On the 13’th episode of LensVid Talk we cover the first LensVid product – the SmallRig x LensVid mini L-Shaped Mount Plate Kit announced recently, the new PDMoivie LIVE AIR 3 SMART follow focus with LiDAR technology, a look behind the scenes of one of Chris Williamson’s podcast shooting, new Edelkrone FlexTILT Max, the QNAP TBS-h574TX Thunderbolt 4 All-Flash NASbook, Magnific.ai – High Resolution Upscaling Generative AI service, DJI Ronin 8K becomes available, Pod Tech BMPCC 4K/6K Mod Kit, SISU huge battery box, Godox BLP and BFP LED/Flash projection attachments, Midjourney V6 and a dive into LensRentals Top Rented Photo and Video Products of 2023.
SmallRig & LensVid mini L-Shaped Mount Plate Kit (00:22)
We are extremely proud to introduce the first LensVid-designed project in cooperation with SmallRig. After a year and a half of development, we introduce the SmallRig & LensVid mini L-shaped mount Plate Kit. This small L-bracket is designed to help users mount accessories onto their rigs when a 90-degree angle is required.
The new SmallRig & LensVid mini L-Shaped Mount Plate Kit
The mini L-plate has three important features – let’s take a closer look at each of them:
- Anti rotation pins and grip material – to prevent twisting the mini-L-plate has two retractable Arri pins on each side. If the part that you are connecting to does not have Arri pin holes you still have the silicone coating on the plate that will add some level of friction (although it will not be as effective as the anti-rotation pins).
- Male/female 1/4″ 20 and 3/8″ 16 options and mini tool – arguably the most important feature of the mini L-plate is the way it can connect to other things. We created the unit in such a way that it can be attached to any type of industry-standard gear using either 1/4″ 20 or 3/8″ 16 screws. The First comes as default on the mini L-plate and the second comes as two replacement screws along with a small flat-head tool.If you wish, you can also choose not to use male screws and use one or both sides of the mini L-plate with female connectors, either the built-in 3/8″ 16 or a 1/4″ 20 with the provided mini adapters making the mini L-plate even more versatile.
- Distance from connected product – Another small but important feature is the 45-degree angle which allows the user to create just over 5 cm of distance between the objects that are being connected and preventing them from touching each other and getting in the way while still maintaining a low profile.
The SmallRig & LensVid mini L-Shaped Mount Plate Kit mounted on a cage with a wireless transmitter
The mini L bracket can be purchased on the SmallRig website for under $30 (for a kit of 2).
PDMoivie LIVE AIR 3 SMART with LiDAR technology Review (06:14)
Later this week we will publish our review of the PDMOVIE LIVE AIR 3 SMART follow focus system with Lidar technology built in (update: read review here). This is as far as we know the first such system in the industry (DJI has a stand-alone Lidar and follow focus units).
The unit looks extremely similar to the PDmovie Live Air 2s which we reviewed here last year but has a small Lidar sensor on the front of the motor which works at a distance of around 4m and can be calibrated and used with up to 4 different lenses to provide AF for manual focus lenses.
You can purchase the PDMOVIE LIVE AIR 3 SMART on Amazon.
The PDMoivie LIVE AIR 3 SMART with LiDAR
Chris Williamson BTS Production video (13:14)
Chris Williamson is a well-known Youtuber with over 1.5 million subscribers and a video podcast called the Modern Wisdom Podcast that has attracted some of the most interesting researchers and influential personalities online since 2018.
Williamson isn’t satisfied with interviewing some of the brightest minds of our time, he also wanted to do this in a way that will look as polished as possible. In one of his recent videos, he takes us behind the scenes of a 27-hour shooting marathon with 3 different interviews including one with American neuroscientist Andrew Huberman.
If you are interested in how a high-end visual podcast is shot, check out Chris Williamson’s BTS video.
Edelkrone FlexTILT MAX (16:47)
Turkish manufacturer Edelkrone recently introduced a new member to its FlexTILT family of flexible mounts called FlexTILT MAX with more angles and more possibilities to shape and hold cameras and accessories in unique ways.
The FlexTILT MAX sells for $69.
The FlexTILT MAX
QNAP TBS-h574TX Thunderbolt 4 All-Flash NASbook (18:57)
In the past few months, we started to see the first NVME based NAS units. QNAP recently joined this niche with its QNAP TBS-h574TX Thunderbolt 4 All-Flash NASbook unit.
This unit is ideal for video editing work where more than one editor needs fast action to the unit which has dual TB4 and 10GbE connections and up to 4 fast NVME drives (16TB max) powered by Intel Core I5 processor.
The QNAP TBS-h574TX sells for around $1450.
Official QNAP TBS-h574TX video
magnific.ai High-Resolution Upscaling Generative AI (23:08)
AI is moving faster and faster with more software and services and this time we are looking at a service called magnific.ai which promises high-resolution image upscaling using AI.
Recently Blake Rudis from f.64 Academy published a video looking at the capabilities of this service which you can check out here. It is certainly more impressive than what Adobe has at the moment but the technology keeps evolving so you never know how things will look in a few months.
DJI Ronin 8K Available (26:05)
DJI introduced the Ronin 4K way back on October 20, 2021, with the 6K version shipping in February 2022, while 8K models remained pending for more than 2 years.
While some people considered the 8K an abandoned project, it seems that DJI had other thoughts and it finally was able to bring the second high-resolution model to the market in late 2023.
The 8K version is very similar externally to the original 6K version but with a higher resolution sensor inside and almost twice the price at close to 13K.
Pod Tech BMPCC 4K/6K Mod Kit (29:42)
The BMPCC 4K and 6K are very popular amongst content creators, indie filmmakers, and videographers, however, they suffer from several shortcomings. They have a very weak battery and a large and beautiful monitor which can not be tilted.
Over the years several mods were developed to solve the monitor issue but recently a Kickstarter project called Pod Tech BMPCC 4K/6K Mod Kit came up with a solution that solves both issues by adding a v-mount instead of the monitor and moving the monitor to the top of the camera.
Our colleagues from Threefold published a first-hand account of this upcoming product and you can back up the project on Kickstarter.
SISU huge battery box (33:19)
If you are operating a large professional camera robot and want to take it for a shoot outdoors where you have no power Sisu robotics just came out with a huge battery box that can help you solve the issue.
This super heavyweight 270kg/595 lbs battery on wheels can power one of the company’s professional lines of robots for up to 8 hours.
Pricing is unknown at this point (we would expect this to be mostly a rental unit).
Official Sisu Robotics huge battery box video
Godox BLP/BFP LED/Flash Projection Attachments (36:08)
Godox introduced two projection attachments called BLP for LED COBs and BFP for flash heads.
Both units have a 360° rotatable design with a Canon EF mount. Pricing is set at around $300 (BFP and BLP).
The new BLP LED projection attachment video
The new BFP Flash projection attachment video
midjourney V6 (38:48)
An early version of Midjourney v6 model was rolled out on December 21st, 2023.
Below are some of the new features (more – in here):
- Much more accurate prompt following as well as longer prompts,
- Improved coherence, and model knowledge,
- Improved image prompting and remix mode,
- Minor text drawing ability (you must write your text in “quotations” and –style raw or lower –stylize values may help) /imagine a photo of the text “Hello World!” written with a marker on a sticky note –ar 16:9 –v 6
- Improved upscalers, with both ‘subtle‘ and ‘creative‘ modes (increases resolution by 2x) (you’ll see buttons for these under your images after clicking U1/U2/U3/U4)
And much more.
LensRentals Top Rented Photo and Video Products of 2023 (41:34)
LensRentals is one of the biggest rental homes for photo and video gear in the U.S. The company has an active blog and every year they publish a summary of popular products rented over the past year.
Reading through the lists (there is more than one) we can find some interesting points including an almost complete control of Canon and Sony in the rental departments with around 65% of the market and the rest divided between BlackMagic, Nikon, Panasonic Leica, and Red with very small percentages.
Check out more on the LensRentals Top Rented Photo and Video Products of 2023 blog page.
You can Check out all of the LensVid Talk videos here. If you want us to cover any specific topics or products in our upcoming LensVid talks please let us know in the comments or on our YT or Facebook pages.
Iddo Genuth 
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