Shooting talking heads is a fundamental skill of cinematography that's always in demand. Here we'll talk a little about what goes into creating a professional looking interview setup.

New from Atomos is the Shinobi, a lightweight 5.2” on-camera HDMI monitor with a touchscreen and 1000 nit maximum brightness level. Just 1” thin and weighing a mere 7 oz (without battery), the Shinobi takes square aim at the under-$500, thin and light on-camera display market, while packing some serious pro-level heft. Equally lightweight is Shinobi’s price: only $399.

The Fiilex Matrix II RGBW is a compact and highly versatile LED light. While there are many lights out there that have preset Kelvin and custom color features, what sets the Matrix II apart is the attention Fiilex engineers have paid to the construction of their LEDs and the reflectors. A series of 192 check points are built into the way light is emitted to ensure not only color fidelity but also adjustments to green and magenta shifts.

Recently, AbelCine’s Matt Livingston came up with a stunning way to show off the new Angenieux Optimo Ultra 12x FF/VV, a night flight over Manhattan.

Panasonic continues to add significant functionality to the feature set of their entry-level digital cinema camera, the EVA1. With the release of firmware 3.0 today, EVA1 owners can now record 10-bit files all the way up to the camera’s maximum frame rate in 4K, 60p (or 50p for those in formerly PAL countries). This is due to the inclusion in the new firmware of HEVC (for High Efficiency Video Codec), also known as H.265.

Sony has just announced that firmware version 3.0 for their flagship camera, the full format VENICE, is now available. If version 2.0, released in June of 2018, got the VENICE fully firing on all cylinders, this update seeks to refine the camera’s ease of use while nicely expanding its capabilities. We got to take a look at what’s included in the update—and there’s a lot—so let’s dig into the details.

I recently had a chance to work with one of our camera service technicians to take a closer look at all of the field-serviceable aspects of Sony's popular VENICE full format (full frame) cinema camera.

DSMC2, the latest generation of RED’s camera BRAIN, is not only powerful, but the entire system is extremely versatile. These bodies can house four different sensors: MONSTRO 8K VV, HELIUM 8K, and GEMINI 5K S35, and the recently launched 5K DRAGON-X. A wide range of modules and accessories expand the possibilities even further. We asked three of our Technical Specialists to describe their ideal RED DSMC2 package. Here’s a look at what’s in Megan’s RED kit.

DP Colin Quinn of RiTE Media recently completed filming Grobb, a sci-fi adventure shot on location in the Great Plains of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. To capture the action and sweeping landscapes, the production chose the ARRI ALEXA LF and Leica Thalia Primes. In this conversation, he discusses the project, how he arrived at this camera and lens package, and his impressions of how it performed in the field.