Notes On Video

If you’re a Final Cut Pro user, there’s a lot of online tutorials, as well as forums that act as great resources. One source I had missed for information: Apple. They have some interesting stuff on their Final Cut Studio Resource page. If nothing else, it’s worth going to get the Alpha Transitions , Color Looks and Compressor Droplets that are available for free. The Alpha Transitions are very cool. After downloading them, they have to be "installed" and used in a particular way; this tutorial explains how to install and use an alpha transition: Using the New Alpha Transitions in Final Cut Pro 7 . Even if you don't like the examples Apple has provided, they show you how to use Alpha Transitions, and might get you wanting to create your own using Motion.

Amazon now has the VholdR ContourHD1080p available for pre-order. Expected delivery is November 16th, and they are quoting $329.99 Links the-gadgeteer.com: Capture extreme HD footage with the VholdR ContourHD Helmet Cam (includes press release) Helmetcameracentral: VholdR ContourHD 1080p Review: Delicious Full 1080p Wearable Video (includes more details specs) One interesting thing: ContourHD1080p has five video resolutions, the two highest are: Full HD - 1080p (1920x1280) Tall HD - 960p (1280x960) But 1080 is 1920 x 1080. Clearly the Full HD could be cropped down, but 1280 x 960 is closer to 720p, which is 1280 x 720.

It’s the end of the week, and with no Canon 7D in site, I thought I’d put together a little summary of interesting bits and pieces (about the 7D.) Blogs Dan Chung has a blog DSLR News Shooter that’s worth following and has some nice video examples: " Another Night in Beijing " is all evening shots, and includes information about how it was shoot too. His latest post is about Shooting China’s 60th anniversary parade with the 7D and 5DmkII and some other camera. Note that he reported some problems with overheating, but he was shooting in 720p. The video includes some interesting use of tilt/shift lens, slow motion, and time lapse. Another Dan is blogging about his experiences shooting an independent feature with two 7D’s at 7dcinema.blogspot.com . Disassembling You can see photos someone took disassembling a 7D (Why???!) at a Japanese site. Can't read the descriptions unfortunately!. And also a video of the carnage . Video out If you want to connect the camera to your t...

Is the overheating problem caused - or more frequent - when capturing at 720p and 480p? That's one of the things that seems to be common about the users that have had problems . In fact, two of them seem to have subsequently found that recording at 1080p in 24 and 30fps does not have the same problem. If that is the case, it could be due to the extra processing scaling the image down to the smaller sizes, or because of the higher frames rates (50 and 60fps) used in those two modes. Or it could be something else.

The Canon 7D has only just started arriving in the hands of users, and already there's a bit of a panic about an overheating issue. Three users on dvinfo.net report encountering the temperature warning (a red flashing indicator) during shooting. It appears that the camera initially keeps shooting with the warning, but may shut off. Canon's manual notes: * If you continue to shoot movies for a prolonged period, the camera's internal temperature will increase. This can degrade the image quality. While not shooting, turn off the power. * If you shoot under direct sunlight or high-temperature conditions, the (high internal temperature warning) may appear on the screen. If you keep shooting a movie with the warning icon displayed, the image quality might degrade. * If the icon is displayed and you keep shooting movies until the camera's internal temperature increases further, the movie shooting will stop automatically. Now it appears that these users were using the camera f...

If you’re looking for a helmet cam or a car-mountable camera, you’ve probably encountered the VholdR Contour camera. There’s already been a couple of versions of the camera; the original VholdR wearable camera costs about $200 and shoots in standard resolution video, and the ContourHD is selling for about $280, and shoots in 720p. Now they have announced a new version, the ContourHD 1080 , which shoots 1080p video, and will cost about $50 more than the ContourHD. It’s certainly an interesting camera, with it’s small size and laser aided focusing. On the down side, it has a fixed field of view (though on a helmet cam it’s not like you are going to be zooming in and out.) Users note the following: solid construction, seems robust simple, light and easy to use for outdoors, it produces good quality images poor low-light capabilities adapting to other camera mounts can be difficult poor sound and no video out If you’re looking to do active shooting, it’s certainly worth considering. I’m ...

There's a rumor that Canon will be increasing it's prices by 10% on October 1. As with all rumors, the details are somewhat elusive. Number’s between 2% and 25% have been mentioned (I’m pretty sure the 25% is wrong) and people in different countries have reported different numbers. It’s also been said that it applies to lenses, but not cameras. Finally, some posters have suggested that retailers have already put their prices up over the past few months. So who knows? But if you're planning on ordering any Canon gear in the next month, maybe you should do it tomorrow? Link Photorumors : 10% Canon price increase on October 1st?

I was explaining to someone today my thinking about the pros and cons of the 7D vs 5D Mark II. The big pro for the 5D is the bigger, full frame sensor. From the early reports, the bigger sensor on the 5D does slightly better in low light than the 7D’s sensor (which has smaller photosites.) Initial testers are suggesting that the 7D is about one stop noisier than the 5D. And if you like wide-angle lenses, then the full-frame sensor of the 5D is the one to get. And I do like to use wide-angle lenses. But it’s $1,000 more than the 7D. And if you are even partly serious about shooting video, then the 7D has it all over the 5D, with it’s 24, 25 and 30 fps (which is actually 29.97, rather than the 5D’s 30fps) as well as it’s 60fps 720p option. Another thing to consider is that next year, I’m pretty sure Canon will replace the 5D with a full-frame camera that can do the other frame rates. At one point it was thought that Canon might release a firmware update for the 5D MkII that would support...