GEAR OF THE YEAR AWARDS ACCESSORIES
adjust the diffusion using the rear controls or a remote control. The front glass panel of the light changes from fully translucent to frosty and opaque, instantly softening the light andmaking it far more flattering. Altering this diffusion from clear to fully soft also changes the spread and focus of the light, to a wider and more even spread that wraps around your subject. Once you’ve had a light with this feature, you won’t want to go back to fiddling with lots of diffusion panels. The new Titan is Rotolight’s first product to feature a full RGBWW lighting array, so you can simply dial in any colour you want – from standard correction gels for technical use to bold colours for creative looks. And it’s all easily controlled from the touchscreen display on the rear of the unit, one of the various remote control options, or even via a forthcoming smartphone app. Like many of Rotolight’s smaller andmore affordable LEDs, the new Titan X2 has user-customisable SFX settings. With the light now being a full RGB unit, these are more realistic than ever. The light also offers high speed sync flash like the Anova Pro 2. The winner in the Hard Lights category is the FiilexMatrix II, an RGB light that uses soft-source LEDs grouped together for a punchy look. You can soften themwith diffusers, or by clipping on Fiilex’s optional fresnel lens, turning the light into a far more focused source. This is roughly triple the brightness in the centre. The FiilexMatrix II is water resistant and comes in a high quality aluminiumbody for ruggedness and longevity, with top quality cables and connectors proving it’s truly a professional bit of kit, built to last. A USB port means firmware upgrades can be easily uploaded. When it comes to actually making a difference to your films, the right monitor/recorder really can do it – especially in the case of this year’s winner, the Atomos Ninja V. If you shoot a mirrorless camera that has a clean HDMI output, there is often a huge improvement in the
A great camera, some lenses, audio kit and a tripodmay be the backbone of your system, but there are so many accessories that canmake your job easier or actually improve your films. These unsung heroes – everything frommonitors to memory, lighting to NLEs – are vital and deserve to be recognised. The Pro Moviemaker awards honour the bits and pieces that pro filmmakers use and love. One thing that really canmake a huge difference to your work is lighting. For 2019, Pro Moviemaker readers have voted to honour British company Rotolight – the industry stalwart cleaned up in two vital categories. The first is in the Light panels class, where the popular Rotolight Anova Pro 2 turned out to be a clear winner. The futuristic design, made tomimic the circular catchlight used in beauty photography, has six removable barn doors, held in place by a detachable yoke. There’s a simple, clean feel to the design of the control systemon the back of the light, with two big red buttons providing easy access to brightness and colour temperature control. It’s a great all-rounder, useable either as a rig light in a studio environment or as a location light, and it can be mains or battery- powered through V-lock batteries, where it will operate for more than three hours. Weighing in at 2.5kg/5.5lbs, it is very transportable and the solid designmakes it a good, on-the-road choice. There are 13 different special effects, and the light can also be used as a high-speed sync flash for photographers, utilising the inbuilt wireless radio receiver to connect up to an ElinchromSkyport transmitter. It’s a popular choice for small, indie production companies and Hollywood cinematographers. Rotolight also picked up honours in the Lighting innovations category with the new Titan X2, thanks to its unique, electronically-adjustable diffusion (this also affects the focus and spread of the light). Instead of having to use diffusion gels in front of the 2x1ft panel, you
EDITOR’S CHOICE: NANGUANG NANLITE MIXPAD 27
You don’t have to spend a fortune to have an RGB light, as is proven by the very affordable Nanguang NanLite MixPad 27 – our Editor’s Choice in the lighting category. The light features daylight to tungsten lighting, from 5600-3200K, as well as red, green and blue LEDs that can be mixed to create more than 360 colours. The light isn’t a huge panel but is still versatile; a bright light pad can be used to create a range of RGB lighting effects, or as a standard LED light pad. It’s powered by the mains or with a pair of Sony NP-F type batteries.
quality of the footage if you output to an external drive. The majority of cameras record 4:2:0 in 8-bit internally, but via HDMI can output 4:2:2 in 8- or 10-bit. The Ninja V records up to 4K/60p 10-bit HDR video direct from your camera’s sensor through its HDMI socket, onto an SSD. The Ninja V can also record to Apple ProRes Raw direct from your mirrorless camera, if it has the capability to do so. It’s a good size for smaller cine cameras like the Sony FS5 and Canon C100Mark II, too – especially if being used on a gimbal. The five-inch touchscreen is responsive and it’s easy to navigate through the settings. One of the benefits of a promonitor is the tools it offers, and there are waveforms, false colour, vectorscope, focus
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PRO MOVIEMAKER SPRING 2020
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