News From Here & There

CineGear
This weekend is the CineGear show in LA. If you can't be there, Wide Open Camera is doing a pretty good job of covering the event. They have already posted video's with Steve Weiss of Zacuto, Ted Schilowitz of Red Digital Cinema, and Ali Ahmadi of O’Conner.
WideOpenCamera



Entertainment Technology Expo New York
Createasphere's Entertainment Technology Expo will be held September 20-21, 2011 at The New Yorker Hotel, New York, NY. Over two days their will be panel discussions, seminars, and a technology show floor.
Free registration is open now.
Createasphere: Entertainment Technology Expo



GoPro HD Review
Ron Risman at CameraTown reviews the GoPro HD.
I do want to mention that the best use for a POV camera is to mount it in a place where movement will be smooth. I see way too many POV videos where the camera is mounted to the handle bar of a bike or helmet of a rider, and the video is so shaky that it makes you sick watching it. Trust me when I say that the only person who wants to watch your shaky mountain bike trail ride is you. One thing you should do is EDIT your final videos. Even shaky mountain bike videos have their smooth moments. Take these smooth portions of your video and edit them together into a piece that others will enjoy watching.
CameraTown: Review of the GoPro HD Motorsports HERO
Amazon: GoPro HD Motorsports HERO Camera [$238.94]



Screenwriting Tips
Xander Bennett posts daily tips on screenwriting:
Screenwriting Tip #647
You’re not writing down to idiots, and you’re not writing up to your betters. You’re writing for the reader, who you’ve got to assume is a person very much like you.
ScreenwritingTips: Screenwriting Tips... You Hack



The Mouse is Dead?
Not Mickey, the computer mouse. First the laptop trackpad, then the iPhone, then the Magic Trackpad; [in retrospect it seems Apple has been doing it's damnedest to kill the mouse for years], and now Microsoft joins the battle with Windows 8, which is designed for touch.
TechCrunch: Still Think The Mouse Isn’t Dead?

Somewhat related, there was one report that said the upcoming Final Cut Pro X will use gestures, (as will the new OS, Lion), and the following article explains how to use gestures with DaVinci Resolve.
Tao of Color Grading: The Cheapest Colorist Control Surface EVER!
Amazon: Apple Magic Trackpad[$65]



Q&A with Paul Antico
Mike Tomei interviews Paul Antico, the producer of the upcoming The Visualmakers, about the project and how it was shot:
Surprisingly, the best audio actually came from the show floor. No one expected this. We used the Sony UWP-V1 wireless mics which worked very well, but the key was mic placement. The mic is just out of frame right below the subject's mouth, which helped a lot.
MikeTomei: Q&A with The Visualmakers producer and director: Paul Antico



Sony A77 Rumors
It seems pretty certain that Sony will announce a new DSLR to replace the A700, and there's speculation that it may blow away the competition (i.e. Canon.) But at EOSHD they list the features that Sony really needs to add to their camera, including manual controls, removing interlacing and 24p support:
So to summarise – [remove] interlacing, 30p and high megapixel counts are the by-product of poor marketing, and not taking leadership of the market and forcing customers to adopt and understand better images.
Even if they do all that, don't expect this to be the NEX-FS100 in a DSLR body; the A77 will have a 24MP sensor, while the NEX-FS100 (and PMW-F3) use a much lower resolution sensor; having less data to get to a 1920x1080 image can be a good thing! Expect the A77 to probably exhibit more moire issues, and/or slightly lower apparent resolution (probably.)
EOSHD: Sony A77
SonyAlphaRumors: An “emotional” SR5 rumor (A77 is top notch!!!)

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