NAB '14 and what it means for aerial videography

[Calomile]

As you may or may not be aware, NAB (National American Broadcasters Expo) show took place recently in Las Vegas and with it came a great slew of announcements regarding new cameras and technologies. I have picked through much of these and I thought it may be of interest to someone to hear my ravings!

Panasonic GH4
This has to be one of the most important announcements for us - 4K and high framerate (96fps) 1080p footage on a lightweight camera that will work flawlessly with the readily available Zenmuse Z15. I';m sure this will be a very popular camera for many hexa and octo owners to come as the footage in the linked article above tells you everything you need to know. The wonder is if anyone will bother with the expansion box on an airframe to take advantage of the higher bitrate video, while also overcoming the need to have a separate recording device - something I would love to see.

Sony A7S
Yet another potentially great camera from Sony that could make a big impact on the aerials game, the Sony A7S is the big brother to the NEX5/6/7 and A6000 lines of cameras while still retaining a modest size and weight. Improvements to the codec used for capturing video and potential for 4K video capture using an off camera recorder make it an interesting choice. Early tests with the camera show that it has incredible low light capabilities, meaning you can shoot for longer into the evening before you need to pack up and head home.

DJI Ronin 3 Axis Gimbal - Article 1, Article 2
Finally a decent competitor to the MoVI M10 gimbal for slightly more realistic prices of sub-$5000 USD. I have confidence in DJI that the software will be top notch as it is in their other gimbals and the tool-less design is an obvious and necessary step for the evolution of this technology. It';s scarcely mentioned that there will be mounts available to use this gimbal in an aerial configuration as the expo is predominantly catering for ground based shooters but it has been confirmed.

Atomos Shogun, a small pocket ProRes video recorder - Article
If you';re wondering why I';m including this in my short write up, it';s because this small pocket recorder could be part of revolutionising the way we capture video in the future. Recording the output of your camera to a small dedicated recorder that uses a fantastic editing codec such as Apple';s ProRes or AVID';s DNxHD can vastly simplify and speed up the post production process as we no longer have to convert footage into these formats. It will also increase the quality of the captured video as the device is doing less to reduce the bitrate and file size than the camera will do in order to record to slower SD cards. Watch this space.

BlackMagic announce Davinci Resolve 11 with improved video editing controls - Article
Previously known as fantastic colour grading software, resolve has long been a favourite when it comes to colour adjustment and digital video. It recently became free to download and use the lite version of the software, but this was still of no great interest to low to mid level users as the editing portion of the software was still quite lacking in functionality. With the newest version they have added many features and tools that we have come to expect of editing software, putting it in the realms of competing directly with other more expensive software such as Adobe';s Premiere Pro and Apple';s Final Cut Pro. Pending release of this software, I see no reason why someone who isn';t genuinely interested in video couldn';t download a copy of this software and begin to learn with it as I expect there will be many tutorials created for it to teach beginners how to work the software and get to grips with the MANY advanced features offered even in the free version.

Other than that there wasn';t much that caught my eye as everything else is far more expensive than what I';ve mentioned. There was no news from GoPro despite it being rumoured that they may have been announcing a new GoPro 4, we must assume with 4K video. I think we';ll have to wait until next year for that one...

Did I miss anything? What are your thoughts on my findings, would love to hear someone elses thoughts.

[bunnygirl80]

Hi Cal,

Thanks for a superb summary of the latest tech! Sooo many new toys on the scene it';s difficult to know what to choose! lol. I saw the Ninja at the BVE show in London last month and it was quite impressive! ) Also the BMPCC (Black Magic Pocket Compact Camera) and their new larger Black Magic 4K Cinema Camera are also cameras that I think could have been included as there are more and more AP companies taking them to the skies! For less than £2000 they are both well worth inclusion. I have evaluated the BMPCC and the output from the camera (even in video mode) does need considerable colour correction in Resolve and I';m wondering perhaps that is why you didn';t include it! "It';s not for the faint hearted!". lol.

xx

[Calomile]

Tried to only focus on announcements specific to this show since the BMPCC is already out! They are a sweet looking camera though, still not seen too much using them from aerial folk yet though!

[Ground Engineer]

The amazing thing about the Black Magic is the sensor. The raw video files that come out look crap but they have captured an amazing amount of data that needs to be brought out in post production.  This process is time consuming even for the professionals and a novice would just make a mess of the colour correction process. However if there were presets to cover every environment available within the software like Lightroom has, it would be worth the investment.