Yes, the Olympics are here and going strong. Being a patriotic bunch here at Digital Cyclops, we enjoy the sports and the true spirit of the series of events. Canada is doing great in the running, and all eyes are peeled on our favourites. What’s yours? Gear watching you say? Are you sure that’s a sanctioned Olympic event? Yes, indeed, that’s one of our preferred events too. Olympic sporting events are usually the pinnacle of videography and photographic gear lust. This year’s Sochi event is definitely no different.
Just check out ONE agency’s gear for photography alone! Definitely lots of Canon gear and glass there. That’s about half a million dollars in equipment on that one piece of furniture by the way. Hope that table has sturdy legs!
Canon gear at Sochi: Courtesy of Gawker
For videography, multi-rotor drones are being used this year to capture events like Halfpipes and other snowboarding events. When we watched the footage of the ski jump competition this year, these were noticeably absent, and instead relied upon the traditional long range telezooms and mobile ground crews for athlete closeups and interviews.
Hexacoptor image courtesy of Vadim Shadrin: Flickr
There are a plethora of the wearable Panasonic HX-a100s used for one man luge (skeleton), speed skating, curling, and moguls as well. Very cool seeing the point of view from our Canadian atheletes like Connor Spence! That man can really FLY!
[su_youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qraSwtu39UQ” width=”600″]
4K you say? Indeed! Panasonic this year shot the entire opening ceremonies at Sochi in full 4K. They are also using it, like the Superbowl this year, to highlight the HD panning and zooming with the extra 4 times resolution. It’s reported that Panasonic is also bringing out the big guns with an 8K concept camera too. 8K! SHV, or Super Hi-Vision digital format is captured in 7680×4320 resolution. This is the first winter olympics to be shot in this resolution, with London a couple years back taking the crown. Besides Panasonic, Sony is also going big with 4K with the use of their F55s. Sony is supplying in addition roughly 70 HD studio and shoulder mounted broadcast cameras to cover all the Olympic action.
Suffice to say that you’ll get coverage close to, on, and all around your favourite athletes this Winter Olympics! GO CANADA!
