Equipment Reviews

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I posted an article about some new 277 LED Video lights not long ago, but there was only two available for sale online with no real information on performance and quality. These new Socanland LED lights come in a few different flavors in a few different sizes, most popular right now are the 277 and 310.

Cam Cornelius was actually at NAB2011 when he picked up his Socanland 277 Bi-Color DImmable LED light, which he seems to be really impressed with. Cam's put together what appears to be the first video review about the Socanland 277 LED light. With a wide angle lens you can see it doesn't seem very spotty and covers a large area of the screen. A solid build, good form and fuction seems like Socanland is getting off on the right foot with DSLR Video. If this is a light you'd be interested in, they aren't available at this time. But check back here in a few, i'm on the ball to let you know as soon as they become available. [Thanks Cam]

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find-price-button 277 LED Bi-Color Changing LED Video Lights

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find-price-button 310 LED Bi-Color Changing LED Video Lights

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Here's a simple frame grab using only 900 LED Video Light panels. 1/50th, F/4, ISO 100 on Canon 7D.

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find-price-button 900 LED Dimmable Photography Video Light Panel

No worries about heat or power draw that will blow out house breakers. The 600 and 900 LED versions come with Sony V Mounts, so you can also invest in batteries to take them off the grid and portable. You can see placement of lights in the first frame grab. Not the best test here, but hopefully you get an idea about power output, throw, and diffusion. [Thanks Olivia for sitting in.]

You can find more LED Video Light Panels in different Sizes below
600-900-1200 LED
find-price-button 500, 520, 600, 900, 1000, 1200 LED Lights and More

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If you're wondering about what the 128GB Lexar SDXC card is good for, there's a number of things. Besides throwing it into bitrate hungry high end cameras, another good purpose is doubling the disk space on my MacBook Air. The new Macbook Air can't be upgraded internally, so by using a very generic SDHC card reader, i'm able to double my storage with a solid state drive that can transfer 100MB files in less than 7 seconds. There's no limit to individual 4GB file sizes with exFAT format and the card works both on Mac and PC. It's the smallest and lightest storage media I can carry in my backpack. If you're looking at 128GB USB thumb drives with equivalent speeds and you'll find yourself coughing up about twice the price of this single Lexar.

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find-price-button SDHC Card Reader Used as Thumb Drive

So, since the Lexar 128GB card is based on exFAT file system with no 4GB limit, what happens if you place it into a Canon 60D? Will the video stop automatically? The answer is yes it will stop at just around a 4GB file size - so DSLRs won't be taking advantage of SDXC and larger file sizes (for now). The Canon 60D and Panasonic GH2 can see the entire 128GB and can record video without any buffering issues, but for now the card is a bit overkill. For other things like being able to dump files to the editor, run backups in Time Machine, or use it for additional storage it's pretty quick and has a feather weight footprint in the bag...

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find-price-button Lexar 128GB SDXC Card

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JuicedLink is definitely down with DIY and looking out for the budget minded. We were actually setup on one of the JuicedLink DIY brackets for NAB2011 on the main camera, but it's great to hear pricing is even lower with volume pricing now that they've become popular. First starting out with DSLR Cage like brackets to easily mount accessories, now Robert is looking into making cost effective roller bearing sliders.

Interesting how you could be surrounded by millions of dollars worth of professional equipment, yet one of the coolest things on the floor is an unpolished DIY slider. The prototype slider looked a little rough on the edges, but I was pretty impressed with how well the fit was on the rails. Using standard cheap roller bearings and angled mounts to lock in between the rails, the movement was very effective with just about zero lash. [Thanks Olivia]

The idea behind the new DIY Slider is to sell only what needs precision manufacturing which can be shipped in a fairly small package. You can pick up your own rails in any type or length desired (so long as it fits the minimum OD - outside diameter) which not only brings down cost of overall unit, but also shipping. This modular design will allow you to have a 4ft. slider today, and a 6ft. one tomorrow. Great idea so far. I'm interested in seeing what the final version would look like. More information always at the JL blog here: JuicedLink sliders (click here).

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find-price-button JuicedLink DIY Slider Kit

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Konova made a huge impact on the scene when they released their very affordable Roller Bearing slider not long ago. Now they are showing off two new slider versions one for heavier cameras and another for extremely light weight cameras (even down to iPhones). Another optional upgrade they will be offering with their future sliders are 'folding legs'. If you're familiar with the basic version, these new folding leg upgrades should make the sliders easier to pack up instead of having to remove them completely off of the slider rail each time you pack. These are both new sliders which are not available yet, and will not be replacing the original current version found below.
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find-price-button Konova video Camera Rolling Bearing DSLR Slider

Konova is also looking to offer a new three wheel skater dolly similar to a few very high end designs that are already on the market. Using three wheels on a rotating dolly makes it more complicated to line up your subject, but with the use of a Laser pointer, adjustments can be fairly accurate. This new 3-wheeled version (not yet available) will be marketed towards larger and heavier cameras, and will not replace the first version more affordable 4-wheeled version which is found below.

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find-price-button Rotating Video Camera Skater Dolly

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If you caught the video showing some of our ideas for setting up a cage during NAB, you might have caught a small double bracket holding the wireless receivers on top. This bracket is slightly expensive on it's own, but proved to be really functional. Here's another option for anyone looking to mount several accessories to the top of your camera, or to some sort of light stand. From CamCaddie, this 'Flashner' is available from 4", 8" and 16" lengths giving you plenty of rail for as many accessories as you can think of.

With up to 16" of hot shoe mountable rail, it would be pretty sweet to use these for an entire top and bottom section of a DIY DSLR cage. If you want to know what other options are available, click here. Otherwise the version below is a bit cheaper for getting several accessories mounted in one place.

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find-price-button Flashner Accessory Mounting Rail Bracket 4" - 16"

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iPad Prompter

Crazy little iPad Teleprompter (iPad not included) shows up online. From the specs, it sounds good and price is not bad when compared with other prompters. Prompters are normally very expensive alone, and to see that this one comes with industry standard 15mm rods and clamps included in the price makes it even more interesting. This should help with the positioning of the prompter to just about any camera or lens combination, and still provide a very strong support.

iPad Teleprompter with 15mm Rods Rails

States that it's less than 4 lbs, the 70/30 beam splitter is real glass (not acrylic), and appears to pack all the parts into itself down to about an inch thick. Sweet design and would be very interested if someone gets a video review on this soon.

[Update] Video below, thanks Chris.

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find-price-button iPad Teleprompter Glass BeamSplitter with 15mm Rods Clamps

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F&V. Heard the name before? Probably something you don't think about, but this is the same company that makes the very popular Z96 LED Video light. Looks like they now have a 7" 800 x 480 LCD monitor to add to their lineup of DSLR related gear, and calling it the 'F1'. The 800x480 resolution is pretty typical for most monitors under $700 dollars, and don't get that resolution confused with the 'up to 1080' specs for small LCD monitors. Most of the time this just means it can accept the signal and scale it properly. Does not appear to have false color exposure, or any focus peaking features.

What's in the package?
# F&V F1 7" 16:9 Portable LED Backlight HD Monitor
# PVC Sunhood
# DC power connection cord
# Sony DV battery Plate Adapter
# Standard to mini HDMI cable
# IR Remote
# Pan/Tilt Head

Even though F&V has had much success on the Z96 LED light, there's plenty of other LCD monitors available, and this could be a really tough market to penetrate. Always good to know your options, and what's out there. You should be able to find this 7" LCD as well as others following the jump below.

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find-price-button 7" LCD HDMI Monitors for DSLRs

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I was able to network with a few friends around the Bay Area and thought it would be fun to just cover NAB2011 together. Besides myself, we had Waylon from Prodigy Studios, Leo from Doubletter Productions, and Roland from Myx.TV. I played camera operator while Myx-Rated television host Olivia Speranza talked to a few of NAB's exhibitors.

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We ran into Jared Abrams of WideOpenCamera.com and El SKid over at the Jag35.com booth. It's my first time meeting any of these guys, and they gave us an exclusive first look at their CrossBow Evolution Shoulder Slider Rig.

Ok, it was a joke, we were just having fun over at NAB2011, and that's pretty much how the rest of the trip went. Glad to have finally met everyone in person, great bunch of guys (and gal). Can't wait to do NAB again next year. I'll be posting more product coverage in the next few days as soon as I can coordinate with the rest of the people I was hanging with.