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My first 48 hours with the Canon 5DmkIII [Updated] | Philip Bloom | Blog
Philip tweeted some additional thoughts on the 5D Mark III:

Philip Bloom @PhilipBloom
the #5dmk3 video footage looks SOOO much better with post sharpening. Never like it with MK2 but it really makes a difference here

Frame grab from #5d3 video at 1080p. Graded& a touch of post sharpening in Premiere. Loads of detail. Much happier

and added this post-script to his preview:

EDIT: After doing some experimenting do some work on it in post. Bit of grading and post sharpening the footage is coming to life beautifully. Detail that is not there before is coming out….thankfully! I am still shooting footage and testing camera out. I will update this review in a few days…

CineStyle on the 5D Mark III and fixing softness in post | Andrew Reid | EOSHD
Andrew has also added some notes on the Mark III:

First a quick word to the wise – VLC Player is not giving accurate gamma with 5D Mark III footage at all so don’t trust it! Use Premiere Pro CS5.5 and Quicktime X to playback and evaluate your footage. If you still have gamma issues like I was having, you can use 5DToRGB and a gamma value of 1.22 to fix this.

Going on to say:

After my experiments today the 5D Mark III does seem to be responding well to sharpening because there are so few artefacts in the source footage and the high bitrate holds onto all the good stuff.

Canon C300 Scene Files from AbelCine | Andy Shipsides | AbelCine
Andy Shipsides posts scene files for the C300:

First, a couple of notes on the profiles. I found that the camera has a hard time with yellow colors, which tend to turn a bit green. This was hard to adjust with the matrix controls, so I added a color correction fix to each profile. Area A in the color corrector is set to fix this problem, but it can be disabled without having an effect on skin tones. Additionally I reduced the sharpness in each profile to remove any edge enhancement, feel free to increase it as desired.

Triad Canon C300 Camera EF to PL Lens Mount Adapter | Cinescopophilia
A PL lens mount adapter for the C300:

Triad Professional Camera Support have announced their new Canon C300 camera EF to PL lens mount adapter will be shown at NAB 2012.

5D Mark III and D800: Thoughts on Camera Tests and Company Motivation
| Joe Marine | No Film School
Promising a review of the Mark III and D800 in the future, this post offers some thoughts on comparing and reviewing cameras:

That doesn’t mean we can’t be critical of either Nikon or Canon. They are promoting the video features of these cameras as being complimentary to the photography features, rather than just an added bonus. We can’t forget that these are still photography cameras. Many have compared these to the FS100, and in some cases just for video purposes, it might be a better deal. I’m not going to get into those comparisons right now, because I haven’t used either camera yet – but that’s going to change soon.

Which digital cinema camera to get now? | Andrew Reid | EOSHD
Andrew looks at the Sony NEX-FS100, Canon 5D Mark II & III, Panasonic GH2, Nikon D800 and Sony NEX-7 and offers his thoughts on the pros of each:

Rather than progression, this camera is more like a fix. It does away with moire and aliasing, it has a headphone jack for audio, and better monitoring over HDMI. It reminds me in some ways of the difference between, say, a 60D and 7D. BUT it still has the muddy resolution of the 5D Mark II from 4 years ago! For certain shots the softness is just perfect. Portraits, medium-close ups, shallow DOF stuff is all very nice on this camera. At infinity focus on a wide angle shot though, it looks utterly terrible.

Importing Canon C300 and MKIII Footage into Avid MC6 | Matt Jeppsen
| ProVideoCoalition
Here are two quick tutorials by editor Dylan Reeve that will show you the simplicity of importing Canon C300 and Canon 5D MKIII footage into Media Composer 6.0.



Nikon's D800 outclasses camera rivals in sensor test | Stephen Shankland | C|Net
Reviews and tests of the D800 are coming out:

So far, the D800 is head and shoulders above its predecessor, the D700, and a good contrast with the D4, which is geared more for photojournalists than the D800 with low-light performance and high durability. The biggest unknown right now is how well the D800 will compare to its direct competitor, the new 22-megapixel Canon 5D Mark III, which DxO expects to test soon.

First truly representative Nikon D800 video footage. DXOMark says sensor is ‘best ever’ | Andrew Reid | EOSHD
Andrew also gets excited about the D800:

The only concerns I have about the Nikon is that I cannot adapt my Canon glass to it and the 5D Mark III definitely does not have many moire or aliasing issues from what I can tell so far. The D800 doesn’t have the really bad false detail that plagued the 5D Mark II but there does seem to be more of an issue with rendering very thin perfectly straight horizontal lines on slowly moving shots. Fine patterns on shirts, brickwork and that kind of thing seems fine in this footage though, so it may be only a minor aliasing issue not full blown coloured moire.

The Best Color Correction Plug-In For Final Cut Pro Is Released AFTER It’s Demise | Danny Greer | Premiumbeat
Unfortunate that a great plug-in comes out...for Final Cut Pro 7:

Final Cut Pro 7 is end of life and investing so much into a dead product doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. For the same price you can pick yourself up a copy of DaVinci Resolve – a powerful, standalone application that doesn’t rely on the architecture of an NLE to function.

“THE RAID” | WRITER-DIRECTOR, GARETH EVANS | Filmmaker
Notes from a talk by the director:

So why film? Why not any other medium? I can conjure up ideas and images in my mind – scenes and situations that I can see and hear in great clarity when it’s just me a notepad and a pen. But getting these thoughts to exist in reality purely by my own means is impossible. I’ve never been gifted when it came to art. I lack the patience and expertise to be a photographer and as everyone who knows me well would confess my rhythm, or lack of it for that matter, has always been in the way of any musical aspirations I may have once had.

Performing An 'Act of Valor': Managing DSLR Media with Military Precision
| Jon Silberg | Creative Planet Network
Great behind-the-scenes information for the movie 'Act of Valor':

Simple issues like file naming presented the filmmakers with a few challenges. "We shot to the CF cards," the CTO says. "We had a media manager on set who would collect the cameras and upload the files. But we'd have shooting days where different cameras would have the same file names and we couldn't do anything about it. It was a big awakening for us. You find a format that everyone falls in love with, but you see how disastrous it can be if you don't handle it correctly.

How to make a Behind the Scenes (BTS) video | Riley Hooper | Vimeo
The Vimeo Film School continues with this article:

Oftentimes other filmmakers are interested in watching BTS videos because they are curious about the technical aspects behind a project. They want to know what cameras, lenses, lighting equipment, microphones, rigs and post production software were used. Did the project make use of state of the art equipment, or a new camera that just came out on the market?

Jeffery Harrell @jefferyharrell | Twitter
"Be an editor," they said.
"You're a natural storyteller," they said.
"Watch progress bars all day," they didn't say even once.

Vortex Media Releases Sony PMW-F3 S-Log and External Recorders Test Footage
| Creative Planet Network
Vortex has put together tests of multiple data recorders when used with the Sony PMW-F3, though you have to buy it:

Vortex Media’s “PMW-F3 S-Log & External Recorders Test Drive” provides professionals the opportunity to compare, evaluate and experiment with 126 original, unedited, ungraded video clips that were recorded with a Sony PMW-F3 camcorder and five popular models of external recorders, including the Convergent Design Gemini 4:4:4, Cinedeck EX, Sound Devices PIX 240, AJA Ki Pro Mini and Convergent Design nanoFlash.

MIT’s Open Documentary Lab: part think tank, part incubator for filmmakers and hackers | Andrew Phelps | Nieman Lab
Interview with Sarah Wolozin, director of the new Open Documentary Lab at MIT and William Uricchio, the Open Doc Lab’s principal investigator:

The Open Doc Lab brings storytellers, technologists, and academics together in a place that has been home to pioneers of direct cinema, interactive cinema, and French realism. For all the worrying we do about technology and platforms, the story — that atomic unit of human communication — does not seem to be going anywhere.

LaCie 2big Thunderbolt series external HDD review | Michael Gorman | Engadget
A review of this premium-priced Thunderbolt drive [4TB $649] [6TB $799]:

Its robust build, massive capacity, quiet operation and, of course, blazing transfer rates all make for quite an attractive package for use as a media and backup repository. Despite those merits, the 2big's premium price is likely to be a turn-off for many.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 | PhotoshopUser
A collection of resources for those playing with the Photoshop CS6 beta



Sony reveals (some) NAB plans | Post Magazine
Sony doesn't give away too much about what it plans for NAB:

The company also called attention to the success of its F3, which began shipping just prior to NAB last year. To date, Sony has delivered 3,000 F3s, which are being used on project such as Spike Lee's Red Hook Summer, Key and Peele, and Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations.

Status Update | Sarah Thompson | The Abbess
Director Sarah Thompson writes about the lens collection she has put together for the Panasonic GH2, including the new Rokinon 24mm f/1.4 [$699]:

Rokinon 24mm f1.4. Just arrived today. Awesome lens, very cinematic look to the images. Very sharp, manual only so it should work well with a follow focus. Gives you a sharp, bright standard lens with the GH2. I'll probably use this a lot.