News from Here & There

Sony 3D
A short video at The Guardian showing the two new Sony 3D video cameras; the 3D Bloggie, and the HDR-TD10. You can see more pictures of the HDR-TD10 at the show on Sony Electronic's Flickr account:
Guardian: CES 2011: Sony's 3D HD camcorders
Flickr: Sony Electronics



Sony PMW-F3 Updateable Firmware?
Peter Crithary, Marketing Manager, Production, Sony Professional Solutions of America posted a note in a discussion about the PMW-F3 on dvinfo that the current cameras being used by some local people are pre-production units and do not represent the feature set, implementation of the official release version of the camera, due in February.

He then went on to add rather tantalizingly;
Also keep in mind, as with most new generation file based cameras, the firmware will be updated over time to expand the feature set.
DVInfo: A note about the PMW-F3 pre-production units



Roger Deakins on Digital Cinema and the Arri Alexa
The Black And Blue blog has collected together some comments Roger Deakins, ASC BSC (The Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men) has made on his own web forum about using the Arri Alexa, and going digital. He generally likes the Alexa, even if he does miss the optical viewfinder. He's also skeptical about the need for 5K resolution and the limitations of digital compared to film:
I get very confused and, frankly, irritated by all the pronouncements about ‘K’, bit depth, latitude etc.. In the past it was often stated to me by visual effects supervisors that there was no noticeable difference between a 2K scan and a 4K scan of the same negative. Does film really have a dynamic range of more than 13 stops? What film stock would that be and under what conditions? I don’t see it.
BlackAndBlue: Roger Deakins on Digital Cinema and Arri Alexa: "Images are of a quality comparable to film"



ContourGPS Will Stream To Your SmartPhone
Both Engadget and Gizmodo have short videos showing the ContourGPS streaming to an iPhone. Evidently the Contour GPS model has the Bluetooth chip already baked in. Streaming is at 8fps (which didn't seem too slow in the demo videos) and range is about 30 feet. The Android app will be available in the spring, with the iPhone app shortly after (iPhone users will evidently also have to buy a $30 transmitter that plugs into the ContourGPS expansion port.
Gizmodo: ContourGPS Uses Your Smartphone as a Viewfinder
Engadget: ContourGPS Live Viewfinder on iOS hands-on






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