AGENDA
Jihua Zheng is the co-owner of the Kinefinity camera company that’s making huge waves inmoviemaking I KNOW THIS MUCH...
WORDS ADAM DUCKWORTH
I t’s taken just six years for a Chinese start-up brand with zero experience in cinema camera manufacturing to make an impact in an industry dominated by a handful of big players. Kinefinity is quickly turning heads with its new range of three modular cameras that shoot in Raw and ProRes The Terra 4K has a sensor that’s just slightly larger than Micro Four Third, the Mavo 6K is a Super35 camera and the forthcoming 6K Mavo LF has a full-frame chip. And all are at prices that are a fraction of their Japanese and American rivals. Of course, producing a range of cinema cameras is so much more than just making the camera itself, with ancillary hardware and software all an essential
part of the offering. Kinefinity has also developed and launched its ownKineMAG SSDmemory, KineStation transcoding software and worked with Movcam on accessories and its exciting DarkTower plug-in wireless transmitter for a full cable-free workflow. The one key ingredient missing from the offering is a worldwide network of distributors, service agents and rental houses, which is what Kinefinity is working on now. The man behind the brand is typical of the latest breed of tech and marketing- savvy engineers and managers, brought up with a Western-style entrepreneurial spirit. Kinefinity’s chief exec Jihua Zheng is only 40 years old but is already heading up a company that is having a real impact. We caught up with him at the camera’s UK importers, ProAV, to hear about how Kinefinity became such a success and his plans for the future. “It’s important that we are able to design something from a different perspective”
I believed there was a gap in the market It was in about 2009. I have some close friends who are cinematographers who talked about how the new digital technology was bringing a lot to filmmaking. It was at the time when Arri launched the first Alexa, the RED had been launched as a digital 4K camera shooting Raw, and it was really amazing. Then the Canon 5DMark II came out – it was a very exciting time. I began to think about how a Chinese company couldmake a cinema camera, to provide a good spec at an affordable price. Especially as at the time, the Arri Alexa and REDwere very expensive, and the 5DMark II could not provide ProRes or Raw. So there was a big chance for us to fill that gap. Wediditwithoutanygovernmentbacking The co-founders of Kinefinity, myself included, were working on astral and industrial cameras for the QHYCCD
THIS PAGE The Terra and Mavo are two of the Kinefinity range. BELOW The cameras use a modular deisgn for compatibility with future models.
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PRO MOVIEMAKER WINTER 2018
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