Today at Shane Hurlbut’s HDSLR workshop, Brian Valente and the Redrock crew surprised Shane with a custom camouflage-themed Field Cinema Deluxe Bundle support rig. The rig was presented in a military crate guarded by two soldiers (very cool presentation). Brian sent over a pic of the setup prior to the presentation (see below), and I think it was a super cool gift.

While Shane got the first model off the line, Redrock is now offering the Ops rigs for sale to anyone, though with a small lead time on shipment. Right now the two rigs being offered are the RunningMan (one of the new options in the nano line) and the DSLR Field Cinema Deluxe Bundle V2. Looking at listed prices, it seems that an Ops version of these rigs can be yours at roughly a 20-25% premium over standard rig pricing.

I had a sneak peek at these camo rigs a few days ago, and was really impressed at the quality of the coloration and application. It’s not paint, and it’s not a decal, it feels much tougher and integrated “in” the rig than either of those options. Redrock is using some kind of process that either adheres or embeds the camo color design into their gear, and it works beautifully. Redrock Ops looks like a cool option for military and outdoors applications, or anyone that just wants to dress up their rig with something different.

PhotoCine News has a few more pictures that show the rigs close up, head on over there and have a peek.

Redrock Micro has announced a new line of DSLR support rigs, the “nano” line. These are compact solutions aimed at the handheld DSLR user. And they are of particular interest given their price point - well under $495 for most configurations. Check out three of the seven new rig configurations in the photo below.

You can order nano rigs now, so for more information, check out www.redrockmicro.com. Press release follows.

Redrock Launches New “nano” Line of DSLR Rigs and Accessories
Compact, Economical Rigs Deliver Professional Quality on a Budget

Hollywood, CA – Redrock Micro, the recognized leader in affordable professional-quality cinema accessories, today announced the new nano line of accessories and rigs for video DSLR cameras. The nano line of equipment is an extension to Redrock’s current award-winning rigs and accessories for HDSLR cameras, and is designed for low-cost entry level, photojournalism/documentary, and discreet shooting applications. The nano rigs are manufactured to precision professional standards, and can be easily upgraded to more advanced rigs as needed. Developed from extensive customer interviews and input, the nano line delivers the ideal balance of economy and professional quality in compact support rigs.

The nano line of products consists of 7 new rigs and 5 new accessories:
* Grippit™
* runningMan™
* LowDown™
* LowDown Deluxe
* Stealth™
* Stealth Grip
* Stealth V (“vee”)

Nano accessories:
Nano baseplate
Nano focus+zoom lever
microHandle Plus (with integrated shoe mount)
2” 15mm carbon fiber rails
2” handlebar rod

“We developed the nano rigs from extensive input from professional and aspiring still/motion photographers,” said James Hurd, Chief Revolutionary for Redrock Micro. Customers said they wanted additional options that were smaller, more lightweight, and offered an affordable entry point, all while maintaining Redrock professional quality and interoperability.”

Redrock nano rigs are aggressively priced and are generally under $495. Specific pricing depends on model and desired configuration. Nano rigs are available for immediate ordering through Redrock’s online store at Redrockmicro.com or one of the worldwide Redrock authorized resellers.

Randy Panado got his hands on a new low-cost pre-production Cinevate Atlas slider design, and has been blogging and posting about it. He’s made some really pretty pictures and is sharing all kinds of info over at DVinfo. Never mind, the Dvinfo thread seems to have vanished without explanation. Odd. Go straight to Randy’s blog instead for pictures and info.

This new design has been dubbed the Atlas 10. It looks like this slider design is a single beam setup similar to the DP Slider and the Glidetrack, along with a few other features brought down from the higher-end Atlas designs, like leveling feet with non-marking pads. The Atlas 10 will also do the vertical slider moves, and appears to have a few hat tricks in regards to that feature…check out that cord and pulley on the rig in one of Randy’s pictures…looks like a counter-balance to me. Interesting…

Apple just updated a few products. Engadget has all the deets:

* Apple Mac Pro line overhauled with 12 processing cores, arriving in August for $4,999
* Apple iMac line gets speedbumped, low-end gets a Core i3
* Apple Cinema Display goes to 27 inches, 16:9 aspect ratio
* Apple Magic Trackpad official, shipping now for $69

Over at PVC, Mike Curtis provides his Patent Pending detailed specs analysis to answer the question “iMac or Mac Pro?”

For starters, let’s be clear…nothing can replace the value a good teleprompter operator and gear can bring to a production set. The ability of a professional to pace the text along with an individuals reading style is not something learned overnight, and when you are making script revisions on the fly a good prompter operator will make your life much easier. Also, there’s a reason professional prompter gear costs thousands…a good kit needs to work with any number of camera or rod systems. Bottom line; when I bid out projects with a lot of on-camera script, I always include a proper teleprompter op and kit in the budget. It’s a lifesaver and pays dividends in time savings.

That being said, there is a place for simple, more DIY prompter solutions. One of which is ProPrompter, an really solid $10 app that runs on the iPad and iPhone, and works beautifully for small jobs. We shot an interview with them at NAB 2010 (second half of the video at around 5:30). They’ve even built in integration that allows you to control the iPad or iPhone from the other i-device, swiping to control speed, and remotely loading scripts. It’s a beautiful thing to have in your toolkit, and it’s saved me in situations where the client was underprepared with their script.

ProPrompter offers a number of kits and brackets for the iPad and iPhone, but they’ve always felt a touch overpriced to me, given that I don’t see ProPrompter as a primary teleprompter solution, only as a backup to get me out of a jam. Now there’s another el-cheapo option for an iPhone running ProPrompter (or any other teleprompter software for that matter). It’s the Prompt-It kit, and it consists of a smartphone holder along with a small wedge of beamsplitter glass and a glare shield. This is a really small kit, intended for webcams and compact camcorders, but at $130 it looks to be a cheap way to get better results from your DIY-tastic prompter solution. I’m thinking about adding one of these to my kit for the next time an executive promises he can memorize his lines and won’t spring for a prompter in the shoot budget. Check it out here.

Hot on the heels of Sony’s announcement of the VG10 last week, it looks like the first E-mount lens adapters are already in development. And they are exactly what users would ask for…PL to E-mount and a Nikon G lens to E-mount. Very very cool.

I’ve been enjoying the Able Cine video series “At the Bench” with Mitch Gross, and the following video overview of Ianiro’s IANILED54 LED light/system is no exception. This is a seriously cool light kit, with a neat 3-in-1 hat trick. It looks extremely versatile. Check it out below.

With the release of Canon’s XF300 and XF305 camcorders, no doubt forum threads and geek discussions will raise the topic of color sampling. These new Canon cameras are equipped to record in the venerable MPEG-2 codec at a bit rate of 50 Mbps and 4:2:2 color sampling (to compact flash media, no less). In contrast, cameras in this price range generally utilize a much lower bitrate and 4:2:0 (HDV & XDCAM EX) or 4:1:1 (DV) color sampling. Canon DSLRs also chroma subsample at 4:2:0.

So while the XF-series of cameras are in general an unsurprising solid evolutionary step for Canon camcorders, the addition of this high bitrate codec at 4:2:2 is a rather significant development! But what is color sampling? If you are a bit confused by all the colons and numbers, this blog post from Adobe should help dispel some of the myths and inform you for that next “who’s camera is better” geeky throwdown discussion. Enjoy!

Engadget has posted an extensive picture gallery of the Sony NEX-VG10.

Sony has officially announced the compact APS-C sensor-equipped camcorder they hinted about back in May. Here come the new crop of DSLR sensor-based camcorders…

UPDATE: B&H now has the NEX-VG10 listed for Pre-order at $1999 USD. Approx arrival in September. Purchases via that link help support FreshDV.

We’ve covered Redrock’s forthcoming MicroRemote at both NAB 2010 and Cine Gear 2010, so there’s not a lot we don’t already know about this oh-god-please-come-soon device. The only thing we haven’t see a lot of is the finished, fully-functioning version, which is supposed to ship this summer. So if like us you’re already suffering from Redrock-blueballs for the MicroRemote, you might not want to watch the following teaser video…

Redrock microRemote preview from Redrock Micro on Vimeo.

We all know that you generally get what you pay for with DIY. But recently Anthony Ajit Prem tipped me off about a DIY wireless external monitor project for Canon DSLR shooters (photos or video) for under $200 that looks pretty stinking sweet!

Robert Benson is the photog who cobbled together this solution with off the shelf parts and is selling them for $196 shipped. He makes no grandiose claims about the device, being careful to note that this is a very DIY thing built in his garage…but a wireless monitor? For $200? I’m impressed. Watch the video below for a demo that shows it working in both stills and Live View mode. In the blog post where you can buy this monitor, Robert specifically states that this monitor works in both Live View and Video Record modes (I knew someone was going to ask). Watch below.

As a side note, I liked this project so much I just bought one.

At the Cine Gear 2010 booth for Mayberry Studio Products we got a demo of an interesting multi-use mount system for camera and accessory rigging. Really interesting stuff. Watch below.

cinegear_2010_mayberry

Hoodman was exhibiting in the Redrock Micro booth at Cine Gear 2010, and they showed us their HoodCrane hard-mount system for the Hoodman line of eye loupes. It’s a unique and affordable flip-down solution for hard mounting the loupe to a DSLR camera. Watch below.

cinegear_2010_hoodman

At Cine Gear 2010, we dropped by the LightTools booth to talk about their new directional grid systems for more efficient use of large soft light sources. It’s a really sweet solution, watch below.

cinegear_2010_lighttools