Two Thousand and Ten has been a great year for gear. A few of the new cameras have whipped up a storm, and a colourful Tornado looks to be finally heading our way. Words like Revolution, Game Changer, and Killer have been tossed around with every new piece of exciting cine gear that has come out this year. We so look forward to the next group of words that will be used in describing new gear in 2011.
This year we got to see the power of the Social Networks at play with the big Camera Manufacturers Public Relations departments and the launch of their new gear and cameras. Of course not all gear announced had a smooth introduction or ride, indeed bets have been taken as to if some gear announced this year will get released at all next year.
We have seen once great informative Camera Blogs turned into nothing more than Blogfomercials filled with links to eBay, Amazon, and B&H from the Meme Bloggers. Social media was quick to pick up on who was coasting acting as a passenger and those that are good guys and gals out there that are moving the craft along and the good gear that they used.
The Vision Wrangler Awards highlight the very best and worst in more or less Indie Cine Gear for the 2010 year. We look forward to 2011 and the cine gear it promises to deliver.
So here are the Vision Wrangler 2010 Top 10 Cine Gear Hits and Misses.
Hits:
Teradek Cube – Look Ma no wires. So much goodness in a little box
Carl Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 lenses – DSLR cameras got some loving
RED EPIC – Hand made hand delivered
Magic Lantern Firmware – Canon 5D MKII camera got real camera controls
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 – No transcoding of footage for DSLR users
SmallHD – Tough monitor that packs a lot
Steadicam Zephyr – Smooth vision baby
Zylight Active Diffusion – LCD Panel Diffusion
Sony PMW-F3 Camera Launch – Panasonic take notes on a proper camera launch
Vimeo – You could live here
Misses:
Black Diamond Awards – Giving an award to a concept not a product
Canon 7D Camera – Crap updates from Canon
H.264 – Licensing confusion
Panasonic AG-AF100 Camera – Tokyo Rock Stars delivered little
Electronic Viewfinders – No EVF launch worked
JJ – One PR nightmare
Apple FCP – Update what update
Scarlet Camera – Same as years gone by only compound that with name changes
Workshops – I dare you to sign up for one
Atomos Ninja – Where is the footage