NAB 2010 • Visual Departures

Posts tagged ‘NAB 2010’

NAB 2010 Report: Eating in Las Vegas

And now, a few words about eating in Las Vegas…

When we're there, it's three long days to set up the Dedolight booth, the four days of the show itself, and finally, the days to take everything down. Every year, every day we're there, begins with breakfast at Harrie's Bagelmania (in a strip mall at 55 E.Twain Ave, not far from the Strip), at a table set in advance for 10. After being away for a year, and within two minutes of sitting down without saying a word, there's my morning tea, just as I like it, with lemon and honey. They have an uncanny memory for what everybody usually orders. It is absolutely the 'real deal,' filled with locals, cops, great service and as good a breakfast as you'll find anywhere; and yes, the bagels are fresh and fine. I have no doubt that a year from now, or any time I show up in Las Vegas, the story will be the same – warm welcome, excellent food.

We're usually so tired by the time the show wraps up at 6 PM that we head straight from the Convention Center to dinner. For the past few years, thanks to a suggestion from my Taiwanese-born daughter-in-law and her parents, we've had more meals at the New Shanghai (4215 Spring Mountain Road, in the heart of Las Vegas' Chinatown) than anywhere else. You can check it out on a number of sites, and the posted reviews are all over the map, but we really like it, even down to the very casual service. Shanghai-style cooking isn't something you find in every city. Dumplings are fine, and Russ always insists on the salt-and-pepper pork chops. If you get there, I'd like to hear what you think. Dedo Weigert could probably exist on a diet consisting solely of the Mongolian beef.

A few words about eating in Las Vegas …..

When we're there, it's three long days to set up the Dedolight booth, the four days of the show itself, and the days to take everything down. Every year, every day we're there, begins with breakfast at Bagelmania (in a strip mall on Twain, not far from the Strip), at a table set in advance for 10. After being away for a year, within two minutes of sitting down, and without saying a word, there's my morning tea with lemon and honey. They have an uncanny memory for what everybody usually orders. It is absolutely the 'real deal,' filled with locals, cops, great service and as good a breakfast as you'll find anywhere; and yes, the bagels are fresh and fine. I have no doubt that a year from now, or any time I show up in Las Vegas, the story will be the same – warm welcome, excellent food.

We're usually so tired by the time the show wraps up at 6 PM that we head straight from the Convention Center to dinner. For the past few years, thanks to a suggestion from my Taiwanese-born daughter-in-law and her parents, we've had more meals at the New Shanghai (on Spring Mountain Road, in the heart of Las Vegas' Chinatown) than anywhere else. You can check it out on a number of sites, and the posted reviews are all over the +/- map, but we really like it, even the very casual service. Shanghai-style cooking isn't something you find in every city. Dumplings are fine, and Russ always insists on the salt-and-pepper pork chops. If you get there, I'd like to hear what you think. Dedo Weigert could probably exist on a diet of just the Mongolian beef.

Tags: Chinese Dedo Weigert Dedolight food NAB NAB 2010 Shanghai-style

NAB 2010: Dedolight's New LEDZilla Accessories

Mitch Gross of Abel Cine Tech caught up with Dedo Weigert at NAB 2010 to check out the new softbox, lightsaber, and Chinese lantern LEDZilla attachments:

Tags: Dedo Weigert Dedolight interview LEDZilla NAB NAB 2010

NAB 2010 Report: The Canon 5D Mark II, Redrock Micro, and How They Will Impact the Next Generation of Photographers

The major broadcast equipment companies go all-out at NAB, and Canon, Sony, Panasonic, and JVC are some of the ones you'd expect to be major exhibitors each year. One year ago, there was so much attention paid to the video applications for Canon's EOS 5D Mark II digital still camera that it was difficult to get hands-on time with the camera and all the third-party devices that had quickly sprung up to support it for video shooters. The crowds at Canon's booth and that of Redrock Micro, who make an incredible range of accessory products for the 5D, were the biggest I saw. The 5D has almost single-handedly created a new niche straddling semi-pro and pro video, and then filled it. While I was in Las Vegas, Raj Tavadia, our technology director, emailed me to say that this season's finale of House was shot entirely using the 5D and linked me to an interview with Greg Yaitanes, the director of photography.

By the way, Canon's use of the photographer Vincent Laforet (former NYTimes staffer) was a really good idea. Vincent's live presentations were riveting (if you could find room to watch him). I took an unscientific survey of his audiences, and they ran the full age range from students in their 20s to shooters who had started with 16mm news film. Even though Vincent and other presenters showed a lot of lovely scenic video and aerials, it’s clear that the 5D is a real crowd-pleaser when it comes to night scenes (complete with mist and wet streets); the music video shooters were all paying close attention.

That brings me to a conversation I just had with Jeff Hirsch, President of Foto Care in New York City… (more…)

Tags: Canon Canon 5D Mark II education Foto Care Greg Yaitanes House Jeff Hirsch NAB NAB 2010 Redrock Micro students teaching Vincent Laforet

NAB 2010 Report: Dedolight and Matthews Studio Equipment

I'm just back from the NAB show in Las Vegas (that's the National Association of Broadcasters, an organization that goes back to 1922 when radio was the only broadcast medium). It's a huge show, covering every aspect of television and radio and there's always a lot to see and learn. Russ Carswell, our sales director, was with me and we were part of the Dedolight team from Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

Dedolight is a big, important, and growing part of our business. As a lot of you know (and if you don't, just browse the Dedolight category on our site), it is a truly unique system of continuous 'hot' light that is used by thousands of photographers, video shooters and filmmakers all over the world. These days, with cameras shrinking in size (and sometimes price tags), it's more important than ever that lighting be extremely portable with finely controlled output that adapts to every possible shooting situation.

This year, we helped Dedolight introduce some new accessories for their LEDZilla on-board LED light, designed for small video cameras, as well as the new HMI 1200-watt head. We first showed LEDZilla (technically the DLOBML) at NAB last year; the response was tremendous and the demand has never slowed down. LEDZilla carries on the tradition of Dedolight design, innovation, and engineering, and is made with the quality that has always gone into every Dedolight.

Among the new items will be a miniature soft box, a 'Chinese lantern' head, and what looks like a miniature 'light saber,' all of which will use the same bayonet mount as the current LEDZilla optics. Dedolight believes LEDZilla is a great new "platform" and is expanding the system to support more and more usage scenarios. The new accessories will be available this summer.

Getting back to the topic of camera gear getting smaller every year — I want to share some of what I saw at the Matthews Studio Equipment booth. Matthews is a U.S. company whose products are in (it seems) every studio and on every location shoot in the world. If you don't know them, you should. What I saw that got me really excited is their new line of MICROgrip equipment. It's a series of components designed for table-top shooting and the mounting of small gear in just about any set-up and configuration. Imagine a grip head that fits in the palm of your hand, made with the same precision as its big brother. Like most photographers, I’m always looking for products that, on location or in the studio, will let me put my lighting and still life subjects exactly where I want them. For the same reasons that Dedolight is so great because the lights don’t get in the way of what I’m shooting, small grip gear makes life a whole lot easier for table-top shoots.