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A Cautionary Tale for the FCP Switcher | Walter Biscardi | Creative Cow
Walter very publicly broke up with Final Cut when FCPX came out. He switched to Avid, but here he documents the many problems he ran into with the kind of work they do. Now he's trying Premiere Pro:
In short, Avid has opened up the workflow on the front end of the process by allowing editors to work natively with multiple formats via AMA, but on the backend the software itself throws up a lot of roadblocks when trying to conform and export a timeline from the application. I describe as "We've made it a lot easier for you to start editing, but good luck getting your project out of our software." If you're going to finish your project inside Avid, you're good to go. But when trying to get outside the software, the tightly controlled database gets in the way.


PART TWO…”In two minds” | Philip Johnston | HD Warrior
Philip continues to be in three minds about whether to switch to Final Cut Pro X or Premiere Pro. Here he documents liking the green screen capabiltiies in FCPX:
I had read that FCP-10 was good at green screen but WOW…I had a perfect key without doing anything, obviously the Canon C300 with its 50Mbps, 4:2:2 and 50mm f1.4 Carl Zeiss lens helps but I was blown away with how easy it was to achieve such a fantastic key in a matter of minutes.


New Marshall 5.6″ Monitor Available Now | Jared Abrams | Wide Open Camera
Jared likes the new monitor from Marshall:
We got our dirty little hands on the new 5.6″ monitor from Marshall Electronics at NAB 2012. The new modular system is future proof. The build quality improved and the new feature set blows away the competition. The base model 5.6″ with HDMI inputs starts at just under $1K. Here is a rip from the Marshall Electronics website.


3 Inventive DIY Camera Sliders | Danny Greer | Premiumbeat
A look at three different budget construction jobs for DIY camera sliders:
Cost: $20 The guys from Backyard FX have put together this instructional (and funny!) how-to video for their wood and PVC camera slider. This DIY slider balances on top of a tripod, so you can easily adjust the height. Two PVC pipes are screwed down onto a 1X4 and used as rails for the sliding camera platform.


This Insane 4K Video Camera Captures Four Billion Pixels Per Second | Kevin Lee
 | PCWorld
Do we really need that much resolution?!
NHK showed off the new camera at its recent NHK Open House 2012 event. The camera, according to NHK, can shoot 7580-by-4320-pixel resolution video at 120 frames per second (fps)--which breaks down to about four billion pixels per second.


Canon C300 Menu Simulator and Other Resources | Andy Shipsides | AbelCine
Arri has had an Alexa camera simulator for about a year, now Canon has one for the C300:
Canon has posted a menu simulator for their C300 camera, which allows you to navigate the menu system of the C300 and also locate the different buttons on the camera. This is a fantastic tool for learning the C300 before actually getting your hands on it.


Reliable source says no chance Apple will ax Mac Pro | Josh Ong | AppleInsider
Jim Dalrymple of The Loop is confident that Apple will continue to sell the Mac Pro - but will they update it?!
When asked by Benjamin if there is "any chance" that Apple will get rid of the Mac Pro, Dalrymple simply replied, "No." After a few seconds of silence, Benjamin followed up by asking "You're really confident in that? You feel good about that?"

Dalrymple responded by laughing. "Good, that's what I want to hear," Benjamin said before moving on.


Incredible Steadicam shot Behind the Scenes of Hugo | YouTube
Who isn't impressed by long Steadicam shots? Here's how one was made, shot by Larry McConkey on Hugo. [Look for the moving wall]. via Daniel Freytag.




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