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First Look at the Zacuto Micro Boom & Micro Mixer

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When you’re a solo shooter, booming a shotgun microphone close to your subject can be difficult. I’ve done it myself in the past, shooting interviews at events. Set up a stand, boom a mic overhead with a cable running down to a field recorder, put gaffer tape markers on the floor so the subject knows where to stand, hit record and hope nobody walking past trips on something or bangs into the stand.

Zacuto has a solution to this problem, though. The Zacuto Micro Boom (buy here) attaches to your camera rig and lets you mount the microphone overhead up to 35″ away. This lets you keep your subject at a good distance for framing but avoid stands and cables all over the floor. We went to chat with Virge at the Zacuto booth at NAB 2023 to find out more about it.

First look: Zacuto Rotator rapid-switches between horizontal and vertical video

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A few years ago, vertical video was something that the vast majority of filmmakers and videographers had no time for. It wasn’t “cinema” and had no place in their arsenal of tools. These days, things have changed. With as many vertical social media platforms as there are, vertical video is not only now more accepted but almost mandatory for many projects, especially when it comes to social media and marketing.

We stopped by the Zacuto booth at NAB 2023 to chat with Sales Manager Virge Castillo and take a look at their new Zacuto Rotator (buy here). It’s essentially an L bracket that becomes the base of your whole camera rig. But it also allows mounting in either vertical or horizontal orientation, with swapping between the two taking only a couple of seconds.

First look at Zacuto & Accsoon’s iPhone EVF

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Earlier this month, Zacuto and Accsoon announced they were teaming up to release a new product. The product in question is customized versions of the Zacuto Z-Finder and the Accsoon SeeMo that allows you to turn your iPhone into an electronic viewfinder for any camera with an HDMI output – which is just about all of them.

We stopped by the Zacuto booth at NAB 2023 to chat with Zacuto’s Sales Manager, Virge Castillo, to learn more about it, how it works, when it’ll be arriving and how much it’ll cost. Don’t get your hopes up yet, though!

Accsoon partners with Zacuto to make the iPhone your go-to EVF

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The combination of Accsoon and Zacuto might seem like an unlikely pairing. But in this instance, I think the two complement each other quite well. The two companies have come together to turn the iPhone into the EVF of choice for filmmakers everywhere. Leveraging Zacuto’s camera rig knowledge with Accsoon’s software and video transmission technology, it’s a potentially great combination.

I’ve been saying for years that smartphones are an underutilized tool in the real world. They’re a powerful computer in each of our pockets, capable of much more than most of us subject them to each day. The partnership between these two companies should help to access some of that untapped tool potential for filmmakers.

Holiday Gift Guide – The best new camera gadgets and accessories of 2022

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It’s December again, which means lots of us are sitting there wondering what to buy for ourselves or the photographer in our lives this holiday season. We’ve been saving up all year to get that something special, but we don’t want to deal with in-store queues – or maybe we’ve just slacked on our Christmas shopping this year. We want to stay at home where it’s nice and warm and see what we can find online that gets delivered straight to our door!

So, this means it’s time for the 2022 DIYP Holiday Gift Guides. It’s the last day today, so we’re going to be going through the list of our favourite new gadgets and accessories that have been released during 2022. Have a look at our previous guides in the series this week covering cameras, lenses, lighting, sliders, tripods and gimbals.

Zacuto turns to mobile creators with its new Smart Z-Finder viewfinder for smartphones

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Zacuto, the company famous for its high-end (and expensive) cinema rig accessories has turned to smartphones with their latest release, the Smart Z-Finder. As with many of Zacuto’s more popular products over the years, this one’s a viewfinder. Except it’s not for cinema cameras or even mirrorless cameras. This one takes aim at mobile creators. It’s designed for smartphones.

A first of its kind, the Zacuto Smart Z-Finder allows you to film with a smartphone in a way that feels a little more like a “real camera”, allowing you to fill your view with the screen while blocking out external distractions. It’s compatible with most smartphones on the market and allows for both horizontal or vertical filming. It’s currently running on Kickstarter.

Zacuto scales down their Recoil Rigs with new “ACT” line for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras

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Zacuto believes that DSLRs and mirrorless cameras still have a big place in video, and have now announced a new line of ACT Recoil Rigs designed specifically for use with them. Claiming they can handle everything from the teeny tiny Sigma fp up to a giant Canon 1DX Mark III. They come ready-to-shoot right out of the box, and come in a variety of different kits for various specific camera models, and there’s a universal option to cover the rest.

Zacuto Kameleon Overview

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A while back I wrote a review of the Zacuto Gratical HD, where I wrote about some of the benefits of using a third-party EVF. This time, I want to look at the other EVF from Zacuto, the Kameleon.

Let’s start with the why though. Essentially, third-party EVF offers you consistency across any camera no matter how good or bad the built-in EVF is. If you use a product like the Zacuto EVF, you always know exactly what you’re seeing in the EVF is consistent. You can trust that the colors are what you think they are. It’s good to know that the scopes and focus assist are accurate. Some cameras don’t allow you to install custom LUTS, which is another very handy feature that the Zacuto EVFs have.

Zacuto Gratical HD Review

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Just about all cameras come with a built-in EVF, so why would you spend thousands of dollars on a Zacuto Gratical HD EVF?

Well, not all EVF’s are created equal. Also, not all cameras are created equal when it comes to monitoring options. Here are some examples. The resolution and quality of built-in EVFs on cameras vary hugely. You may get a camera that is amazing, but its EVF is not the best. You may then also get a camera that has an amazing EVF, but the camera may be missing features.  When it comes to the EVF, here are some of the features that could be missing in-camera, but the Gratical adds:

For IBC, we are giving away Pro Gear: Lights, Power and a VTC Plate to ramp your movie making

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Welcome to DIYPhotography’s IBC Sweepstakes! With IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) coming soon we wanted to make you cinema-happy, this is why we teamed up with Spiffy Gear, Zacuto, and Core SWX to give you everything your camera needs to make great movies. (well, technically all your camera needs is you, but pro gear always helps). Check out the form below to enter our IBC sweepstakes. All you have to do is answer the question in the form below. And tell your friends, they’ll love you for it.

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