By Dan Chung
So that’s the end of our coverage of BIRTV 2011. It was an interesting show this year and although there were a lot of Asian products that appeared to be imitations of Western brands I was pleased to see there was also some original thought from some manufacturers. It was also clear that quite a few Chinese and Korean brands are now trying to forge their own identities, rather than simply selling OEM products for rebranding by resellers. I want to finish our coverage with a few pictures of products we didn’t have time to video but thought were interesting.
Korean manufacturer Varavon was showing an enhanced version of their Armor EX DSLR cage which they showed at NAB 2011. The new version has a shoulder spar, pad and counterweight added to the basic cage.
Cheap LED light solutions were plentiful at the show but these inexpensive Falconeyes panels caught my eye. They were incredibly light, thin and cost about US $70. They were not the best light quality and are non-dimmable, but for the price I can see they might have uses.
Another interesting LED panel design was from Beijing Brightcast whom we interviewed on the first day. Somehow we missed this product. Called the Butterfly light it consists of two rotating panels that fold down into the size of a regular 1×1 panel.
DiscoveryCam were showing an electronic follow focus for Canon DSLRs that seemed to work quite well. Price was around US $400.
Swit had a new bright single LED camera light designed for ENG work. The S2040 is dimmable and has barn doors. They were also showing a new LCD monitor designed for DSLR use.
Dynacore had a new lightweight dual battery charger for the Sony BP batteries that power the EX1/3 and PMW-F3. They also had a v-lock power distribution plate for DSLR use – seems like most Chinese battery manufacturers have a version of this at the moment.
And last but not least, possibly my favorite item at the show, the very bling HDC-1860. A Chinese made ENG camera that certainly stands out in a crowd.
