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Davis Guggenheim is an established documentary filmmaker, known for some of the most notable and bold stories of the last decade like “Waiting for Superman”, and “An Inconvenient Truth”. He knows when a story needs to be told and how to tell it best. For his recent films, he’s found the perfect camera and workflow for his documentaries in the established Canon Cinema EOS C300.

XAVC is a recording format introduced by Sony which can support 4K resolution at 60 frames per second. Colour sampling can be 4:2:0, 4:2:2 or 4:4:4 at 8-bits, 10-bits, or 12-bits. XAVC uses an MXF wrapper whereas the consumer version XAVC-S is an MPEG4 wrapper. XAVC allows for both intra frame and inter frame (long group of pictures) recording. If you are the sort of person who is turned on by phrases like MPEG4 wrapping, Sequence Parameter Set and flexible data payload you can download the technical white paper here.

Panasonic release new firmware update for the Panasonic GH4 allowing for some highly awaited features such as Timecode embedded into the HDMI out stream. Very useful for those using external recorders such as the Atomos Shogun or the Odyssey7Q+ for a 10bit 422 ProRes HQ high quality recording.

Camera Utility 2.0 adds 12bit ProRes 444 up to 60 frames per second in UHD (3840 x 2160p) to the URSA, in addition to 80fps in 1080p. With this latest update, the URSA becomes even more flexible and we can definitely see this camera getting more and more production and post-production friendly as 12bit ProRes 444 is a very popular VFX workflow codec.

Getting through the slow winter months can be difficult, but with these 5 tips you can use the down time to catch up on some Masterclasses, maintain your gear, and improve your skills.