monitoring easier only and does not change which section of the sensor to record. De-squeeze options are 1.3x, 1.8x, and 2x anamorphic viewing.

Image Stabilization

The Canon EOS R5 C utilizes internal digital image stabilization like the original Canon R5. Meaning, the digital image stabilization setting in 8K RAW shooting settings will not be available since the entire 8K (8192×4320) is recorded. In 4K settings, the digital image stabilization settings will be “on,” and “enhanced.” I found these settings more than adequate on the original Canon R5 and expect them to be just as capable on the Canon EOS R5 C. 

RAW Light

As I am told by Canon, the dynamic range on the Canon EOS R5 C is expected to match that of the Canon C500 Mark II. The EOS R5 C comes with CLog 3. Additionally, Cinema RAW Light also matches up with other Canon Cinema EOS cameras, such as the EOS C300 Mark III and EOS C500 Mark II. This feature captures the sensor’s full dynamic range and provides video data optimized for advanced grading and HDR in a more manageable file size than Cinema RAW. Cinema RAW Light now has three newly-developed modes, RAW HQ (high quality), RAW ST (standard quality), and RAW LT (light recording). All three modes are 12-bit regardless of frame rate. The EOS R5 C can also record 8K video in MP4 format, ideal for quicker delivery.

The EOS R5 C supports RAW output via HDMI for ProRes RAW recording with a compatible external recorder. Currently, the only compatible external recorder is the Atomos Ninja V+. The Atomos Ninja V+ can record in Apple ProRes RAW at up to 8K/30P on the Canon R5 C. Proxy data can also be simultaneously recorded to an SD card in-camera, helping to provide efficient post-production operations. 

Timecode

Timecode! I almost forgot. The Canon EOS R5 C comes with a dedicated Timecode terminal allowing multi-camera shooting/syncing. For those of us who shoot with more than one camera, Yep, that is me on nearly every shooter, the inclusion of a timecode terminal is a thing of beauty.

All these features are great for a mirrorless video camera but, remember, the Canon EOS R5 C is also a 45MP stills camera and is more than capable within the world of still photography. The Canon EOS R5 C comes with a dedicated switch to change from still photography to motion.

Stills Photography

With the flip of a switch, the EOS R5 C becomes a familiar force to be reckoned with as a still photography camera. Canon’s 45-megapixel high resolution, high-speed full-frame CMOS sensor, paired with the equally impressive DIGIC X image processor, provides users an ISO range of 100-51200; expandable to 102400. Precise focus and lightning-fast speed are cornerstones of the EOS R5 C, featuring Dual Pixel CMOS AF II and high-speed continuous shooting of up to 12 frames-per-second (fps) in mechanical shutter mode and up to 20 fps in silent electronic shutter mode. 

This allows users to track and photograph split-second movements of even the most elusive subjects. With EOS iTR AF X and 1,053 Automatic AF zones, it is easier than ever to photograph people using Eye, Face and Head Detection AF, or intuitively track the whole body, face, or eye of cats, dogs, or birds with Animal Detection AF. For those needing speed, the camera also offers vehicle subject detection to track cars and motorcycles accurately, especially in race-type environments. Connectivity like 5GHz and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity is also included to transfer still images.

Additional Features of the Canon EOS R5 C Camera Include:

• Supports 8K HDR recording in Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) and Perceptual Quantization (PQ) formats
• 4K and 2K oversampling with high-definition debayer algorithm that processes RGB data of the 8K sensor with less incidence of moiré, false colors, and noise
• XF-AVC codecs offer robust 10-bit 4:2:2 files in a .MXF wrapper for simple compatibility with non-linear editing systems (NLEs) and existing workflows
• Canon Log 3, which is found in many Canon cinema products, is available for a wider range of grading after shooting
• Coordinated image stabilization (with Canon lenses equipped with optical IS) helps to correct hand-shake and better anti-vibration performance than electronic IS alone
• Timecode terminal allowing for multi-camera shooting
• Canon’s next-generation Multi-Function Shoe is compatible with a variety of accessories, such as an optional TASCAM CA-XLR2d-C XLR microphone adapter (sold separately) for up to 4-channel digital audio
• RF mount provides access to the expanding lineup of Canon RF lenses, as well as the full lineup of EF lenses (adapter required)
• Compatible with Canon’s new RF 5.2mm 2.8 L Dual Fisheye lens allowing for stereoscopic 180° VR video capture
• 13 marked, assignable buttons allow for user-friendly customized operation
• Compact-and-lightweight at 1.7 lbs. (body only) 
• 3.2-inch variable-angle LCD monitor and high-definition 5.76 million-dot viewfinder
• Dual card slots: one CFexpress and one SD UHS-II
• USB Video Class (UVC) connectivity, enabling out of the box use as a streaming video camera
• A new DC Coupler DR-E6C helps to provide the continuous power needed for the demands of shooting in Cinema RAW Light at high framerates

It seems like Canon made a camera equally capable as a stills camera as it is a video camera. What do you think? I think I’d quite like the ability to shoot 8K/60p. Even right now, as I am mid-shoot on a documentary, I shoot a lot of 8K whenever I can, and I’d love the option to shoot my 60p at 8K too.

Canon EOS R5 C Pricing and Availability

The Canon EOS R5 C Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera is scheduled to be available March 2022 for an estimated retail price of $4499.00. For more information please visit, usa.canon.com

An international crime adventure, “Red Notice”, now on Netflix, is set in exotic locations around the world, mostly shot on a back lot in Atlanta, and then graded to the right tone in DaVinci Resolve Studio.

The pandemic has changed the way movies are produced and Red Notice is another example of the challenges faced by filmmakers. Shot by Markus Förderer, ASC, the film is set in exotic locations around the world including Rome, Valencia and the jungles of Argentina. The truth, though, is that despite the international plot line most of the crew never left the United States, as the film had to be scheduled to shoot during a point in the pandemic when international travel, much less film production, was not possible.

“We had to rethink how to shoot our globetrotting movie,” said Markus Förderer. “Without the ability to travel internationally, we ended up building the majority of our sets on very large stages and on a back lot in Atlanta. These scenes were always intercut with wide establishing shots we were able to capture with a reduced crew on the actual locations around the world.”

Blackmagic Design notes, in the information now made available, that Volpatto and Förderer were comfortable in the collaboration, having worked together on five previous films. “I really like the style of his work and the way he works,” said Volpatto. In early discussions, Förderer and Director Rawson Marshall Thurber established a color palette with red, gold and warm brown tones to complement the spectacular locations in the script. Volpatto found two scenes specifically to be a motivation for the range of the looks.

The pandemic style shooting

“A lot of the action takes place inside the ‘Red Room,’” said Volpatto. “The room itself and Gal Gadot’s red dress had to read a very pure red. We had the opposite look in a Russian jail, where it’s literally a cold place and would have a cooler color palette. So, there are these two major colors popping up throughout the movie.” Early camera tests helped Volpatto and Förrderer create a single show LUT in DaVinci Resolve Studio that helped shape the various tones while helping represent skin tones in a gentle, natural way.

“We both like to prepare a look ahead of time in Resolve so that Markus can work on set almost as if he was shooting a customized film stock, setting the lighting with the characteristics of that single LUT in mind instead of carrying multiple LUTs,” said Volpatto. “He only has to think about his light meter and the lights, and he doesn’t even have to look at the monitor. It’s closer to the work method cinematographers used to use, where they would get to know everything about a particular stock, and then they would know exactly how to get the look they want for that stock. For the final grade, we sit together and shape the scenes and adjust the details. But the overall attributes of the image are set in advance so we’re not reinventing the wheel in the final grade.”

Despite the pre planning, the pandemic style shooting they were forced to adapt to created challenges at every level, including the grade. “Instead of being in a location with all the main talent, where you shoot and then go to a different location, they often filmed in different sections,” said Volpatto. “Some scenes were shot on location, but then after the pandemic hit, elements were shot in Atlanta, and then some more sections were added with some pickups.”

A seamless marriage of VFX and non VFX shots

The result was the need for far more VFX than initially anticipated. “Sometimes they’d have to shoot without extras and then shoot the extras and composite them and the backgrounds in as effects,” added Volpatto. The approach also affected scheduling. “Sometimes they were doing part of a scene with one actor because the other one was busy doing something else. So, they might shoot all the shots for Gal Gadot and then all the shots of Dwayne Johnson, and then we’d have to blend them together,” he said.

While VFX handled a lot of the compositing, Volpatto found himself blending elements to create a seamless marriage of VFX and non VFX shots. “We may have shots that were shot beautifully but would still need work to blend together with the surrounding material. A lot was done in VFX and sent to us as we did the color, but we used some tools to just refine looks when different parts of the same scene had been shot many months apart.”

Using DaVinci Resolve Studio, Volpatto was able to create a P3 format project while also reviewing quickly for high dynamic range (HDR). “The Color Space Transform in Resolve allowed me to look at the P3 and the HDR of the same image with literally a couple of clicks. So, I could do a color correction for a scene then review it immediately in HDR and do whatever necessary trims I needed to do,” he said.

The magic of Color Space Transform

Using in house collaboration tools also helped Volpatto work quickly and efficiently, even as the expansive pickups and VFX shots continued to come in. “My finishing editor Chris Doerr and I both worked on the same project within Resolve, which meant he was able to very quickly flag any shots that were going to be replaced, drop in the replacements and take care of some of the small VFX work that finishing editors do. He was on a workstation where he only had access to the Rec. 709 version, but I could immediately look at the new shot in my theater, and by using the Color Space Transform, I could immediately see the new shot in Rec. 709, P3 and HDR without having to drop in LUTs or do anything else to the node tree. I just had to adjust the outputs in the Color Space Transform. It was very efficient. We never had to stop working for a moment,” he concluded.

As mentioned before, “Red Notice” follows FBI profiler John Hartley (Dwayne Johnson) as he pursues art thief Nolan Booth (Ryan Reynolds). Hartley must partner with Booth to catch “The Bishop” (Gal Gadot), an elusive art thief herself who is attempting to steal a trio of priceless bejeweled artifacts known as Cleopatra’s Eggs. “Red Notice” is streaming now on Netflix.

Frame & Reference is a conversation between Cinematographers hosted by DP and PVC Contributing writer Kenny McMillan. Each episode dives into the respective DP’s current and past work, as well as what influences and inspires them. These discussions are an entertaining and informative look in to the world making films through the lens of the people who shoot them. You can listen to Frame & Reference where all the best podcasts are listened to like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. Each episode can also be found in video form on YouTube. Follow Frame & Reference on Twitter and Instagram for more content, and check your favorite app every Thursday for new episodes.

On todays episode of the Frame & Reference podcast, Kenny talks to cinematographer Claudia Raschke about the documentaries “Julia” and “Fauci.” You might also know Claudia from her work on films like “RBG” and “Coup 53.” Claudia is a fellow Canon C500 MKII shooter, like Kenny, so make sure to listen if you are into some camera talk!

See more of Claudias work on her Website and on her IMDb

A devastating fire on 15 April 2019, destroyed Notre-Dame cathedral, which will open to the public, again, in April 2024. Until then, you can visit the cathedral in VR, in the “The Eternal Notre-Dame”.

Visitors to Paris may visit the Notre-Dame cathedral now, although the building will only reopen in 2024. This January, a unique and immersive expedition through time, space, and history invites everyone to dive into the heart of the cathedral’s history, from its construction in the Middle Ages to the current restoration project.

“Eternal Notre-Dame” is a technological challenge. Visitors are welcomed to a dedicated space and equipped with an immersive VR device to explore Notre Dame de Paris, which has been completely recreated in virtual form. They are invited on a “real-life” emotional journey to discover the cathedral’s secrets, historical events and key protagonists that have marked its history.

“Eternal Notre-Dame” is yet another example of the power of Virtual Reality to build narratives and take us through time and space. It does not replace visiting the real cathedral, but it does offer a new perspective allowing an experience that can not be replicated in any other art form or media. Now, the experience is only available at the Espace Grande Arche in la Défense, in Paris. From September 2022, it will move much closer to the site itself, to the Parvis de Notre-Dame – the main square in front of the cathedral. Following that, “The Eternal Notre-Dame” will tour France, Europe, and the rest of the world. One can only hope that it is launched in a home format, as “Mona Lisa: Beyond the glass.”

Notre Dame de Paris in 3D

The reference to DaVinci’s famous painting makes complete sense because the team behind “The Eternal Notre-Dame” is the same as for “Mona Lisa: Beyond the glass”. Leading VR studio Emissive, the company behind the pioneering “Immersive Expeditions” virtual reality tour format is responsible for both. As ProVideo Coalition readers remember, “Mona Lisa: Beyond the glass” VR experience was part of the exhibition at the Louvre Museum celebrating Leonardo DaVinci’s work.

The new experience reveals how immersion in Virtual Reality can be used at the service of History. Equipped with an immersive device (VR headset and backpack), visitors will be able to move freely in a 500 sqm space in Virtual Reality. Guided by a “Compagnon du Devoir” they will travel through different centuries and will explore several eras of Notre Dame de Paris and its environment, recreated in 3D. Thanks to scientific surveys, and precise historical data, the cathedral and its surroundings have been precisely reproduced to enhance the visitor’s immersion and engagement in the experience.

From its construction in the Middle Ages to the current restoration site, “Eternal Notre-Dame” Immersive Expedition is a technological challenge in which visitors will discover an emblematic monument in all its aspects by traveling through space and time and becoming an actor in the rebirth of the monument.

Each visitor will become a donor

Eternal Notre Dame is an in-depth journey during which visitors will learn a lot on the monument’s history and understand the massive amount of work that has been and currently being done for its reconstruction. They will also perceive the deep meaning of Notre-Dame de Paris, which is much more than a monument…

Fabien Barati, Emissive’s CEO, said about the project: “we are excited to show the immense potential of Immersive Expeditions to the public. Our teams are proud to contribute, through their expertise, to the reconstruction and preservation of this unique, so symbolic monument, that is Notre-Dame de Paris.”

The idea for Eternal Notre Dame was born after the devastating fire on 15 April 2019. The Orange Group wanted to proactively contribute to the cathedral’s collective restoration project by offering resources and technological innovation to bring this emblematic heritage site back to life in virtual form. The company noted that “30% of the ticket price will be donated in full by Orange the public establishment dedicated to the conservation and restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral and to the Notre Dame Foundation to finance the Notre Dame interior design program. Each visitor will become a donor…”

850 years of History in a 45 min tour

Orange collaborated with Amaclio Productions, an acclaimed production company working on numerous other sites in France (Les Invalides, the Mont-St-Michel Abbey, the Palais des Papes and the medieval city of Carcassonne), oversees the production and marketing of the immersive experience on site. Bruno Seillier, artistic director behind the “Dame de Cœur” and “La Nuit aux Invalides” shows, oversees the experience’s storyline and scenography.

The promotional video for the VR show presented by Orange & Amaclio productions, produced by Emissive & Bruno Sellier, in partnership with Diocese de Paris Rebatir Notre Dame de Paris & Paris was shot by Cinemi Studio. The team also shot a BTS – shot and edited by Evan Ravo – that shows how the video was created.

Two years of development, a team including 25 specialists in Virtual Reality supported by historical data and historians worked together to create this tour. The “Eternal Notre-Dame” VR experience takes participants in a voyage through time, 850 years of History in a 45 min tour. A maximum of 50 persons can share the experience at the same time, and the show is available in English too, so if you’re visiting Paris and want to see Notre-Dame cathedral in a completely different way, now it’s the time. Again, as I noted before, I hope this experience will also be made available to dive into at home.

For a cell phone’s camera lens to do its job properly, it is important to keep it clean and protected. A smartphone case with a lens cap cover for iPhone, Samsung and Xiaomi smartphones is the solution.

The best way to ensure you get the best performance from your cell phone when taking photos or shooting videos starts with good lens maintenance, making sure it has no fingerprints or dust, which you can always wipe off, or scratches, which can forever compromise the results you want to get.

With DSLR, mirrorless or other cameras the first thing to do to protect any lens is to buy a filter, which can be a skylight or UV or even a clear protective filter, available from many brands, but with cell phones protecting the lens is more difficult, even though the lens on a cell phone, or the lenses on most modern models, are more exposed than those used with regular cameras. Cell phones are left everywhere, including tabletops, with the lens side down, and travel in pockets or bags with objects such as keys that can scratch the lens irreparably.

Most of the smartphone cases available are designed to protect the smartphone if you accidentally drop it and from the wear and tear caused by daily use, but only a few – like XTCase models – offer a solution to protect a key element of the device: the lens. It’s strange, if one considers smartphones are the most widely used camera around the world, that so little attention is given to the lenses. If you’re a photographer or videographer, you are fully aware of the need to keep your lenses safe, and the front element of any lens in pristine condition. Fortunately, there are solutions!

A case with lens cap for iPhone

Owners of models like the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max can buy tempered glass camera lens protectors designed for those smartphones. These ultra thin transparent camera lens covers protect the front element of the lens against finger smudges, grease, dirt, and moisture and can always be replaced if scratched. The lens cover is announced as working perfectly with the optical system, without degradation of the image, and the solution is available for different iPhone models beyond the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. When buying just make sure you’re buying one cover compatible with your smartphone.

One solution for owners of some cell phone models is to buy a protective cell phone case like those offered by XTCase, which are available for various Xiaomi, Samsung Galaxy, and iPhone models. The protective cover, made of hybrid PC + TPU non-slip shockproof scratch-resistant material, includes a sliding camera cover that protects the camera from dust and scratches. It’s like having a lens cap for the lens on a regular camera, with the advantage that this lens cap is never lost, as it it attached to the smartphone case!

A lens cap for the Xiaomi Note 10 Pro

The protective case from XTCase added to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro I acquired recently fits the phone perfectly and the cover ensures that the large group of lenses this model features is protected. The case has a pleasant, non-slip texture to reduce the risk of dropping the phone, making your phone safer to use. The sliding cap moves easily between the open and closed positions, and emits an audible snap when closed, staying secure when moved to the open position. Even if you leave the lens unprotected, the 0.2mm raised bezel around the “camera island”, guarantees the lenses are protected from scratches when you put the phone down or it falls from a low height.

In fact, in my case, the lenses are doubly protected, because I purchased a tempered glass that is placed over the whole optical system as protection, a viable solution for those who do not want or cannot use this type of smartphone case. I am not sure about other models, but with the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro, the raised edge of the protective section of the camera leaves enough room for the cover to move without problems.

This type of protective cover is an excellent solution if you want to adequately protect the optical system of a cell phone, which makes sense, especially if you plan to use the camera creatively. The only problem might be finding a cover for your version of the phone. The price ranges between $13 and $19, and the XTCase protective case is available at various Amazon websites in Europe, although I could not find the brand in North America. But as usual with this type of accessory, you’ll find other brands offering the same product, which is also available from online shops as Etsy.

Bound by strong magnetic force, the new Magnetic Holder Cap from H&Y provides strong protection of the lens when the holder is up. The new accessory costs $24.99.

H&Y K-series Magnetic Filter System was the first-ever patented magnetic system ever designed for square filters. Since its introduction the company has explored ways to use the solution and now H&Y Filters launches the Magnetic Holder Cap of their signature Magnetic Filter System. The advantages of the solution are evident: magnets on the holder and magnets on filter frames engage filters and holders together. Apart from the traditional slot-in system, trouble-free one-snap filter installation allows you to stack as many filters as you need. The system is highly durable – The impact of filter dropping will be absorbed by the filter frames. The gapless design allows no light leak.

What’s more, photographers can operate the system easily even with gloves on or by a single hand. H&Y K-series filter system maximizes the creation flexibility of photographers in all environments. Now a Magnetic Holder Cap is available. Aligned with K-series Magnetic filter system, the Cap is made of lightweight and tough CNC Machined Aircraft-grade Aluminium. A computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine controls the operation of machine tools, to shape the metal into parts that meet exact specifications. The H&Y Holder Caps are made with minimal deviation mechanically.

Designed to avoid vignetting

Magnets are embedded on the sides of the cap to achieve strong and solid magnetic force. Simply one-clip, the holder cap is on and lens with holder on is immediately under protection. Photographers can thus travel with the holder safely.

We’ve shared here at PVC, previously, other systems based on magnets, like the Manfrotto Xume adapters. If you consider the idea of a magnetic cap to protect filters as something that interests you, then maybe you want to try the H&Y K-series filters family too. These filters are offered extra protection by the highly strengthened Corning Gorilla Glass 3. The glass itself is coated perfectly with minimal to no color cast. It is not only chemically strengthened but also its atomic configuration is formulated so that the glass is more durable.

The system is designed to avoid vignetting, which is a problem with some solutions. Vignetting usually happens when super wide-angle lens(<18mm) is used with the filter system. The thickness of the holder system would block some of the light entering the lens. The thinner the setup in front of the lens, the less vignetting will be seen in the original image. With H&Y K-series Magnetic Filter System, says the company, you will have the whole setup thinner even if one more filter is used.

Compatible with other brands

Amazing combination of filter choices can be made with rectangular filters. There could be easy switch between CPL/ND/CPL&ND/Night Filters. Reframing or recomposing picture becomes very easy (when ND filters can be removed at any time). Other filter system does not allow rotation of the polarizer after the holder being set on the lens. H&Y notes that “one other brand does offer this alternative while the operation of their CPL filter is not as smooth” and adds that “for H&Y, the drop-in allows easy rotation of the polarizer even after the filter holder is up, by the control wheel nicely popping out on the side. It offers much faster operation than traditional slot-in filters.”

If you already have glass filters from other brands, check for compatibility. According to H&Y, new users may continue using the glass filters that they own from other brands to fit in K-series Magnetic Filter System. H&Y Filters offer magnetic frames in 100x100mm and 100x150mm sizes. Glass Filters can be magnetized and engage with the K-series Magnetic Filter Holder.

The use of AI for upscaling is an emerging and competitive field and Kimball Thurston, Robin Melhuish and Patrick Cooper, who together formed the company Zeoshi, believe they might just have the edge – and I don’t think they’re wrong.

Their background is impressive – spending many years working at renowned film restoration company Lowry Digital, which was recognised with an Academy Awards Technical Oscar, around the same time the founder John Lowry passed away.

There they had been involved in restoring hundreds of millions of frames of some of the biggest films in history from Star Wars to Disney to Bond as well as working with NASA on the Apollo moon landing. They also worked closely with James Cameron, someone who loves to push the limits of technology. They had two high end film scanners, a film recorder and over 600 Power Mac G5’s running in parallel running some incredibly complicated code, which was a challenge to train staff to run (the manual was 200 pages long!) – it is safe to say that they pushed traditional algorithms as far as they could go.

AI and neural nets

AI would seem the natural next step for this team, with neural nets and machine learning already beating older algorithms and getting better all the time. Their ambition is to use AI for a number of applications and Zeoshi Uprez is just the start. Other applications might include HDR which would meet another industry need. But as they point out, it’s upscaling that is the compelling business case right now with over half of US households having a 4K TV, yet only about 7% of total streaming content in 4K. This number might seem surprising, until you remember the vast libraries of older HD and even SD content that some of the streamers have available.

One simplified model

There are different approaches in building AI models for upscaling. In the example of popular end user software Topaz Video Enhance AI which I reviewed, there are 24 models to choose from and multiple parameters within each model. The Zeoshi team have taken a different approach – to build one model and make it parameter-free. That makes it ready to run at the click of a button on any amount of content thrown at it, whether animation or live action – and crucially, without the user needing to understand anything about it.

Building something this complex, but making it so easy to use is much easier said than done. It is true that there is plenty of readily available research into AI upscaling in the scientific community and some incredible results are being seen. If you’re interested in following that in a fairly accessible way, I recommend the YouTube channel Two Minute Papers from Dr. Károly Zsolnai-Fehér. This recent video for example shows off startling image re-creation from the presumably fairly clever Google Brain Team, working with images as small as 64×64 and getting them to 1024×1024 (that’s 16x upscaling!):

However, a lot of what can be achieved under controlled conditions does not translate into real world usage and a scientist does not necessarily have the eye to know what high end film and video should look like. Also, a lot of the research is for single images and film has additional complexity in, for example, movement dependent motion blur.

With their specific background, the Zeoshi team are bridging the gap between the cutting edge science and the aesthetics of the film industry. There’s also the not insignificant matter of having worked with millions of the best frames Hollywood has ever produced when deciding how to train your model to be aesthetically pleasing and consistent with original creative intent.

Cloud compute

There are also different approaches when it comes to actually crunching the data of complicated machine learning models. My personal computer can render a few shots using Topaz, but what if I have a lot more content? Zeoshi decided to build their model in the cloud – specifically AWS – where you can basically have as many graphics cards and CPUs as you need running in parallel to do the heavy lifting. This means it can be spun up for as much content as you have, as well as providing industry standard security.

A quick test

Having previously tested a number of different upscaling solutions, I thought I’d run the same test through Zeoshi and it passed with flying colours, in fact beating the rivals such as Topaz, Pixop and Davinci Resolve, making an image barely distinguishable from the original.

Pricing

Pricing is targeted at heavy hitters – production companies, studios and streamers wanting to uprez an entire commercial or film or even their entire back catalogue. As things stand, all the big streamers have hundreds of hours of HD content. As consumers increasingly expect 4K (and will expect 8K soon enough), you can easily imagine some of the big players making the call to start uprezzing their material.

I did see a little “Re-mastered in 4K” badge on a film on Apple TV+ the other day and it’s surprising to me that we haven’t already seen that a lot more across the streaming services as I would have thought they’d see the value in it to distinguish themselves from their competitors, especially given how good the upscaling tech already is.

A recent example of AI upscaling at work is Peter Jackson’s “Get Back” documentary on The Beatles, restoring the original 16mm film (if you’re interested here is a before and after). To my eye it was a bit too strong at times, but it was impressive nonetheless & more than that, with its modern feel, you feel much more like you’re there with them.

Rethinking resolution

Zeoshi have a vision that goes beyond upscaling old HD masters. They believe that machine learning is so powerful, it could affect production itself. The argument goes like this: it costs money to shoot at a higher resolution. Cameras cost more, storage requirements are larger, faster hard drives and more powerful computers are needed to deal with the footage, from editing through to VFX and grade. Transfers take longer. Everything is more difficult and more costly.

Now imagine you have a production that needs to deliver in 4K, but only shoots in HD. You shoot in HD, edit in HD, do all post and VFX in HD and right at the end, upscale it to 4K at a quality that to the human eye looks like it had been shot at 4K all along. The kicker is this – the money you save from doing it that way can go into making the film better because you could spend the money you save on things that improve the image – better crew, better lighting, better lenses, better locations.

If doubling resolution from HD to 4K feels like a stretch, consider the Arri Alexa Mini which shoots at a maximum resolution of 3.4K. Many DoPs swear by the Arri sensor and would prefer to shoot on a Mini if the budget didn’t stretch to the Mini LF. And in this case it would be a much smaller jump to 4K and even more likely to pass unseen.

It’s a very interesting idea and one you could imagine many would reject initially, simply because they would not trust the idea that you can upscale without issue. But the team at Zeoshi is here to say it can be done and it would only take a few early adopters to pave the way for this to be something we don’t bat an eyelid at.

Many video producers I know use either Vimeo Pro or Vimeo Plus as the source for the videos they embed on their own websites or on their clients’ websites. So far, nobody I know uses VideoPress —other than myself, for my own testing for this review), which is lower in price and offers similar —but not identical— features. Unlike YouTube, fortunately VideoPress, Vimeo Pro and Vimeo Plus offer an advertising-free place to upload videos and later embed them into your websites (or your clients’ websites). For those unfamiliar with VideoPress, it is a paid service from Automattic (with an intentional double t) which is also the creator and owner of both WordPress.com and WordPress.org. The latter is the source of the core open-source code for many self-hosted WordPress websites, which include ProVideoCoalition.com (where you’re reading this article) and most of the sites hosted at TecnoTur.us and CombinedHosting.com (which are my services). This review article compares many aspects the two services: VideoPress versus VimeoPro/Vimeo Plus.

In this article

• Scope of this article review
• Comparison chart
• Up to 1920×1080, aka 1080p
• 1: How to embed VideoPress videos to your own designated WordPress website
• 2: How to embed VideoPress videos to some other WordPress website with JetPack installed (if you want to avoid having on your main site as indicated earlier)
• 3: How to embed VideoPress videos to non-WordPress websites or WordPress without JetPack installed (if you want to avoid having on your main site as indicated earlier)
• Example videos to compare quality and players
• Sharing restrictions
• Conclusions

Scope of this article review

This article review is not intended to cover all aspects about the compared services, but the most important ones in my personal opinion. The intent is to compare the most important (and perhaps overlooked) differences.

Comparison chart

Click on the above chart to see a larger version if desired.

Up to 1920×1080, aka 1080p

As indicated in the above comparison chart, VideoPress can host and play videos up to 1920×1080, aka 1080p at 16:9. Now (after I pointed out a problem and the VideoPress team fixed it), VideoPress can fortunately also host and play wider aspect 1.9:1 video, i.e. 1920×1013. That’s what you get if you downscale a video that was originally 4K DCI 4096 × 2160 down to 1920×1013. In many video player’s menu adjustments, those videos are called “1080p” with many on-demand CDNS even though they aren’t really 1080p, since the are only 1013 pixels tall.

VideoPress doesn’t currently surpass 1920×1080 or 1920×1013, but I believe that most video producers reading this in 2022 will not find that to be a major drawback unless your main target viewers are people who play videos on a 4K UHD TV set. If you disagree and must host and play your videos at 4K DCI, 4K UHD or higher, VideoPress won’t be of interest to you, for the moment. If that’s the case, you are dismissed from reading the rest of this article.

How to upload videos to VideoPress

To have and use VideoPress, you must first have a WordPress website, be it one hosted on WordPress.com (not tested by me — I don’t use WordPress that way) or one hosted independently, i.e. ProVideoCoalition.com and all my many WordPress sites and those of my clients. In my VideoPress testing with an independently-hosted WordPress (i.e. on CombinedHosting.com), the way to upload videos to VideoPress is via WordPress.com, not directly via the backend of WordPress on my own site. (That is the same as with Vimeo Pro or Vimeo Plus: You can’t upload the video to be hosted on Vimeo from your own WordPress website’s backend to have it be hosted at Vimeo). The uploading part is equally simple with VideoPress than uploading to YouTube or Vimeo. I must clarify, however, that while both Vimeo and YouTube are also public sites to browse videos, that is not the case with VideoPress. VideoPress is to host the video and then embed it on your website and/or your client’s website. The sharing is where things get a bit different with VideoPress, as you’ll see ahead, depending upon the site where you plan to embed a particular video. That’s why I have I have a separate section for each situation.

1: How to embed VideoPress videos to your own designated WordPress website

This first section is about how to embed VideoPress videos to your own WordPress website, the website you designate when you first sign up for VideoPress. On that website, you must have the JetPack plugin installed and activated for VideoPress to work with that designated site. This is the easiest way to use VideoPress and embed videos, since even though you uploaded the video to VideoPress, from the backend of your designated WordPress site, whether you’re on the backend of a page or a post, you just put your cursor where you want the video, click on the Add Media. Then you navigate to the desired video you want to embed/insert. The VideoPress video appears as if it were hosted on the same server as your independently-hosted website, even though that video is actually hosted on VideoPress at WordPress.com, with all of the same advantages of any other on-demand video CDN (content delivery network), be it VideoPress, Vimeo Plus/Vimeo Pro or YouTube. Those on-demand video CDN advantages include better worldwide simultaneous performance of the video playback and the offering of a player at different resolutions, depending upon the internaut’s screen resolution and connection speed.

Once you select the video, you’ll have several options to determine how you want it to be used on your designated WordPress site for VideoPress videos. Those include metadata (Title, Caption, Description), a rating (G, PG-13 or R), the option of displaying a button for your visitors to share the video (or not) by copying a link or embed code for them to embed it freely wherever they want, and finally the big blue button that says Insert into page.

If you have chosen to include the sharing button in the embedded video here on your own website, then that’s the easiest way for you to capture either the link or the embed code (HTML) for sharing to any other website(s), whether they are WordPress or not. All of the other methods covered in methods 2 and 3 ahead are more cumbersome than this first one. As a result, you might even consider creating a hidden page on this site (your designated VideoPress site) to embed the video initially. When I say a “hidden page”, I mean one that’s not included in the website’s navigation (menus) and also marked as not to be indexed by search engines like Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google, StartPage and Yahoo. This is something easily accomplished with a WordPress plugin like Rank Math or Yoast.

Note that after you have copied either the link or the embed code (HTML) from the sharing button and have it safely saved it somewhere, you may later readjust that video at VideoPress at WordPress.com so it will no longer have the sharing button available on the video, wherever it’s embedded. That way, you can embed it wherever you want without making it easy for other people to do that without your consent. More about that later in the section called Sharing restrictions.

2: How to embed VideoPress videos to secondary WordPress website(s) with JetPack installed (if you want to avoid having on your main site as indicated earlier)

This section is in case you really don’t want to have a particular video on your own website… and don’t want to be bothered to embed it —even temporarily— to a private, non-indexed page where you can later delete it, as covered in the prior section.

1. Upload the video to VideoPress at WordPress.com as always.
2. Copy the shortcode for the particular video WordPress.com UI by selecting the desired video and clicking the Edit button, then looking for the shortcode in the info panel and copying it.
3. Embed the video on the target website (and test it).
4. If you don’t want anyone else to be able to share the video you embedded, disable the sharing preference for that from WordPress.com after finishing with step 3.

NOTE: In my conversations with them in preparation for this article, the Happiness Engineers (their official term) from the VideoPress team noted two things about the sharing/embedding.

1. Embeds on the designed VideoPress site will always work, even if sharing is disabled at WordPress.com.
2. Embeds on secondary sites (ie: a site other than the one with the VideoPress plan) will work as long as they are set up when sharing is enabled. They will continue to work after sharing is disabled.

3: How to embed VideoPress videos to non-WordPress websites or WordPress without JetPack installed (if you want to avoid having on your main site as indicated earlier)

This part is to be used only if you reject having the video on your main WordPress website (even on a private, non-indexed page as explained earlier) and want to embed another website which is not WordPress or a site that is WordPress but you can’t (or don’t want) to have the JetPack installed.

1. Upload the video to VideoPress at WordPress.com as usual.
2. Copy the embed code from the WordPress.com UI by selecting the desired video and clicking the Edit button, then looking for the shortcode in the info panel and copy it and then use it to build a link in step 3.
3. To create a link to embed (not HTML embed code), append the shortcode directly after this standard URL (without any space): https://videopress.com/
4. Embed the video on the target website (and test)
5. If you don’t want anyone else to be able to share the video you embedded, disable the sharing preference for that from WordPress.com after finishing with step 4.

If in step 3, you really needed HTML embed code instead of just a link, then use this HTML code and embed the shortcode in the same place:

<iframe width=”560″ height=”315″ src=”https://videopress.com/embed/OIs8WHpg” frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Where you substitute your embed code instead of OIs8WHpg

NOTE: In my conversations with them in preparation for this article, the Happiness Engineers (their official term) from the VideoPress team noted two things about the sharing/embedding.

1. Embeds on the designed VideoPress site will always work, even if sharing is disabled at WordPress.com.
2. Embeds on secondary sites (ie: a site other than the one with the VideoPress plan) will work as long as they are set up when sharing is enabled. They will continue to work after sharing is disabled.

Example videos to compare quality and players

I thank Brian Russell of Red Shoe Film for lending me this video clip for this test. To get the least amount of the inevitable degradation of each CDN (VideoPress and Vimeo Pro) for the best audio/video quality, I requested and uploaded a ProRes 422 HQ clip directly from Brian’s timeline.

Embedded from VideoPress:

In the above video, I allowed the share button in the lower right to remain active so you can see how it works, if desired.

Embedded from Vimeo Pro:

Sharing restrictions

Sometimes it is desirable to encourage visitors to download or embed a video on other websites. Other times, it is desirable to do the exact opposite: Restrict downloads and/or embedding the same onto other websites. None of the different methods to attempt to restrict them is foolproof. Both make it progressively more difficult to accomplish any of those things, but none can impede it completely.

Among the compared on-demand video CDNs covered in this article, all allow for including —or not including— a sharing button. When present, the sharing button offers both a link and HTML embed code. But even if there is no sharing button, a sophisticated internaut will know how to extract the link or HTML code unless showing raw code if independently restricted. Vimeo Plus and Vimeo Pro specifically offer a way to whitelist Internet domains where embeds are allowed for a particular video, which causes them not to be playable if someone attempts to embed them in some other site. This is part of the UI (user interface) on Video Plus and Vimeo Pro. Based upon the Happiness Engineers (their official term) from the VideoPress team I quoted earlier:

Embeds on secondary sites (ie: a site other than the one with the VideoPress plan) will work as long as they are set up when sharing is enabled. They will continue to work after sharing is disabled.

This implies that the same whitelisting happens indirectly after we finish embedding a particular video on all of the secondary websites we desire them and then deactivating the sharing function later, but I did not explicitly test if it’s true. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt about that. Since I know that even if the whitelisting method works as described with all of these services to prevent an unauthorized embed, a very sophisticated content thief could otherwise acquire the video through other means, by screen capture software or a hardware video recorder connected to a computer. I covered this general topic in my 2011 article (about 11 years ago):

To DRM or not to DRM? That is the question for today’s digital content producers

In that case, it was related to ebooks (electronic books), but the conclusion is the same. The methodology of VideoPress’s current approach to embedding a video to “secondary site(s)” (and then whitelist it/them later) is slightly more cumbersome than Vimeo Plus/Vimeo Pro, but it is indeed tolerable after understanding how it works.

Conclusions

For video producers who already own and are adept at using a WordPress website, VideoPress from Automattic (with an intentional double T) seems to be a viable competitor to Vimeo Plus or Vimeo Pro at a much lower price. For more information or the latest pricing and offerings from each, visit VideoPress.com, Vimeo.com or VimeoPro.com. For more information about creating or hosting a WordPress website, visit CombinedHosting.com.

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FTC disclosure

There is no commercial relationship between Allan Tépper and Automattic, VideoPress, Vimeo or WordPress.com other than the fact that Allan Tépper has been a paying client of each. Some of the manufacturers listed above have contracted Tépper and/or TecnoTur LLC to carry out consulting and/or translations/localizations/transcreations. Many of the manufacturers listed above have sent Allan Tépper review units. So far, none of the manufacturers listed above is/are sponsors of the TecnoTur, BeyondPodcasting, CapicúaFM , SpeakCastilian or TuSaludSecreta programs, although they are welcome to do so, and some are, may be (or may have been) sponsors of ProVideo Coalition magazine. Some links to third parties listed in this article and/or on this web page may indirectly benefit TecnoTur LLC via affiliate programs. Allan Tépper’s opinions are his own. Allan Tépper is not liable for misuse or misunderstanding of information he shares.

Hey Everyone,

Bins, as we know, are the centerpiece of your workflow(s).  They are what will make for a smooth edit, or a potential rocky one as well.  In this Let’s Edit lesson, we’re talking Bin View Modes.  Now, you might be thinking “I have no idea what that even means!”.  Well, Bin View Modes are simply Text, Frame and Script views, that we have been using since the inception of Media Composer.  However, there are been some updates to them that you might not know about, and they will definitely help keep you organized, no matter which one is your preference.  Enjoy!

Channel: www.youtube.com/letseditMC_avid
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/LetsEditwithMediaComposer
Twitter: @kpmcauliffe
e-mail: kevinpmcauliffe@gmail.com

Welcome to SEASON TWO of Frame & Reference! I’m very excited to be returning for another year of amazing interviews and I hope you are too. Last season the plan was to interview Cinematographers exclusively, but a few other departments slipped in from time to time which seemed to be something people liked (especially Lens Month!) so for this season I’m officially expanding the scope of guests to Directors, Production Designers, Gaffers, and other similar folks who have a large hand in the final look of a project. This will still be a Cinematography-centric podcast, so we’ll be asking how these various other departments interact and interface with the DP and their team, and how they work together to find a unified vision. BUT! To start off, on this first episode of 2022, we’re talking with cinematographer Boris Mojsovski, ASC CSC. You might now Boris from his work on the HBO Max series “Titans”, the SyFy show “12 Monkeys” and the Peacock series “The Lost Symbol.” Enjoy!

Frame & Reference is a conversation between Cinematographers hosted by DP and PVC Contributing writer Kenny McMillan. Each episode dives into the respective DP’s current and past work, as well as what influences and inspires them. These discussions are an entertaining and informative look in to the world making films through the lens of the people who shoot them. You can listen to Frame & Reference where all the best podcasts are listened to like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. Each episode can also be found in video form on YouTube. Follow Frame & Reference on Twitter and Instagram for more content, and check your favorite app every Thursday for new episodes.

At the heart of the new Leica M11 is a full-frame BSI CMOS sensor with Triple Resolution Technology with 60, 36 or 18 megapixels, a pixel-binning process we’ve mostly seen in smartphone photography.

While maintaining the iconic look of a traditional Leica M, the carefully optimized design of the Leica M11 is focused on efficiency and ergonomics. It has a sensitivity range of ISO 64 to 50,000, records a 14-bit color depth and has a dynamic range of up to 15 stops. With its Maestro III processor, the Leica M11 offers a fluid and responsive operation, even at the highest resolution and image quality.

With the optional electronic shutter featuring a shutter speed of up to 1/16000 of a second, photographers are empowered to work with wide open apertures, in bright light – without ND filters. The M11 marks the first-time multi-field metering in rangefinder mode will be available, affording photographers a valuable tool to curate light. It’s, no doubt, a new benchmark in digital photography and the most flexible M-System camera in Leica’s storied history, but not just for the reasons above. The Leica M11 is the first model from the company with pixel-binning!

Pixel-binning, the technique by which multiple – small – pixels on a camera sensor are grouped to work together as one is mostly seen in smartphones, where we see sensors like the 108-megapixel present on models from Samsung – developer of the sensor – and Xiaomi, but end up with images with only 12 million pixels. In fact, most smartphones offer 12MP images, which is more than enough for most uses, and 12MP has been the standard for smartphone photography for a long time.

Pixel-binning in the Leica M11

While some may believe that larger pixel count sensors in smartphones are just there for marketing reasons, the truth is different: despite the small size of the pixels, when light is good, you can get higher resolution images, which will come out good enough if the sensor is paired with a good optical system. It gets even better if you shoot RAW!

Now, when light is scarce, the system uses pixel-binning. The small pixels are grouped together, usually in groups of four. In the case of the Samsung sensor with 108MP, they are binned in groups of nine (9×12=108) which is more than enough for most uses. The technique is common among smartphone models, and all the models now available, with either 108, 64 50 or 48MP sensor use pixel-binning, giving as result final images with a final count around the 12MP standard.

While we’ve seen pixel-binning in some camera models, Leica seems to have found a solution for its Leica M11, and its, no doubt, an interesting take in terms of photographic cameras and sensors. At the heart of the new Leica M11 is a full-frame BSI CMOS sensor with Triple Resolution Technology, which is another way to say… pixel-binning!

Pixel-binning for less noise

This exclusive triple resolution sensor, the expanded ISO range, dual memory, extended battery life and a streamlined and intuitive menu system means, says the company, “that the Leica M11 represents a new benchmark in digital photography and the most flexible M-System camera in Leica’s storied history.”

Leica’s Triple Resolution Technology makes the Leica M11 a flexible model that you can use when you need the highest resolution, for professional reasons, or to shoot candids when out with the family. It’s a versatile solution and something we may see becoming common in cameras from other manufacturers. Raw image files in DNG format and JPEGs can be recorded at 60, 36 or 18 megapixels, always using the full sensor area. The 60-megapixel option delivers unprecedented image quality and detail resolution, exploiting the full optical potential of Leica’s latest APO Lenses for the M-System – whereas the lower resolutions enable faster camera performance, extended burst lengths, and smaller files.

Leica’s reasoning for offering Triple Resolution Technology is different from the reasons why pixel-binning is used in smartphones, as the camera’s sensor has no problems with light gathering, when compared to smartphones, but still, the truth is that the camera follows the same patterns with it comes to noise and pixel size: as Leica notes, the Leica M11 “delivers maximum resolution at 60 MP, the M-System’s fastest burst mode at 36 MP, and extremely low noise at 18 MP.”

The Leica heritage

The Leica M11 truly is a legend reinvented. Here is some more information about this new model, as provided by Leica:

While maintaining the iconic look of a traditional Leica M, the carefully optimized design of the Leica M11 is focused on efficiency and ergonomics. The controls have been arranged in a unique layout around the new, 2.3 million pixels, high-resolution touchscreen. The menu structure of the M11 remains consistent with that of the Leica SL2 and Q2, unifying the acclaimed interface for a more user-friendly experience.

The Leica M11 has a sensitivity range of ISO 64 to 50,000; it records a 14-bit color depth and has a dynamic range of up to 15 stops. With its Maestro III processor, the Leica M11 offers a fluid and responsive operation, even at the highest resolution and image quality. With the optional electronic shutter featuring a shutter speed of up to 1/16000 of a second, photographers are empowered to work with wide open apertures, in bright light – without ND filters. The M11 marks the first-time multi-field metering in rangefinder mode will be available, affording photographers a valuable tool to curate light.

The black-finish variant of the Leica M11 features a top plate made of high-quality aluminium with an especially scratch-resistant coating, resulting in a body that is approximately 20% (100 grams) lighter than its silver-chrome counterpart. By comparison, the silver-chrome M11 features a classic brass top plate and weighs in at 640 grams.

Unique to the M11 is the deliberate omission of the traditional base plate, offering photographers easy direct access to the battery and SD card. In addition to the SD card slot, the Leica M11 is equipped with a generous internal storage capacity of 64 gigabytes. As a result, the M11 is the first M model to save image files simultaneously onto two different storage media. The 1800mAh battery stores 64% more energy than before, and combined with the camera’s more efficient operation, allows for considerably longer shooting sessions with a single charge. In addition, the newly added universal USB-C port also serves to charge the camera’s battery, using most USB-C chargers.

Upgraded connectivity features of the Leica M11 will be available through a new firmware version in the second half of 2022. This will enable the new M11’s advanced connectivity capabilities that will elevate users’ mobile workflows and enhance the Leica FOTOS app with the possibility to embed location data, access images via Bluetooth connection, and allow increased transfer rates. Moreover, the Leica M11 is already an Apple “Made for iPhone and iPad” certified accessory and as such, offers unique abilities with the included Leica FOTOS cable.

Leica M11: witness the future

With the evolution of the Leica M comes new accessories to enhance the rangefinder experience. The new Visoflex 2 electronic viewfinder features 3.7-megapixel resolution to provide outstanding image control in Live View mode. Encased in a metal exterior, the Visoflex 2 perfectly matches the M11 in terms of design and functionality. Full-frame viewing and the precise focusing of Leica lenses is supported by the Visoflex 2’s large diopter adjustment range of -4 to +3 and 90 degree tilt function. To improve ergonomics without obstructing access to the battery and SD card, photographers will have the option to complement their M11 with a newly designed handgrip. The new handgrip doubles as a tripod mount, where the Leica M11 can be attached to Arca-Swiss-standard tripod heads without the need for any additional equipment.

“We are very proud of the new M11,” says Stefan Daniel, Executive Vice President Technology and Operations. “This camera is another milestone for Leica. Its inner workings are a completely new development, while the exterior remains true to the iconic Leica M design.”

“As we all know,” says Dr. Andreas Kaufmann, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Leica Camera AG, Wetzlar, “the iconic Leica M-System has accompanied dedicated photographers worldwide over decades, giving them a superior tool for witnessing their time and creating outstanding pictures. The new M11 will continue this legacy with outstanding technology, based on the experience since 1925.”

The Leica M11 is now available worldwide. The recommended retail price is $8995.