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We’ve seen a lot of big lights coming out of lighting companies in the last few years, and right now, it seems to be Godox’s time to shine (pun intended) with the newly announced Godox Knowled MG2400Bi.
Godox had one on the stand at ICB 2023 earlier this month so while we were there, we stopped by to check out the beast for ourselves. And it is an absolute monster of a light.
Communication can be difficult when working on a set with multiple people all over the place. You often resort to yelling or using loud and annoying walkie-talkies. And neither of those are great if you’re shooting a live event.
What’s the alternative? Well, a headset, of course. While DIYP was at IBC 2023 earlier this month, we stopped by the Saramonic booth to have a chat with them about the new Saramonic WiTalk (buy here) headset ecosystem.
Accsoon has announced its newest video monitoring device. This one’s the Accsoon CineView Nano, and it costs only $129. It’s designed for mirrorless cameras, taking in an HDMI input and beaming it out over the airwaves.
To view, you use your iPhone, iPad or “selected Android smartphones and tablets”. The company doesn’t appear to have listed that selection yet, though.
Blackmagic Design has officially announced DaVinci Resolve 18.5. It’s the final version of the beta first announced in April. We got to see it for ourselves at NAB 2023 in its early stages, and it already looked pretty impressive.
Now, features like AI text editing have come to all in the DaVinci Resolve 18.5 stable production release. This isn’t the only new change, but it’s the major one. It also receives the Relight tool, a bit of a Cut page overhaul, better remote monitoring and a lot more.
Laowa unveiled its Ranger 28-75mm T29 and 75-180mm T2.9 cine zoom lenses (buy here) at NAB 2023 in May. DIYP had the opportunity to check them out in person while we were there, and they looked like a pair of very exciting lenses. Both lenses are designed for full-frame lenses but feature a very compact and lightweight design.
The two lenses offer a wide focal length range from a wide 28mm to a long telephoto 180mm with a bright T2.9 aperture. Both have built-in 0.8 MOD gears for focus, focal length and aperture. At the time of NAB, no prices were available for the two new lenses. Now, though, both lenses have been officially released, along with pricing.
Adobe has released the May 2023 update for Premiere Pro CC. With it comes the new text-based editing features announced at NAB 2023 in April. It also sees a new background autosave feature that doesn’t interrupt your workflow, with intervals as short as one minute. Danish speakers can now use the AI transcribe features in their native language, and there’s a dashboard for background processes.
Other updates include smoother mouse scrolling and movements and support for Sony VENICE 2 Version 2.0 and iPhone Cinematic clips. A few new features are also beta testing Premiere Pro. These include SRT streaming support, a new colour management tab for Lumetri, collaboration features for Team Projects, and Recovery Mode for when Premiere Pro inevitably crashes during your edit.
Virtual production is the latest thing in video at the moment, and it’s developing at a pretty rapid pace. While we’ve had motion tracking and compositing for years for virtual environments, it’s only in the last few years that we’re able to do it in real-time. And it’s only now that such technology is coming to the masses, allowing independent filmmakers and small production houses to take advantage of it.
While some systems can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, the Vive Mars CamTrack system (buy here) lets you do it for only a few thousand dollars. Despite the lower cost, it’s a very capable system. We stopped by the Vive booth at NAB 2013 to chat with marketing manager Tim Wen and learn more about the system and how it works.
One of the more exciting things to pop up at NAB 2023 was Laowa’s entry into the world of full-frame cinema zoom lenses. The company is launching two lenses – although there’s no word when yet. There are two lenses, which combine to offer an extremely wide focal range of 28mm all the way up to 180mm. The two lenses are the Laowa Range 28-75mm and 75-180mm T2.9 lenses.
Despite being wide aperture T2.9 lenses, despite being zoom lenses and despite being cinema lenses, both lenses are quite compact. We got the chance to not only find out more about them at the show, but we also got to have a bit of a play with them and shoot a little sample footage. We were very impressed.
As well as showing off the Axibo PT4 motion control pan-tilt head and slider, the company was also exhibiting their upcoming E-Jib Mini. Well, technically, they were exhibiting a prototype, hoping to get feedback from visitors at the show to finalise some details and get it prepared for final readiness to go on sale. The E-Jib Mini is a low-cost alternative to the massively expensive motion control robot systems on the market.
It works in conjunction with the PT4 in order to provide a full six axes of movement for your camera when working with virtual productions. But it also allows all of the usual motion control capabilities, too, such as repeat movements and timelapse. There is a page with some basic info on the Axibo website, but we had a chat with Axibo CEO Anoop Gadhrri at NAB 2023 to learn more.
It’s not often that a company opens up their products for the world to develop for and communicate with. There have been a few companies to do it, such as Blackmagic Design, GoPro and DJI, although it’s still quite rare for it to happen. Many companies are very protective of their intellectual property, and they want to lock you into coming back to them when you need more capability.
Accsoon has taken the opposite approach, releasing a free Software Development Kit (SDK) for their new Accsoon SeeMo (buy here). Announced last October, the Accsoon SeeMo is an unassuming little box to let you use your iPhone or iPad as a field monitor for your camera. The SDK opens up a whole world of possibilities for developers to expand that capability. We stopped by the Accsoon booth at NAB 2023 to learn more.
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
Alex Baker is a portrait and lifestyle driven photographer based in Valencia, Spain. She works on a range of projects from commercial to fine art and has had work featured in publications such as The Daily Mail, Conde Nast Traveller and El Mundo, and has exhibited work across Europe
Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.
John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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