Carl “We have an up-to-date, ready to go model, and first things first; we head out to inspect the image quality. Firstly trying out the various Gamma profiles. EVA has 5 different profiles that they call “Scene files” 1-5 and then of course V-Log.

After a quick check for rolling shutter – Barely noticeable, but there in small amounts at high speeds – we test out the Image Stabilisation.  EVA has a 5.7K sensor which it crops into a 4K image, using the extra space to stabilise the shot.  Whilst only making a slight difference during walking shots, the handheld stationary shots proved much more noticeable.

200FPS made for some impressively smooth slow-motion shots, if a little noisy. 100fps was a lot cleaner.”

“You can see for yourself how the picture compares, and – more than ever – we’d love to hear your reaction, if you already own one of these other cameras, how does EVA compare?”

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

On the day that Panasonic announce that final shipping has begun we take a look at some footage produced by Noel Evans.

This review is meant for the users. It shows B roll style shots typical of documentary / ENG etc shot on latest firmware as at October 9, 2017 and also two sequences that were shot on very early beta firmware (same as other pieces released).

The sequences are virtually identical, however the first is shot very uncontrolled with a basic two light set up. Something like a typical run and gun situation may be like and is what many users asked me for. The second is a full light lock version I’ve called – Light it baby. I have taken a little creative licence with this opting to add a very subtle flaring here and there to suit the mood.

All shots are graded with the standard Color board within FCPX, albeit 7-8 nodes per shot.

We were not provided any resources by Panasonic outside the camera itself and utilising gear provided by Lemac, John Barry Sales, Con Filippidis and myself, put this together very low budget style.

Please remember the sequence shots were very early firmware and where essentially my personal camera tests. Camera I used on firmware just prior to final version was much much better. Many improvements across the board. We also need to keep in mind that this footage is all 150mbps long gop. Yes, it’s 10bit, but it’s hardly the best codec this camera will have come updates early next year. With an all I codec, I wouldnt touch long gop with a 10 foot pole, however it’s good to know it works quite well.

Noel Evans talks about the Panasonic EVA1 from Noel Evans on Vimeo.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

XEffects Viral Video Thirds is a set of titles, effects and transitions for Final Cut Pro X that combine to make compelling and eyecatching videos. Big, bold and colourful with lots of movement, this set of 35 plugins is perfectly ‘on trend’ for many uses from broadcast productions to social media posts.

Split media up into vertical or horizontal sections, apply a text overlay and then animate between different stacked thirds.

Keep it simple or build complex layered sections and animate between them with sliding panels or a custom 3D rotating Rubic Cube transition.

Features    

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

Sony is introducing an accessible camera system for 4K and HDR-ready studio and live production with the combination of the latest HXC-FB80 portable camera and HXCU-FB80 camera control unit (CCU). Based on a 3G-SDI platform with 1080/50p capabilities, the new system is well-suited for live production applications (studios, education, events), where production professionals need a high-quality HD solution with a migration path to 4K and HDR.

Since its debut in 2015, the current HXC series has been adopted worldwide by regional broadcast stations, production companies and educational institutes.  With inputs from these customer experiences, Sony today enhances its range of system cameras to support 4K upscale and HD HDR production in order to widen its applications. The HXC-FB80 has the same choice of configurations as its predecessors – the HXC-FB80H (camera body only) and HXC-FB80K (with 2/3” HD Lens, Portable viewfinder and Microphone).

The HXC-FB80 expands Sony’s HXC product line-up and shares many common features with thecurrent HXC-FB75. The new camera continues to provide signal-to-noise ratio at -60dB with high sensitivity of F13 at 50Hz – ideal for low-light shooting – and a variety of camera painting and processing capabilities.

The CCU upscales HD content to 4K (3840×2160) and provides a 12G-SDI output in addition to a quad-Link 3G-SDI. An HD HDR output supporting Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG) will be available in 2018 summerthrough a firmware upgrade.

The camera has three 2/3-inch type CMOS Exmor image sensors and provides 50Hz progressive operation at 1920×1080 between the camera head and CCU using a 3G Platform. The camera also supports 23.98PsF shooting for productions requiring a film-look, including interviews and newsmagazine-type programs along with 25PsF shooting.

Furthermore, the ND filter wheel can be remotely controlled by the newly adopted filter servo motor in the camera head in addition to the electrical CC filter.

Notably, the potential distance between the camera head and CCU is extended up to 600m, while keeping the 10km extension by single mode fibre cable with local power supply. Together with the HXC-P70, the cable length can be extended up to 1,000m with the supplied power from the new HXCU-FB80 CCU. In addition to a Neutrik connector interface, an SMPTE-311M LEMO connector interface is also available for the camera head and CCU.

The HXC-FB80 system can be controlled not only by the CCU front panel operation, but also RCP remote operation as well as PC-RCP (HZC-RCP5) and Master Setup Unit (MSU) system for multi-camera application, which ensures scalability of its system.

The HXC-FB80 camera and HXCU-FB80 camera control unit are planned to be available in January 2018.  Sony will be exhibiting its prototype at the NAB Show New York, booth N401 Hall 3B Level 3, from 18 to 19 October.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

A few bug fixes following a major bug spotted on V2.0 firmware. Highlighted on HD Warrior with the camera shutting down after scrolling through the Display button.

Panasonic “Following bugs were found after updating the firmware to Ver.2.0 but now they have been fixed.

[Power Save LVF Shooting] was automatically set to [1 sec].(This makes the camera go into sleep mode in 1 sec in a standby mode.)
* [Power Save LVF Shooting] will be set to [OFF] when the firmware Ver.2.0 is updated to Ver.2.1.If you would like to enable [Power Save LVF Shooting], please set it on manually by selecting a designated time.

The parameters of picture quality adjustment in Photo Style were all set to -5 when setting the recording mode to [MP4 HEVC(AAC)]. This bug has been fixed.

* The parameters of picture quality adjustment in Photo Style will be reset to ±0 when the firmware Ver.2.0 is updated to Ver.2.1.
If you would like to adjust the picture quality in Photo Style, please adjust them manually.
There were cases where [V-LogL View Assist] did not work, This bug has been fixed.

There were cases where motion pictures recorded in [AVCHD] cannot be divided. This bug has been fixed.”

Get your softwares here : http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/support/global/cs/dsc/download/fts/index2.html

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

The Aputure LS C300d is the biggest and brightest light we’ve ever made. Winner of several awards (including Best Lighting Product at NAB), the LS C300d is a game changing COB light, boasting extremely powerful output, an advanced cooling system, portable build, and a TLCI rating of over 96.

The LS C300d is the brightest LED light in the Light Storm series. Boasting an impressive 48000 lux @ 0.5m with its included reflector, it can also reach an incredible 142000 lux @ 0.5m with our fresnel mount (with camera settings set to f/36, 1/200 shutter, and ISO 800). The LS C300d makes lighting nearly all scenes possible.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

Interesting update to this, one of my readers Ron Evans thinks this might be down to the type of software you use to download the firmware.

The PC version has the POWER SAVE LVF SHOOTING mode in the OFF position while the MAC version which is the one I used is at the ONE SEC position. That would account for at least 50% of users not having this problem.

Since this post I have been informed a PC user had the same problem, meanwhile this note has appeared on Panasonic’s download page.

I love the fact that Panasonic tell you to restore the setting but not telling you to restore it to what ???

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

This EVF will set you back £5000, £2.6K less than the EVA-1 yet its made exclusively by Panasonic for the Varicam camcorder.

Its not rocket science that the same team of designers could produce a downmarket version for EVA costing about £1.5K.

As a cameraman I get so hacked off at the lack of thought that video manufacturers give to supplying EVF’s these days, an LCD screen is hopeless for critical focus the least they could do is supply an EVF at a reasonable cost rather than leave up to third party manufacturers.

Just a thought.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions

I have tried this myself but I cannot guarantee that its a permanent fix till I have used both cameras again in this mode.

Go into the main spanner menu and page 2/4 will be Economy

Inside this menu look for Power Save LVF Shooting

By default the time is set to 1sec

Change this to the OFF position as shown above…job done. My thanks to Geoffrey Callens for this fix.

For all your video production needs in Scotland, get in touch with Small Video Productions