Camera Accessories

When it comes to making camera work easier and more precise, to accommodate with good resources to situations of capturing moving images and the always adverse conditions of the environment that surrounds an operator and his team, new solutions and tools arise as a result of the experiences and requirements that his work demands. These solutions materialize with ingenuity in the hands of designers. Let's look at some examples.

An interesting product that was recently launched at NAB '00 is the EZ Prompter. It is a solution for ENG operations developed by Eddie Barber in California. It's a portable teleprompter that quickly installs on the front of the camera lens and only weighs about two pounds. This tool allows a news anchor or actor to do their job with more confidence and confidence.

As video work makes it increasingly common to use elements that were previously dedicated solely to cinematography work, the company Formatt DVT presents its new Matt Box Digital Series FM 100 with a unique installation system designed to fit directly into the barrel of the lens by means of interchangeable adapters built in aluminium. This makes it compatible with a wide range of camcorders and also for use with angular lenses. It has two compartments for filters of 4"x4" and 4"x5", one of them of full rotation for polarizers or gradients.

The Japanese company Kenko presented its new line of wide-angle lenses for cameras for domestic and industrial use. The series consists of Pro Wide .65X, KNW-05 Video Lens, and KNW-05 Hi Video Lens. These adapters increase the angle of view by a high percentage, reducing the distortion of angular lenses. Thanks to the multiple glass coatings they maintain the optical quality and the characteristics of color and definition avoiding the effects caused by light phenomena such as flare or ghosting.

Century Optics, meanwhile, presented a line of accessories also for home cameras among which are the wide-angle adapters .55X, .65X and the ultra adapter Fisheye .3X that will be available from August. In addition, it introduced a 2X teleconverter and the new 16:9 widescreen adapter that compresses the image on the chip 4:3 and then plays it back in full on a 16:9 monitor without any distortion.

Controls for focus and zoom/ Effect Ramp

Coolzoom from the company Birns & Sawyer is a focus and zoom controller developed for cameras that have a LANC connection. This connection is found in most home cameras on the market. It has variable speed for zoom, manual or automatic focus, recording control and power indicator. It can be installed on almost all camera support systems such as tripods, Jib Arm, shoulder stand and camera stabilization systems.

For its part, and with a much more specialized purpose, ARRI presented its new Wireless Remote Controller. It is a powerful remote control intended for the ARRI 535, 535B, 435 and 16 SR3 cameras that incorporates all the features of the RCU-1 remote control unit and the Iris ICU-1 controller, but replaces the cables with a reliable wireless transmission system. This WRC-1 unit exerts control over the speed, shutter and iris in the camera which allows, and this is the most important development of this remote control, to achieve with all security and precision the Ramp effects on Fps Frames per second (frames per second), on the shutter angle (Shutter) and on the Iris.

The company Scuba Cam offers its covers for the protection of cameras against rain (Rain cover) for both film and video cameras. It is built in polyurethane covered in black nylon to keep the chamber completely dry in the event of rain. All models have a long tube for the viewfinder and transparent plastic side windows for focus control by the assistant. It also has several windows to attend to the functions of the camera. It also has closures for the tripod manilar and the support bar of the viewfinder extension system.

The Power Bag is a development of the specialized company Petrol Bags. This ingenious idea seeks to eliminate the discomfort suffered by those who transport a video camera in an air terminal since they must remove the equipment from their suitcase every time they pass through a security post. This suitcase has an internal battery with enough power for the systems to detect the camera in operation. In addition, it is designed based on official regulations for the transport of hand luggage on board aircraft. The battery can supply an approximate recording time of 20 minutes.

The coverage of sporting events has had a significant growth and the equipment needed to provide the images to the spectators cause problems for many of the attendees to the stadiums. Camseat has created a solution for camera support that avoids the vision blocking that attendees of sporting events have that occupy places near the position of one of the cameras or behind the location of it. It has been determined that conventional camera support systems for covering this type of event make it difficult for a group of 40 attendees to observe.

The cammate company presents its new OPEN AIR "L" design to meet the need for precise and quality movements in film and television production. This new crane head was designed to offer the options and functionality required by industry professionals. It includes a new design in its engine, 2 video lines, 1 Genlock line, 1 timecode line, 1 triaxial line and two DC Jack power outputs. In addition to this, it has a selectable control for Canon and Fujinon lenses, and a multipurpose Jack connector that can be used for many applications, in addition to the viewfinder pass-through and IEEE 1394 Firewire port.

Although these two products aren't exactly camera accessories, it's worth taking a brief look at them because of the novelty of their concept and the visual creation possibilities they offer.

Coptervision, renowned manufacturer of remote control systems for film and video cameras presented its new Rollvision. A wireless system stabilized by gyros, capable of performing 360° roll movements, 180° tilt and 360° panoramas on different camera support systems such as car mount grip, Jib Arm, Steadicam and RadCam, the latter is a joint development with the company Innovision Optics.

Finally, and for those who still do not believe in HDTV technology, Aaton presents its new A-Minima. A compact camera designed to work with Super 16mm film that has been developed in response to the rapid technological evolution of High Definition video. It has a Timecode record compatible with AatonCode-II arrays and can also be used as a master clock. It offers a 1:1.78 ratio frame, mount for Nikon and PL optics, 200-foot daylight fast-charging magazines, an incident light light meter, and is the only reflex camera that avoids veiling the film when you don't have your eye on the viewfinder while shuttering. It is a camera designed for fieldwork and a good alternative as a second camera in productions that have good resources.