Aquatcech have unveiled their new housing for the Canon 5D Mark 3 today, the DCV-V3. Essentially the design remains unchanged from previous versions but of course updated to account for the new button layout of the 5DMK3. You can also purchase an upgrade kit to convert both your previous DCV-v2 5D MK2 housing, or your 7D housing.
Price looks to be $1895
Santa Rosa, Calif. – Think Tank Photo announced today that in May it will release the Airport™ series, a new line of travel-specific, high-capacity camera backpacks designed with maneuvering through airports quickly in mind. The three backpacks – the Airport Accelerator, Airport Commuter, and Airport Essentials – integrate quick access pockets for both laptops and iPad, a top pocket for boarding passes, and three robust handles to ensure easy placement and retrieval from overhead bins.
The Airport™ series makes life easier for the traveling photographer. All meet international carry on size requirements. The two smaller bags, the Airport Commuter and the Airport Essentials, are designed to fit under-seat in regional commuter planes.
Their light, adjustable, contoured harness provides comfort along with lumbar support. The air mesh paneling keeps backs cool. The height-adjustable sternum strap allows for the perfect fit. A removable waist belt, side water bottle pocket, tripod/ monopod mounting system and seam sealed rain cover extend their versatility. Adding even more functionality, these backpacks can be used with Think Tank’s Pro Speed Belts for additional support and capacity by adding component pouches and cases from the company’s Modular Rotation Component System. For photographers who travel by air, these bags deliver on the three “C’s”: Carry-on size, Comfort, Capacity,” said Doug Murdoch, Think Tank’s co-founder and lead designer. “Their design, build quality and functionality are second to none.”
The three sizes allow photographers to select the best fit for their needs.
This morning Think Tank have announced a new first of its kind camera bag. The 4-Sight features 4 wheels on the base similar to many current carry on luggage bags, designed to make it even easier to get your gear through the airport. The bag will begin shipping in May for a cost of $299 and readers of my site can as always receive a free gift when shopping through my links to Think Tank products. The 4-Sight appears to be somewhat similar in size to the Airport Airstream which is my current roller bag of choice and will hold a couple of cameras and 3 or 4 lenses. This time they are also including a cable tidy bag as well. Interestingly the opening will swing to the side this time instead of downwards like all their other rollers and there appears to be no provision at all for carrying a laptop, assuming you have a separate shoulder bag. Despite having 4 wheels though they have clearly made some weight savings in other areas as the 4-sight weighs in a little less than the Airstream does.
· Internal Dimensions: 12.3” W x 16” H x 5–6.7” D (31.2 x 40.6 x 12.7–17 cm)
· External Dimensions: 14” W x 19.5” H x 8” D (35.6 x 49.5 x 20.3 cm)
· Weight: 7–8.9 lbs (3.2–4 kg)
· MSRP: $299.75 (U.S.)
The new Meizler module was teased a month or so back on RED’s website but at NAB the nearly finished product was on display. At the RED booth it wasn’t possible to get up close to it but outside at the 3ality Technica booth they had one just sitting there all wired up and ready to play with. It seems that not many people knew this and I only stumbled upon it in my final hours at the show.
So what’s this module all about then ? Essentially it’s aim is to streamline your camera rig and remove a number of the additional boxes and adapters that necessarily hang off the side of most rigs on a big production. You can pre-order soon for $13,000 and it should be shipping ‘this summer’.
Internal trickery
Physical ports
What wasn’t immediately obvious to me when I saw the image on RED’s website was how the module extends out to the front of the camera. As you can see in these profile shots it engulfs all of the rear connections on the brain and extends out to the front where three ports are positioned for focus, iris and zoom motors. This almost certainly means that your current base plate will no longer provide the correct rod height so they will need to come up with a low profile plate system. This is something that I only thought about when I was posting these pics and now that I look at it it seems that 3ality might have manufactured something to that nature already as you can see in the images above.
There is no way to add any other modules to the camera once the Meizler is added. Here you can see the main bank of connections where the biggest disappointment is the lack of a second RED monitor/EVF port. Still no way to use both the touch screen and the EVF at the same time, or two RED monitors. If you want a second monitor and also need to pass a signal to video village then you’ll have to pass it through your on camera monitor as there is still just the one HD-SDI port as well.
Focus, iris and zoom motors plug into the front and audio cables can be wired through the base.
The left panel features a remote socket for wiring in the Redmote.
Lots of wireless going on here. Whilst the module is apparently in use on several sets already I did have some issues with the receiving. Standing only 1 or 2 feet from the camera occasionally the focus would now work with the remote. Seems like there is still some bugs to be worked out but when they are, this will transform the ease of use of the Epic when it’s on a crane or being flown with a steadicam with your 1st AC working wirelessly. I think this will become a must-have accessory for larger Epic productions.
Works with Preston and 3ality controllers at the moment. More manufacturers are planned in the future.
RED announced a barrage of new products at NAB last week, including the details of the much anticipated Dragon sensor upgrade. For $6000, Epic owners will be able to upgrade their current sensors to a 6k sensor which will also offer improvements in dynamic range.
Lots of mount options out there now with Nikon and Leica having been added to the lineup. I was able to briefly try out one of the first Leica mounts with a Noctilux 50mm lens one evening, it is quite bizarre to have such a small lens on such a big camera but to have the option at all is pretty neat. Feature application is pretty limited due to the inability to add any kind of follow focus though but for hand held travel shooting it would be a lot of fun.
The Pro IO module is ‘shipping soon’ for $3750. These are all the Is and Os on this one side, these are no more on the other side. It’s quite bulky really and you’ll need to add a module adapter to it to allow you to put it onto the camera body as well as you can see in the next picture.
Ok this was one of the coolest things that I saw at NAB last week. Sony demoed a setup with 2 of their F65 4K cameras shooting a soccer match and outputting a stitched 8K wide image which could be used in HD production. Very cool stuff. Check it out on ProVideo Coalition.
| © 2010 Dan Carr | Suffusion WordPress theme by Sayontan Sinha |
