2017 was a very busy year for the team here at Newsshooter. We covered a multitude of trade shows all over the world, bought you in-depth analysis of product announcements, and detailed reviews of a plethora of equipment.
While some other blog sites continue to re-post other peoples work and just copy and paste press releases, Newsshooter produces a ton of original content, and does more in-depth reviews than anyone else. It takes a lot of time and effort to produce all this content, but we feel it’s important to do it properly.
Thank you to all our readers and viewers who continue to follow our site and who helped make 2017 such a successful year for us. During 2017 we produced 674 unique articles and 82 reviews. That is a lot of original content considering we don’t have any full time staff and our small team all have proper day jobs.
So with that being said, lets look back at the year that was 2017. There was so many things that we decided to break this post up into four parts. The first part is just what happened between January to the end of March. This is just a fraction of what we covered on the site during those months.
January
Rogue One and LION DP Greig Fraser ASC ACS talked about how he shot those movies on the Go Creative Show. Yi launched a new version of its original 4K Action Camera, called the Yi 4K+. Panasonic showed five new lenses at CES 2017: including the 12-35mm and 35-100mm version 2.
The Insta360 Pro 8K VR camera with 4K live streaming was announced. The Blackmagic Design URSA Mini 4.6K Newsshooter EBU lab test was done by Alan Roberts. Fujifilm announced the X-T20 4K mirrorless camera.
I reviewed the Sigma 18-35mm T2.0 and 50-100mm T2.0 Cine zooms and compared the DJI Phantom 4 Pro against the Mavic pro. MGCOOL announced the Explorer 2, a new 4K action camera with H.265 recording. We had a hands on with the Kodak Super 8 camera at CES.
Yi launched a new version of what they are claim is the world’s ‘fastest tricopter drone, the Yi Erida. Metabones introduced a cine style positive locking EF to E-mount Speedbooster and Smart adapters. Kesslercrane introduced a new Digital Rev head for motion control. Rode announced the VideoMic Pro+ and VideoMic Soundfield. Kinogrip launched the Kinogrip Multi+, a new wooden handgrip that has three stainless steel buttons that gave power zoom control to Sony a7 and a6000 series cameras.
First footage from the new 35,50 and 85mm T1.5 Tokina Cine Primes was released. Vocas introduced new Sony FS7 II rigs. Jon Roemer reviewed the Canon EOS M5. Cooke announced S4/i prime lenses were now available with uncoated front elements for a more ‘vintage’ look. Cineo announced the MavX– a colour-tunable LED softlight.
February
Sony announced the new G-Master 100mm f2.8 STF and 85mm f1.8 E-mount lenses. Fotodiox Pro introduced the 30-Inch Ultra-thin FlapJack Studio XL LED light. Motocrane started taking pre-orders for their universal automotive camera crane system. We tested the Panasonic GH5 and Metabones Speedbooster XL 0.64x with the Sigma 18-35mm f1.8.
Samyang announced the full-frame Xeen 20mm T1.9 cine lens. I reviewed the new The CAME-TV 55w Boltzen LED fresnel light and compared it against a DEDO Turbo Series DLED7 Bi-Colour 90W light. GoPro’s Karma drone came back on sale (with a new battery latch), following a disastrous product recall after drones kept falling out of the sky. I reviewed the Aputure Amaran M9, a tiny on or off-camera LED light.
MASV.io launched a pay-as-you-go massive file transfer service optimized for the professional video production industry, called MASV Rush. SmallHD released new 7 and 17-inch monitors with Cinema Grade Colour. We went hands on with Hands on with Sony’s new bokeh king: the FE 100mm STF G OSS. I reviewed the Aputure Light Storm COB 120d.
Kessler introduced Kwik Rail– a highly portable thread-together speed rail system. At BSC Expo Celere showed a working version of world’s fastest full-frame 18.5 mm cine lens and announced rear mount filters. Cinescope and TLS showed Leica R full cine-rehoused prime lenses. MTF Sevices were showing a B4 to S16 EF adapter that allowed you to use B$ lenses on your C300 mkII.
Panasonic added additional ProRes codecs via a free firmware update for the Varicam 35, LT and HS high-speed 1080P camera. Fujinon announced the MK 18-55 T2.9 and MK 50-135 T2.9 – new fast, more affordable cine zooms for E-mount cameras. Sigma announced four new lenses, the 14mm F1.8 DG HSM | Art, 135mm F1.8 DG HSM | Art, 24-70mm F2.8 DG OS HSM and the 100-400mm F5-6.3 FDG OS HSM | Contemporary. SLR Magic announced a 8mm F4 ultra wide angle Micro 4/3 lens designed with drone, gimbal and virtual reality applications in mind. We tested the Fujinon MK18-55 T2.9 with the FS7 II.
Sony announced what they claimed was the World’s fastest SD card. The new SF-G series are SDXC, with UHS II U3 compatibility that offered up to 299MB/s write speeds, and 300Mb/s read speeds. Core SWX announced the TorchLED Bolt 250 camera top light. At CP+ in Japan we went hands on with the Voigtlander 65mm F2 macro and 40mm F1.2 full frame E-mount lenses. Also at CP+ we went hands on with the Sigma 14mm F1.8 and 135mm F1.8 ART lenses. iFootage showed us their new range of Cobra 2 monopods. Sony unveiled the new Xperia XZ and XZ Premium smartphones that can shoot video at 960fps.
March
I reviewed the affordable and powerful Rayzr 7 Daylight 300 and Lupo DayLed 2000. DX.com showed a kit that allowed users to turn their old DJI Phantom 3 into handheld gimbal. Nezih Savaskan reviewed the Kessler Shuttle Dolly system for us. ‘My RØDE Reel’– the world’s largest short film competition was back with over $500,000 in prizes. The first Panasonic GH5 cage from 8Sinn was shown at BVE Expo. The SmallHD 503 UltraBright 2200 nit daylight viewable 5 inch field monitor was on display at BVE 2017.
Zhiyun launched the Smooth Q smartphone gimbal. Blackmagic Design announced the URSA Mini Pro with built in ND filters and user changeable lens mounts. Blackmagic Design also announced two new control panels, the Davinci Resolve Micro and the Davinci Resolve Mini. Ben Allan ACS did a first look review of the Blackmagic URSA Mini Pro. At the BVE Expo Blueshape showed the Power Station and new Granite Mini batteries.
Swiss company HeliEngadin launched a new range of Inspire 1 Carbon Fiber folding propellers. I reviewed the DJI Inspire 2 to see if it was a vast improvement over the Phantom 4 Pro. Erik reviewed the Cinemartin Loyal LT 7″ Field Monitor. Fujinon dropped $10,000US off their Cabrio 4K PL Compact Lenses. Omeneo launched their Apollo Wooden Hand Grips. Paul Gwilliams also reviewed the URSA Mini Pro for us.
Fujinon released the XK6x20 20-120mm T3.5 Cabrio Premier PL Lens in a version without the servo motor for under $10K USD. Thieves stole over 200 Veydra Mini Prime lenses from a LA warehouse. Gudsen announced the MOZA Air: a $599 handheld gimbal for mirrorless and DSLR cameras. GoPro released the Karma Flight Kit that enabled users to to turn their Karma Grip into a Karma Drone. Scott Emerton did up an article about how LC Tech saved data that no one else could. Shoulderpod announced smartphone rigs for the mobile journalist.
Filmic Pro Version 6 was released which brought Log recording to the iPhone. Erik went on a quest to find the “right” camera bag. Sigma announced pricing for the 135mm F1.8 DG HSM Art lens. The US and UK banned electronics in carry-on luggage from Middle East airports amid terrorist fears. Metabones introduced the PL to Sony E-mount T CINE Speed Booster ULTRA 0.71x. Sony announced expanded HDR workflows and new firmware for the FS5 and PXW-Z150.
MGCool unveiled the Explorer ES – an HD action cam for under $50 USD. Atomos announced the 4K 60p HDR Ninja Inferno and slashed the prices on the Shogun Flame and Ninja Flame. Atomos also announced a free CDNG Raw recording firmware update for Shogun range. Artlist music library finally came out of beta, offering users the ability to download an unlimited number of royalty free songs for a flat fee. I reviewed and compared the DJI Osmo Mobile and Zhiyun Smooth-Q in a smartphone gimbal battle. Leica unveiled the Thalia series of primes designed to cover the ARRI Alexa 65 and VistaVision sized sensors.
I reviewed the GH5’s Extra Tele Conversion function that gives your lenses added reach with no quality loss. I reviewed Filmic Pro Version 6 to see if it was indeed possible to get good results shooting in Log on a iPhone. I also did a first look review of the CAME-TV GH5 Cage. Canon announced firmware updates for Cinema EOS, XC-series and cube cameras. Fotodiox released new higher output Factor LED Lights.
So there are just some of what we covered in the first 3 months of 2017. Stay tuned for part 2 where we will look at April, May and June. What were your favourite Newsshooter reviews or articles in the first 3 months of 2017? Let us know in the comments section below.
