8K in Focus at the BSC Expo
The British Society of Cinematographers (BSC) Expo took place last week in Battersea, London. It’s smaller than the typical show that we cover but that’s partly because it’s very focused (if you’ll excuse the pun). Unlike other shows which include audio and system vendors, this one is really just about capturing pixels and lighting scenes for the best images. There are also a lot of solutions for camera positioning and movement.
Irix – A new Name in Lenses for Us
We started by talking to Irix, a company that makes lenses and was founded in 2016. They started by specializing in extremely wide angle models from 11mm for full frame DSLRs and 15mm for mirrorless units. Since the start, the firm has developed a wider range of cine primes from 11mm to 150mm. The 150mm model has macro and telephoto optimized options. The company told us that the lenses have high optical quality and are very suitable for 8K with many being used on cameras such as the Sony A1 and Burano. They are available with a wide range of mounts including Canon EF, RF, Fuji X, L Mount, Sony E, Nikon Z, MFT and PL.
Later the company will have a 65 – 150mm zoom lens for cinematic applications. A feature that the firm is very proud of is the macro performance with close focusing often a requirement for cinematic content. The firm’s cine lenses have received Military Grade MIL-STD-810 certification, and the firm believes they are the first such lenses to receive the certification. Testing included severe freezing rain and icing as well as prolonged periods of high humidity.
Leitz Has Old and New Lenses
Leitz was showing its range of lenses. The Leitz brand is used for cine lenses, which are based on Leica (LEItz CAmera) optical designs. At the BCS Expo, the company was showing its two most recent sets of lenses. One set is the Hugo range which is based on existing Leica lens designs and ‘M’ glass and there are 13 full frame prime lenses from 18mm to 135mm. There are nine in the Hugo 1 series (T1.5) with three in Hugo II at T2.1. The range is completed with a 50mm T1.0 model.
The Elsie range has a new optical design that is intended for cinematography. The range is in LPL mount and there are 13 primes from 15mm to 150mm, all at T2.1 and with matched focus and iris ring positions for quick lens changes. Leitz also has 25-75mm and 55-125mm zooms available with consistent T2.8 apertures.
In terms of 8K performance, the firm told us that the lenses are really aimed at cameras with large format sensors, so are very suitable for 8K applications.
RED Starts to See Nikon Impact
At the show, RED Digital Cinema announced new versions of the V-RAPTOR [X]Â and KOMODO-X cinema cameras with Nikon Z mounts, and staff told us that this is the first product change to be made since the acquisition of RED by Nikon. The new version will allow owners of an inventory of Nikkor and other Z mount lenses to access RED’s camera line. The cameras will have optional adapters (with and without electronic ND filters) to allow the use of PL-mount lenses with the RED cameras (although not with Nikon Z mirrorless cameras).
Just before the show, Nikon announced a new 28mm-135mm video zoom lens, its first pro video lens although its press release highlighted the light weight for use with Nikon Z8 and Z9 cameras. It emphasized the 8K performance of the lens.
The company was also highlighting its 8K workflow using the RED Connect hardware. This adapter can be fitted to the V-RAPTOR [X] giving the option of sending 8K RAW data directly to a PC rather than just being stored on a card in the camera. The connection is via high capacity fiber. With a sufficiently powerful GPU (e.g. Nvidia Ada technology) a PC system can be used for live processing of the camera output directly from the RAW files.
The adapter supports SMPTE ST 2110 IP technology directly from the camera at up to 8K 120fps. The RAW data can be archived as well as being used for live production. Multi-camera configurations with PTP sync are also possible for volumetric capture.
Sony Venice II Selling Mainly in 8K
Sony had a significant presence at the show with cameras and we talked about the Venice II camera which has two options, with a 6K sensor and an 8.6K sensor. The sensors can be swapped without needing to go to a service center. We asked how the balance of sales was between the two resolutions.
In the UK, cameras are often supplied through rental companies. It seems that the 6K sensor from the Venice I camera is the same as the one in the Venice II. As a consequence, rental companies are generally buying the 8K version of the Venice II. If customers want to have the 6K sensor, then they can be taken from Venice 1 stock. This optimizes the level of stock held.
Although not strictly on the topic of 8K, we had a discussion with Sony’s professional broadcast monitor group which was showing the 4,000 cd/m2 BVM-HX3110 dual panel LCD mastering monitor alongside a client review model based on a QD-OLED panel. Staff explained that its client review monitors have enhanced cooling to give better low gray scale performance than typical off-the-shelf consumer TVs “from other brands”.
They also told us that there are only a few companies that are grading at 4K cd/m2 (Lionsgate and Warner Bros are two of them). Although the content is not being delivered as mastered in this format, the 4K luminance grade is being archived with the appropriate metadata so that as the performance of TVs continues to improve, better versions can be created based on the original grade. Before the advent of the BVM-HX3110, the 4K metadata was generated just by algorithms, without the involvement of a colorist, Sony told us.
Blackmagic Design Highlights 12K Sensor Advantage
Blackmagic Design (BMD) was at the show with, it seemed to us, a particular emphasis on its Resolve editing software. We had an interesting conversation with staff about the benefits of the 12K sensor used in the Ursa Mini Pro camera. In particular, we heard about the particular advantage of the way that BMD uses RGBW subpixels rather than a conventional Bayer layout.
This use of RGBW means that the the subpixels can be combined in different ways to support lower resolutions while still maintaining the full sensor area. This gives significant advantages in terms of a shorter cinematic depth of field compared to what can be achieved when the sensor is cropped to support lower resolutions. As always, having more pixels to start with also helps in supersampling down from 12K to 8K to improve the smoothness of images. There is a more in-depth article explaining the approach here.
There are excellent cameras and TVs but the long road between them is not entirely smooth.