Quick Links

Nikon D4 Digital SLR - The New King of the Hill for DSLR Video? | Cameratown
A look at the promising video capabilities of the new Nikon D4:

The uncompressed HDMI output allows the video feed from the camera to be fed to an external HD field recorder for a more streamlined workflow in some circumstances. Unfortunately, it's been reported that the camera cannot record to it's own memory cards while sending the signal to it's HDMI port. I'm not sure if this is only true when mirroring the signal to the camera's LCD. If not, this could pose a big problem for those looking to use an external monitor for monitoring.

Nikon D4 | Amazon
No price, and you can't order yet, but you can sign up to be notified when it's available.


And so it Begins… Nikon D4 HDSLR Announced! | Paul D
A list of specs for the D4.

I recently wrote “..if you thought 2011 was an important year for cameras, photographers and filmmakers…you ain’t seen nothing yet!” Well we’re only 6 days into the new year and one of the most important cameras of 2012 has just been announced…the Nikon D4!

Nikon D4 supports iPad as field monitor and remote | Andrew Reid | EOSHD
Another look at the video features of the D4:

The Nikon D4 has the ability to monitor and control the camera via a web browser on a portable device like the iPad.

Nikon chose the HTTP protocol to do this, which is the same data protocol that websites use. With a WIFI or internet connection you can control the Nikon D4 through Safari on your iPad, iPhone or Mac, indeed any other personal computing device with a web browser.

D4 Delicious | Sam Morgan Moore | DSLR 4 Real
Sam is generally happy with the D4, with a few reservations:

All is not perfect. I have some concerns about the D4.

It appears to have Mini HDMI - the worlds worst connection interface

One the sound side 3.5mini jack is far from ideal too - BeachTek may come back into fashion big style or of course my Sound Devices 702 recorder - a solution like the 702 that records a master to a CF card and feeds out to the camera is probably ideal

A sample video that Nikon has posted:




Killing TV lighting, 4k and 10-bit - Canon C300 late night chat with Rodney Charters, Drew Gardner and Lan Bui part 1 | The Bui Brothers | Blog
A video chat with Drew, Rodney Charters and Lan Bui on New Year’s eve covering a long list of topics:

Kelvin meters vs in-camera waveforms
Using the existing light on large productions
Shooting without lights or with very minimal lights
The biggest light needed on a TV set
Generator equipment and operators are not needed anymore
Good lenses for handheld camera use, especially for 12 hour days

Colorimetric and Resolution requirements of cameras Alan Roberts ADDENDUM 70 : tests and settings on a Canon EOS C300 | CVP Blog
Tests done with a pre-production model of the C300:

The sensor is a single CMOS, total 4206×2340 photo-sites, of which a central patch of 3840×2160 is used for the video signal (the implications of this will be discussed in detail in the measurements section).. Recording is onto Compact Flash card (two slots) in MPEG-2, long-GoP, with MXF file format. Three bit rate options are available: 50Mb/s CBR (constant bit rate) at 4:2:2 colour sampling (1920×1080 or 1280×720), 35Mb/s 4:2:0 VBR (1920×1080 or 1280×720) and 25Mb/s 4:2:0 CBR (1440×1080 only). Thus it complies with broadcast requirements for bit rate and offers more economic rates for greater economy (the 25Mb/s option matches HDV format).

Getting High on the Fs100 | Sam Morgan Moore | DSLR 4 Real
An article about how the NEX-FS100 highlights go yellow, instead of white, and how to expose to avoid the problem:

Firstly we want to choose, where possible, our composition, subject matter, use of lights or reflectors to reduce the dynamic range in an image.
We then need to choose our exposure.
We then need to expose not to protect our 'super highlights' but must be careful to protect the important highlights, for example faces.

As a guide I think I would want to place a face at 70 or 80% across the histogram, but with these cameras I will be looking to place a face at around 50% across the histogram. This image will look too dark on a calibrated monitor and we will see some of those horrible colour shifts in the image

Part 1 and 2 now live!! The Christmas mini shootout with the C300 (pre-production), F3, FS100, hacked GH2 and more!! | Philip Bloom | Blog
Philip has posted the second part of his Christmas shootout:

Kind of hypocritical to say this as this whole shootout is about it, remember pixel peeping will make you go blind and give you hairy palms!! Shoot with the camera you have/can afford! There is a lot more to filmmaking than pixel peeping!

Write Shoot Cut | Website
Neil Rolland is a scriptwriter based in Edinburgh, Scotland, who has been posting a series of interviews with actors and filmmakers.

Brett Harvey is a filmmaker I met during my time in Falmouth at University. He was part of a collective of Cornish filmmakers and friends who were doing some exciting stuff, running monthly short film nights and competitions for new talent. It was (and still is) such a vibrant community and it is no surprise to me that there are several feature films coming out of Cornwall this year from this creative hub.

EVF035W-3G Electronic Viewfinder | TVLogic
A very sneak peak at a new EVF, with more details to come February 2nd.

3.5" 960x640
HD-SDI loop-through
HDMI in/out
1080P
Focus assist

SOPA Is a Symbol of the Movie Industry's Failure to Innovate | Steve Blank
| The Atlantic
More reasons not to like SOPA:

One of the claims that studios make is that they need legislation to stop piracy. The fact is piracy is rampant in all forms of commerce. Video games and software have been targets since their inception. Grocery and retail stores euphemistically call it shrinkage. Credit card companies call it fraud. But none use regulation as often as the movie studios to solve a business problem. And none are so willing to do collateral damage to other innovative industries (VCRs, DVRs, cloud storage and now the Internet itself.)

free sample video tutorials from After Effects Learn By Vide | Adobe | Blog
A resource for the After Effects user:

The fine folks at Peachpit Press and Video2Brain have just posted some sample videos from the 14+ hours of video training in After Effects CS5: Learn By Video. This DVD and book provide an introduction to After Effects that is designed to bring you from the beginner level to the intermediate level, as well as to warn and educate you about all of the common pitfalls and gotchas in After Effects.