Author Archives: FDTimes

Micro Salon Italia 2017

Microsalonitalia took place in March at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia CSC, (the Italian National film school). The center is the famous Italian institute for training, research and experimentation in the field of Cinema, intended in its widest sense, of films, documentaries, fiction and animation. Article and photos by Jacques Lipkau Goyard. read more…

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Jazz, Lenses and ZEISS

by Thomas R. Zecher Photos by Alexander Kopp Most cinematographers and still photographers know about Obekochen. It’s a small town, three hours from Frankfurt and two hours from Munich. This is where ZEISS cine and still photography lenses come from. What many of us did not know is that the 25th Aalener Jazz Festival opened in Oberkochen this November 2016. Aalen is a large… read more…

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Diversity in Cinematography

Madelyn Most writes: “for the first time ever, Camerimage, the festival of cinematography, IMAGO, the European Federation of Cinematographers, and illuminatrix, a U.K. collective of female cinematographers, hosted a forum on gender and diversity in cinematography. The panelists discussed what made their career work, while questioning the myths, inequalities, and obstacles that still exist in their respective countries.” read more…

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Camerimage Docs: Essay by Axelle Coquelet

Bydgoszcz, Poland. Axelle Coquellet writes: Camerimage is the marvelous international festival dedicated to the art of cinematography. It is all about cinematographers, and even more so when you look at the documentary program where most of them are also directors. I think it is one of the main interests of documentaries: how these directors see the world and how they manage to communicate it through the cinema screen. read more…

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Leica Lens Service Training

Oli Laperal, Jr. writes about his lens service course at CW Sonderoptic: “Having attended lens service training at Angenieux, ARRI, Cooke, and ZEISS, learning more about the Leica CW Sonderoptic cine lenses was most welcome. When Osamu Tsukada, Asia Regional Sales Manager of CW Sonderoptic invited me to attend a lens technical service training seminar in Wetzlar, Germany, I did not hesitate…” read more…

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FUJIFILM X-T2 Still & 4K/UHD Camera

FUJIFULM North America today announced the newest in their interchangeable lens X-series cameras, the FUJIFILM X-T2. The X-T2 has received several significant improvements over the 2014 release of its predecessor, the X-T1, including a new 24.3MP X-Trans CMOS III SPS-C sensor, a large 2.36 million dot OLED viewfinder, and  4K (3840×2160) video with a .mov file type. The X-T2 also received… read more…

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Interview With RED’s Jarred Land – Episode 2

This is Episode 2 of “Interviews with Jarred” about RED Digital Cinema, the state of the industry, large format, and more. Another sequel in this saga is inevitable. I expect Episode 3 will include more about RED Helium 8K S35 3.65 micron pixel sensors.

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Sony Full Frame FE 50mm F1.4 ZA Prime Lens

Sony Electronics has just introduced a new Planar T* FE 50mm F1.4 ZA lens with an E-mount. It’s part of the Sony/ZEISS strategic partnership that includes the 16-35mm F4, 24-70 F4, 16-70mm F4, 135mm F1.8, 55mm F1.8, 35mm F1.4, 35mm F2.8, 24mm F2, and 24mm F1.8 lenses. read more…

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Can 2/3-Inch Broadcast Field Lenses Really Portray 4K UHD ?

There are quite a few 4K ⅔-inch broadcast lenses at NAB this year… Recently, some FDTimes readers have been asking similar questions. Rene Holbrugge summed it up: “My name is Rene Holbrugge and I work as a television cameraman. With UHD being a hot topic lately, I am wondering if it is at all possible to get UHD resolution out of… read more…

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VariCam LT LA Launch

Last night we joined hundreds of industry professionals at the Directors Guild of America LA building for a well-run presentation of the VariCam LT. After a nice sizzle reel of VariCam 35 projects and testimonials from filmmakers, Mr. Miyagi, Director of Panasonic’s Professional Video Business Unit,  unveiled the new camera with unmistakable enthusiasm. read more…

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Oli at NAB 2015

As usual, the best way to start exploring any major motion picture trade shows is to first thoroughly speed-read the latest issue of Film and Digital Times. Obviously lunch and rest will not be a priority for the next few days. NAB is always preceded by conferences, lectures, keynotes, press conferences and seminars. Following the laws of physics, unfortunately one can only be in one place at any given time. Here’s an outline of the highlights of NAB for me. read more…

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Delacoux gets Legion d’Honneur

Jacques Delacoux, President and Managing Director of Transvideo and Aaton-Digital, received the Legion d’Honneur medal in a ceremony at la Femis in Paris this evening. The Ordre national de la Légion d’honneur (Order of the Legion of Honor) was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802 and is the highest honor in France. More pictures to come from the ceremony, presided over by Pierre-William Glenn, AFC and… read more…

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Oli Laperal’s NAB Report

By Oli Laperal Jr. The omnipresence of 4K and 8K systems over HD at NAB reminded me of the HD-over-SD transition a dozen years ago.  As in the past, there are no shortage of nay-sayers.  But the quantum leap of technology offering price points lower than previous systems, coupled with transparent ease of intuitive workflow, and Thunderbolt 2 up to… read more…

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CP+ Camera Show Japan

In addition to remembering Feb. 14 on our calendars as Valentines day, we also mark Feb 13 – Feb 16  for this year’s biggest Camera Show in Japan: CP+ Camera and Photo Imaging Show 2014 in Yokohama. And it shows clear, that the popularity of this show grows every year. Last year, for the first time, a space for video and… read more…

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J.L. Fisher Open House

Saturday’s J.L. Fisher Open House 2013 took place on a cloudless, beautiful day in Burbank. This annual event, held at J.L. Fisher’s sprawling complex and stadium-sized parking lot, is sponsored by the SOC, ASC and ICG guilds and supported in part by the participation of dozens of top gear manufacturers, dealers and rental houses. The Open House, now in its 8th… read more…

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NHK Open House in Tokyo

Open House at NHK STRL (Science & Technology Research Laboratory). To see information about each image in the slideshow, go to Full Screen Mode and turn on “show info” at top right. NHK is a Japanese publicly-funded company. Every year, for one week at the end of May, they open their doors to the public to show what they have achieved recently. NHK… read more…

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Oli at NAB 2012

Oli Laperal’s impressions of NAB 2012: 4K+, 6K, 8K, solid state, Thunderbolt, H.265, glasses-free 3D… read more…

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InterBEE 2011 Tokyo

InterBEE 2011, held November 16-19 near Tokyo, had companies from 34 countries exhibiting cinema, video and audio products in 1329 booths. There were more than 30,000 visitors–a record attendance. Slideshow, above. My quick impressions: 3D was almost gone. The flavor of the show was 4K and 8K. The company that introduced a 4K recorder 2 years ago introduced an 8K UNCOMPRESSED recorder…. read more…

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Hugo

A line of moviegoers stretched around the block outside the Regal Cinemas in downtown Los Angeles at 1 pm on Saturday, November 5. Hundreds of people from the filmmaking societies and guilds were waiting to enter an advance screening of Martin Scorsese’s newest film Hugo. Not only has this film been much anticipated for being Scorsese’s first using 3D, but… read more…

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RED Scarlet

Once upon a time, Scarlet was a camera on the development roadmap of Red Digital Cinema with a 3K 2/3” sensor and a fixed zoom lens. Delivery deadlines were pushed back until this past summer when all news of the camera ceased. Some wondered aloud if the camera would happen at all. Then RED scheduled a delivery announcement for Scarlet… read more…

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