Panasonic announces the new VariCam LT Lightweight Highend 4K cinema camera and shows first footage

Today Panasonic announced the new Panasonic VariCam LT. It’s the small brother of the highend 4K cinema camera VariCam 35 and shares the same sensor in a smaller body. I was lucky enough to be here in Barcelona at the European launch event and had the possibility to get my hands on the camera for a few minutes. The camera itself is half the weight of the VariCam 35 (2,7 kg) and should fit in any gimbal or drone so far. It comes with an EF-Mount with iris control and you can also change the mount and add a PL-Mount on the camera. The camera also has the same viewfinder like the VariCam 35, but with one small, but big difference for you: It comes w/ an SDI-Out, which means you can use all the “cheaper” third party viewfinder like the Zacuto one…

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Blackmagic URSA UHD (4K) Digital Film Camera announced

This looks promising and it seems Blackmagic listened to the users, as the form factor of the Blackmagic Cinema and Production Camera isn’t perfect. Now they announced the new Blackmagic URSA Digital Cinema Camera, which really looks promising. It has a Super 35mm Ultra HD sensor (3840×2160) and can shoot up to 30 frames per second at this resolution. 60p is only possible at 1080p. However the body has the high speed processing and high capacity cooling to run beyond 100 fps, so when faster sensors are available you could upgrade and then get higher frame rates. Compared to the new Red Dragon the Dynamic Range of 12 stops isn’t an highlight, but the price tag of this camera is really explaining why it can’t have the same DR like the Dragon. You can get the EF model for $5,995, a PL-Version is available for $6,495 and there will be also a version with a B4 mount. It shoots ProRes HQ 422 and 12-bit CinemaDNG Raw on CFast 2.0 cards. You can also buy the camera without a sensor. Then you have the possibility to use the body as an HDMI recorder and put your DSLR in front of the body….

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NAB: Sony announces F5 hardware upgrade and Sony A7s

Sony F5 to F55 hardware upgrade Sony F5 users have the choice of upgrading their F5 to an F55. Same Imager, Color Filter array and 4K on board recording. Great move from Sony. This was an unique service from RED in the past. Sony listened. Sony A7s announced They also announced the new Sony A7s. This is one of the best news of the day. The S stands for sensitivity. The full frame sensor has a ultra-high sensitivity up to ISO 409600. It’s also the world first full frame camera without line skipping or pixel binning, which means it has improved aliasing and rolling shutter. The camera can shoot up to 120fps at 720p, S-Log 2, XAVC S 50Mbps and optional XLR audio input. Sadly no 4K internal recording function. You need a third party external recorder! I’ll update this blog post the next few days. As soon as I have more info about the A7s, you can read it here.

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Panasonic announces 4K Varicam 35 Camera

Great news from Panasonic. They have just announced a new 4K Varicam with a Super 35mm sensor, which can shoot 4K internally with up to 120 frames per second. This camera really looks interesting. It seems to be a mix of an ARRI Alexa, Sony F5/55 and has a modular design like the Red Epic. The camera also features a 3G HD SDI, to support an uncompressed output (RAW) and also  a single HD SDI for monitoring. There is no pricing yet, but I think it will be in a price range of a Sony F5. 4096 x 2160 Super 35mm CMOS sensor 14+ Stops of Dynamic Range PL Mount Internal 4K up to 120fps Records 4K & UHD in AVC-ULTRA 4K Records 2K & HD in AVC-Intra 100/200 Capable of 4K RAW 1.5 to 6 Mbps Proxies Two expressP2 card slots (Record 130 minutes of 4K/24p with these cards) Two microP2 card slots (for HD and 2K) Four 3G-HD-SDI Outputs for 4K QUAD Two 3G-HD-SDI Outputs for RAW HD-SDI out for monitoring (down-converting from 4K) Two XLR inputs can record four channels of 24-bit, 48KHz audio Removable Control Panel OLED Viewfinder with Optical Zoom Availability: Fall 2014 Price: TBA They…

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