News From Here & There

Carl Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 Lenses | Nigel Cooper | DVUser
Zeiss' Compact Prime lenses are expensive, but if you're serious about lenses, these are reportedly the bees knees. Nigel gives an in-depth review, wrapping up by stating that these are "probably the best you can buy for digital video filmmaking."
The first great thing about these lenses is that there is no focus breathing, unlike photographic stills lenses, which are not designed for video. Even some ENG style video lenses suffer from focus breathing. These CP.2 lenses are free of any horrible focus breathing phenomenon so your pull-focus shots will look amazing. They are also pretty much free of any colour aberrations and vignetting around the edges of the image. These modern CP.2 prime lenses with their ultra tight tolerances ensure low distortion, high resolution and superb colour rendition resulting in very sharp and punchy images.


How to ensure proper Audio/Video sync through a QuickTime conversion | YouTube
Had problems with sync in your uploaded YouTube videos? I haven't noticed any myself, but here's a useful reference from YouTube if you encounter this problem.
MOV/MP4 files exported from programs such as iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and QuickTime Pro have certain elements that are not handled well by YouTube transcoding. In order to ensure optimal upload quality--and specifically that the Audio and Video of the file remain in sync--use the encoding settings outlined below.


Lighting Basics Series I: Where to place your KEY LIGHT | Shane Hurlbot | Hurlbot Blog
Just in time to miss my collection of lighting resources, this post from Shane explains how to set up key lights:
The key light is the most important light you can place. It lights the actor’s faces and brings out their emotions. I like to study the features in an actor’s face. You can quickly see if one side is better to key from. This information is always in the back of my mind so when you are blocking scenes, you can make suggestions that would aid in getting the key from the correct side. Sometimes it is not possible because of the location or the blocking will not allow it, but at least it is a starting point.
See also: NotesOnVideo: Lighting Resources



Top 10 Takeaways From TV/Film Summit | Abe Schwartz | HuffPost
Want to get into television? Abe attended the TV/Film Summit and came back with tips for the aspiring TV writers:
4. When writing a pilot, it needs to be a prototype of your show. It needs to be THE show, not an origin story. (Write this on a chalkboard 100x, Bart Simpson-style.)


After Effects & Premiere Performance Workshop | Rich Young | ProVideoCoalition
Video2brain has 1 hr 20 minutes of free video training by Todd Kopriva on optimizing After Effects & Premiere and systems for maximum speed.



Another example of how dangerous lasers can be for your HDSLR sensor!
| Mitch | Planet5D
More proof that you don't want to point your digital camera at a laser light show!



Sneak Peak Leaked: Letus Follow Focus | VisionWrangler | Cinescopophilia
Letus have a special going for pre ordering their follow focus unit that is about to ship. $499 is the asking price for an essential piece of kit.


July 8, 1908: Some Movies Get Colorful | Randy Alfred | Wired
A couple of days late, but did you know that the first color motion-picture was demonstrated in Paris in 1908?
British inventor Edward Turner actually received a patent on a three-color motion picture process in 1899. The problem is, his system didn’t work all that well.



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