Quick Links

I May Never Buy a Camera Again | RON DAWSON | Dare Dreamer
Interesting thoughts on renting vs. owning:
I guess what I’m saying is this: think with your head, and not with your heart when it comes to making an investment in something as expensive as a camera, especially when they change as often as they do. I’d be more inclined to invest my money in great glass that you can use on multiple cameras. A Zeiss CP.2 cinema lens can be used on everything from a T2i to a RED. No matter what kind of shoot you’re doing, a good lens will come in handy.


NAB 2012: Quantel new Pablo and Neo Nano | Scott Simmons | ProVideoColaition
Quantel's "cheaper" (~$50,000) color grading solutions:
The Pablo control surface really is a thing of beauty and if you ever get the chance to lay your hands on one by all means do and you’ll see what I mean. It is very well engineered and feels amazing under your hands. The new Neo Nano is stripped down in size removing the keyboard, tablet, transport controls and a lot of buttons but the majority of the functionality is still there


NAB 2012: Baselight for Avid Media Composer | Scott Simmons
| ProVideoCoalition
At $999, Baselight is a cheaper grading solution, and now it's coming to Avid Media Composer:
It would appear the Filmlight strategy is coming to fruition: put Baselight on many of the leading post-production applicants and allow for interoperability between the Baselight Editions and a real Baselight color grading system. The Editions will cost $995 each.


Video Comparisons
Three video camera comparisons clips:

Canon 5D Mark II vs. Mark III vs. Nikon D800 - Candlelight: High-ISO | Joe Marine
| Vimeo

Image comparison C300 / 5DmkII / 5DmkIII | Dennis Ersöz | Vimeo
The preset look of the mkIII surprises me the most and for a real job I would definitely go for a very flat setting instead. Even the C300 would benefit from much lower detail settings, especially when shooting faces.

Red Epic Vs Sony PMW-F3 Vs Canon C300 | Filippo Chiesa | Vimeo
Red Epic recorded RAW on-board in Red Log 4K HD.
Sony PMW-F3 recorded in S-Log both in DPX on Gemini 4:4:4 10 bit and on-board.
Canon C300 recorded in Canon-Log both in DPX on Gemini 4:2:2 8 bit and on-board.


Storage, asset management and archive. Where does it all go? | Mike Sutton
| Wide Open Camera
The dirty little secret of most budget video-shooters; no good backup strategy!
Backing up your movie, commercial, etc to LTO-5 is probably one of the smartest things you can do these days. They hold 1.5TB of data each and are index-able with metadata and will last over 50 years. You can span projects and if used with an asset management system like CAT-DV or FLOW you can keep tabs on everything properly.


NAB 2012 - Editshare Lightworks | StudioTechTV | YouTube
An interview with David Shapton of Editshare about Lightworks, the only top-end, low-cost NLE system that runs on Windows, Linux & Mac (the latter; maybe)



NAB 2012 – New Product Preview: Magic Bullet Arsenal, Knoll Light Factory 3
| Aharon Rabinowitz | Red Giant Software
A quick look at some of what Red Giant showed at NAB: Magic Bullet Arsenal and Knoll Light Factory 3. Neither is available yet.

And Larry Jordan does a Preview of FCPX Plugin Mojo by Red Giant | YouTube



The Canon C300 saved my butt | Jonathan Yi | Vimeo
Short clip showing how the low-light capabilities of the Canon C300 (plus an iPhone flashlight app) saved the day on a commercial shoot.



Crowdfunding for Filmmakers, raise a million dollars over the Internet
| Mark Litwark | Entertainment Law Resources Blog
More on the JOBS Act and it's impact on budget filmmakers:
Most promising for indie filmmakers, the JOBS Act contains provisions that for the first time will allow internet crowdfunding for the production of films. Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital by obtaining small amounts of money from a large number of investors. Although existing companies like Kickstarter.com and IndieGoGo currently enable filmmakers to raise funding through donations (i.e., gifts), this new law, when it becomes effective, will allow filmmakers to raise up to one million dollars in equity investments by soliciting the general public without the prior restraints.


8 Tips on being a better cinematographer | Joyce | StillMotionBlog
Some interesting suggestions applicable to all creatives:
2. be mindful
think slow, act fast. shooters just starting out often roll all the time in fear of missing something but by doing so you’re not making a conscious decision about what you’re shooting and therefore actually get less out of the scene. take the time to think about what’s going on and how to capture it, and THEN hit record. you will be more focused and…


Do broadcasters understand 3D? | Stephane Savard | Blog
Of course not! Neither do I!
One example did happen yesterday at the session that was talking about the 2d to 3d conversion of “Titanic”. That movie has been converted with lots of depth and I think the 3D effect is very impressive. They presented some scene from the converted movie and during the question period, one attendee did say that there was not much 3D in what we saw… basically for him if things are not jumping off the screen and comes into your face, this is not 3D!



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