The good folks over at MUTINY, a US-based accessories manufacturer, are fans of the Freefly Ember camera (so am I), and they have launched a wide variety of accessories that make it much, much more production-friendly from both an operating and a power distribution perspective. I’ve now had a chance to take these accessories and their Power + IO module for a spin in this first-look review. I like many things about the S5K Freefly Ember slow motion camera – the pricing of the body itself compared with a Phantom, the edit-friendly 10-bit ProRes codec, and the newly announced replaceable media module with SDI out. Still, I frankly didn’t love the initial batch of accessories that launched with it (with the exception of the Freefly wooden handle and monitor bracket). One of the only large issues with the Ember (both the S5K and S2.5K version) out of the box is simply a lack of mounting points on a camera that really, really needs more of them for things like wireless transmission or an operating monitor. There are a couple of tiny M4 screw holes and two 1/4-20 threads on the exterior, but that’s the extent of it – oh, and the Record button isn’t in a great place either if your right hand is actively using the handle. There is also that pesky issue of cable management (some of them of the delicate 4-pin molex type) hanging all over the place that are prone to being snagged on something. Freefly...
Published By: CineD - Today