Tips to Selecting a Video Camera, Part 2 December 1^st 2014 - 01:32 PM

Knowing which camera to choose for an assignment is important—for those times when you can make this decision. Knowing how to get the best out of the resulting footage you get is necessary when you can’t. Understanding how the technology works can help in both cases.

How we see November 11^th 2014 - 08:35 PM

It may be obvious, but sometimes the obvious needs stating, which is that television pictures can only be assessed by the viewer through the human visual system. It is equally obvious, that moving picture reproduction systems developed without an understanding of human vision will be sub-optimal. That’s where we a…

Tips to Selecting a Video Camera, Part 1 November 3^rd 2014 - 07:06 PM

Sometimes we can make an informed decision about which camera acquisition format to use, other times we take what we get and fix it in post. Both cases require an understanding of the tradeoffs manufacturers have made in producing a camera designed to sell at a particular price point. Without…

Blurring the real and the virtual live October 27^th 2014 - 11:57 AM

The capture of depth information in scenes is an increasingly rich field of development but it has so far remained on the fringes of TV production because of the need to either use physical markers on objects or to render the output in post. Start-up company Zinemath aims to change…

As Video Expands to New Devices, So Have the Accessories for Lenses October 13^th 2014 - 09:30 AM

Lenses are one of the most ancient technologies still in use today. The earliest known lenses were made from polished crystal, often quartz, and date from as early as 700 BC. Technology has advanced greatly since then and the types of accessories for lenses are now virtually unlimited.

Who Needs Lens Coatings? August 7^th 2014 - 03:27 PM

Considering the compromises inherent to any complex lens we shouldn’t be surprised by the shortcomings in most low-cost optics. Chromatic aberrations, lack of sharpness, poor contrast to the corners, and inferior or nonexistent lens coatings, are significant drawbacks that can negatively impact our images, especially when viewed at high m…