Notes On Video

I wrote before that I haven’t been using Premiere Pro for some time, despite having a soft spot for it back in the day. The lack of a Mac version for a while really put the kibosh on that, but I was interested to see the CS4 update, and to read the review of it in MacWorld . It’s an academic interest only – I’m in no hurry to switch from Final Cut unless Premiere is totally awesome - so I just read the Pros and Cons list (it’s a long article!) Something leapt out at me right away: “no preview of HDV during capture.” Say what? It took a little while, but I found the passage: On Windows, Premiere Pro’s Scene Detect feature identifies points on the tape where the camera stopped between shots and captures the shots as separate master clips, each linked to a corresponding media file. But on the Mac, Premiere Pro captures a single master clip and creates a subclip for each shot. Both master clips and subclips work fine when it comes to editing. But because the subclips are linked to a singl...

David Michaud got three days in Tokyo to shoot with the Canon 5D Mark II . Canon has let him post the video that he shot using a beta version of the camera and a variety of lenses: 14mm f2.8 L 17-40mm f4.0 L 50mm f1.4 90mm f2.8 TS-E 135mm f2.0 L The video is very impressive. The depth-of-field effects are amazing, as are some of the wide-screen lens effects. The low light shots are really good, and there’s hardly any visual problems (there’s one shot where a train is going fast past a non-moving train, and you can see that it appears to be slanted on an angle, but it ‘s hardly noticeable and is the only "jelly" effect visible.) Check it out ! According to Northlight images Canon 5D Mk II page , Canon says that it is on target to ship the EOS 5D Mark II to US dealers by the end of November

Canon has upgraded the XH A1 and XH G1 HD camcorders with the announcement of the XH A1S and XH G1S HD. These are both tape-based cameras, and while they may be fighting a rear-guard action, Canon continues to believe in tape for some applications:

 "HDV tape format continues to be the most cost-effective medium for high-quality high definition video capture and storage," -Yuichi Ishizuka, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Imaging Group, Canon U.S.A. XH A1S There have been a number of changes to functionality and image processing. Interface changes include a redesign of he manual adjustment rings, (focus, zoom and iris): three sensitivity settings for the manual focus ring; normal, fast, and slow zoom speeds, and acceleration and deceleration have been added when starting and stopping in the zoom key mode to achieve a more natural motion. 
 Frame rates include: 60i, 30F and 24F. (That's '24P' to you and me.)

Both cameras have two XLR inputs f...

Last week, Camcorderinfo pretty much panned the video capabilities of the Nikon D90. Now comes an article from B & H Photo by David Speranza that's much more positive. Yeah, they are there to sell hardware - so take it with a grain of salt - but it does offer another perspective. He gushes about the video quality you can get: I was able to achieve a razor-thin depth of field that would make a 1970s maverick film director proud. The colors, when properly white-balanced, were rich and full, and the dynamic range [...] went well beyond anything you'll get in a sub-$10K camcorder. Points out the problems you might encounter: You can set aperture manually with the Aperture Priority mode, but the camera still automatically adjusts ISO and shutter speed. To remedy this, exposure needs to be locked prior to shooting. [...] this is less a science than an art, and may take some trial and error. And is upfront about the limitations: ...there's no microphone input; autofocus is d...

Redrock DSLR cinema bundles Remember the accessory rack for the DSLRs announced by Redrock a week or so ago? Prices have now been announced. The DSLR Field Cinema Bundle is $1,995, while the DSLR Cinema Bundle is $2,445. The latter includes: microSupport baseplate with 1 pr 12" 15mm stainless steel rods (lightweight configuration 60mm center to center) microMatteBox (Deluxe Bundle including eyebrow and side wings) microFollowFocus Unit microHandle top handle for carrying, and low mode shooting microSupport Cage Ahh, if I only had the money... YouTube auto-translation If you have video's on YouTube with captions, now people can see the captions in other languages . Google Translate adds real-time machine translation to any caption tracks you upload. Now you can enjoy this video spoken in Italian, even if you don't understand Italian. Of course, if you're ever run things through machine translation, you'll probably not be that excited about it. RED Camera update On...