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CES
CES starts Jan 8th, so look for some announcements today and tomorrow of new consumer still and video cameras.


GoPro Hero3 Black Edition review: taking action cam quality to the next level
| Michael Gorman | Engadget
GoPro's Hero3 Black Edition is, put simply, the most capable action camera on the market today. It delivers unparalleled resolution from a camera of its size and does so without sacrificing frame rate or field of view. Despite its meager battery life and less-than-ergonomic shape, the Hero3 provides imaging performance superior to all of its competitors at a price that won't break the bank.


Review: F&V Z180 - Expandable LED lighting for everyone | Daniel Freytag | Blog
Compared to my Litepanels MicroPro the Z180 Bi-Color produces a bit more light, even though I could only use half of its LEDs at once, because 90 LEDs are daylight-balanced and the other 90 tungsten-balanced.
F&V also ships a diffusion filter which simply snaps-on using magnets. A really nice system for normale usage, but I don't how it would hold up if you shoot in a shaking truck or so.


Far From Dead: A reflection on the place of video DSLRs in 2013 | Micha Hilliard
| DSLR News Shooter
Around this time of year, the impulse is strong to reflect upon what has happened and what is to come. Even better cameras are in the making; 4K resolution will slowly become the norm. Nonetheless, DSLRs are far from dead. For the same reasons that filmmakers once flocked around the Canon 5D mkII, I still gladly choose a DSLR over the digital cinema cameras for a wide range of assignments.


D|FOCUS V4 – A budget prices follow focus that just got better | Dan Chung
| DSLR News Shooter
As other cheap competitors have multiplied D|Focus have continually improved the specification of their model. The new D|Focus V4 is the latest version which promises to be the best yet. According to David Aldrich of D|Focus there are two main changes to the V4. It has a single, all aluminum rod mount and new ‘hybrid’ miter gears – plastic teeth molded over an aluminum insert.  The new gears are said to be much more durable than the old plastic ones.


Two free iBooks for your reading pleasure | Scott Simmons | Pro Video Coalition
If you’re a fan of the iPad then you’ve probably heard of iBooks Author, Apple’s electronic book authoring application that allows anyone to author and publish an iBook. The downside is that it’s mainly limited to the Apple/iOS world but the upside is we get cool free iBooks like The Craft of The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey iBook from fxguide and Broadcast Delivery 101 by Craig Russill-Roy.


Why You Can’t Use Super-16 Lenses with the Blackmagic Camera | Mitch Gross
| Cine Technica
Alas, it is not to be. The Super-16 format image circle is 14.55mm. That is the diagonal of the frame, or the widest projection the lens must make at all focal lengths and apertures in order to properly expose the image. However, the sensor of the Blackmagic has an 18.14mm diagonal. Most Super-16 prime and zoom lenses have a modest amount of over-projection to cleanly cover the image, but they won’t reach as far as this much-larger sensor.

Shooting Angels with the Panasonic GH3 in Mexico | Joey Daoud
| Filmmaker Magazine
Comparing the GH2 to the GH3, everything is better. The body is bigger and has a much more solid, professional feel. All the benefits you got from hacking the GH2 are now standard in the GH3, plus lots of design tweaks. High bitrates, the option to record either AVCHD or QuickTime, a touch screen menu system that is actually faster to touch than to use the scroll wheel.


New 70mm Panavision / NASA digital cinema camera sighted at film festival
| EOSHD
In May last year I reported that Pavavision were working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on sensor technology for a possible digital cinema camera. In a surprise unveling at the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography (Camerimage 2012) in Poland they have indeed signalled their intention to join the market and have shown the first fruits of their labour with a new prototype.


Premiere Pro: Green-screen Keys | Larry Jordan | Blog
Premiere Pro provides several different ways to create this key. In this tutorial, I’ll show you the preferred method: the Ultra key.
THE ULTRA KEY: The big benefit to Ultra Key is that it is fast and looks great.


Editing in 2013 | Oliver Peters | digitalfims
There have been four typical responses to X from FCP “legacy” users: 1) adopt FCP X; 2) stick with FCP 5/6/7; 3) move/return to Media Composer; or 4) move to Premiere Pro. Maybe a few jumped platforms, too, as well as pursued PC options, like EDIUS, Vegas Pro or Avid DS. In my market (central Florida), folks have been sticking with FCP 7 in the interim.


Belle first major British 4K film | Naman Ramachandran | Cineuropa
Upcoming Pinewood Films release Belle, directed by Amma Assante, is the first major British film shot on true-4K using Sony’s F65 CineAlta digital production camera.


Movie Scenes of the Past in Real Life New York | HENRY GRABAR
| The Atlantic Cities
On his way to work on Manhattan's West Side, Christopher Moloney passes a location -- Broadway at Columbus Circle -- of moderate significance to some film geeks: it's the site of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man's rampage at the climax of the movie Ghostbusters. One day, in an effort to demonstrate this serendipity to his friends, Maloney held a crinkled print-out of the movie still up to the streetscape and took a photo.

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