We're often asked how to make the uniquely-shaped Sony NEX-FS100 production ready. While we've discussed several options in our FS100 Lenses and Accessories article, I thought it would be helpful to illustrate a few of the options with a short video.

ARRI has released their Anamorphic De-squeeze download license for purchase. This eagerly anticipated license for the ALEXA will correct the "squeeze" effect that occurs when shooting with anamorphic lenses. With the license installed, ALEXA and ALEXA Plus cameras with the Software Update Packet (SUP) 4.0 can now readily accept anamorphic lenses with 1.3x or 2x magnification.

Sony's RGB and S-Log upgrade option for the F3 is now shipping. At AbelCine, we've had the upgrade for some time; you may remember the video that we helped produce at NAB that showed off the camera's S-Log capabilities. I get many questions about this new option and what exactly it changes in the camera, so I am putting together a three-part video series on the topic.

Over the years I've held a lot of one-on-one camera training sessions with owner-operators of varying skill sets - some who had been working with a particular camera for years and were finally buying their own, all the way to people who had never worked in the industry and were just getting started. I can tell you that the vast majority of them did not know how to load or copy scene files. You can all breathe a sigh of relief, knowing you're not alone in this world. However, I do have a visual that should help those of you too afraid to ask for help: a simple ladle, some soup and a bowl. Hopefully, this analogy will help you the next time you try to load or copy a scene file from one camera to another, and it applies to both Panasonic & Sony cameras.

A couple of weeks ago we tested a pre-production model of the Sony FS100 camera for both ISO ratings and dynamic range. We came up with some impressive results, but decided to do some more tests with the full production version of the camera.

Sony's new NEX-FS100 camera is a Compact HD camcorder that shares the same Super-35 sized sensor and image characteristics as the PMW-F3. Because of it's relative diminutiveness, the FS100 is suitable for many situations where larger cameras may not be. In this article, we present the many different lenses and accessories that can be used with the camera.

If you've been following my HD Formats series (Video Formats, Bit Depth & Bit Rate), this blog should help clarify a couple more of those words and numbers we see associated with HD video formats.

It occurred to us when creating the Camera Mounted Recorders comparison chart that there is often confusion around different HD formats. In 2009, I wrote up a blog titled Making Sense of HD Formats that covered the different HD formats used today. But what I didn't go into was those other words and numbers that we often see associated with a video compression format: bit rate and bit depth.

In 1975, Stanley Kubrick famously lit scenes in Barry Lyndon only by candlelight. To do it, he had to use triple-wicked candles for a bright flame, push the only filmstock at the time to 250 ISO and acquire a super-fast T0.7 Zeiss designed for NASA (he had an old Mitchell camera chopped up just to work with this lens). This allowed Kubrick to shoot under a keylight of just three footcandles.