Getting every frame you want

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The Weisscam helps a cameraman choose the image format and the frame rate at which he wants to shoot.

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DoPs attend a training session in Dubai with Weiss.

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Stefan Weiss demos the Weisscam HS1 in Dubai.

Stefan Weiss, the developer of a high-speed camera system dubbed Weisscam, was in Dubai recently to train some of the region's DoPs to use his camera. The workshop, which was held at RedMark Studios in Dubai with the support of Advanced Media Trading, aimed at training the DoPs to use the new camera, one of which will be available from Advanced Media for rental purposes.

"The goal in developing this new camera was to offer a compact, flexible, yet mobile digital high-speed system, which is proofed under various project requirements," says Weiss. "Whether you shoot commercial table tops, music clips, action sports, documentaries, scientific reports, the Weisscam HS1 is designed to give end users the freedom to choose the image format and the frame rate they want. The end user can even change the frame rate during recording for live ramping," he adds.

Weiss, a DoP by profession, began toying with digital high-speed photography four years ago. "Having worked with different kinds of high speed cameras, I came to realise that customers had very different needs and needed a flexible digital high-speed system. That was the starting point for developing the Weisscam HS1. I made the prototype for the camera two years ago and went out and shot commercials. The results were pretty good so I went to P+S Technik, a professional cine equipment manufacturer in Germany, and asked them if they'd like to partner with me to develop a real camera based on my prototype. We then started constructing the housing one year ago and presented the camera at NAB 2006," says Weiss.

The Weisscam is in a league of its own and perhaps the first of its kind to be introduced in the Middle East. Its camera body is designed as a combination of the classic form of a 2/3" video camera and the film camera body. It comes with an interchangeable mount that allows a cameraman to use the maximum range of lenses designed for 35mm format, whether motion picture or still photography. A cameraman can choose any frame size to fully utilise the camera's memory. Frame rates up to 1000 frames per second (fps) are possible with this camera.

"This camera comes with a single sensor that currently allows a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels. The sensor can read out in any kind of resolution, whether it is HD, NTSC or PAL resolutions," confirms Weiss. The camera, which comes with a hard disc, has 4GB RAM and can accommodate a total of 3500 frames. This is primarily designed for the commercial market, which works with high-speed film cameras.

"So far, advertising agencies used to work with high-speed film cameras or photo-sonic cameras. However, it is not always economical to work with film material because you can't find out until the film is processed if something went wrong. The best thing about digital high-speed shooting is that you can see right away what you did and if you don't like it, you can always delete it and start all over again," explains Weiss.

The next important feature in this camera is ramping. This means the cameraman can move from one frame rate to another while recording. "This is very important if you have special kinds of shooting to do. For instance, you can follow a car at 50 fps and as soon as the car hits water for instance, while it is going, you can move to 500 fps. With a normal camera, the maximum you will get is about 60 frames per second.

"This camera also comes with a hand unit that allows the cameraman to manage the whole ramping," explains Weiss, adding that the camera also handles slow motion well.

Weiss claims that this is the first hand unit for a digital high-speed camera. This unit allows the most important recording features of the camera to be remote controlled. These include START/STOP, frame rate adjustment, frame rate ramp settings and frame rate jumps.

"It is designed to allow a user to comfortably use one hand to start and stop recording. A hand wheel allows the frame rate to be changed smoothly while recording," adds Weiss.

The fact that the cameraman can control the slow motion and high speed in the production process changes the post process significantly. Weiss explains how controlling the speed at the production phase can help improve the visuals. "If you record with a normal speed camera and have to interpolate it in post production, you may be able to get four times the speed maximum i.e. 150 frames per second. That is not really high speed because the Weisscam can give you 900 fps or even more depending on the resolution," he explains.

Weiss gives the instance of water drops. "When you capture dripping water drops, for instance, with a normal camera, you don't have the information between one frame and the next to do a nice interpolation. So, you are never really going to end up with a really high-speed solution with a normal speed camera. You might argue that software programmes are getting better and better but you forget that the basic information is still missing with a normal camera. If you shoot with a normal speed camera, the software uses the first frame and the last and the information in between is recreated by it, while this high speed camera does 1000 frames per second and the information is there... where you get the water drop in all kinds of positions so you don't really need to interpolate in post. This is way enough because high speed shooting is not normal shooting," he adds.

However, Weiss agrees that high-speed sequences are only shot occasionally. "People do mix HD cameras or film cameras with high speed sequences but if this camera is on set and it is doing the high speed shots you can also easily do the normal shots as well since you can vary the frames per second," he adds.

However, if the cameraman records 1000 frames per second, he will have very little space left as opposed to if he is shooting at 25 frames per second. "Then again, you are also not limited in terms of shooting space and time because you can download the data and start all over again," explains Weiss.

The Weisscam competes with other similar cameras like Phantom but this is not available in the Middle East market. Additionally, Weiss and P+S Technic have come up with a system that allows them to offer end users a complete solution. "That means, we won't just give you the camera and leave you alone. You get a complete system and we try to offer good support as well. For instance, if a rental firm gets a Weisscam, they get a password for the Weisscam forum. If they have any questions, they get answers in one day plus they get to see all the high speed tricks, the lighting and so on. All of this is in the forum so all the operators can read about it to do a good job of high speed shooting," explains Weiss.

"With every camera that we send out, we also offer training to a minimum of three operators for two days to ensure that they under stand the entire workflow... It is our aim to educate the operators as best as possible," says Weiss.

Although the company does not have the same philosophy as Panavision, it currently only leases its cameras. "We aim to do the rental thing because the sensor market is a growing market. So within a year, you will have a new sensor and a new camera. We have only released about 20 units so far and have stopped production of the first generation camera, and are now working on the second generation of the camera. We want to provide a good camera, take it back after a year and a half, and give the new camera out. So all the customers have a really big advantage in that they will always have a state-of-the-art camera."

The current aim is to allow rental firms to keep the camera for 18 months and then give it back so that they can incorporate the new sensor. According to Weiss, the second generation Weisscam will have a 2k sensor, more resolution, more speed as well as other features.

"I think the camera is getting closer and closer to the post-production process. This is very important because the post houses have a huge amount of money invested in tape technology and I think this will change in the future. Everything will be more digitised. The Weisscam provides the digital format so you can put the hard disc from the camera or the control unit right into the work storage units of the post-production houses. You don't have any copy in processes, you don't lose quality and this is one of the big advantage," he adds.

Among those people in the region that came to attend the seminar were also producers such as Babak Amini from Eclipse Productions and host, Rumen Chervenkov of RedMark. Amini is positive that this camera will find a lot of takers for shooting commercials. "As a producer, I only expect to see benefits from this technology. For ad agencies, and art directors, this means that they can actually put that extra frame into their storyboards and say ‘I want to have that slow motion and I am not going to send three people from my agency to New York or Paris to get this done. I can do it here in Dubai and I can sit here and see if they have got the shot I want'.

"For me, as a producer, I believe that this is going to open up a whole new possibility to that particular niche market. Highspeed digital photography will not only enable them but also extend their products in a way that no other product has so far been able to for them. As a producer's point of view, it I can now offer that extra option to advertising agencies. Since we have the camera here, people can benefit from this," he adds.

Chervenkov of RedMark, however, was more cautious in his comments. "I'm sure it's a great step forward but I am not willing to say what kind of demand there will be for this," he says. "It is, however, another creative tool and I am sure having it will open new doors for me. I am more pleased to see such a training seminar being held here. This is very rare here. In the Middle East, this is a great way to educate DoPs while also helping them to network with each other."

Advanced Media believes that specific areas such as music videos and TV commercials will get a boost with this. "I am expecting a lot of interest within the music video and commercial industry," says Kaveh Farnam, owner of Advanced Media.

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