Notes On Video

Recently, I was working on a project in Adobe  Premiere which required exporting the Sequence as multiple sub-clips to .f4v format. Of course, as often happens, there was a problem with one of the exported clips, so I had to set it up in Premiere and re-export to Adobe Media Encoder . I sent the clip out to Media Encoder, and went off to do something else. When I came back I noticed that Media Encoder was just sitting there with the spinning-ball-of-nothing going. Now sometimes it takes Media Encoder a while to get it’s act together when you send a complicated sequence to it, so I waited... After another few minutes I started to worry. I closed out the project in Premiere . That had no effect. I checked to see if I had too many apps running or was running low on disk space. No problem there. I was just considering doing a Force Quit on the application - and wondering if it would remember what had been sent to it - when I remembered something: I’d...

Sony’s PMW-150 and PMW-200 camcorders meet European Broadcast Union standard for HD Broadcast Production | Sony Sony today announced that its latest XDCAM HD422 50Mbps camcorders, the PMW-200 and PMW-150, have met the standards the European Broadcast Union (EBU) recommend for long form video production. Both cameras were independently tested by Alan Roberts in accordance with the EBU camera test guidelines. Testing Your Camera’s Latitude | Shane Hurlbut | Hurlblog Let’s begin with over exposing. This test shows you how it handles the highlights. Set up your grey card and color chart on the same focal plan as your model. Frame a shot that is a medium size frame so that the charts are just in the left and right sides of the frame. There are many ways to light this test. We used a very frontal light source that was very bright so we could start at a high f-stop and then work our way down in 1/3 stop increments. Apple slashes price on Thunderbolt cable, releases additional sh...

Canon Cinema Primes vs. Canon L Series | Jonathan Yi | Vimeo Jonathan did an amusing - and informative - video about the Canon C300 last year, and now he's back with a look at Canon's Cine lenses: This is a comparison and test shoot of Canon's new Cinema Primes versus Canon's revered L series still photography lenses. Shot on a Canon C300. Panasonic unveils new A100 wearable HD camcorder | Shane McGlaun | Slash Gear I always thought Sony's HXR-MC1 little recorder would be cool for shooting some things (or hanging from the ceiling) but at almost $2,000, I just couldn't afford it. This thing is supposed to be around $300! The camera can also be mounted to a helmet or to a backpack. The camera is designed to be waterproof with an IPX8 waterproof design allowing the camera to shoot in water up to 5 feet deep for 30 minutes. The camera is also dustproof to protect sensitive electronics from sand. The camera has integrated Wi-Fi connectivity making it e...

Sony's 4K Handycam and HXR-IFR5 4K Interface Unit prototypes eyes-on | Brian Heater | Engadget Looks interesting; but I don't think it has removable lenses, and I don't think it's a large sensor (if that's the camera they actually deliver): First off was the generically labelled 4K Consumer Camcorder, a prototype device that was hanging out in a glass case at the Sony booth after the event concluded -- though there was a Handycam logo on the side of the device. It's not a bad looking handheld -- about a standard size for a prosumer model, with a viewfinder, mic and handle at the top. Understanding 4K Production with the Cinema EOS System | Jem Schofield | Canon The Cinema EOS C500 is based around Canon’s 4K, Super 35mm CMOS sensor and has two forms of 4K origination. The choice of which to use is based on the specific needs of a production. A user can choose the Digital Cinema Initiatives/DCI SMPTE 2048-1:2011 standard, which is based on a 4096 x 2160...

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 magne...