My Weekend

At Saturdays White House Correspondents' Dinner, Seth Meyers made the following obligatory jokes about CSPAN:
I'm also honored to be performing for those of you tonight, as well as the handful of people watching at home on CSPAN. CPSAN is of course the official network for wide shots of empty chairs. Every time I tune into CSPAN it looks like they just had a fire drill. CSPAN is one unpaid electric bill away from being a radio station.

People think Bin Laden is hiding in the Hindu Kush, but did you know that every day from four to five he hosts a show on CSPAN?

I'm not complaining about CSPAN mind you, I usually work on NBC so tonight I'm thrilled to be on a network that people actually watch.
-Seth Meyers

Sunday Evening, 24 Hours later...
Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.
-President Obama Address to the Nation



Saturday morning Andy Shipsides of Able Cine tweeted that:
Sony news: the NEX-FS100 will be available at the end of May for $4,999 w/o lens and $5,599 with lens.
That's almost $1,000 less than the price previously listed. Unfortunately, I still can't afford it!



I spent the weekend trying to re-install Final Cut Pro to solve a problem I've been having at start-up. I followed the instructions from Apple's website; the second time because I wasn't sure I got it right the first time. Both times it took about three hours as the installer re-installs all the media files, even though they are already there and even though I told it to only re-install Final Cut Pro.

But it didn't work. So looks like I will have to give this app a try: Digital Rebellion FCS Remover.



Just about everyone this weekend seemed to be tweeting about the new Technicolor Picture Style for Canon EOS DSLR cameras.



Saturday afternoon I did an impromptu video shoot. 
Important Tip: Just because you checked that you have the wireless microphone unit doesn't mean the unit has the right adapter cable for the camera you're going to use. For instance: 1/8inch cables don't go in to XLR plugs.




Sunday morning at Boston Media Makers, Steve Garfield had the iRig mic for the iPhone. He says the quality is pretty good. It plugs into the headphone jack of the iPhone...

I didn't even know you could plug a mic into the headphone jack! Downside: though it has an extra plug that let's you use headphones while the mic is plugged in, you can't hear audio while it's recording. Make sure you use a recording app that gives a visual indication of audio coming in, or you risk having problems with audio...
Amazon: IK Multimedia iRig Mic Handheld Mic for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad[$56.95]



Sunday: Happy May 1st, Alfred Hitchcock 

Street Chalk Drawing - Harvard Square, Cambridge MA May Fair


DSLRs are everywhere
At Sunday's May Fair in Harvard Square I only saw two people shooting video, and both were using DSLRs. One person was shooting with a Canon T2i, with an assistant holding a Rode VideoMic with a boom pole.

Shooting with Canon T2i and Rode mic



Saw the movie Hanna Sunday evening.
So the pitch for this movie was: Jason Bourne as a 14-year old girl? It's a well made, intense movie, though I didn't enjoy it as much as the Bourne movies. I'm not sure why.
IMDB: Hanna



And this morning, Philip Bloom tweeted:
Two years ago today I got my first Canon 5D Mark II






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sony GV-D200 review

Image
Sony GV-D200 I've been using a Sony GV-D200 deck to transfer old Video8 and Hi8 tapes. Some of these tapes are over twenty years old, and no longer having a Hi8 camcorder that worked I was concerned that if I didn't do something about transferring them to a more modern format soon, I might never be able to. While Sony no longer make camcorders that use these tapes - that I know of - Sony does still sell the GV-D200 deck (or Video Walkman, as it's sometimes labelled.) They also offer the GV-D800, which is almost identical but adds a small LCD screen for about $120 more. I didn't think I'd need a screen since I was using this to capture to the computer, but you will need an external monitor when you first set it up. Physically, the device is small. At 5 7/8" wide, 5 3/8" deep and 2" high, it's the smallest video deck I've encountered. I used to have a Video8 deck that I thought was small; and it was twice as deep and twice as high. The t
Read more

Response: Which iPhone to Get?

Image
In response to my iPhone musings, I got the following reader email which actually sums up a lot of my second and third thoughts too: You might have a point about the fancier camera, but otherwise I would buy the smaller model. Its screen is about the same size as that of my Nexus 4, and I don't feel at all like it limits me with a too-small screen. But I do sometimes stretch to get my thumb the reach to the other corner of the screen. It is plenty big for a phone. A phone is a pocket thing. (Well, in my case it lives an ancient REI soft sunglasses case that I have on my belt.) Ubiquitous, handy, convenient, almost always with me. Small is crucial for all of that. Certainly a large screen is cool, but you need a place to put it: don't break a fundamental feature of a pocket phone by getting too big. That is what your small tablet is for. I have my phone with me almost always. I have my Nexus 7 tablet with me nearly as much. The bigger screen is great, yet it fits in some
Read more

Should you buy the Sony NEX-FS100 Kit Lens?

Image
The Sony NEX-FS100 is available in two configurations: B & H : NEX-FS100U Camcorder only $4,999 B & H : NEX-FS100U (with 18-200mm lens) $5,599 But what does that extra $600 get you? It get's you this: Sony 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 Zoom Lens for NEX Camera This lens is also available separately for $799.99, so at $200 off you'd think everyone would be jumping on it. But not so fast... In his article about switching from the Canon 5D Mark II to the Sony NEX-FS100 , Paul Antico  at Need Creative says of the kit lens: 7) Its 18-200 F3.6-6.3 kit lens absolutely sucks and should be avoided (thankfully, you can order it without one) [ 1 ] But is it that bad? At B & H 's site, 43 reviews give it an average of 4.6 out of 5 stars. That's not a bad rating, though many of these people are using it for stills, and the most common complaint noted is how large and heavy it is. Of course this feeling of size would be exacerbated when you put it on a tiny camera
Read more