It was another relatively slow week in terms of announcements, with ZEISS making the sole major splash with its Nano Prime cine lens announcement. Despite the lack of product announcements, we’re still publishing new hands-on videos of Kodak’s Super 8 movie camera, we’ve got a video on 5 Ways to Upgrade Your Smart Home Entertainment Center, and we’ll hear from our staff writers about what caught their eye in the last seven days.
ZEISS Launches the Compact Nano Prime Cine Lenses
ZEISS had the big announcement of the week with the introduction of its Nano Prime cine lens lineup, comprising 18, 24, 35, 50, 75, and 100mm focal length options, each sporting a fast T1.5 maximum aperture and each coming with a native Sony E lens mount. These lenses are purposefully designed for Sony’s mid-range of cinema cameras, like the FX9 and BURANO, but will feel at home on anything from an a7S III or FX30 to a VENICE 2.
These lenses mix the traditional cine lens look and performance with a compact, lightweight design. They all cover full-frame sensors and support native metadata and eXtended Data sync to the camera. Compared to larger, bulkier PL-mount lenses, the native E mount and general “mirrorless-sized” format highlights their intended use; ZEISS also stated that more lens mount options are possible in the future, and the lenses have a user-changeable mount and support adding shims to account for any back-focus adjustments needed.
Kodak Super 8 Camera Hands-On Review
Nick Brigadier and Dave Moncion got a chance to play with the Kodak Super 8 Camera. It’s a new Super 8 movie film camera that offers some unique, first-ever features, along with the ability to shoot classic film stocks for an interesting mixture of new and old.
Upgrade Your Smart Home Entertainment Center
Matt Zefi takes a look at five different ways to upgrade your home entertainment situation, with some recommendations on short-throw projectors, smart home lighting, Bluetooth speakers, and more.
From the Writers’ Desks
Hundreds of new items show up at B&H every week, and each of those items is written and published on our website by a real person here at B&H HQ. In our Weekly Roundups, we usually take a look at the hottest new items, biggest announcements, and most jaw-dropping pieces of gear, but, with a slower news week, we turned to our writing staff to call out some of the other new, interesting, and unique pieces of gear that didn’t quite grab the headlines but nonetheless caught our eye.
“Normally, the high-end specs of the Nakamichi Dragon 11.4.6 soundbar system are reserved for traditional AVR-based setups. So, a totally wireless soundbar system with Dolby Atmos and this kind of quality has me seriously considering an upgrade.”
—John F.
“The Terminator Gaming Chair totally stands out for me, not only because of its powerful and assertive product name, but also because its features, especially the lumbar support that aligns with your own spine curvature and the Hyper-Dura leatherette upholstering, sound like they would make my life better at my own work cubicle, where the chair I currently use never quite provides a comfy position, no matter how many pillows or foam wedges I add to it.”
—Bruno D.
“The Nitecore LR70 flashlight. This triple-threat is a bright flashlight, a long-lasting lantern, and a quick-charging battery bank. Lightweight and compact, the multitool makes an ideal addition to any outdoors kit.”
—Luke R.
“If you still own the original Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, hold on to it! It’s okay never to let it go. This new camera cage, from XLCS Designs, has a huge number of accessory mounting options to make the great OG even better, without the need for expensive rigging.”
—Jen H.
“This new entry-level graphics card from MSI is a budget-friendly upgrade for gamers still running a RTX 1650 or 1050 GPU in an older build. With a TGP of only 70 watts, the RTX 3050 6GB is powered entirely by the PCIe slot, plus you get all the benefits of the AI-powered RTX platform, including ray tracing and DLSS Super Resolution.”
—William M.
“The iCON 32Ci is a portable, boutique USB audio interface with preamps and filters based on the legendary Harrison 32C console popularized by artists including Michael Jackson, Paul Simon, Genesis, and AC/DC. In addition to the dual mic inputs, a pair of line inputs along with digital ADAT ports let you expand the unit for a total of 12 channels of I/O, while built-in DSP processing allows the user to track and mix with a wide assortment of included plug-ins without taxing the host computer’s processor. Overall, it’s a smart starter interface with analog character for home and project studios.”
—Rob R.
“This 2000 Tall Monopod with Grip-Action Head from Oberwerk is crazy tall—6 feet, 6 inches—and there’s a reason: it’s designed for use with astronomical binoculars. Oberwerk says it’s tall enough for a 6-foot-plus person to stand beneath eyepieces pointing straight up at the sky. (You could also use it for a camera if you’re, say, Kevin Durant.)”
—Morgan L.
“The RAVEN MTi2 MAX from Steven Slate Audio. With automatic integration for all the major DAWs, this utterly huge control surface just seems like a super convenient way to manage your studio setup. Plus, who doesn’t want a 27" multitouch display in their studio?”
—Trevor C.
In other news…
- The next article of our Gaming Build series is live: a Guide to CPUs
- This week’s installment of Teton Perspectives is with Autumn Schrock and covers Milky Way & Night Sky Photography. Schrock is also featured in Yoga Poses for Photographers, a bonus video to help keep you in shape while on a shoot.
- We also published our hands-on review of the Atlas i8 Isobaric Monitor Speakers from Antelope Audio.
Despite it being a slow week for announcements, it’s been a busy week for content around B&H. We’ll pick it back up next week!
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