Tiny Cinema - Giant Results

By now a lot of people are familiar with tiny cinema.

No, I don't mean those boutique multi-cimemas that they cram into basements - where you get 6 seats and a slushy machine and pay $24 for a ticket to a movie for French people sitting around a table eating*...I mean machinery to let you make your own motion pictures via video. Without having to have a Technicolour camera and a crew of fifteen to operate. Little cameras.

Some people use handicams. Some people use compact cameras. Some people use DSLRs. All good, but not many of them can produce images and operating streams that are good enough to go on a really big screen - professional work.

Black magic make a big camera that can do just this. It's big, sleek, takes Canon lenses and lots of audio feed. They also make a very small camera that can do this - the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera.

Get a largish pocket if you want to keep the micro 4/3 lens on it, but if you don't mind demounting the optics you can indeed slip it into a shirt pocket. The illustration has a beautiful Panasonic Lumix 12-35 lens but remember that you could put an Olympus or Sigma lens on as well. And it needn't be a zoom - a pancake 18 or 20mm is available.

Whaddaya get in the camera? 1080P. Lossless CinemaDNG RAW files, and SDXC recorder,Apple ProRes 422 (HQ). High resolution monitor.Super 16 sensor with 13 stops of dynamic range.

And a particularly simple menu interface in the screen for the cinema adjustments.

There are 1/4" threaded sockets top and bottom on the metal chassis - tripod and mic mounting is easy.

Quite frankly, it looks like it blows your average handy cam corder out of the theater.

We've got 'un for rent and we're gettin' 'em for sale. Come see what then next generation of  tiny cinema will look like.

* And smoking. Eating, smoking, and sneering at the bourgoisie. I'm glad they did not make " Mary Poppins " in France, as it would have been ghastly.

Moom Pitchers - The Weekly Video Bit

We are getting more active down here at the shop - and it is not just shifting cabinets and putting out new displays. We are also getting more equipment that can assist with video work.

Of course users of the Canon and Nikon cameras know of the video capabilities of these - they use them every day with the fine lenses to make videos at weddings and worksites and all sorts of things. Some are used for major productions and in big shoots.

One of the new products on our shelves is a recorder for the output for these cameras - the Ninja 2 from Atomos. Our video expert, Mel, has given me the lowdown on this.

It is distinct from the on-board capabilities of the cameras in that it takes an enormous solid-state drive card - 240Gb. It runs 10-bit 4:2:2. It has a camera trigger start and stop. There is a a camera timecode synch in it. And it has a good big screen to let you see what is going in there as you do it.

When you want to mount it on a rig, there are 14" sockets top and bottom - the 800 x 480 pixel screen is one of the touch types. there are focus assist tools and audio level meters and if you are at all inclined to be distracted this can show you as many squirrels as you care to chase.

I noted from the package that the thing runs Mac or PC and mentions the ability to work with Apple, Adobe, and Avid products easily.

Looking at it, it is really a simple black shell box with a huge card slot in the side. Two battery slots in the back. Cable slots and sockets on the same side as the cards slot. Not too heavy to mount on a camera. Please see pictures.

Now, if Mel will set this up and show me how it runs, I will know more.

Rental Mystery Man

Jason, our rental guru, is being all mysterious today.

He has just skootched by waving a small camera box with what appears to be the picture of a compact camera on the front. But he said it is a compact video camera made by Black Magic. How can this be?

Is he fooling with me or is this a new coup for the rental department? He said he is going to do a rental blog on Facebook so keep an eye on this and see what he is up to. I'll spy on him from here and report what I see...