Our NAB booth included the PMW-F3 with the new S-Log firmware from Sony installed. I was very impressed with what the new mode added to the camera and was delighted to show it off to guests in our booth. Some of our friends at Next Level Pictures stopped by, and I gave them a short demo. They were so impressed with the effect that they asked to take the camera out for a quick test, which I agreed to. Twenty-four hours later they came back with a plan to take Vegas by storm, and the result was an amazing test of the F3 and S-Log. Cinematographers Khalid Mohtaseb, Jonathan Bregel, Timur Civan and Vincent Laforet joined forces with a fantastic production team lead by Brad Burke to shoot the piece.

For this shoot, the F3 was combined with the new Angenieux 45-120 lens, Cooke Panchro/i lenses, Zeiss Ultra and Master Primes, Miller Tripods, a Kessler Crane Slider, OConnor and Element Technica accessories and the CineDeck Extreme. Watch the video above to see the test results.

Go to Next Level Pictures to learn more about how the project came together, and all the folks that helped make it possible.

Note: The camera was set to output 1080p 23.98 RGB 4:4:4 video in S-Log to the CineDeck, and record to the SxS cards with the Rec709(800%) LUT applied.

Angenieux just unveiled a new Optimo Super 35mm lens, which features a zoom ratio of 2.7x, T2.8 aperture, and weighs only 4.3 lbs. This new lens compliments Angenieux’s two other lightweight Optimo lenses, the 15-40 and 28-76 zooms, and has the same balance point for easy lens changes on a steadicam. The 45-120 has a unique optical design that keeps a long zoom lens in a very small package, making it perfect for handheld work and close-up shots. Watch the video above to learn more about the Optimo 45-120mm lens.

We’ve received a lot of great feed back from our NAB booth tour video, and one of the most inquired about items is our decked out Sony PMW-F3. Some of the new accessories we’re showcasing for the F3 include the new Element Technica 15mm lightweight baseplate that we helped design, as well as a heavy duty top handle that replaces the standard Sony handle. We were also fortunate enough to have the new S-Log 4:4:4RGB firmware that let us take advantage of the new Sony SR-R1 Memory Recorder, which records at 220Mbps or 440 Mbps.

Watch my video to see some of the great accessories we have available for the F3.

Not all shoots take place on comfy sound stages. Currently in production, Thunder Perfect Mind takes place almost entirely on an ice-breaker ship off the coast of Antarctica. The movie is shooting on a pair of RED One cameras, as well as the Aaton Penelope 35mm camera, shooting in 2-perf. Much of the shooting is on the open decks of the ship, so the ASL Gear T-Bag is being used to protect the cameras from the salt water spray. At least one shot calls for the camera to start at the waterline pointing at the tip of an iceberg, and then dunk under to see the massive blue ice below.

The gear was rented out of Abel NY, and I built the package for the production to checkout. Putting the Penelope into the T-Bag worked beautifully. Here are some observations from that setup.

For the RED One camera, there’s a special enclosure that allows the use of the RED 5.6” LCD panel as a viewfinder. When the Penelope is in the T-Bag, the production will switch to the ASL Underwater 4” HD/SD SDI montior. We used a small AJA converter box to transform the Penelope’s composite video signal into a 4×3 SD-SDI feed. Everything is powered off of the camera’s batteries.

While the movie is mostly shooting on prime lenses, I took the opportunity to try out an Angenieux Optimo 15-40 on the Penelope inside the T-Bag (see picture below). There’s so much space inside the splash housing that the little zoom almost disappears! In fact, with a little wiggling we can even get the Angenieux Optimo 17-80 to fit.