News

Sony has announced a new exclusive competition to bring creative documentary storytelling to the forefront of filmmaking. Celebrating the imagination and tenacity of content creators everywhere, one lucky winner will receive the new PXW-FS7M2K camera for their work.

Sony is giving documentary filmmakers the chance to win the incredible new PXW-FS7M2K. Entrants are asked to submit a brief one-minute documentary which showcases their storytelling capabilities, the content creator will be judged on the techniques used to deliver their story. All submissions should be uploaded to YouTube and entered via the Sony Professional form by the 12th March.

The top ten videos to receive the most YouTube likes from the 1st-12th March will be shortlisted and the winner and runner-up will be chosen by renowned filmmaker Philip Bloom. The winner and runner-up will both be announced during a live cinematic webinar on 22nd March, with the runner-up winning a Sony α7S II camcorder.

For more information and to take part, along with full terms and conditions, please visit this page.

Metabones unveiled 4 new products on the fifth anniversary of the original Smart Adapter. They are EF to E CINE Smart Adapter, EF to E CINE Speed Booster ULTRA, EF to E Smart Adapter V and EF to E Speed Booster ULTRA II.

The headline feature of EF to E CINE Smart Adapter and EF to E CINE Speed Booster ULTRA is a positive-lock EF lens mount carried over from the critically acclaimed Metabones EF-FZ CINE Smart Adapter, a perfect companion to the positive-lock mount of the new Sony FS7 Mark II camera. All 4 new products are equipped with a rubber gasket to protect the E-mount connection from dust and moisture. To promote ease-of-use, an LED indicates the adapter's operation mode, optical image stabilization operation and communication status. A dedicated switch controls in-body image stabilization (IBIS) on Sony cameras equipped with SteadyShot INSIDE.

EF to E CINE Speed Booster ULTRA and EF to E Speed Booster ULTRA II feature the same world-renowned Speed Booster ULTRA optics by Caldwell Photographic and WB Designs that make lenses brighter, wider and sharper.

Metabones recounts the beginnings of the world's first fully electronic EF to E mount adapter 5 years ago, with only aperture control and auto-magnify (requires lens with distance information) but no autofocus support back then. Over the years firmware work has significantly expanded its capabilities. Today, the very same original Smart Adapter, though long discontinued, can still be upgraded to leverage the latest firmware benefits such as smooth iris (lens support required), fast contrast detection autofocus on all E-mount cameras, eye-AF, direct manual focus (DMF), zoom and distance display (requires lens with distance information), assignable custom button and 5-axis image stabilization (requires camera support).

Since the advent of the original EF to E Smart Adapter 5 years ago, Metabones has assumed a pivotal role in the mirrorless revolution. Cinematographers and photographers all over the world are armed with unprecedented flexibility of lens and camera choice.

EF to E CINE Smart Adapter will be available in February 2017 for 449 USD ex. VAT, and EF to E CINE Speed Booster ULTRA will be offered at the same time for 699 USD ex. VAT. Availability and pricing of EF to E Smart Adapter V and EF to E Speed Booster ULTRA II are to be determined.



New products:

• Canon EF-E mount T CINE Speed Booster ULTRA (MB_SPEF-E-BT3)
• Canon EF-E mount T CINE Smart Adapter (MB_EF-E-BT6)
• Canon EF-E mount T Speed Booster ULTRA II (model number MB_SPEF-E-BT3)
• Canon EF-E mount T Smart Adapter (MB_EF-E-BT5)

New key features:

• CINE models feature a new positive-lock EF lens mount. (Patent pending)
• Rubber gasket protects E-mount connection from dust and moisture.
• Compatible with Sony FS7 Mark II camera
• Status notification LED light
• Dedicated switch controls in-body image stabilization (IBIS)

Electronic features:

• Fast contrast-detect AF on all E-mount cameras.
• Phase-detect autofocus support on A7RII, A7II, A6300 and A6500.
• Smooth iris support with the latest Canon (2009+), Tamron (SP series 2013+) and Sigma (2016+) lenses
• Supports 5-axis in-body image stabilization of A7II, A7RII and A7SII. (Distance information from lens required; 3-axis IBIS if lens does not transmit distance information.)
• Powered by camera body. No external power source required.
• Aperture control from camera body.
• Custom function button assignable to more than 50 functions on A7 series and A6300/A6500.
• High performance 32-bit processor and efficient switched-mode power supply.
• Supports image stabilization (IS) lenses.
• Supports electronic manual focusing (e.g. EF 85/1.2L II and discontinued EF 50/1.0L)
• EXIF support (focal length, aperture, zoom range)
• Distance and zoom display on VG and FS series camcorders, A7 series and A6300/A6500 (lens with distance information support required).
• Auto magnify (lens with distance information support required)
• Auto "APS-C Size Capture" on full-frame cameras.

Optical (Speed Booster models only) / Mechanical Features:

• Increase maximum aperture by 1 stop.
• Increase MTF.
• Makes lens 0.71x wider.
• Advanced 5-element/4-group optical design incorporating ultra-high index tantalum-based optical glass by Caldwell Photographic in the USA (patent).
• Felt material flocked inside the opening to reduce internal reflection.
• The tripod foot is detachable and compatible with Arca Swiss, Markins, and Photo Clam ball heads.

Chrosziel MatteBoxes have been developed to meet the rigorous demands of today's cinematic productions. Durable, yet light-weight and equipped with a variety of essential features, the Chrosziel MatteBoxes are designed for the latest lenses and digital film cameras. The premium models use a high-impact Polyblend for the housing -- a thermoplastic sheet which is extremely resistant and features high impact strength and extensibility.

The January 2017 update for Adobe After Effects CC (version 14.1) fixes multiple bugs, including fixes for compositions rendering at the wrong resolution via Adobe Media Encoder and Adobe Premiere Pro as well as problems with JPEG image sequences (more). Update for Premiere Pro CC (11.0.2) is also available. It is the second stability update for Premiere Pro CC 2017 since its November launch. The 11.0.2 update contains important bug fixes, incl. enhanced QuickTime import, fixed crashes during AAF export, and several fixed issues in the Media Browser (more). You can install the updates through the Creative Cloud desktop application, or you can check for new updates from within any Creative Cloud application by choosing Help > Updates. Please note that it can take 24 hours or more for all of our global data centers to receive the update. If the update isn’t available for you right now, please check back later.

The standard warranty period of Panasonic applied to camcorders is 36 month calculated from the day of purchase by the first customer. Panasonic now also offers an extended warranty period of an additional two years (increasing the total warranty period to overall 5 years) for AG-UX180, AG-UX90, and AG-DVX200 models. Warranty extension certificate can be purchased as long as the standard warranty period has not expired, and the final customer must register the serial numbers of the certificate on Panasonic's service website within 60 days. The prices are as follows: 210 EUR ex. VAT for the AG-UX180 warranty extension, 160 EUR for the UX90, and 300 EUR for the DVX200 model.