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Point-of-View Camera Enables Veteran Wildlife Filmmaker to Acquire High Definition Footage of the Insect World

Santa Barbara, CA: March 17, 2008 -- Iconix Video, a leading developer of advanced high-definition camera systems and maker of the world’s smallest professional quality HD video camera, announced today the use of the Iconix HD-RH1F camera on the CBBC (the children’s programming arm of the BBC network) series Smalltalk Diaries, scheduled to air this month in the UK beginning on March 17, 2008.

Smalltalk Diaries is the latest project from wildlife cameraman and producer Martin Dohrn, who has been filming natural history for over 20 years for National Geographic Television, the Discovery Channel, the BBC Natural History Unit and others. The 10-episode series from Dohrn’s production company, Ammonite Ltd., is an exploration of the insect world via the fictional “translation lens,” which allows the creatures to communicate directly with viewers, and presents a unique twist on the genre.

Dohrn is the creator of several motion-control rigs, including the “Antcam” used on the BBC’s In Search of Killer Ants, and the “Frankencam” used for famed natural historian David Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth. His latest rig was developed specifically for use with the Iconix HD-RH1F camera system in order to capture increasingly tiny and complex wildlife, and is the inspiration behind the Smalltalk Diaries “translation lens.”

“Being able to have very, very small lenses fit onto a very, very small camera helps to create a look and a feel that we hope no one has ever seen before,” Dohrn observes. “We’ve captured some very extraordinary images with the Iconix that wouldn’t have been possible with an ordinary camera, in particular the endoscope work. There’s no other way to do that kind of image. There isn’t another camera that can do what we are doing.”

Iconix HD-RH1F Video Camera Used in the CBBC’s Smalltalk Diaries