Check out this video introduction of the new camera and also a music video shot with it.  Some impressive results indeed.

NEX FS 100 Video Blog from Den & James on Vimeo.

Full Press Release

BASINGSTOKE, UK, March 23, 2011 – Sony today revealed two new professional camcorders based on extensive customer feedback in the “NXCAM™” line-up. The NEX-FS100E is a new E-mount professional camcorder equipped with a Super 35mm motion picture sensor and is a further addition to Sony’s 35mm line-up. The HXR-NX70E is the world’s first rain and dust proof professional HD camcorder and is ideal for use in unforgiving environments. Sony’s expanding NXCAM line-up, including the existing HXR-NX5E provides a superb solution to many shooting applications.

The NEX-FS100E – Digital Super 35mm made affordable.

Originally announced in November 2010, Sony can now reveal the full specifications of the new NEX-FS100E. The NEX-FS100E is equipped with an ‘Exmor™’ Super 35 CMOS sensor specifically designed for shooting motion pictures. This large, super 35mm equivalent sensor is capable of producing footage with a shallow depth of field similar to that of a film camera. Thanks to this cutting edge sensor technology, it is possible to record the image in 1080/50p AVCHD format as well as capturing 1080p quality slow and quick motion.

“The NEX-FS100E NXCAM Super 35mm camcorder enables budget content creators and videographers to experience a new level of cinematic expression” said Bill Drummond, Strategic Marketing Manager, of Sony Professional. “Sony has responded to professional user feedback to create this new camcorder with an ergonomically designed body and accessories offering really flexibility in use.”

The NEX-FS100E adopts the Sony E-mount interchangeable lens system used in the “?” series NEX-5, 3 and NEX-VG10E “Handycam®”. It’s very short flange back distance (the distance between lens mount surface and sensor surface) allows various “?” A-mount lenses be mounted via a mount adaptor (LA-EA1). It is also possible to attach a huge range of other lenses, such as PL mount lenses using third-party mount adaptors*. With such flexibility, users will be able to experiment with numerous creative options by exploiting the characteristics of different optics.

* Not all types of adaptors and lenses are guaranteed. For details, please ask the adaptor manufacturers.

The NEX-FS100EK lens kit model comes supplied with the E18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS zoom Lens which gives users optical Steadyshot™ and auto focus.

The NEX-FS100E accepts affordable and readily available Memory Stick PRO Duo™ or SDHC cards. It is capable of recording images at various frame rates providing the added creative freedom of slow and quick motion with full HD. The camera operator can simply adjust the frame rate without using converters or editing software, making the camera ideal for commercials and music videos, as well as action scenes in budget movies for example. The grip, handle and hybrid LCD viewfinder are detachable also making it ideal for handheld scenes and shooting in confined locations.

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I’d bet sales of Powershot G10 accessories skyrocket when the G10 video camera hits the shelves and people seek out spare batteries and carry cases only to find the ones that arrive are strangely far too small for their shiny new Video Camera!

The release of this new camera surely marks the end of the Powershot G-Series though.  The G11 and G12 were launched alongside the s90 and s95 respectively.  Those cameras had the sensor from their bigger brothers but squeezed into a MUCH smaller package.  They were a runaway winner when choosing between the two so it always seemed like the G-Series’ days were numbered.  When looking at top of the line point and shoot cameras these days you can’t help but take a look at the interchangeable lens cameras like the Panasonic GF-2 or the Sony NEX series as well.  For just a little more money you get so much more camera to play with.  Sales figures for EVIL cameras have soared in the last 12 months and with Olympus, Panasonic, Fujifilm, Leica, and  Samsung taking a shot at the compact camera/large sensor market we knew it would be only a matter of time before the big two stepped in……

As I mentioned in this post making some predictions for 2011, Nikon has filed many patents relating to such a camera and their EVIL solution is all but certain to be revealed this year.  Canon has remained a lot quieter in the area though, but it makes total sense to dispatch the old G-Series Powershots and replace them with a mirrorless camera of some sort.  For me, the introduction of a G-Series video camera seems to confirms this.

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Whistler Core Shots Olympic slideshow from Dan Carr on Vimeo.

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The articulating arm and Cheese Stick JR are 2 separate products which on their own are quite useful, but it’s when the 2 are combined together that you really get sometime cool.  The arm is available in 2 sizes, 6″ and 10″.  I have the 10″ version and the extra length adds a few more possibilities to the list.  The Cheese Stick is covered in all the photographic and production industry standard thread sizes (1/4-20, 3/8-16, and M4-.7) and easily allows you to connect together 2 things with different thread sizes.  Some of the solutions you will come up with are not necessarily the best looking, but in a pinch you can solve a lot of problems with this tiny device.

The articulating arm feels well made but not overly heavy and can be set up in several different ways.  The metal hot shoe mount can be detached from the end of the arm and then screwed into the Cheese Stick.  The threaded end of the arm then screws into any of the available holes on the stick.  The arm also comes with adapters to convert the threaded ends into threaded holes meaning that you have plenty of options to mount it even if you do not have the Cheese Stick JR.

So what can you use this for then ?  Well the obvious ones are for people shooting video.  You can easily attach a small LCD monitor such as the IKAN V5600 to a DSLR or other video camera by using the hot shoe mount as shown in the photo below where I have it attached to a Canon 7d.  By mounting the arm on the side as I did, it leaves plenty of room on the top to attach more accessories such as a microphone or wireless lavalier receiver.  In the next photo down you can see that i used a small ballhead to attach the monitor to the top, leaving the arm free to put mount a microphone or recording device like the Zoom H4N.  You could even mount a second monitor on the arm , allowing a director and a DP to monitor the video feed though you would need to use an active HDMI splitter to to drive 2 monitors from one output.  So those are some good uses for video shooters but what can stills photogs use this for?  Well with the addition of the Manfrotto 386B Nano Clamp you have yourself a very versatile little setup for positioning a flash wherever you need it.  With the Cheese Stick on one end you can mount both the flash AND your flash remote such as a pocketwizard to it.  This is a great continuation to the setup I wrote about HERE for a portable light stand solution.  For my skiing work, I can easily carry this in my bag and clamp it to a ski or a couple of ski poles to turn them into a lightstand.  I have also used the Cheese Stick a lot for coupling things together where before I used umbrella clamps with various spigots in them.

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For some time though Jim Jannard has been throwing around the November 30th date though as a day when we would learn more info about scheduled release and pricing.  Their motto though is “Everything is subject to change , count on it!” so i’d be very surprised if this information stays the same up to the release date.  None the less, they have provided a little more information about the cameras than usual so this time i thought it would be worth posting about it.  I know that there are still some stills photographers out there that don’t see the point in learning about shooting video, and those guys might want to skip this post.  But i’m still firmly in the camp that believes that convergence is inevitable, and if I keep my finger on the pulse then it won’t be such a shock when it comes!

There are 3 cameras then that we now have more information on.  The Scarlet is to come with 2 sensor variations, 2/3 and full frame.  The 2/3 will ship (hopefully) in may-june 2010 and the FF35 version will be Summer 2010.  The 2/3 version comes in 2 options , either with a fixed 8x zoom lens or as a “brain” with the option of adding components and prime lenses.  Specific details are laid out below in the table.  The FF35 version is only available as the kit which allows you to totally customize the accessories that you attach to it.  The list of accessories and pricing is also laid out below.  My initial thought is that the 8x zoom 2/3 version seems like a good deal and will be very popular for people filming action sports like skiing and snowboarding (a field in which i know many people).

If you are looking to build up a kit with the 2/3 sensor brain then the mini prime lenses are looking great, and very compact.  But the problem I see with that is that if you decide to upgrade to a FF35 brain later…. your lenses won’t work.  If you are looking to build up a rig with the FF35 kit then you’d better be ready to drop some serious cash !  The pricing is not even close to the same league as buying a Canon DSLR and shooting with one of those, so these Scarlets had better be damn good!

A few things jump off the features list at me.  HDR photo mode for one, this could go either way.  Personally i’m not a fan of HDR photos and I hope that this is not a gimmick.  Most camera companies have shied away from adding this so far though i’m sure that they could if they wanted to.  I just hope that its not too over the top and that it is user configurable.  For the most part the camera is really geared for video and not photos.  At the beginning of the development cycle it was touted as a stills camera a lot more but there seems to be less and less mention of this these days.  For one, it looks incredibly un-ergonomic for a stills camera anyway…..  Touch focus tracking is a nice addition though and something that i’m sure we will see on all cameras within 2 years, just like on the iphone, touch the part of the screen you want to focus on.  So simple.  I’ll leave you with a few more photos of the camera and also a rather cool looking ” RED Station” which seems to be a high speed multi-card reader. Cool idea.  I also see that the ” Bomb EVF” has a built in heater for use in extreme cold environments!

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One of the first things you want to remember with this stuff is to try and make the setup look good.  Take the time to make things look nice for the cameras.  In this case it was being filmed too so it needed to look neat and tidy but even if i’m just shooting stills , its a good idea to keep it clean and tidy.  Put square edges on your jumps and landings and try not to put unnecessary footprints in the background.  These things wont always end up in your shot but if you do the work beforehand, once you have started shooting you won’t have to stop halfway and fix something up just because you have changed angles.

Next up, pick an angle or two.  Normally I find there is one angle that jumps out at me as “The one”.  I’ll fire off a couple of test shots shutter priority set to 1/320 (max sync speed on my canon 1DMKIIN) so I can get an idea for the angle and also what the exposure is going to be.  Then I’ll stick the camera in Manual at 1/320 and guestimate f-stop for the ambient exposure i’m going to need to underexpose by a stop or two in order to stop ghosting.  The exact amount or underexposure really depends on how much ambient is hitting the feature , in this case the rock was actually pretty well shaded so i hardly needed to underexpose the sky by much at all and the rock was almost totally dark.  We were also shooting at the end of the day so the sky had a nice deep color to it.

Now I know what my exposure setting is going to be it’s time to get out some lighting kit.  I shot this with 4x Nikon sb80DXs and one Elinchrom Ranger RX.  The SB80s were on dual brackets with each pair fired by one pocketwizard.  Note though that just because they are on the same bracket doesnt mean they have to be aimed at the same subject…  In the final scenario here, all 4 SB80s were aimed at different points by swiveling their heads around.  The next two photos show some of the differences that light placement can make.  The first setup had the ranger behind me, 2 SB80s on the left firing up at where the rider would be and then 2 more SB80s on the right firing up at the rider.  This looked pretty crap though, not enough contrast in that rock and just pretty dull looking.  The ranger was pointing far too close to the same direction as the camera was so there were very little shadows cast on the rock and the moss. FAIL.

For the second setup I moved the Ranger over to the right (you can see the flare from it in the second shot below.  That created some nice contrast in the snow on the rock now and a great reflection in the wet rock on the bottom right (compare the two!).  I then aimed one of the SB80s on the left at the rock  as there was no longer any light on that side of the rock.  The second SB80 from that bracket was zoomed to 105mm and pointed at the spot in the air where i wanted the rider to be.  The second pair of SB80s was positioned behind me.  One was zoomed to 70mm and aimed at the skier (not 105mm like the other one as this one was closer to the rider) and the second was left wide at 17mm filling in the front of the rock slightly.  The third shot below shows the view from above down to the landing and gives you some idea of the distances involved.  The Ranger is much further back as it is way more powerful.  For the fastest flash duration on a Ranger you have to have it at full power so it needs to be set back quite a long way in order to get the same exposure as the SB80s

Now we’re getting somewhere.  I got one of the riders to stand on top so I can get a feel for the shot and make some fine adjustments to the lighting.  Have them throw a snowball so you can see the trajectory and then you are good to go!  All of the flashes I was using have a fast flash duration at full power, fast enough that I can confidently leave them at full power for most things as in this case.  Then all you have to do to adjust your exposure is alter the distances that the flashes are from the subject or use the zoom function on the flash head if it has one.  Doing this quickly is just a matter of practice, I don’t use a light meter for any of it.  After a while you’ll be able to get your exposures and distances pretty dead on very quickly.

Time to drop! Video courtesy of Jeff Thomas/Poorboyz Productions.

PBP bomb drop from Dan Carr on Vimeo.

Once I have the strobes where I want them for the shoot I tend not to move them until I have the shot I want fromt that angle.  What you will normally find though is that there are some good lifestyle oppertunities as the riders go about doing there thing.  The exposure for my shot was going to be f10, 1/320 at iso 200.  That would properly expose the rock and the rider for the action shot but by following the riders round with a longer lens and simply adjusting the aperture as they got further away from the strobes, you can usually grab a couple of lifestyles if you are quick.  These 2 shots of Dane Tudor and Charley Ager were shot entirely by using the lighting setup fot the action shot.  Nothing was planned, I simply reacted to where they were and quickly adjusted the exposure.

UPDATE: September 20th 2009.

So when i wrote this post, I couldn’t show you any of the action shots from the shoot.  I needed to wait and find out if any of them were going to get used for commercial uses or in magazines.  As it happens, the best shot from this shoot was picked up by Salomon to use as an international advert for one of their new skis, the Suspect, and you might also see it crop up as a poster for one of their top skiers, Dane Tudor.

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It’s been a strange winter here in British Columbia.  The snow didn’t really come in November and December leaving the mountains still looking like mountain bike resorts.  A lot of my plans went down the plughole and I was left twiddling my thumbs for a few weeks.  Then on December 26th Vancouver received nearly 60cm of snow (though nearby Whistler got only a couple of inches).  With more snow than Vancouver had ever seen I quickly organized a trip down there to meet up with the Poorboyz crew and we hit some rails for a few days with Mike Henitiuk, Matt Margetts and Leigh Powis.  When a city that normally doesnt get any snow, receives nearly 2 feet, the place comes to a standstill.  Jeff Thomas met me at his house in North Vancouver by coming down his road on his snowmobile…..

As soon as that trip was done I headed back to Whistler for the Deep Winter photo challenge that I wrote about last week.  After the Deep Winter I headed back down to Vancouver for a shoot at Grouse Mountain which saw the beginning of another strage weather pattern.  As we arrived at Grouse it looked like the day was going to be foggy and overcast but a quick trip up the gondola quickly showed that the temperatures were inverted and the top of the mountain was bathed in a beautiful orange glow as the sun rose above the cloud layer.  This inverted weather pattern stayed around for the next 10 days though bringing unseasonally high temperatures to the alpine regions while the valleys hovered around 0.  Up in whistler the temperature in the alpine shot up to a high of 10 degrees and stayed there for the week.  The already thin snowpack was melting away…….

Booter shooting in whistler from Dan Carr on Vimeo.
With no real powder to ski anywhere I spent the week building backcountry jumps with the PBP crew.  We discovered that the snow on some West facing aspects was still soft enough to land on once you punched through a thin crust so we built a collections of step downs, hips and gap jumps with Anthony Boronowski, Charley Ager, Brandon Kelly, Dane Tudor and Riley Leboe as they work on the new Poorboyz movie to be called………. well I cant tell you that yet but wait until the SIA trade show in Las Vegas next week and all will be revealed.  For now though the inversion has dispersed and the slush has turned to Ice but at least that finally gave me some time to do an update!

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Photoshop Tutorial :: How to make a sequence from Dan Carr on Vimeo.

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