Notes On Video

Petrol Bags introduces an HDSLR Camera Bag This semi-hard cushioned carrier has a top flap that opens extra wide for instant access to the bag’s main compartment. The upper section is contoured to fit a HDSLR camera with the lens attached. The hinged floor of this section lifts to reveal twin pockets perfect for stashing extra lenses or spare batteries. Videomaker: Petrol Bags introduces Digibag an HDSLR Camera Bag B & H Taking Pre-orders for Panasonic AG-AF100 It appears that B & H is taking pre-orders for the Panasonic AG-AF100 [$4,795.00] No 3D Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Warner has announced that they won't be releasing Deathly Hallows in 3D because they don't have enough time to do a good enough job - shock! "Despite everyone's best efforts, we were unable to convert the film in its entirety and meet the highest standards of quality. We do not want to disappoint fans who have long-anticipated the conclusion of this extraordinary j...

Adding More External Monitors to Your Mac I always thought Apple was really missing a beat by including only one video-out port on its all-in-ones and notebooks, given that many Mac users are design, video and photography professionals. So I went looking around for a solution. If you want to get more screen real estate out of your Mac, here’s how. Gigaom : Quick Tip: Add More External Displays to Your Mac New HDSLR Rig From Vocas Ian McCausland at Cine Technica takes a quick look at the HDSLR Rig from Vocas . This is in the professional end of things (at just under $2,000) but looks pretty nice. Note; I think the text is a little misleading as it says "The full version includes a mattebox (MB-210 or MB-250), MFC-1 follow focus"; I couldn't find a link to a "full version" in the article, just the basic rig. Cine Technica: New HDSLR Rig From Vocas B & H: Vocas PRO DSLR KIT f/CANON 5D/7D [$1,968.95] Getting the balance right on the Glidecam HD-2...

October 9th is John Lennon 's birthday, and to celebrate, Google has put a video on their home page (just wait and it should play.) This is reportedly the first time they have done this.

B & H has some rebates on different gear: Canon EOS 7D SLR Digital Camera (Body Only) [$1,699 - $100 rebate = $1,599 ] Canon VIXIA HF21 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder [$899 - $300 = $599 ] Canon VIXIA HF S20 Dual Flash Memory Camcorder [$100 rebate, price in cart: $848 ] Canon VIXIA HF S200 Flash Memory Camcorder [$100 rebate, price in cart: $734 ] Sony HVR-V1U HDV 1080i/24p Cinema Style Camcorder [$3,295.00 - $300 = $2,995.00 ] Sony HVR-Z7U HDV Camcorder [$5,199.99 - $500 = $4,699.99 ] Tripods: Manfrotto 701HDV,547BK Video Tripod System Kit [$299.90 - $25 = $274.90 ] Manfrotto 501HDV Head w/546GB 2-Stage Aluminum Tripod System [$474.90 - $25 = $449.90 ] Manfrotto 190XB Tripod Kit, with 700RC2 Mini Video Fluid Head & MBAG70 Bag [$250.00 - $25 = $225.00 ] There are conditional rebates (if you buy a specific printer) for: EOS 5D Mark II Digital Camera (Camera Body ) [ $2,499.95 ] EOS 60D DSLR Camera [ $1,099.00 ] EOS Rebel T2i Digital SLR Camera (Body Onl...

Yesterday there were reports that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen recently met for over an hour and covered a variety of topics, including Apple and its newfound dominance in the mobile market. Today, that's turned into rumors that Microsoft might buy Adobe, and Adobe's stock has gone up 8%. I can't decide if Microsoft acquiring Adobe would be bad or good for Apple (or Google.) And what would this mean for the on-going Final Cut Pro vs. Premiere Pro CS5 skirmishing? Business Insider: Microsoft Considers Buying Adobe To Fight Apple Engadget: Microsoft and Adobe CEOs meet, purportedly plan world domination

The Atomos Ninja looked interesting when it appeared back in September, and I'm still intrigued by it. MacVideo.TV has posted an interview with Jeremy Young, CEO of Atomos, where he goes into quite some detail about it's features and how it functions. You'll find out a lot about this $1,000 digital recorder that uses the Apple ProRes codec and saves to 2.5" Notebook HDD or SSD drives. The Ninja uses dual batteries for power, records two analog audio channels in addition to HDMI audio, has LANC passthrough (and control) and boasts a simply touch-based interface.It will be available in December for $995. With any new company coming out with a product like this, there's always the question whether they are going to be able to deliver on time, for the price - and with the quality - they are promising. We really have to wait until it's out and has been reviewed before buying. The problem for me is that as cool as this seems, I don't really have any cameras...

I think this is the first day I've seen them listed as in stock.... [ B & H $1,999.99 ]

James May Wants Your Clips James May of the British TV show Top Gear has issued a call for unusual videos: Little cameras allow us to view the world not as we see it, but as it would appear to other bits of the world, if they had eyes. I'm thinking of a film about the engine in my old 911, seen from the underside of the bootlid, lit by an inspection lamp rewired to stay on permanently. This is new. This is exciting. Make a very short film about your car or bike: an angle that's not been seen before, a way of thinking about driving that hasn't occurred to us yet. There's no prize for the best or anything like that. This is art, and it is its own reward. TopGear.com: James wants your clips The following is an animation contest rather than a video contest, but with William Shatner as the subject, how could I resist posting? William Shatner Animation Contest Toon Boom Animation and MyOuterSpace.com are joining forces to make the greatest talent in the creat...

Most camcorders include a tripod mount, but one thing that can distinguish professional from consumer equipment is the thought and expense that goes into the construction of that piece of the camera. A good tripod mount is more than just a hole in the bottom of the camera; ideally the bottom of the camera where the camera comes into contact with the tripod should be flat and solid so that the camera can be tightly mated to the tripod shoe. Unfortunately, many consumer cameras simply mold the whole area out of plastic, and the bottom surface isn't always flat. Light plastic isn't going to stand up to much wear and tear; but then again, how many people put a handicam on a tripod anyway? Over at the Sony NEX-VG10 User group , some users are complaining about the NEX-VG10 's tripod mount, and how poorly it mates to a tripod (making it difficult to adjust zoom or focus without the camera moving.) Over on the DPReview forum , a reader damaged the base of his camera when the G...

Kodak has released the fourteenth edition of their " Cinematographer's Field Guide " in PDF and ePUB format. It's free, though probably only of interest if you're still shooting with film. Kodak: Cinematographer’s Field Guide [via studioDaily ]

Episode 38 of the Digital Convergence Podcast features Brian Valente ( untitled ) of Redrock Micro . They talk about the history of the company, how the film/video industry has been changed, and about the recently announced microEVF. About half way through, they talk about the long-awaited microRemote follow focus. “ For the first time we’ve given people a way to graphically understand focus .” According to Brian, the range finder is accurate to within an inch. Their goal was summer release, and now it’s moved to fall, and he says the product is progressing quite nicely based on feedback… [ though we're already in the fall... ] Reading between the lines, it seems that one of the trouble areas has been developing their own torque motors (which are quite pricey.) Our aim is to provide a complete system, which includes a wireless remote, a base station which controls the interaction with the remote and the motors and then one of our torque motors, for somewhere around about $1,50...

Canon Filmmakers Live is organizing another Meetup with Philip Bloom, Thursday, October 14 · 6:30pm - 9:30pm @ NorthBowl, 909 North 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA Facebook : Public Event [UPDATED] There's will also be a meetup in Boston on October 14th too! PhilipBloom.net

The update to the Canon EOS plug-in is now available (Canon announced it last month.) This release adds: Support for EOS 60D added Shooting information for movies prior to conversion is now displayed in the [Log and Transfer] window. The following shooting information is displayed: Av (Aperture Value) (*) Tv (Shutter Speed) (*) ISO (*) Lens Focal Length Camera Model Name Camera Serial Number *: Only displayed for movies captured in M mode (Manual Exposure). Canon Europe : EOS MOVIE Plugin-E1 for Final Cut Pro

Monday, October 11th at 8 pm The Brattle Theater Cambridge, MA 02138 A special DocYard event in partnership with Arts Engine’s Media That Matters Festival, co-presented by Filmmakers Collaborative. Ten diverse short films that inspire action and social change while pushing the boundaries of documentary storytelling. Justice Denied:Voices from Guantanamo director Joel Engardio and Massacre at Murambi director Sam Kauffman will be present and available for a Q&A session on the night, as well as Media That Matters’ own Jolene Pinder. Tickets: General admission is $10. $8 for students, Brattle, and Chlotrudis members. MediaTheMatters : Oct. 11th : Media That Matters At The Docyard in Cambridge, MA FilmmakersCollaborative : The DocYard Presents: Media That Matters shorts + Q&A with filmmakers

When : October 7, 2010 @ 1:00 PM EDT So you know your NLE like the back of your hand - or at least you think you do until you want to create a cool network promo with styled graphics and cool effects. Now you've hit the proverbial brick wall in terms of what your NLE will let you do. In this webinar, we will look at ways to tear down that wall and extend your NLE into a full-blown motion graphics & compositing engine using Boris RED. You'll learn to quickly and easily motion track, match move, vector paint, and create custom transitions - all in just 90 minutes. Agenda Create Cool Custom Reveals using Spline Masks Match Move GFX using 4 Point Corner Pin Tracking "Vectorize" your 2D Jpeg logo to Real 3D Create Network Style Graphic Flourishes with Image Based Brushes Presenter Vik Narayan has over 17 years of experience as a director, editor, compositor, and mograph artist working on everything from TV commercials to long form documentaries. Over the yea...

Marshall V-LCD50-HDMI 5" On-Camera Monitor Their 5" inch HDMI LCD monitor, the V-LCD50-HDMI is still a "week or so" away, but Marshall Monitors tweeted yesterday that "There's a sun hood available for the 5-inch V-LCD50-HDMI which will be shipping momentarily. It's the V-H50 and will be approx $25 US." No sign of it on their website (or any suppliers.) Panasonic AG-AF100 Jan Crittenden Livingston of Panasonic USA talks to Dan Chung of dslrnewsshooter.com about the upcoming AG-AF100 Micro 4/3 HD camcorder. DSLR News Shooter : AG-AF100 will be better for video shooting than HDDSLR claims Panasonic’s Jan Crittenden Livingston Preview of DigiViewer Nino Leitner has been reviewing different DSLR viewfinders and he's now added a preview of a rubber eyepiece coming for the DigiFinder Pro (available in the US from Jag35 .) Ninofilm.net : An exclusive preview of the DigiViewer! Jag35.com : Digi Finder Pro The Making of Dot Aardman w...

Canon Pro Photo Solutions is an event targeted specifically at professional photographers and videographers held at the Business Design Center, October 26/27 in London. Last year’s inaugural show attracted over 2700 visitors. This year will see an increased emphasis on the convergence of stills and video technology and how embracing this can help professionals’ business grow and evolve in a rapidly changing market. You can register for free: Pro Photo Solutions

PHYX Inc ., has released freebie plug-ins for the FxFactory platform. The brand new PHYX Freebies plug-ins provide users with a quick and easy way to export and convert color channels and quickly sharpen image edges with the Color Channel and Edge Sharpen tools. The PHYX Freebies are completely free for everyone and support the latest versions of Apple Final Cut Pro , Final Cut Express , Motion and After Effects . PHYX Freebies Highlights Color Channel : Users can convert RGB to YUV and YUV to RGB and export Alpha channel, Luminence, Monochrome, Negative, Red, Green, and Blue with ease. Edge Sharpen : A useful utility for sharpening the edges of an image, Edge Sharpen does not amplify noise in areas of similar color where noise is most noticeable. The PHYX Freebies utilities plug-ins are offered as free downloads via the Noise Industries website. To download the freebies visit: http://www.phyxware.com/NI_Freebies_01.html . Availability and Pricing of FxFactory FxFactory Pro i...

The Camera Company & The Sennheiser Sound Academy present: Audio for Video: RF Wireless & Recording Techniques Friday, October 15th, 10am - 4pm The Holiday Inn, Dedham MA Presented by David Missall and Chris Clay from Sennhesier Electronics Whether you're shooting news, sports, the next blockbuster film, or a controversial documentary, your message won't come across without great sound. In this fast paced seminar, Sennhesier will show you how to obtain the best sound with the best microphone for the particular application. Topics to be covered include microphone basics, demonstration of microphone pickup patterns, booming technique, shotgun microphones, when to use a lapel microphone, the best interview microphones, wireless microphone applications, tips and tricks for eliminating unwanted noise during production, and much, much more. Great sound design for any media production starts with the dialogue and microphone placement. Registration deadline : Friday,...

This Wednesday's BOSFCPUG Meetup at the Boston Apple store will now feature Philip Hodgetts, digital media strategist and author of " The New Now: How to grow your production or postproduction business in a changed and changing world " explaining how to market your independent project and grow an audience you can monetize. BOSFCPUG "FutureM" Meetup DATE : Wednesday, October 6, 2010 TIME : 6pm-8pm VENUE : Boylston Street Apple Store, 815 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116 BOSFCPUG : Grow Your Indy Production

My lousy way of getting it done is better than your great way of not doing it. - Terry Rossio Shooting Outside Canon Live Learning and StillMotion has a short video that gives advice on shooting outside on a sunny day ( not that those of us in New England have to worry about those.. )  It shows the effect of shutter vs aperture priority, and also the use of a neutral density filter. Nice little introduction for those who haven't really played with aperture and shutter much. The audio is clear, but seems rather trebly; I assume that's because of the little lapel mic he seems to be using. introduction to shooting outside from stillmotion on Vimeo . Jag35 Monitor X Jag35 is coming out with an LCD "screen viewing aid" which provides a shade with magnification. It will fit most 3" screens including the Canon 5Dmk2, 7D, 60D and Nikon D7000. Price $150, available in November. Jag35 : Monitor X The Groucho Walk I was listening to a discussion of Roy Blo...

Steadicam Zephyr & Scout Friday , October 8 10am - 12noon Join Peter Abraham , Tiffen's Director of Tech Services for an introduction to the new Zephyr and Scout. Explore the intricacies of the moving camera, shot composition and features that allow shooters to make the most of their camera on the proper Steadicam system. High-Quality External Recording Devices Wednesday, October 13 10am - 12noon Tom Talbot, Rule's Director of Technology provides a review of external recording devices - Cinedeck, Ki Pro, Nano & Nexto - portable recorders built to simplify the recording, transfer and storage of digital footage. Shooting with Panasonic's New 3D Camera and Monitor Wednesday, October 20 10am - 12noon Rule's Tom Talbot and Engineering Staff provide an overview of Panasonic's new, all-in-one 3D camera, the AG-3DA1 3D and the accompanying Panasonic BT-3DL2550 25.5" 3D LCD monitor. 3D glasses provided! Rule Register by email: events@rule.com

Jared Abrams of Cinema 5D interviews Canon's Tim Smith , who reveals that the Canon 5D Mark III is still a " little way's away, " because it's still selling in tremendous amounts " the 5D is selling so well at this point, the corporate demand to replace something that's constantly on back order, you've got to consider the business model. " Also, he raises the issue of what to do with it; whether to make it a better video camera, or a better still camera? He also says that there's currently no plans for a Canon 7D firmware update to add manual audio control. Anyone got the definition for "little way's away?" - definitely not this year he says. Cinema5D : DV Expo 2010. Tim Smith Canon USA.

BOSFCPUG presents in association with RULE Boston Camera : PHILIP BLOOM $99 DSLR WORKSHOPS - "Harnessing the Power of your DSLR" Saturday, October 16th, UK-Based DP/Director and DSLR filmmaker Philip Bloom returns to Boston for another full day intermediate DSLR workshop on DSLR filmmaking. Covering all the Canon EOS DSLRs and a bit on the Panasonic GH series of DSLRs, this all day class is for intermediate users, ideally for people who have the cameras already and would like to work with DSLRs on their next projects. Philip Bloom is considered as one of the new breed of cinematographers – learn and interact with Philip to take your DSLR filmmaking to the next level… Topics covered include the following and much more: Differences in the cameras Lens selection: When to use the right lens for your shots Choosing the right accessories for your DSLR Lighting for DSLR filmmaking Recording proper sound for DSLR filmmaking Timelapse recording with your DSLR Prod...

A video only needs ~1,500 views in its first week to be among the top 10% on Youtube. Really? hmmm....wish there was a source for this quote though... Factopio.us : A video only needs... Fisheye, Macro, and Wide Angle Camera Phone Lenses Not happy with the fixed lens on your cameraphone? Maybe you want to look at these add-on lenses: Photojojo.com : Fisheye, Macro, and Wide Angle Camera Phone Lenses Scarlet won't compete with DSLRs RED last week announced another delay for Scarlet , the low-end camera that was supposed to be a DSLR killer/competitior, while also announcing support for HDRx, and a $1,000 price increase. EOSHD.com ( who I'm sure doesn't have any vested interest ) portray's this as RED admitting defeat, and I'm not too sure they are wrong. Of course, until product is actually released, it's really hard to know what it's going to compete with. EOSHD.com : Jim Jannard admits defeat against DSLRs, says Scarlet was a mistake The G...

Redrock only announced the microEVF last week, and already they have announced a change; it will include built-in HDMI passthrough. This makes it easier to have additional monitors attached to the camera, and is a feature that was announced in the upcoming Zacuto Z-Finder EVF (which was announced the day after the Redrock microEVF.) Redrock says the price remains the same. Clearly this addition is in response to user requests; and possibly the competition. Also, it suggests that the product is still in very early development i.e. adding the HDMI would involved changing the case molding and circuitry; it's probably not just a firmware change! Some people were bashing Zacuto's announcement as a rushed "me-too" because of Redrock's announcement, but it looks like they are both running to try and out-do each other! Redrock : microEVF Zacuto : Z-Finder EVF

Oliver Wilkins writes about the process of making a short film on the Egyptian village of New Gourna for Community Consortium and World Monuments Fund. It's interesting both for the notes about hardware and process, but also because the project turned out to be more complicated than they had originally imagined: The initial plan was to put together a film that demonstrated how the residents themselves are intrinsic linked to Hassan Fathy’s vision of New Gourna. We had two days on location and during our morning recce on day one it became quickly apparent that our vision of happy people living in idyllic adobe architecture didn’t quite reflect reality . During the interviews some colorful opinions of Hassan Fathy emerged along with complaints about the condition of the houses, generally citing issues of rising groundwater, a lack of sanitation and the limitations of expanding the single story adobe architecture in an age of population growth and soaring land prices. Even better, ...

AppleInsider draws from a posting for a book on Amazon Germany's website to come to the conclusion that iDVD won't be included in the upcoming iLife 11 update (expected sometime this year.) If true - and it's little more than a rumor at the moment - I have to say I think it would be weird and unfortunate for them to do it; and yet not surprising. Steve Jobs is alway in a hurry to move forward, and has never been reticent about abandoning technologies he thinks are past their prime (floppy drives, Firewire, Flash.) Guess I'm glad I'll still have the current version of iDVD to use to burn the occasional video DVD... Appleinsider : Book listing claims Apple's iLife '11 will be 64-bit, iOS compatible

First they had the Zoom Q3 which combined a pretty good pocket digital audio recorder with a Standard Video (640 x 480) recorder. Now they've gone and added 1080 recording and called it the Q3HD . With Video resolution of 720p at 30 or 60 fps or 1080p at 30 fps, and Audio formats: 44.1/48/96kHz 16/24-bit WAV (PCM) or AAC up to 320kbps, would you do better getting this instead of the more traditional  Zoom H4n Handy Portable Digital Recorder ? Well despite my concerns about the H4n sometimes messing up recordings, I'd still probably get that over the Q3HD simply because the H4n has XLR jacks. Much better for adding external mics. Still, never underestimate the value of good sound; unfortunately, often that means getting closer to the source, rather than getting a better digital audio recorder... The Q3HD is expected before the end of the year at $299. Zoom : Q3HD - Handy Video Recorder

Philip Bloom has convinced legendary scrooge and lover of bad pop music Eric Kessler to give away either a full size or traveller length Philip Bloom Slider. Make a fun or clever video by October 17th. Philip Bloom: Competition! Win a Kessler Crane Philip Bloom Signature Edition Slider!

Film and Digital Times has an article on image stabilization written by Larry Thorpe , National Marketing Executive for Broadcast & Communications, Canon USA Inc. It's based on a lecture he gave at NAB 2010 on how image stabilization works. The article covers the two major systems of stabilizers work: Vari-Angle Prism IS and Shift Lens IS. The article is in PDF format. Film and Digital Times : Image Stabilization by Larry Thorpe