Adam Wilt is a software developer, engineering consultant, and freelance film & video tech. He's had small jobs on big productions (PA, "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", Dir. Robert Wise), big jobs on small productions (DP, "Maelstrom", Dir. Rob Nilsson), and has worked camera, sound, vfx, and editing gigs on shorts, PSAs, docs, music vids, and indie features. He started his website on the DV format, adamwilt.com/DV.html, about the same time Chris Hurd created the XL1 Watchdog, and participated in DVInfo.net's 2006 "Texas Shootout." He has written for DV Magazine and ProVideoCoalition.com, taught courses at DV Expo, and given presentations at NAB, IBC, and Cine Gear Expo. When he's not doing contract engineering or working on apps like www.adamwilt.com/cinemeter, he's probably exploring new cameras, just because cameras are fun.
Last Wednesday, Videofax in San Francisco hosted Arri’s Snehal Patel, who showed off Amira, “the new documentary-style camera” with the heart of an Alexa. Amira is a tasty package: backlit physical switches and controls, so it’s tactile like a broadcast cam, though the switches don’t replicate broadcast-cam layouts. Audio setup on the right side, operational controls on the left side,…
Rather than bloviate, I’ll just fling the pertinent slides at you: Interestingly, the GH4 wasn’t discussed. It appeared unheralded on a single slide, but wasn’t a topic of discussion, though it’s on the booth. Disclosure: There is no material relation between me and Panasonic, and I received no special considerations or compensation from them for posting this article.
Among other announcements at the TVLogic press conference was this new 5.5″ camera-top monitor, the VFM-058W. It builds on the widely-used VFM-056W with several useful enhancements: Full 1920×1080 resolution. This is the trend even for the smallest monitors; it won’t be long before everything is 1920×1080 or more. The scroll-wheel has been moved to the top of the monitor on…
Joe Rubinstein is the founder and camera developer for Digital Bolex. On Sunday, he sat down with me and talked about the Digital Bolex D16: what inspired him, what he set out to accomplish, what challenges he faced… and what he and the rest of his team have come up with. Plus: beauty shots of cameras, what’s new here at…
Every Sunday before the show opens, Sony has a booth tour for VIPs. The Sony folks kindly allow me to tag along, as long as I don’t publish before 9am Monday morning. Herewith, some (only some) of the cool stuff you’ll be hearing more about as the show opens and people get their eyeballs ’round the new kit. Warning: I’m…
Some things for broadcast and news: the GY-HM850 and GY-HM890 are new shoulder-mount, 3-chip 1/3” HD camcorders in the mold of the 790, but using high-sensitivity CMOS sensors instead of CCDs. The 890 differs from the 850 by being dockable into a studio rig. Both cameras record on SDXC cards in a variety of formats including a 50 Mbit/sec H.264…
Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s… 1987? These iconic letters, seen on the journey to the show, are also the initials of the The Silver Valley High School in Yermo, CA, about 130 miles southwest of Las Vegas. (Apologies to the artist formerly known as Prince, and the tape format creator formerly known as JVC.) Sony’s Gary Mandle, Maestro of…
Bob Shaw’s 1966 short story “Light of Other Days” and 1972 novel “Other Days, Other Eyes” are built around the idea of “slow glass,” a substance through which light travels very slowly. The material was developed as a strong, lightweight safety glass for automotive and aerospace applications, but drivers of cars with the new glass installed suffer a higher rate…
The annual HPA Tech Retreat is over; here’s my quick summary of trends that stood out, as well as a few interesting images. Chasing viewer engagement / sampling / metrics: Real-time social-media monitoring. Set-top boxes delivering customized ads. Live user-engagement feedback into production practices. There has always been a desire for detailed audience measurement; now it seems the technology is…
The HPA Tech Retreat is an annual gathering where film and TV industry folks discuss all manner of technical and business issues. It’s the sort of conference where the chap next to you is cutting shows on his MacBook Air; today he was alternating between Avid and FCP. On this last day, HDR and color coding and reproduction get examined;…