NAB 2011 Report by Bunko

 I wasn't able to attend NAB 2011 so Bunko kindly reported for me. He minces no words and his editorials are usually acerbic. I don't always agree with his views but, it is good to have a critical second opinion. When I first released this post for public consumption I neglected to edit out some of the harsher language so I apologize to anyone who was offended or hurt.

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The Red Camera & Sunglass Company.  Now, all the camera makers were in Central Hall, all of them.  Except for Red, which ended up in the South Hall - Lower Level, right amongst the post production vendors, sandwiched in-between a film scanner outfit and one peddling a color correction plug-in.  Weird, eh?

Also, all the other camera makers had open, inviting stands where you could walk up to the cameras and handle them yourself.  Both Sony and Panasonic must have had over 100 camera exhibited and turned on this way.  Not so with Red, however.  You could not enter their display area at all -- they did not have any!!!!  Instead, there was a small area cordoned around where a guy had his back tattooed and a chick had her backside tattooed.  That is all anyone could see, there were a couple of black cameras hanging from the ceiling, a good 12 feet away, so nobody could make out what they were and what they did.  So, if you had wanted to see some tattooing of backsides, you could hang around the Red stand, otherwise you did not see anything, let alone any "Red camera."  Typical Red Camera, in other words.

Sony had the largest presence, maybe 3,000 sq. meter, you could spend half a day there.  Their new little NXCAM w. the 35mm sensor (NEXFS100UK) was all over the floor, but up close and personal, it did not look much.  The buttons on it are too tiny and too close to each other.  You could never operate that thing in a hurry or in the dark.  There are no lenses for it, except the cheesy silver DSLR lens that goes with the consumer model.  Also, it only has an HDMI interface, so it is prosumer class at best, anyhow.  And with a model number like the one Sony gave it, I don't predict a long and healthy life for it, either.  I suppose it is a step up from a DSLR, but not that much. 

However, the Sony XDCAM-series PMW-F3K looked a lot more reassuring, that was one of the "camera stars" of the 2011 NAB, surely.  However, the three prime lenses that come with the set looked absolutely grotesque up close and personal.  These three prime lenses are at least 6-inch in diameter!!!!, yet the front glass element in them is barely 2-inch.  The rest of the lens' girth is the barrel!!!!

On the other hand, there was one PMW-F3 camera there that you could play with, this one had a new Sony-brand manual zoom lens, 11-16mm.  And next to it, enclosed in a small glass cage and not illuminated well, was their "upcoming servo zoom" optic for the same PMW-F3 camera.  This looked robust and cool, with a zoom range of I seem to recall 18mm to 250mm.  And a servo zoom at that, at long last!!!!

So, for anyone contemplating the Sony XDCAM-series PMW-F3 camera w. the 35mm sensor, here is my advice after talking with a Sony rep, other folks, and seeing what I saw there in the flesh:

The manual 11-16mm zoom lens (PL-mount) for this camera looked great, it is coming out by late summer, did not ask about the price.  The 18-250mm zoom lens is going to be servo, but Sony is not promising that one until year's end.  That would be the one I would be getting, anyhow.  From what little I could see of the super-zoom prototype hiding under glass in a dark area, it looked like a real cinema/video lens, finally.  Thank you, Sony, better late than never, hmmm?

I would not bother with the rest of the Sonycams, and like I said, their prosumer-class little NEXFS100UK did not impress me one tiny bit.  Unless that is all one can afford, I would save up my shekels and go with the EXCAM-class PMW-F3 with one or both of the upcoming zoom lenses. 

For me, I would rather wait until year's end and get a PMW-F3 with the 18-250mm servo zoom lens (PL mount), then you'll have something that looks like a real-life digital cinematography camera, right?  The upcoming lens looked really impressive.  The 11-16mm manual zoom lens was already mounted on an F3 camera at the show, I was playing with it for a bit, but there was a loooooong line behind me, so 25-30 seconds is all one could put in there, really.  The VIPs were taken to the back rooms where they had all of these goodies hooked-up for one-one-one demos.

   

Grass Valley had their hard drive based camera, i forgot the name, although I did spend some time playing with their Edius 6 NLE.  Ikegami, Hitachi, etc. were all there, I just did not have the time to check them out in detail.  JVC was there, I think they have yet another "upgrade" on their 1/3-inch sensor CCD-cams, I am just not interested in those, however.  They also showed some 4K footage that they shot with a really small camcorder, in fact I was told by JVC that they will have two 4K rez cameras out by 2012, one of them priced at around $5,000!!!  They had both of these 4K JVC cameras on display (behind glass, of course), one was about as big as a Sony Alpha 5 DSLR, the other one slightly smaller than the Sony PMW-EX1R, wow!!!

Canon had absolutely nothing new and exciting on display, but they had dozens of their 1/3-inch sensor XF-line of camcorders hooked-up to monitors.  Still, with both Sony and Panny peddling large-sensor camcorders at less money than the Canon 1/3-inch CMOS jellocams are going for, the Canons generated zero interest from all I could tell.  Bona-fide duds, their XF-line of "professional" camcorders are, I must say....

The "usual suspects" were all there -- the "Famous Zacuto Gang" of Steve Weiss & Co., with Phillip Bloom in tow, Abel Cine Tech, ZGC, Band Pro, B&H, etc.  Lot of crazily overpriced stuff and "must-have accessories."  The company making the Phantom cameras had a huge stand as well, so did Arri, Aaton, Weisscam, Silicon Imaging, etc.

Really, other than the Sony PMW-F3 Super 35mm sensor camera with one or both of the upcoming zoom lenses, i.e. the 11-16mm manual zoom AND/OR the 18-50mm servo zoom optics, I would not be bothering with any of the other cameras out of the hundreds that I saw. 

Amazing to me is the fact that all of these zoom lenses bear the "Sony" name.  So, they must have had a lover's quarrel with Fujinon, as the initial plan was for these lenses for the PMW-F3 to be bearing the Fujinon logo, ha-ha-ha!!!

Of course, if you wait a year or two, the 4K rez video camcorders will be all over the place.... Oh well, these are still eggciting times in the camera biz, no?

 

Back in a jiffy!

Bunko Furko

Update on Monday, May 2, 2011 at 03:29PM by John Novotny

I wasn't able to attend NAB 2011 so Bunko kindly reported for me. He minces no words and his editorials are usually acerbic, enjoy. I hope to post more as I can.

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