NAB predictions
Apr 13th, 2008 by Martin
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Nab is the yearly major event for anything connected with video/media production. I´ll make some wild(ish) guesses as to what might delect my fellow camera(wo)men
Sony / Panavision
It will be exciting to see how the big guys are going to react to the Red One camera. I would hope for an affordable 2k shoulder-mount camera, that supports higher frame rates, and has interchangeable lenses. Competitively priced against the Red. Sort of a Red light for ENG work.
Red
Red is a master of hype, and this NAB looks like Red might just steal the show again. They have announced 3 big and 3 minor news. With only a little bit of foundation, I will do some wild guessing as to what they might be
Majors
- A palm sized 4k camera. This has already been announced, but none of the details are out. I would imagine that it is either a slightly downsized Red One camera, meaning aimed at the professional market. Or it could just be a more consumer-friendly priced camera, something for the video enthusiast.
- 4k projector. Its been rumored a long time that Red would produce their own affordable solution for viewing 4k. With that in mind, it gives an extra layer to view the recently published Mythbuster video on Red.
- This is the most mysterious one. Some suggest a time-reversal machine. I would guess that it could have something to do with the handling/archival of digital files. Harddisks are unreliable for long-term storage, DLT a bit cumbersome. At the same time, lack of a good archival system for file-based cinematography has been holding its development back.
Minors
- Direct support for FCP, Avid, Premiere. Since Apple is not having a stand this year, we know that there won’t be a new Final Cut Pro/Studio coming out.
- Red One Build 16. Greater colours, higher frame rates. But a faster boot-up time will come at a later time.
- Optical viewfinder. PS Technik in Germany has already announced one, but wouldn’t it be great if Red had that option built-in?
The others
Will be interesting to see when other battery technologies become viable.There will be some new solutions for the tapeless workflow in post production.I guess also the tendency is that the workload shifts from the set to the post production. Adobe is just one of many players here, but they have come up with a very exciting concept around focus/depth of field:
