NAB 2024!

This month we made the impulsive decision to finally attend NAB. For those who don't know, NAB is a big camera and tech conference held in Vegas every year. It is usually the time of year where companies showcase their newest advances in camera's, software and everything in between. There are also workshops where you can learn from some of the best in the business. I have wanted to attend for years, but for whatever reason it never aligned with our schedule. It's always hard to book these things too far in advance for us. You never want to take time away from actual paying projects, but as we spend more time in this career we realize how important it is to take time to expand our experiences; which only helps our creativity moving forward.

So, we booked last minute tickets and we were off. Walking into NAB was slightly overwhelming. It was a barrage of every camera, and lighting company we had ever heard of, ( and many we hadn't) stretched across a convention centre that felt like it was about 20 football fields long. Every step we took we saw another well known, photographer, YouTuber, or cinematography walk by us.

We spent the first day getting our bearings and trying out all of the new camera gear. Here is a list of the things we are most excited about. Click on the picture for links.

DJI Focus Pro

This might be the coolest thing on the market this year. It essentially gives the capabilities of auto-focus in any manual focus lens. From our tests, it worked amazingly well.

Nisi Lenses

These lenses were our favourites we tested. They produce a super clean image. They are also small and balance on our ronin 4d nicely. All of them except the 135 are the exact same size and weight, which makes them great for balancing on a gimbal.

Blazar anamorphic lenses

Blazar has made probably the best "affordable" anamorphic lenses here. They are compact, sharp, and provide everything you want from an anamorphic image at a dollar value that allows it to become a possibility on smaller projects

DJI Avata 2

This is the new FPV drone. We are always looking for ways to create captivating and unique shots on our project and this is definitely another tool we are excited to add.

Insta 360 8k

The new 8k insta 360 camera isn't just a gimmick anymore. It's 8k capture allows for usable shots that you can re compose in post as it captures the entire 360 field of view. We will be using this for behind the scenes as well as for VFX shots.

Black Magic Pyxis

We were very excited to check out the new Pyxis camera from black magic. It is essentially their 6k camera in a box format. The concept is really cool, and I hope more camera companies start innovating like Blackmagic. With the limited recording formats, and a side screen we would surly break, I don't think this is the camera for us. It was still cool to check out.

Shape power Station

The shape power station is an amazing 15000 watts of power in one rollable design. Perfect for on location when you need to power some big lights. It's exciting to see how advancements in technology are progressing so fast. Every year it gets easier to bring a large production feel to a smaller shoot.

Aputure Sidus one

Aputure is always at cutting edge of merging affordability and quality. The sidus one now allows you to connect your lights to the app and control them from one convenient location. We know people who spent years building what this can now effortlessly achieve.

Courses and Talks

After checking out all of the gear we attended a colour course with Walter Volpatto. This turned out to be one of my favourite parts of the trip. It is hard to find a real peak under the hood experience with working colorists in the industry, and Walter spent 2 hours explaining how he does every part of his process with a strong focus on his grading he did for the show, “ Winning Time,” on HBO.

Our main goal of our second day was to watch Casey Neistat give a talk. He did not disappoint. His ability to tell a great story and inspire a room full of people really shows why he is so popular. His talk was also filled with tangible creative advice and was honestly worth the trip just to see him. In between conference time we filled up every spare second with activities like top golf, poolside beers, gambling, and hiking out in the red rock canyon. It was a whirlwind three days that definitely got us excited and inspired for a summer of projects.