Notes On Video

The Beginning of Something Exciting | Larry Jordan | Larry's Blog A post on the XML feature added in Final Cut Pro X , and in particular how it might be made to work with Final Cut Studio 3 : Wednesday night, Philip Hodgetts, CEO of Intelligent Assistance, demoed a beta program they are developing that illustrates what this new XML feature provides. Philip showed how an FCP X project can be exported as XML, converted, then imported into FCP 7. From FCP 7, it can be sent to Soundtrack Pro for mixing, or ProTools via OMF, or Color for color correction, or any of the other applications that link in with FCP 7. Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 (5.5.1) update: bug fixes, including some for Mac OSX v10.7 (Lion) compatibility | Adobe List of improvements and fixes in Premiere Pro update. Lensbaby Movie Maker’s Kit | Photography Blog Lensbaby’s has announced a Movie Maker’s Kit that includes a Lensbaby Composer Pro in PL and Canon EF mount, and a whole range of optics and accessorie...

A useful little right-angle HDMI plug just released from Zacuto. It's just $7.00 Re-route and protect your HDMI cable and equipment from unnecessary strain with this standard (big) HDMI right angle male to female adapter. The fixed right angle position not only gives you more space between the EVF and camera but it gives you a sturdier connection and prevents your cable from becoming loose, ensuring you have the best data signal transmission possible. This right angle HDMI adapter also converts any cable you are using to offer a 9.5mm - 10mm insertion, the ideal insertion for use with the Zacuto EVF HDMI ports. Zacuto: HDMI Right Angle Adapter

Redrock now has a Livelens mount adapter for Canon EF to Micro-Four Thirds . Introductory pricing is $442.50, and regular price will be $487.50. I've seen one person complain that it doesn't allow auto-focus, only aperture control, but it's better than nothing! Canon EF lenses require power and electronic controls in order to adjust the lens’ aperture. Without power and control electronics, The aperture of the EF lenses are stuck wide open, severely limiting the usefulness of the lens. The Redrock LiveLens mft active lens adapter solves this problem by providing power to the EF lens and a control pad to adjust the lens aperture. With LiveLens mft you can set the EF lens' aperture to any stop in increments as small as 1/3 stop. It works with just about every lens available today, including variable aperture zoom lenses, prime lenses, consumer-level lenses, and professional L-series lenses. It also works with most third party EF-compatible lenses. There are some limita...

A while back I wrote about adding Captions in YouTube . It's a pretty straight forward process, though you have to put in start and stop times for each piece of text, which can be quite a lot of additional work. The other day, someone suggested that adding a transcription to a video served much the same purpose as doing captions, for a lot less work, so I thought I'd give it a try. I typed up a simple transcription of the video I made of the Big 'Ole Lens Test Party . I put in no timing information, but I did put in the names of the people who spoke in parenthesis in front of each piece of dialog, because I thought that would make it more understandable to any reader. The file looked something like this: [Chris Loughran] Ben and I were having dinner at the Border Cafe in Cambridge, and started talking about lenses, and Ben doesn’t really think there’s a big difference between a hundred dollar lens and a 20,000 lens, so we're here today to prove him wrong. [laught...

Crazy Driving! | Andrew Kramer | Vimeo A tutorial on shooting car interiors with a green screen, and how to process it in After Effects . Final Cut Pro X Effects Tutorial: Green Screen / Chroma Key | Dan Allen | YouTube And a green screen tutorial for those with Final Cut Pro X : In this HD Voice Tutorial for Apple Final Cut Pro 10 we take a look at the 'Keyer Effect, and learn the logistics of a good chroma key using a bluscreen / blue screen or greenscreen / green screen. Affordable 300 watt CFL lighting setup | DSLR Film Noob I saw this referenced on Planet5D ; a review of a budget CFL light based system from Cowboystudio 1200 Watt Photography, Video, and Portrait Studio Umbrella Continuous Lighting Kit With Four 85 Watt, 5500K Day Light Balanced CFL bulbs . The advantage of these systems is the low power consumption and low heat output of the lights. I've never used this kind of lighting so don't know what the pros and cons of it are vs. other lighting syst...

I wasn't exactly surprised to read an article in Yahoo Finance recently about Best Buy being in financial trouble. The last decade hasn't been the best for electronic retailers; I think the best financial news they've had in the last three years was when competitor Circuit City went out of business. Let's face it, with Amazon, B & H, and all the other online sources for electronics, why would you bother shopping at Best Buy? Well for me, I still shop there because I like to actually see things in person and play with them. If you're careful, you can usually do okay price wise, and if you need that hard drive today, driving to Best Buy is still the quickest way to get it. So I'd be sad to see them go, even though there's a lot I don't like about them; the pushing of third party warranties, their inability to know when things will arrive, and the disconnect between the website and the stores are three of my biggest gripes. My "issues...

Reaction to Nikon V1: "blah" Continuing it's tradition of not announcing anything that's very exciting, the new Nikon V1 is getting fairly negative reviews (though admittedly from sites that aren't "Nikon-centric"!) Nikon versus Micro Four Thirds comparison! | 43Rumors Before you start bashing on me saying I am a fanboy, well I am NOT! I use cameras from different manufacturers and there are many things I like from the Nikon camera world (D700 and many of their lenses). But I simply cannot fell in love with the today announced Nikon cameras. Is the NIkon V1 really better than the Sony NEX-5n? (I say no!) | SonyAlphaRumors Pocket Lint compared the Nikon V1 versus the Sony NEX-5n and comes to the conclusion that the V1 is actually better. I want to hear you’re comments on that. My opinion on that? Some of their points are really weird. But let’s start the discussion to see why Pocket Lint may be right (or wrong). The Nikon 1 system – will it succee...

REVIEW - Blackmagic Design's HyperDeck Shuttle | Adam Garstone | HD Magazine A short review of the HyperDeck Shuttle which really only covers the functionality and operation of the product without going into day-to-day operation or the quality of the image vs. in camera video. Still, he seems to like it: ...if I were shooting anything with a Sony F3 I would want to record on the Shuttle to do justice to the F3’s fantastic S35 sensor and cine lenses. Plus, at just £195 (excluding VAT) it fits pretty much anyone’s shooting budget. Covering The Continuing Story In Japan - Six Months After The Tsunami | Matthew Allard | DSLR News Shooter Matt talks both about the projects he's shot, as well as the hardware he's used, most notably the Sony PMW-F3 , though he also mentions a variety of other gear, including the Blackmagic HyperDeck Shuttle ! The stand up was recorded on the Black magic Hyperdeck Shuttle. This records 422 10Bit Uncompressed Quicktime files and requires a ...

Final Cut Pro X for Final Cut Pro 7 Editors [PDF] | White Paper | Apple An Apple White Paper for Final Cut Pro 7 editors who still can't work out Final Cut Pro X . It's a pity they didn't release this when the program first came out! Final Cut Pro X is a revolutionary editing application that includes many new concepts and features that are different from those in previous versions of Final Cut Pro. This document—structured according to the major parts of an editing workflow—uses the Final Cut Pro 7 application for comparison to discuss how to complete important tasks in Final Cut Pro X. Apple releases updates for Compressor, Motion | MacWorld The Final Cut Pro X update yesterday got all the headlines, but Apple also updated Compressor and Motion , mostly with bug fixes, though Motion adds support for dual displays. ProApps QuickTime Codecs | Apple A link to download new Codecs for QuickTime applications: This update adds the following video codecs for use...

Caleb Crosby has put together a Top Handle and Clamp for the NEX-FS100 : It's a real wood grip. Hand picked black walnut from the local hard wood shop in Portland Maine. These are hand finished and fastened underneath so they are user adjustable. They have brass press fit counter sinks so they will last. Hand rubbed with two coats of tung oil finishing- it's made right. Not slippery, not shiny- just really nice. Features: 360 rotation All aluminum construction True 15mm (.589 OD) diameter rods 3 point precision attachment to camera Adjustable black walnut grip All production units are black anodized. Made in USA. Our 15mm low profile Stub clamps open up options for DIY rigging. Here is my cam showing a monitor set up that is firmly set but adjustable on 2 axis to the touch instantly for reflection control and for changing op positions quickly.. The Mic receiver is tilted where I want it and I used Sony's provided mic holder sistered into the same clamp as the 5...

Final Cut Pro X Version 10.0.1 | Apple Apple has released the 10.0.1 update to Final Cut Pro X which adds: Rich XML Support, Projects and Events on Xsan, Custom Starting Timecode, One-step Transitions on Connected Clips, GPU-accelerated export, a Camera Import SDK and Media Stems Export. The update is 1.4 GB! They have also released a 30-day trial version , and are promising for "early 2012" Multicam Editing and Broadcast-Quality Video Monitoring. App Store : Final Cut Pro - Apple® $299 Review - Canon XA10 Camcorder | Phil Coates | HD Magazine Phil used Canon's tiny semi-pro camcorder, the XA10 , to shoot a documentary in the arctic, and was impressed: Well not only did the XA10 work in one of the most hostile environments on earth, I frankly would not have been able to complete the film without it. I was gobsmacked that basically what ever abuse I threw at the XA10 the camera just kept on working and that included freezing the thing almost solid and th...

Who at Nikon thought this was a good title for a campaign? Nikon will announcement something tomorrow. Mirrorless camera? Video camera? Another DSLR?...

A quick look at the Sony NEX5N. The good and the bad | Philip Bloom | Blog Philip has posted a more detailed article about the Sony NEX-5N , noting the click problem, but generally liking the camera, and it's optional OLED viewfinder: One feature that is not standard but is a must-buy accessory is the OLED EVF. It has 2.4 million dots and is simply the clearest, sharpest viewfinder I have ever seen, and it has red peaking! It pivots too which is nice. What is not so nice is it will set you back up to $400 which makes the NEX5-N much pricier. Philip posted yesterday on Twitter: just figured out the clicking of the NEX5N ...it seems there was a blue m&m inside it when I opened it up.well i never :) Possible Specs For New Canon Video Camera? | HD Magazine Another rumor about the upcoming announcement from Canon. It follows other rumors about there being two cameras (EF and PL mount) but says that he thinks they are more closely competing with the FS100/AF100: Don't te...

Back when Sony first shipped the HXR-NX5U camcorder, they also offered a promotion on the HXR-FMU128 Flash Memory Unit, and now they are doing it again for the NEX-FS100 .  Frankly, at the current retail price of $669.95 the HXR-FMU128 is not a very good deal; better to save the money and buy a Atomos Ninja or an AJA Ki Pro Mini , but at $169.95 it might be worth getting. Note : the HXR-FMU128 doesn't improve the quality of your video recording - the camera only records AVCHD on the unit - it simply increases the length of recording time. Rebate info linked from B & H Page: Sony 500 rebate

Sony NEX5 Ticking | Philip Bloom | Vimeo Last week Engadget reported a clicking noise on the Sony NEX-5N . This does appear to be a real issue; a search on YouTube turns up multiple examples of the noise, and now Philip Bloom has posted a video exhibiting the problem. NEX-7 First Impressions | Luminous Landscapes Perhaps the NEX-7 won't have the clicking problem; though the "fix" comes at a premium price! Here's a preview of the camera: With the addition of two programmable control dials that fall perfectly under ones thumb, a soft button under ones index finger, and a wide range of programmability for the rear panel control wheel, the NEX-7's user interface moves up (compared to the original NEX-3 and NEX-5) to a very high level of functionality. Indeed it challenges virtually every other small camera on the market when it comes to the ability for the photographer to get the camera operating in a smooth and intuitive manner. FCPX Bug? Best Practices ...

The 2011 Boston SuperMeet will be held October 27th, at the Stuart Street Playhouse, Radisson Hotel Boston, 200 Stuart Street Boston MA 02116 and will feature Oscar & BAFTA Award-Winning Editor Walter Murch . Registration is now open: SuperMeet Early bird tickets are $11.24 through October 4th ($8.17 for Students/Teachers)

Back in June we first heard about a case where a US Tax Court Judge, Diane Kroupa, had suggested that documentaries mainly serve to educate rather than to make money. If this became a rule, expenses would no longer be tax-deductable, making any documentary maker subject to much higher taxes. NotesOnVideo : The Goal of this Blog is NOT to Educate Not a whole lot has been heard about the case since then, but there have been some additional articles published: FilmMaker | Why Filmmaking Cannot Be A Hobby Documentary filmmakers have become especially vulnerable to the perception that they are engaged in a hobby rather than an activity for profit. Because development takes so long and revenue sources are so difficult to sustain, filmmakers often endure losses over many years. They persevere because they become so passionate about their subject matter and the need to spread their message to the world that generating a profit may not seem primary. filmfwd | Filmmaking: The Hobby (Ag...

I went to last years TEXPO, and if you're in the Boston area it's definitely worth attending. It's a small show, but they had about fifteen tables set up with local reps from a variety of video tech companies. Tech 2011, Rule Boston Camera's 2nd annual technology showcase, will feature the latest production and post-production news, products and technology from leading vendors such as Anton Bauer, Avid, Convergence Design, Panasonic, Sony, Ross Video, Sennheiser and many more. WHEN: Tuesday October 18th 5'00-9:00pm WHERE Rule Boston Camera 395 Western Avenue Entrance Brighton MA 02135 RSVP to TEXPOEvent@rule.com