Digital Bolex D16 Footage Has Been Seen

I have to admit that the news about this camera has seemed to pass me by, even though it's been talked about for almost 2 years. It's still not quite available, but Bolex has made some footage from the new camera available to view on their website. The low light capabilities are impressive.

This camera is supposed to sell for less than a new Canon 5D Mark III and it seems to fit a similar niche that the Blackmagic cinema cameras do. And it can mount a wider range of lenses and shoots RAW footage, so that is all good. But what is that crank on the side of the camera for? And I even like 1950s Space Age aesthetic to the design. Retro and Modern at the same time. Go to Bolex here to watch the sample videos and learn more about it.

Olympus Introduces Its New Flagship Camera

Olympus has introduced a new camera, the OM-D E-M1. Like the already existing E-M5, the E-M1 is a Micro Four-Thirds camera styled after DSLRs, but this one is intended to be their new top of the line model. It will have a 16 MP sensor and a host of features, like dust-, splash-, and freeze-proof construction, tilting touchscreen LCD, 2.36 MP EVF viewing, 5-axis image stabilization, PC sync terminal, full HD video, built-in WiFi, focus peaking, 10 fps shooting, and something new called Color Creator, which allows the user to adjust color from the top of the camera. Interesting. It seems like the added grip is a good idea for this camera. The original OM-D E-M5 has always felt a little small to me, so a bigger grip would help that.

 

The body alone will run around $1400 and for around $1950, you can get the E-M1 with the new M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 12-40mm f/2.8 PRO lens, which is weather sealed, features a constant aperture of f/2.8, and which is equivalent to a 24-80mm lens in full-frame terms. Olympus also has another PRO lens in the works, an M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 40-150mm f/2.8 PRO, which is equivalent to an 80-300mm lens. With these new offerings, Olympus is creating a pro-level system that will be a real competitor to full frame camera systems from Nikon and Canon, and competition is good for everyone, of course.

Fotodiox Debuts New LED Light

Photographic lighting has undergone several changes over the years. The first lighting was based around tungsten bulbs. Then quartz lighting proved to be more stable with less color temperature fluctuations. Then electronic strobes took over most of still photography, especially in the studio, and that seemed to solve most of the problems that photographers faced when using artificial lighting. With flash, they had short exposure times with adequate depth of field at low ISO ratings. Seemed ideal, but a funny thing happened when photography started to include movie making with digital HD-SLRs. Now flashes didn't work at all and the search was on for better lighting sources for video and filmmaking. For a while, florescent lighting was used, and still is a little, but then LED lighting was tried and that proved to be a significant innovation.

With LED lighting, you could have fairly bright lights that could compete with quartz lighting in terms of output, but LEDs were radically cooler. And by this, I mean that the lights remained cool to the touch. The main handling problems with high wattage tungsten and quartz lighting is that the light housing could heat up so much that you couldn't safely touch them after you were finished using them. You had to wait several minutes before they were cool enough to touch without burning yourself. LED lights don't heat up like this.

Until now, most LED lighting consisted of flat panels of LED bulbs arranged in a tight grid. And petty much what you saw was what you got. There were little or no light modifications you could use with them. But now, Fotodiox has changed that with the introduction of their new LED light, the LED100WA. This is an LED light based around a strobe style housing and made to be compatible with standard Bowens flash accessories, like umbrellas, softboxes, barndoors, snoots and more. The LED100WA is rated at 600 watts and is available in either 5600K (daylight) or 3200K (tungsten) color temperatures. It will sell for $324.95, and it can be purchased directly from Fotodiox.

That Old Blackmagic Does It Again!

Blackmagic Designs from Australia  have announced a new Micro 4/3s based point-and-shoot camera designed for movie making, the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. The specs are impressive: Super 16 sensor size, dynamic range of 13 stops, SD card recording, choice of ProRez 422 or lossless CinemaDNG recording formats, uses the Micro 4/3s lens mount, and records in 1080HD resolution at either 23.98, 24, 25, 29.97 or 30 fps. This pocket-sized movie camera is designed to go where a full-sized camera cannot fit and promises to deliver nearly the same image quality. And the price will be around $995 for the body! Not bad at all.

They've also announced an updated version of their regular cinema camera, to be called the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K, that will have full 4K resolution, has a Canon EF compatible lens mount, and will sell for $3,995 (body alone). Considering the cost of a RED camera, that's pretty good.

A New Paradigm for Photography?

So Nikon has announced a new point-and-shoot digicam, the Coolpix S800c. What sets it apart and why it possibly signals a significant change in photography is the fact that is the first, at least as far as I know, Android-powered camera. Android, as in the mobile phone operating system. So the S800c will have Wi-Fi, GPS, full HD-video, a 16 MP sensor, and a 10X optical zoom (25-250mm equivalent) and you will be able to upload instantly all your stills and videos to the social media platform of your choice. I  would assume, though I could be wrong, that you can also run Instagram and other similar apps on this camera, too. It will be priced around $350.00.

Through most of the history of still photography, the end product has always been physical prints on paper. With the rise of social media, more people are interested in posting their images online and never seeing prints of their photos. This camera addresses this change and I expect more cameras will follow suit. For myself, most of my casual, everyday photos are done with my Droid phone through Instagram and posted on Instagram (Hermonator), Facebook, and Twitter (Hermonator56). Sharing photos through social media is where the medium is going and Nikon is smart to give us a camera that will handle it. Good job, Nikon.

UPDATE: Samsung is rumored to be working on a Galaxy-based camera, which uses the Android OS. Since Photokina is this year, there's a chance it might debut at the show. I'm sure we'll see more of these cameras.

Odds and Ends

There are a few things of note are happening in photography today, so here they are.

Keith Richards by Albert Watson

First, the latest issue of PhotoMedia is out with my profile/article on NYC photographer Albert Watson. He's a powerhouse of a photographer that has few peers at this point in time. The photographers that came closest were Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, who are both deceased. He was a fun and intense interview subject and was vastly more cooperative with the interview process than most busy photographers can allow themselves to be. Extremely accomplished and gracious, too. Just like you want your heroes to be. Watson is not your average high-end photographer. His interests are too varied to settle into one kind of specialty and he insists on having a hand in every image that leaves his studio. He does the final image manipulations in Photoshop and he personally makes every black & white print in his darkroom. His integrity and commitment is inspiring. So, pick up a copy of PhotoMedia today.

Pastry Cooks by Irving Penn

Speaking of Irving Penn, The Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) has announced the creation of the Irving Penn Archives. Penn was one of the greatest 20th Century photographers and one of my personal favorites. When he passed away, he willed his archives to the AIC and now it is online and ready for visitors. If you don't know his work, allow yourself the opportunity and the time to experience it. He is worth it. You can find the archive here.

Marvel's The Avengers

If you were one of the millions who saw Marvel's The Avengers this past weekend, you were also seeing film footage shot with Canon DSLRs.In addition to film and digital movie cameras, the cinematographer used 5D Mark II and 7D cameras for POV action shots and for unusual angles that would be difficult to get with regular movie cameras. The footage shot with these cameras blended seamlessly with the regular movie cameras. Pretty cool, huh?

Blackmagic Cinema Camera

Blackmagic Design has announced their first camera, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. This will be a very interesting camera for people who are into movie-making. Blackmagic Design has up to now been more involved in the post-production side of things, making hardware and software for editing and such.

The Cinema Camera will be a 2.5K camera in terms of resolution, regular HD has basically 1K resolution, with a dynamic range of 13 stops, which approaches the dynamic range of film stock. The major goal for the camera is to produce the best possible footage in terms of image quality, which is a high goal indeed. It also uses the Canon EF lens mount, which is bound to of interest to filmmakers using Canon DSLR's like the 5d Mark II, and now the 5D Mark III, and the upcoming EOS-1D C, which is specifically geared towards filmmaking. And on the back of the camera is a 5-inch touchscreen for viewing, which dedicated controls for recording and playback. It will record onto interchangeable SSD hardrives or you can use a Thunderbolt cable and record straight to your computer. To sweeten the pot, so to speak, its price will come in around $3000, which puts it $500 less than a new 5D Mark III body, and it should be available in July.

As you can tell from its design, this camera is not trying to be anything other than a movie camera. It's not trying to be both a still camera and a movie camera. It's for making movies. I have the feeling that these will be very popular when they are available. You can find out more about the Blackmagic Cinema Camera here.