On Saturday, October 7, we held our Chicago Cinema Tech Expo. We expanded the event into a new space so that we could include more gear, workshops, panels, and unique community programming. Over twenty manufacturers were in attendance, with booths filling up the large ballroom at Cinespace. Over the course of the day, our technical specialists were able to visit the booths and get a closer look at some of the most exciting gear that was on display.

For cinematographer Tom Bergmann, inspiration can come from anywhere, but especially from his world travels. As a documentary filmmaker and DP, he embraces his experiences as a still photographer and combines them with his narrative storytelling ability.

The Hive Wasp 100-C is the first LED light fixture from a company best known for their high quality plasma lights. The fixture is small, lightweight and very affordable. It fits well into a large variety of productions.

This year's IBC show in Amsterdam was an exciting one, showcasing a lot of technological development across different categories of gear.

The LWZ.3 21-100mm Lightweight Zoom from ZEISS is an extremely versatile lens that's designed for Super 35mm and APS-C sensor based camera systems. It is well suited for corporate, documentary and narrative work – especially projects where both budget and high image quality are considerations.

The new Litepanels Gemini is an update on the classic softlight source for the LED age. In this video, I'll take a look at the features of this new lamp, including a brief preview of the overall character of the light it provides.

Although many of the new camera announcements from the past few years have centered around S35 or other large sensor sizes, one challenge with these systems is the available zoom ratio, especially if you're looking for a more compact configuration.

Sachtler is pulling the covers off their latest tripod, the flowtech 75. This model aims to be the fastest tripod you'll operate by incorporating a number of clever innovations.

Since we recently wrapped our Behind The Lens series, where we took a closer look at 11 documentary zoom lenses, we thought it would be appropriate to take some time to step back and reflect on what we learned.