Our long-awaited 68-page Cine Gear 2009 to New Year 2010 Special Report is now online. It is available online only; it is not on paper. For best viewing and printing, download the PDF file to your desktop. A high-resolution copy is available for subscribers only.

NAB is where executives hopefully spend the big bucks. Cine Gear is where users talk back and where machine shops, garage mechanics and retrofit cinematographers show the manufacturers how the stuff they showed at NAB should actually work. Many of the exhibitors at Cine Gear must bow down each morning in silent thanks to all the companies whose boards of directors know all about financing but not a whit about design or practical performance. And by the way, lest those boards think that FDTimes is being too harsh—fear not, you’re doing a much better job than the car companies whose pedals stick, the computer companies whose laptop batteries explode, or the sheetrock manufacturer whose chemicals were totally toxic. The themes of NAB 2009 were PL mounted cameras, PL mount lenses and the path to 4K. The theme of Cine Gear was how to use the equipment seen at NAB, with all the tools, accessories and ways to mount, ship, edit, post and store it. 3D is good news for manufacturers and machinists: they need two of everything. This issue uses Cine Gear as a prism to establish where we were in mid-year 2009, compared with where we are today, February 2010, and foreshadowing where we are headed: Cine Gear 2010.

Some of the companies and products covered:

Abel Cine Tech, ASL Gear T-Bag, AJA KiPro, Band Pro, Band Pro Premieres Mystery Primes, Bogen now Manfrotto, Camera Essentials, Canon’s Common Sensors, Canon EOS, Angénieux, Cartoni, Cinemek Storyboard Composer, Cineparts, Cineped, Cmotion, CMOCOS, Cooke, Element Technica, Filmotechnic, Fujfilm, Fujinon, Kino Flo, Lentequip Hotswap, Litepanels in HydroFlex, OptiTek Optimator, Max Penner Paradise Photosonics, Pro8mm, Tiffen and Steadicam, artemis, Transvideo, Weisscam HS-2, Zacuto, ZEISS, ZGC and more.