Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/663382
www.postmagazine.com 11 POST APRIL 2016 BITS & PIECES Blizzards Climate Change Clouds Floods Global Warming Hurricanes Katrina Lightning Mother Nature Sky Plates Snow Stormy Seas Tornadoes Volcanoes Wind on HD Super 35 & Cine 4K www.stormstock.com Tel. 817.276.9500 See our latest work at vimeo.com/stormstock/2016 StormStock® In cinema quality 4K. So real, it's scary. VIDEO DEVICES' PIX-E5 TAKES FLIGHT WITH HELIFILM DRONE STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN — Since 2008, Björn Olin, founder of Stockholm's Helifilm, has been using drones to capture content for film and television pro- ductions. Today, Olin's company provides aerial footage in Scandinavia, offering services to national and international film teams and providing access to its extensive image bank of Scandinavian content. Helifilm also provides material for the region's broadcasts, including Nobel Prize festivities and royal events. To record and monitor all of the aerial footage he captures, Olin relies on the Pix-E5 recording monitor from Video Devices (www.videodevices.com). "The Pix-E5 is smaller and lighter than the competitor offerings, which has proven to be helpful as our drone setup has evolved," says Olin. "The main reason we wanted a recorder on the drone was to improve quality. The Apple ProRes 422 HQ capture that we record from the Pix-E5 is superior to the inter- nal codecs on the cameras we use. This is important, as our clips are often used in high-end productions where the availability of quality files for colorists and editors is crucial." According to Olin, Helifilm's work on various events surrounding the 2015 Nobel Prize provides an interesting example of how the Pix-E5 has improved the company's productions. "The Nobel Prize festivities were held in Stockholm on a midwinter evening where the sun sets before 3pm," says Olin. "This required a low-light camera with full-frame optics that did not weigh much. The Sony a7S is exactly that camera, but the internal codec did not deliver the quality we needed. However, when used together with the Pix-E5, we were able to achieve a 4K recording system with a great codec — a royal deluxe system for drones. We re- ceived great reviews from a very happy customer; the footage was outstanding." Olin says another important factor was the Pix-E's rugged build. The equip- ment he uses is subject to take-offs and landings, as well as any number of weather-related or operational shifts during flight. "The Pix-E5 is very solid. This surely has helped us trust the Pix-E5 in situations where we only have one chance to capture an event," says Olin. "We use the Pix-E5 as a monitor or a record- er/monitor on handheld gimbals, and for setting the focus on the drone cameras. For focusing, we really appreciate the TapZoom feature." With regard to the Pix-E5's actual opera- tion, Olin says, "With the Pix-E5, it is very easy and inexpensive to get material from the drone to a computer using its SpeedDrive removable media. The SpeedDrive's chassis can house an mSATA drive, which is capable of storing up to 1TB. When connected to the rear of the Pix-E, the SpeedDrive's USB 3.0 interface automatically switches to a SATA interface, which is well suited to record continuous, high-data-rate 4K video. An added advantage of the SpeedDrive is that no special card reader or docking station is needed. I can simply unplug it from the back of the Pix-E5 and plug it into any USB computer port to quickly and easily transfer data. In general, our team has found it easy to operate with a great user interface; knobs and buttons are well placed, and the touch screen is of superior quality. Operation is intuitive, and the software is really well thought out. Our experience with the Pix-E5 tells us that Video Devices' quality matches our requirements. We have used a few other recording monitors over the years, but these products cannot match the Pix-E5 in terms of size, weight, build quality, usability, and file transfer." [See our "Special Report: Drones" on page 34.] A Helifilm drone and Pix-E5 recording monitor.