NAB 2025

briantweedt

April 8, 2025

Another year at NAB! While this year had plenty to offer filmmakers, there was definitely an emphasis on “content creators” as the theme seems to imply:

But I guess “fresh perspectives” also works for virtually any filmmaker looking for something new, so here are my fresh perspectives on what I saw!

Lighting

LED’s keep getting better year after year in terms of their color science.

I, like many people, assumed that roughly 10 years ago when 1×1 LitePanels and other popular LED fixtures were going mainstream, they were very very color-accurate. If you set your unit to Tungsten on the dial, you would get 3200K and the daylight setting landed you at 5600K. That wasn’t exactly the case. I noticed after reviewing footage that I was having trouble with green or magenta casts coming from these lights. And each lite could vary, even if you “dialed in the color” to a specific number.

After much head-scratching, my color meter confirmed this. At least I wasn’t going crazy. Ha! I began carrying around 1/8 and 1/4 plus-green and minus-green gels as well as other combinations to correct for the imbalance. And it’s not to say that Arri and Mole tungsten units were perfectly color-accurate either… Us OG’s who grew up lighting with these units were aware that as tungsten bulbs age, they tend to burn warmer. But this warmth problem seemed to be less difficult to fix during color correction than a green/magenta shift.

So back to the new LED’s… It seems that the manufactures are working on this problem and have come out with a variety of newer lights with better color engines and technology to get truly accurate color.

The new Aputure Storm 1000c and Aputure Storm 80c seem to put a lot of those color issues to rest with its new “BLAIR CG Light Engine.” This technology claims to be the most color-accurate way to generate light. From the Aputure website: The STORM 1000c’s BLAIR-CG light engine (Blue/Lime/Amber/Indigo/Red/Cyan/Green) delivers higher quality tunable color light than any previous LED system, covering more than 90% of the Rec2020 color gamut. The point source lights both have Bowens mounts (or mini locking Bowens mounts for the 80c) for adding light modifiers. While the 1000c is not cheap at around $4000, it certainly is a good value compared to previous lights with this much output (over 5000 fc in certain spot configurations) – plus the added benefit of color accuracy – which were generally priced over $10K. And I’d say the 80c 3-Lite Kit at around $2000 is a pretty decent deal as it includes a case, barn doors, and many other light modifier accessories. I mean, an Arri 3-Lite tungsten kit was nearly $3000 ten years ago! So seems reasonable to me!

The LitePanels Astra IP series of lights is an “all weather” RGB LED light (no green or magenta correction) that would work well in a controlled studio environment, or outside when weather is an issue and green/magenta correction would not be needed. This basically is the next generation of those 1×1 Astra LightPanels that I was complaining about earlier, but water resistant. I’d also imagine they have improved color accuracy as they claim. But keep in mind if you want a light that can provide the full color spectrum from LitePanels, you will still need one of Gemini RGBWW lites (which are not currently water resistant). The new Astra IP also comes in a 1/2 size, which I’d say looks very “cute” and is lighter and smaller. And with the improved light output (they can get a lot brighter than the originals), it may be all that you need for most situations.

Lenses

I always like checking out the latest lenses…

Anamorphic lenses continue to be popular at NAB, as more and more cameras are supporting them. This Blazar 50mm t/2.0 Full Frame 1.5x with a “silver flare” (instead of the traditional orange or blue flare) looked great on the screen. Seems to be retailing for around $1K.

And RED was finally back at NAB as part of the Nikon booth. Since Nikon acquired RED about a year ago (April 2024), not much has changed or been announced. But maybe that’s a bout to change as RED recently released versions of their Komodo and V-Raptor cameras with a native Z-Mount (the Nikon mount). And at NAB, I was able to see the new low-cost Nikkor power zoom (28-135mm) f/4 for RED cameras. This should be a great everyday lens for a lot of independent RED owners with a great focal range. Price was not announced, but rumor has it around $2500. Seems like RED’s integration with Nikon is finally bearing fruit. I’m looking forward to see what is next.

Cameras

A few new cameras were announced this year. Blackmagic was showing their PYXIS 12K, and “Advanced Ultra Film” (not actually film) URSA Cinema 17K 65. And Canon was showing off its newish (released September 2024) EOS C400.

The Blackmagic design PYXIS comes in a 6K and now the newly announced 12K version, and can use a PL, EF, or L-Mount. They both boast a 24x36mm (full frame) sensor with the 12K Version having an improved RGBW sensor at 12288×8040 Resolution. They also claim to have excellent low-light resolution and 13 (6K version) or 16 (12K version) stops of range. The screen on the side looked great, but it was inside a glass cube, so I really couldn’t interact with the camera itself. Seems like a pretty amazing camera for around $5500 for the body for the new 12K version (Keep in mind you’ll probably have to spend $1-4K more for viewfinders/screens and top handles/grips, cards & batteries). And the 6K version is around $3300 or $3500 depending on lens mount choice.

The headline-grabbing URSA 17K 65mm RGBW boasts a huge 17,520 x 8040 CMOS Sensor. This is beyond full-frame – this is 65mm – like IMAX big! It boasts a 16-stop dynamic range, a large 5″ fold-out touch screen, and it has interchangeable PL, LPL, EF & Hasselblad Lens options for that massive sensor. It also includes a built-in OLPF, 8TB of built-in storage, built-in live streaming, and BlackGeneration 5 color science. It’s available for pre-order and should be out soon. Kit price is under $35K which, while certainly expensive, is the cheapest “65mm” digital camera on the market. The bar has been raised again.

The Canon EOS C400 also looked like a great camera for the price. This latest model is now in 6K, has 3 base ISO’s, and has full frame, S35, and Super 16 modes. It basically follows the form-factor of the C300/C500 Cine line, so I imagine transitioning to this camera would be easy if you’re coming from an older model. But it gives you a lot of those bells and whistles from the more expensive C500 line for a lot less price. And that Canon color science keeps people coming back for more – the footage just looks really good coming straight out of the camera, and that’s worth a lot, especially when time is of the essence. Price is around $8000 (includes top handle & monitor), but you will likely need additional batteries & cards.

Hand-held smoke machine?

Well, I didn’t plan on looking for a smoke machine, but this little gadget caught my eye…

This Smoke Ninja Pro has a lot of adapters to do product shots, make smoke bubbles, and act as a traditional smoke machine in small to medium-sized rooms. Pretty cool, so I bought one! Get more details and rent it HERE on my company’s website.

How about 360 Video?

While a bit of a speciality camera mostly intended at the action-cam market (think GoPro), the Insta360 X4 8K has come of age:

Now in 8K resolution, the Insta360 X4 lets you record everything all around you and decide what to show the audience later. Or you can post a full 360 video on YouTube (with a few plug ins to make it work) and let the viewer decide what view they want to watch. I decided to pick up a few of these cameras for behind-the-scenes filming – and maybe up my ski scuba vacation videos too! You can get more info on my company’s website and rent them HERE.

LED Volume – Filming a Car Driving Scene Demo

I attended a B&H Sponsored demo of filming in a LED Volume (Basically a huge wrap-around LED Screen tied into a computer). The demo, lead by an ASC cinematographer, showed how you can integrate generated graphics, lights that emulate those graphics when put in motion, and the importance of camera lenses and angles in making a realistic car shot. Very cool! While this is not likely something and individual or even small company would buy, you can see how it could make certain scenes much easier and safer to film.