I went to NAB in Las Vegas to look at way too much camera gear that I wish I could own all of. I walked in on day one with no plan whatsoever, which is honestly the correct way to do it. I couldn’t have told you what I was going to look at. I just knew I’d know it when I saw it.

Here’s the stuff that actually made me stop walking.

World’s FIRST Photography Anamorphic Lens

This is the Beetle by Blazar, and it might be the winner of the show for me.

Here’s the problem it solves. The number one issue with shooting anamorphic vertically is that all of your streaks and flares become vertical too, which completely defeats the point. There is a small button on this lens. You press it, and the lens flips. So now you can shoot vertical and still get horizontal flares. You’re welcome.

The one thing to keep in mind is that it’s a T3.2, so you’ve got to be okay with that. I’m okay with that. For the size, I think it’s worth it, and it has filter threads on the front so you can still adjust your exposure. It’s tight, it’s small, it’s full frame. I love it.

An Autofocus Anamorphic?!

This one actually came out a bit earlier, but I have to point it out to you anyway, because it’s the world’s first fully autofocus anamorphic lens.

This is the Blazar Apex, and they had the 35mm there on a Sony body. Autofocus. On an anamorphic. And it’s crazy good. So you’re getting the beauty of anamorphic with the convenience of autofocus, and I love that about it.

The Light Control You’ve Always Wanted!

If you film weddings, this one is a crazy cool product.

Imagine you’ve set your light up and, for whatever reason, it isn’t facing the right direction. Maybe you need to tweak it a little. Maybe you get it all set and go oh crap, it’s not facing the dance floor. Normally that means walking across a packed reception to fix it.

This is the MOVE LightGo from Falcam. It connects to the Bowens mount on your light, so it works with any Bowens mount light, and then you remote control it with a wireless remote or an app. Full wireless control while the light physically moves. What the heck. I need this for every single wedding I film.

NEW Blackmagic Camera!

Behind me in that case is the Blackmagic Pyxis 12K.

So you’re getting six more Ks than you did with the 6K, and it has a faster readout speed, which should mean less rolling shutter. I need to get one in my hands to actually test that, but on paper it’s exciting.

They also had little robot dogs walking around at that end of the hall, which is not camera gear, but I feel like you should know.

The Fast Charger You Need

Over at Accsoon they had this very cool little four bay fast charger for Sony batteries, and they’ve got versions for Canon and for NP-F batteries too.

It fast charges all of your batteries at the same time, you just drop them in, and it has a nice little full color screen so you can see exactly what’s charged and what isn’t. For the size and the thickness and the weight, it’s really nice. I have something that’s twice this size and only charges two. I want one of these. I know it’s just battery charging, but that is genuinely useful.

32 Bit Float Mic With Wireless Monitoring

This is the new Hollyland Lark Max 2, and they’ve added 32 bit float recording along with wireless monitoring to a set of earbuds.

Super cool, really nice system. I’m excited to try it whenever it releases later this year.

A Teleprompter for Tiktok?!

This is what I love about NAB. You start walking around and you immediately see something you’d never have thought to look for.

This one is from Prompter People, and it’s a vertical mount teleprompter. So if you’re doing Instagram Reels and you really need to be able to see what you’re filming vertically, you put one phone on one side for the camera and the other one over here for the teleprompter. And it works. It’s so cool.

Fancy New Cinema Lenses

Atlas Lens Co had a nice booth full of nice anamorphic lenses, and then a door at the back of it, and behind that door was a nightclub. An actual nightclub inside the booth, with a DJ who as far as I can tell has been chained to the wall in there for four days straight and is not allowed to sleep. Whether people are in there or not. Check it out next time you’re at the show.

Then over at NiSi they showed me something I genuinely had not seen before. The lens glows in the dark.

Which, if you’re a child, you’re going to love. But it’s also genuinely practical, because you can find it in the dark. It’s PL mount, which means I don’t personally have a way to put it on my camera, but you can now attach your creative filters to the back of the lens, which is a really neat idea. Their Athena lineup has already been one of the best options out there for getting into the cinema world without going broke.

NAB, it’s been so fun. Thanks so much for coming along with me.

We talked about a whole lot of gear here, and if you want more of it, my Filmmaker Gear Guide is completely free. It walks through everything I actually recommend buying for filming a wedding, and you can grab it at that link.