Phantom VEO 4K demand scales new heights

The Phantom Flex 4K camera has been the gold-standard for capturing these shots ever since its release in 2013. It allowed cinematographers to shoot 1000fps in 4K RAW with a Super-35 sensor for incredible image fidelity which had never been seen before and has become the shot that every natural history production now requires. However the newer Phantom VEO 4K stocked by VMI achieves the same quality in a smaller, lighter unit and the past five years has shown that its versatility makes it better suited for several types of production.

Nothing beats seeing the elegance of a beautiful action slowed down to reveal so much more than we can see with the naked eye. 

Super slow motion facilitates the critical ‘money shot’ required for many productions. No natural history production is complete without the 1000fps shot of an amazing action – such as the shark attack on a seal recorded for BBC Planet Earth in 2017.

The Phantom Flex 4K camera has been the gold-standard for capturing these shots ever since its release in 2013. It allowed cinematographers to shoot 1000fps in 4K RAW with a Super-35 sensor for incredible image fidelity which had never been seen before and has become the shot that every natural history production now requires.

However, the release of the Phantom VEO 4K in 2018 offered the same image quality as its bigger brother but was built into a smaller, lighter form factor. Unlike its power-hungry predecessor, the VEO 4K only draws 80W of power, allowing it to use regular camera batteries and its operation no longer requires a DIT to be in tow. The VEO 4K on location can be operated with a smaller crew and the DP/operator alone is able to control the camera and perform the transfers.

Here is a link to a VMI article comparing the Phantom VEO 4K and Phantom Flex 4K.

Its size and weight clearly makes it more ideally suited to productions required to travel extensively with kit and crew into the field. However, the VEO 4K did have a wrinkle in its workflow which may have dissuaded some DPs from using it in place of the FLEX – the speed of its media transfer. This is slower than the FLEX if you’re not aware of the right tips and tricks to optimise its performance, which is also the key to its success.

The VEO 4K’s winning strategy is to partition its high speed memory, so enabling the camera to effectively act like three separate cameras, simultaneously capturing, trimming and offloading media, all at the same time.  This speeds up the entire operation, turning the portable CF2 capture of the VEO 4K into a very efficient portable location production tool. But to make the most of this operators need to be shown how to use it in this capacity. 

Watch this video to see this functionality in action …

VMI were early investors in the Phantom VEO 4K back in 2018 and ran several workshops in London and in Bristol to teach operators how to optimise it in the field. We’ve also spread the word by making videos and writing articles to help inform the industry.  

And guess what? It seems to have worked. Today, VMI runs a fleet of five Phantom VEO 4Ks (with another on order) to become the largest UK rental supplier of these specialist cameras. 

They have been used on Natural History shows such as:

• Gangs of Lemur Island made by True to Nature for Smithsonian Networks
• Tiny World made by Plimsoll Productions for AppleTV+
• Super/Natural another Plimsoll commission for Disney+

As well as numerous commercial productions including:

• Manolo Blahnik campaigns
• Awesome stunts
• Shoe brands
• Time-warp creative concepts

They are increasingly being used in the studio too, since the VEO 4K includes a 10Gbit ethernet port, which was sadly absent on the Flex. This allows media to be pulled off the camera more quickly than offloading to Cinemags, when operated by a skilled DIT and a suitably fast computer.

This camera comes into its own when configured for portable productions, since it is lightweight enough to be mounted on a small jib or gimbal, frugal enough to be powered for long periods and is entirely remote controllable. Having got to grips with all of its capabilities, producers and DPs have rapidly come to this conclusion too.

Add the Cameo PCU2+ remote control unit to the kit and you can achieve full wireless control of all functions, including clip trimming and data transfer, enabling total functionality of the camera whether on a drone, an inaccessible crane, or in a hide. 

Five years is a long time and the Phantom VEO 4K shows no signs of slowing down.

https://youtu.be/wrFPFbq6aYo