Vigits - HD Video Gadgets

News
newsboy
With STOPBOX, you get control back through the camera as originally intended." The Vigits designers decided STOPBOX was long overdue when they were supporting the groundbreaking HD cable series, "100 Centre Street," several years ago. "We discovered it was ludicrous to shoot video with cine-style lenses and not be able to adjust the aperture on the camera," says Levine. "Traditional video cameras have had lenses with motors so you've always had control of the aperture. When people began demanding cine-style lenses, which have no motors, they added extra motors for zoom control but the iris setting was treated like a poor stepchild. One of the shortfalls of video, for the film community, is that it has less latitude than film so exposure is more critical. STOPBOX allows you to address that issue." STOPBOX self calibrates and gently positions the customer-supplied digitally-encoded motor. "It's got plenty of torque but remains very responsive to any small control movements for fine adjustments," Levine points out. "While it can stand up to the rigors of daily on-set operation, we've made its response as precise as possible." The unit uses very little power, runs cool and supplies camera-accessory power via the aux port. "Users like the loop-through (aux) connector," says Minnerly. "When you plug STOPBOX into the camera it provides an equivalent connector for your use so you don't lose access to that port to control additional accessories." And "there's no need to worry about batteries since STOPBOX is powered from the camera," adds Levine. STOPBOX also offers color-coded LED feedback status and provides convenient VTR start/stop control. Levine and Minnerly, who have extensive HDTV broadcast experience, have a history of developing notable products. In 1984 they founded Palomar Software, Inc. to develop and market the successful Log-It(tm) 100 software package for video and film logging applications. At New York City's pioneering REBO High Definition Studio, they launched ReStore, the first HD Macintosh-based frame buffer, and ReScan, an HD downconverter. "REBO got into HD early when everything you did was a science project," Levine recalls. "We developed a lot of things from scratch in the late 1980s and early '90s." Minnerly, along with designer dave Rossmere, also invented the popular iCON Portable Downconverter, another Vigits product. The DC-powered downconverter takes HD analog video in and outputs recordable NTSC video; it can be mounted directly to an HD camera or monitor and is perfect for Steadicam and jib arm applications and for offline downconverts. STOPBOX builds on the expanding Vigits product line. "Nothing we've seen in the field works as elegantly as STOPBOX," notes Minnerly. "It's designed to make simple something that can appear to be fairly complex: You just turn the knob on the camera and have the lens follow the knob perfectly. Virtually everyone who has used our prototypes has asked for STOPBOX again. They don't want to do without it." Prototypes of STOPBOX were utilized on the HBO dramas "Strip Search" and "Thought Crimes," and the upcoming feature film, "Find Me Guilty," all two-camera HD productions. They have been actively tested in the field for the past 18 months on a variety of single- and multi-camera productions. A production model of STOPBOX is being used on the new season of the ABC comedy series, "Hope & Faith." STOPBOX has a list price of $1,195 and includes a motor-control cable. For more information, visit www. vigits.com, call 877-273-5691 or email abby@vigits.com and barry@vigits.com. Vigits prides itself on developing small, smart, priced-right products which fulfill today's high-end production needs. .

Home | About | Products | News | Contact

buttonbutton1button1abutton1a1button1a1a