The VMI Value-added Factor

Seriously, why choose one rental company over any other? We think that exemplary customer service, delivered entirely carbon-neutrally and which is competitively priced are our value-added-factors. Ready why here:

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VMI Bristol is 6 years old

VMI Bristol celebrates six years since it was set up and in that time, Gary, Jon and the rest of the Bristol team have established it into a mainstream camera … Read more

We’ve been super busy-busy

VMI has been busy-busy over the past 12 months and have supplied camera equipment for 17 drama series, 5 x Natural History Series, plus several features, promos, commercials,corporates and feature films. … Read more

Improve Phantom VEO 4K workflow by using 10Gbit network port

This is an article about configuring and using the built-in 10Gbit ethernet interface of the Phantom VEO 4K to take advantage of the most efficient and fastest workflows from internal RAM to hard drive, which can be even more efficient than the workflow of the Phantom FLEX 4K.

Power to the People

You can have the best camera kit in the world but if you can’t power it because your batteries have failed you, then you are really stuck. This article explores the battery standards which exist today and how to make the most out of every type of technology.

Mid-range cameras don’t mean compromise

At VMI we’ve noticed a recent trend among filmmakers and wondered if you agree? We’ve spotted that a significant number of productions are ‘trading down’ from using traditional top of the range cine-cameras…

Macro and Micro Cinematography

We all love to see images of extreme magnification to show a world which we can’t experience with our own eyes but just like all cinematography, this is hard to do well.
The choice right lens for the specific shot is key and this article aims to explain the differences between Close Up, Macro and Micro photography/cinematography and in particular, to introduce the cinematographer to a relatively recent new type of lens, which are called Nelsonian Lenses made by Infinity Photo-Optical and which use microscope techniques to create unique images which are not possible using traditional optics.

Beginner’s Guide to Depth of Field

This article is written mainly for those who want to know the very simple concepts which allow camera operators to manipulate the Depth of Field in order to make them look more cinematic.

Leitz Summicron-C 40mm T2.0

VMI Guide to Film Lenses

Article introducing the differences between film lenses and explaining the terms and factors which distinguish them.

A Filmmaker’s Guide to Sensor Sizes and Lens Formats

This article aims to help questions such as:
– “Will this lens work with my camera?”
– “Will this lens cover 8K?”
– “Will this lens cover full frame.”
– “What will full frame lenses look like on a S-35 sensor.”

Guide: How to Shoot Bullet Time

A VMI guide with video, courtesy of Stephen Roach and Jermaine Allen of Merchant Cantos showing just how easy it is to create unique ‘Bullet time 360″ videos for the ultimate ‘hero’ selfie.

Types of Apple Prores Codecs

A brief introduction to the various types of Apple ProRes formats with a link to download the full Apple White Paper.

Shallow DoF for Streaming

A shallow Depth of Field can reduce the bandwidth requirement of video, which is good for the internet.We wanted to test this theory and this article explores this idea and concludes that you can save around 10% bandwidth by shooting with a large sensor camera compared with a small sensor camera, as the shallow depth of field means that you capture only the bits that you want in fine detail and as background is defocused.

Clarks’ MTZ Commercial

A 30 second TV Commercial featuring paint dropping paint at 1000fps and images falling in super slow motion, was made the subject of a new promo for Clarks shoes to … Read more

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