IBC 2016 Round Up - Part One

The Top-Teks were out in force at IBC 2016 so read on to see what we discovered in the Rai halls this year. Phill Lane - Sales Director As I walk around shows these days LED lights are common place with a host of well known manufacturers such as  Arri, Litepanels, Dedo and KinoFlo  all making offerings in various shapes and sizes, outputs, soft Source, hard source and the list goes on….. So it truly seems that bulb based systems have gone the way of the dinosaur. So what happens to all of those old blue and silver heads once they’ve been replaced for the latest LED technology? I’m sure many will have already been resigned to the skip while others have been hung on to them leaving them piled in the corner of the kit room collecting dust, well now you can get the duster out and breath new light (excuse the pun) into this forgotten kit. How do you do this, well it’s simple open up the head, remove the old reflector, bulb and replace it with a new LED fixture. So what is this product, well its called RELAMP and it caught my attention whilst walking the halls at IBC this year and as I’ve described above it literally allows you to swap the bulb for an LED. Available to work with all of the Arri Jnr heads from the 300 upto the 2K, available as either tungsten or daylight these units will work with exisiting AC dimmer’s giving you flicker light which boast a CRI of 98. All of the properties of the head remain the same as when using a bulb, you can focus the beam with the standrad glass lens or now that there is no heat you can up-garde to an acrylic fresnel to almost double the light projected. All of the units come with a 2 year warranty and are very well priced enabling you to resurrect and save those old heads from extinction. Matt Wafer - on the new Zeiss LWZ.3 21-100mm T2.9-3.9 In the past few years it would appear Zeiss are one of the few manufactures that have been proactively responding to customer requests. They have been no fewer than 5 new ranges of lenses released each with their own unique USP’s. With the likes of Canon and Fujinon having most of the pie when it comes to PL Zoom sales, it has somewhat left the likes of Zeiss wandering when they will get to take a bite of the pie… until now… maybe? I have to say I was little sceptical when I first saw images of the new Zeiss PL Zoom and could almost hear the cries of the customers… it’s not wide enough! It’s too slow! There’s no zoom demand! Let’s all stop overreacting and look at the facts before we completely dismiss it. I see this Super 35 sensor lens being used by the FS7/F5 user who has had enough of constantly changing primes all day, frustrated at the inconsistences and problems associated with EF glass and quite frankly don’t want to spend £15k on the competition. This lens is light!.. 2kg which is approximately 1kg lighter than the rivals… it’s future proof with an interchangeable back system between PL-Mount, E-Mount, EF-Mount, MFT-Mount and Nikon-Mount. The lens does ramp from T2.9 – T3.9 but with a linear profile I couldn’t see this being that noticeable (on initial inspection) and feel this is totally acceptable. The 11 blade iris produces a particularly pleasing bokeh that is nicely shaped and what we have come to expect from Zeiss lenses. Unlike EF glass this lens design is parfocal, with no focus shifts happening whilst zooming in and out. Focus pulling will also be precise with a nearly 300-degree rotation angle. With Zeiss so keen on making an impact again on the Broadcast/Cine lens market it may just be a good bet to assume a wide angle zoom to pair with the LWZ.3 may appear on the horizon sometime in the future?… and who knows, a detachable zoom demand pack as well?