News from Here & There

Sony PMW-F3 Impressions
Alister Campbell at XDCAM-User got to play with the Sony PMW-F3, and though he says it wasn't really long enough to review, it was long enough for him to decide to place an order!
The PMW-F3 will give you around 11 stops of latitude with the built in EX style cinegammas and Sony claim in excess of 12 stops will be available when the 4:4:4 option, which includes S-Log and Hypergamma curves is introduced in April 2011. Remember that 1 stop is either double or half, so an extra stop is double the dynamic range. We really are into film performance territory here.

[...] Look at the most successful movie of the year, Avatar. All the live action (well all the real camera work) was shot using Sony HDC1500 and F900 cameras at 1920×1080. I didn’t hear anyone complaining about soft pictures or poor image quality, so you have to ask whether you really need all the extra complexity, data storage and monitoring headaches that 4k would bring. For me the F3 is a winner.
XDCAM-User: PMW-F3 35mm Camcorder Initial Review



GoPro Contest
GoPro has been running a contest to win everything they make. It's unclear how much longer it runs; today might be the last chance to win!
GoPro Contest



The Color Correction Handbook
This book on color correction techniques and software by Alexis Van Hurkman has just become available at Amazon. Color Correction Handbook: Professional Techniques for Video and Cinema [$37.79]
I’ve written my book to be applicable to as many applications as possible, with screenshots and information about Assimilate Scratch, FilmLight Baselight, Quantel Pablo, Iridas SpeedGrade, and Apple Color, this is also the first book to show techniques as they apply within the new version of DaVinci Resolve that’s available for Mac OS X and Linux. If you’re one of the many who are stepping up to using DaVinci Resolve for your color grading, this book is an absolute must have.
You can find a PDF table of contents at his web page:
vanhurkmane.com



RED Stuff
FreshDV has a 35-minute interview with Stephen Hens, Creative Director of Santa Monica-based Chophouse Edit, about their RED workflow in Final Cut Studio on a PSA project with actor Pierce Brosnan.

Meanwhile it appears that Scarlett is being renamed EPIC Light. The features are also changing, as has the price. According to a post on the Reducer forum, there will be more details in a couple of weeks...
FreshDV: Interview with Stephen Hens on RED Production Workflow
Reduser Forum: Scarlet S35 is now...



Sony Vegas
This video, posted by Sony, demonstrates the enhancements to the multi-cam functionality in Vegas Pro 10.




A Milestone
I just noticed that this is the 1,111th post of the year! Wow! I didn't think I'd been that busy!

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