ESSENTIAL GEAR is a regular feature produced in collaboration with StudioDaily’s exclusive retail partner, Adorama.
Some IBCs are a little sleepy, consisting largely of European debuts of new products that premiered at NAB — many of them only ready to ship to users at the end of the year. But IBC2019 attendees were wide awake, following a healthy cavalcade of major new products through the halls of RAI Amsterdam. We’ve put three of the most promising new pieces of gear under the spotlight here, including a streaming switcher that goes for a song, a powerful new 4K reference display that meets the standards for working with Dolby Vision HDR content, and a modular full-frame camera system with a generous feature set — including the promise of a future firmware update adding 4K raw output at up to 120fps.
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Blackmagic Atem Mini
Blackmagic Design Atem Mini
Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic debuted this inexpensive piece of kit that can be described as a live production switcher that presents itself to a computer as a webcam, allowing users to switch between four different HDMI inputs — cameras, game consoles, whatever — while presenting a single, simple unified stream to YouTube, Skype, Facebook Live, or Twitch. It converts and resyncs all of the HDMI inputs and has a separate HDMI program out that can be used for monitoring and/or recording. A built-in DVE delivers picture-in-picture layouts, which can be selected along with cuts and transitions via hardware push-buttons on the device itself or via the Atem Software Control app. With a media pool storing up to 20 RGBA graphics, this is a powerful piece of hardware and a remarkable value.
Learn more about the Blackmagic Design Atem Mini at Adorama | SHOP NOW
Canon DP-V3120 4K Reference Display
DP-V3120 31-inch pro 4K reference display
Canon USA
You need a bright display for working with HDR? Canon’s got your bright display. The 31.1-inch DPV-3120 reaches full-frame peak luminance of 2,000 nits and dips to present 0.001 nit full-screen blacks, Canon says, which figures to a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio. With no drop in luminance or resolution loss even with the screen lit from edge-to-edge, this flagship display has the best specs of any display available for sale in the pro HDR category. It has an anti-glare panel for easy viewing and four 12G-SDI inputs to support both 4K and 8K signals. Canon’s HDR Tookit is built in, with vectorscope, waveform monitor, and histogram, along with the capability to check pixel-level values, do HDR-SDR split-screen comparisons, and control the display remotely via LAN and a web browser.
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Sony PXW-FX9 Camcorder
Sony has updated its popular FS7 design for documentary-style shooting with the new full-frame FX9. The FX9 will shoot UHD 4K 30p downscaled from the native 6K sensor at launch, and will get a DCI 4K mode plus higher frame rates with a firmware update. The form factor retains most of what owners like about the FS7, while making some improvements. For instance, the hand grip is more responsive, and if you hoist the camera onto your shoulder you’ll find that it’s exceptionally well balanced. But it’s also inherited some features from the upmarket Venice, such as dual-base ISO (800 or 4000) and advanced color science. And it has some Alpha DNA, too, bringing Sony’s Fast Hybrid AF technology over from its mirrorless camera line-up and adding fine-grained controls so that cinematographers can dictate exactly how fast and how readily focus switches. It’s a lot of camera for the money, and Sony’s new modular design means you can start with the basics and add capability — one hardware extension will enable UHD 4K raw output at up to 120p — as you go.
Learn more about the Sony PXW-FX9 at Adorama | SHOP NOW
