In part 2 of our 2016 year in review we will be looking at the big announcements and stories that came in May, June, July and August.
May
May started off with the Newsshooter team covering the Mojocon 2016 conference in Dublin. Mojocon is the world’s premier mobile journalism conference and at the event we reported on the state of play of mobile journalism with the BBC’s Marc Settle and Nick Garnett and new media guru Christian Payne, the Helium Core iPhone cage, and Mavis camera app to name just a few.
We also continued our NAB 2016 coverage, including:
* Wooden Camera wooden hand grip and trigger box
* New Bright Tangerine trays make changing filters a breeze
* F&V Z400S Soft 1×1 LED light
* Aputure COB 120t affordable 1500 watt equivalent LED hard light
* SoftPanels LED lights with automatic colour temperature adjustment
* Vocas accessories that help improve the Sony FS5
* Tiny Z-Cam C1 is a 4K micro 4/3 camera action cam with interchangeable lenses and Raw capture in the works
* Fujinon show their 8K 12-36mm T3.1 PL zoom lens
* Redrock Micro shows a range of new products for the solo shooter
Duclos Lenses announced a 8mm f/4 fisheye lens for drone and VR applications
Google patented a lens implant for your eyeball
GoPro reported that the Karma drone would be delayed until the 2016 holiday season. Little did we know that this was a precursor to more bad news for GoPro, with all Karma drones being totally recalled not long after they started shipping.
Zacuto drop-tested their Gratical Eye EVF off a 12ft ladder
Facebook premiered their first VRshort film using a Surround 360 camera
Yi Technologies launched the $249US 4K Yi action cam
Chinese mobile phone giant Xiaomi launched a new 4K drone called the Mi Drone.
Western Digital bought SanDisk for $19bn
We reviewed the Hoodman Hoodeye eyecup for Sony a7R II and a7S II, the Arri SkyPanels, the Lupo DayLed 1000, DayLed 650 and DayLed 650 Dual Colour lights, and the LUPOLED 1120 DMC Dual Colour LED panel.
Matt James Smith gave us his first impressions of the Sigma 50-100mm f1.8 ART lens, DP James Neihouse ASC spoke to us about shooting 4K in space with the Canon C500 and 1D C, and I did a NAB 2016 round up podcast on the Go Creative Show.
June
Zoom launched the H4n Pro, an improved version of their most popular audio recorder.
Schneider announced a new 0WA-8XLC-95 wide angle adapter for the Sony 28-135mm that expanded the field of view by around 20%.
Panavision unveiled the 8K DXL cinema camera with RED Dragon sensor and Light Iron colour science.
SLR Magic announced two new Sony FE full frame lenses- the CINE 35mm F1.2 and CINE 75mm F1.4
We attended Cinegear in Los Angeles and some of the products we covered were:
* Panavision DXL project director Michael Cioni talks in detail about the new 8K cine camera
* Panavision 8K Millenium DXL cine camera interview with Haluki Sadahiro, Panavision’s director of new product development
* TLS re-house vintage Canon K-35 primes
* Hawkwoods Gripper Battery from Zacuto
* Mole-Richardson 10K LED light can run off mains power
Convergent Design released firmware for the Odyssey 7Q/7Q+ and Apollo that added FS5 Raw recording
Hasselblad unveiled the X1D, a 50MP mirrorless medium format camera
Digital Bolex announced that they were ceasing production and sales of their D16 camera
We reviewed the Panasonic Varicam LT, Sennheiser AVX 835 handheld wireless microphone, SLR Magic full-frame 35mm f1.2 and 75mm f1.4 for Sony E-mount, and Kyno – a footage screening, logging, organising and transcoding program for filmmakers. Jon Roemer reviewed the Canon 1DX mkII 4K video DSLR, Dan had an exclusive look at the Canon CN-E 18-80mm T4.4 L IS servo zoom (pre-production lens), Paul Antico tested Shooting Raw on the Sony FS, and DP Sam Morgan Moore gave us his first impressions of Blackmagic Design’s new Micro Cinema Camera.
We talked to Bill Bennett ASC about his hands-on experience with the Panavision DXL 8K camera, Chuck Fadely had a hands-on with the Hasselblad X1D medium format mirrorless camera and we looked at the DJI Osmo X5R.
July
After failing to gain enough traction in the market Canon dropped the price of the C300 Mark II by $4000US. Later in the month Canon released C300 mkII firmware version v.1.0.4.1.00 with Canon Log3, viewfinder magnification during recording and Dual Pixel CMOS AF for CN7x17 and CN-E18-80mm lenses.
Fujifilm announced X-T2, finally bringing UHD 4K video to their camera range
Sony announce a(nother) full frame 50mm FE-mount lens: the Planar T* FE 50mm F1.4 ZA
Sony announced a full frame 50mm FE-mount lens, the Planar T* FE 50mm F1.4 ZA
DJI announced the Zenmuse Z3 drone camera with 7x zoom
Samyang completed their XEEn cine prime lens sets with the announcement of the 135mm T2.2
Atomos launched AtomOS 6.6 firmware that brought extended dynamic range viewing to original Shogun and Ninja Assassin 4K recorders, plus added CinemaDNG recording
Nikon announced the new superfast AF-S NIKKOR 105mm f/1.4E ED
The first vision from the RED WEAPON HELIUM 8K S35 sensor was posted online
Two days with the Fujinon XK6x20 20-120mm T3.5 Cabrio – the only S35 zoom you’ll ever need?
We reviewed the the Aladdin Bi-Flex 2×1 Lite, Sigma 24-35mm f/2 DG HSM Art Lens, Fujinon XK6x20 20-120mm T3.5 Cabrio, and Sony RX10 III.
At the Sheffield Doc Fest 2016 Nick Read talked to us about shooting cinematic feature docs with the Canon C300, Olly Wiggins spoke about his doc ‘Swim the Channel’, and shooting on the canon C300 and moving to the Alexa Mini. Emmanuel Pampuri spoke about the Fujifilm X-T2 telling us the 4K camera was ‘amazing’, and Eleanor Mannion wrote about shooting a 4K doc for RTÉ on an iPhone.
August
Samyang announced a super fast 35mm f1.2 lens for APS-C mirrorless cameras, and later in the month they also released the 20mm F1.8 and 20mm T1.9 full-frame lenses.
NHK began test broadcasting 8K TV over its satellite channels
Teradek introduced new Bolt 1000 and Bolt 3000 HD transmitters with 1000ft and 3000ft range
Verifly launched a on-demand drone insurance from $10US/hour
Seagate demonstrated a 60TB SAS SSD
Netherlands-based Vibesta launched the Rayzr7 LED fresnel
DJI opened its first Drone Arena in South Korea
Canon announced updated versions of the 24-105mm f4L IS and 16-35mm f2.8L lenses
Canon announced the 5D mkIV with 4K internal recording. Dan was lucky enough to get a hands-on preview of the camera before it was launched. A lot of video shooters were disappointed by the camera’s specifications.
DJI announced the OSMO+ with a new integrated zoom camera
We covered BIRTV in Beijing and here are just some of the items we reported on:
* Canon show VR 360 degree rig using five ME200S-SH cameras
* Tilta debuts new cages for RED cameras, including white version for the WEAPON HELIUM
* Sony unveils the HXR-NX5R 1/2.8-type professional compact camcorder
* Aputure V-Mic D3 $280 US shotgun microphone
* Movcam MCS-1 wireless system updates allows remote focus with EF lenses on RED. Also cine servo control on any cam
* The Image Enhance Pro filter from SLR Magic claims to give your camera a ‘natural look’, fix flesh tones and colour balance
Sachtler announced the more affordable FSB 10 100mm fluid head tripod
Cooke Optics announced that it was introducing multiple mounts for its miniS4/i lenses. Previously only available in PL mount the lenses now come in Canon EF, Nikon F, Sony E and micro 4/3.
We reviewed the Think Tank Video Workhorse 25 bag for larger cameras, Fujifilm X-T2, ShotPut Pro 6 for Mac, F&V Z800S Soft 2×1 LED panel , F&V Z400S Bi-Colour Soft 1×1 LED Panel, Westcott 2×1 Flex Bi-Color LED, Zhiyun Crane three-axis one-handed gimbal for mirrorless cameras, and Pilotfly H2 brushless gimbal.
At Excellence in Sound ’16 sound recordist Simon Bishop gave us top audio tips for solo shooters, James Bayliss-Smith gave us his thoughts on using the Sony FS5 and Letus Helix Jr , Daniel Peters gave us a run through of the new features in Blackmagic’s URSA Mini 4.0 Firmware, I gave an insight into shooting a first person story, and wrote an article – Good while it lasted: does the Canon 5D mkIV mark the end of DSLR video?
In part 3 of our year in review we will look at the big announcements and news from September, October, November and December.
