Notes On Video

This is disappointing: it seems that the Sony 18-105mm lens suffers from some pretty severe distortion (at least on video cameras) But Cory Shubert tried it on his NEX-VG20, and thinks the problem isn't so severe: A webinar from Imagineer Systems covering planar tracking stabilization techniques with Mocha. Shooting with the MoVI and the Sony NEX-FS100 and using the Sony 10-18 lens: Another effort at color grading the Blackmagic 4K camera footage:

ARRI Amira update (sort of) Back at the IBC show ARRI announced a new digital documentary camera, the Amira . It would be based on the sensor of the original Alexa, but other than that, ARRI was rather cagey about what it would cost or even when it would ship. But they have been showing prototypes and gathering opinions from users. According to Den Lennie , he and Rodney Charters got a demo of one of only three prototype cameras last week. Part of the demo took place at Britain's oldest pub . OWC Confirms Mac Pro 2013 Processor Upgradeable | OWC We got our hands on an Intel E5-2667 V2 8-core 3.30GHz with 25MB Cache processor, installed it in the new Mac Pro and have done some benchmarking to get an early look at the performance vs. the stock Apple / Intel E5-1650 V2 6-core 3.50GHz with 12MB Cache model.  Thunderbolt 2 is NOT twice the speed of Thunderbolt 1 | Red Shark News It turns out that the main difference between the two Thunderbolts is that version 2 ha...

Letus posted the following to their Facebook page  about the new anamorphic adapter for the GoPro that they teaser yesterday: Letus AnamorphX-GP (left), Letus AnamorphX for 35mm lenses (right) Here's a few specs for the AnamorphX-GP: 1.33x squeeze factor Custom CNC aluminum housing Use the GoPro 3+ waterproof housing for mounting. The adapter replaces the waterproof lens housing element. The unit will retain waterproof property. In 1080 mode, when the Letus AnamorphX-GP is attached, it will convert the 16:9 aspect ratio into 2.39:1 aspect ratio without the need for cropping (post production de-squeeze is required). In super-view mode the GoPro records in 4:3 aspect ratio and digitally stretch the image into 16:9 aspect ratio (dynamic stretching: http://gopro.com/support/articles/what-is-superview ). The center of the image is kept same but the outer of the image is progressively stretched outward and that is what causes the distortion, especially on the edges. This is...

Letus Corporation @letus35 Letus Tweeted this i nteresting idea  yesterday; an anamorphic adapter for the GoPro Hero! Introducing the newest member of Letus Anamorphic Club: 1.33x anamorphic lens adapter for @GoPro  Mac Pro Reviews Mac Pro, Final Cut Pro X 10.1, and five streams of native R3D | Philip Hodgetts Benchmarks, schmenchmarks: this is the performance I care about. Bottom line: multiple stream native RED 4K editing without proxies is practical if you have the storage speed. The New Mac Pro: Ridiculously Fast | Larry Jordan Here’s the speed of the Mac Pro talking directly with its internal flash drive. Holy smokes! I have never measured speeds this fast — BUT, even this speed does not fully load a single Thunderbolt 1 pipe. The new Thunderbolt 2 protocol, which the Mac Pro also supports, is more than twice as fast as the internal flash drive. The Mac Pro Review (Late 2013) | AnandTech Cheaper to build your own, but would it look as sexy? Th...

An initial look at the Digital Bolex D-16 | Philip Bloom First impressions, some sample footage, and a short video shot on the new Digital Bolex: Absolutely no moire or aliasing that I have seen. Zero, zlich. A very filmic image, more so than the BMD Pocket Camera. It really has a proper S16mm look to it, not just a S16mm sized sensor. Rain City: Initial shooting with the Digital Bolex D-16 from Philip Bloom on Vimeo . Philip compares the Digital Bolex to the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, so here's another review of that: Taking a look at the Pocket Cinema Camera from Blackmagic Design. Is this the perfect camera for low budget filmmakers? It's a quirky little camera that packs a big punch, but there are some set backs to be aware of. Sony CineAlta 4K F-Series Webinar | Sony You can watch this 48 minute webinar; but you have to give them an email address to see it: What is the Digital Motion Picture Centre Europe and how you can make the best of ...

It's the New Year, and I should do a year in review piece , but I already did that for Filmmaker . And I just want to point out that I did 2014K a day before RedShark News published their piece on why this will the year of 4K . Not yet convinced that this will be the year of 4K? Canon just dropped the price of the C500 down to $20K. For the next three days you can buy it for $16,999 at B & H thanks to $3,000 in instant savings. If that's still too rich for you, the C100 is now $4,999 ....makes you wonder what will be coming at NAB... Meanwhile, Kai at DigitalRev takes a look at the retro Nikon Df DSLR , and doesn't like it at all (and it doesn't even do video!) Here's an example of color grading , using SLog2 4K footage from the Sony F55. And here's a really interesting video showing the effect of moving the positions of your lights . Amazing video of a brushless gimbal (the MoVI?) doing it's thing. The Playlist has a list of the 1...

H A P P Y     N E W Y E A R !

Color Correcting Video in Photoshop | Photofocus You’ll learn how to color correct and grade your sequence.  You’ll learn how to refine the color and exposure of video footage. You’ll also learn how to use Lookup Tables in order to quickly apply a style to several clips.  The Photoshop editing interface is easy to learn and master. Credit Suisse: Only Canon, Nikon and Sony will survive in the digital camera market | Sony Alpha Rumors “Only those who have a strong brand and are competitive on price will last – and only Canon, Nikon and Sony fulfil that criteria,” said Credit Suisse analyst Yoshida. The new Hobbit movie saw Weta Digital make Smaug larger than a 747 in one scene yet use GoPros in another | Pocket Lint That said, the scene where Smaug chases Bilbo about the mountain of treasure is jaw-dropping and obviously took a lot of work. Yet the barrel escape scene seems more straight forward. That intricate blend of 4K footage and GoPro shots is thanks to Wet...

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera Review – Final Part | EOSHD Audio is the only major weakness of the camera. The internal pre-amps are poor, the circuits are noisy, monitoring it is tricky and there’s hardly any audio features. But considering how much hassle, manpower, time and expense is saved with other areas using the Pocket in a pure directing sense like a viewfinder with a record button, it isn’t much to ask to have a sound guy on location with you. An Examination of the RED DRAGON Initial Impressions | Timur Civan Thats when I realised the difference.   I thought my MX was broken….  It just looked …. old.  Its a funny thing with technology, you don’t notice an improvement  as being that huge until you take a step backwards in generation.  I love the current MX, but I just met its successful, smarter, hotter, younger sister. Cine-EI Mode when recording S-Log2/3 and raw on the F5 and F55 | XDCAM-User Prior to version 3 of the F5 and F55 firmw...

I saw a link to " Minimalist Posters Depict The Architecture of 13 Classic Films " and immediately scanned through them to see if the house from North by Northwest  was amongst the chosen ones. And of course, there it was: But wait! There's something wrong! Firstly, it's pictured from the opposite side of the house to that seen in the movie. That feels a bit wrong because you never see that side of the house in the move; I guess that does give the artist some extra room to play given that the house doesn't exist. Still, there's definitely some problems compared to the "actual house;" for example, in the poster the front section of the house is at the same level as the back section, but in the movie it appears to be lower than the back section, though that could be an optical illusion. More troubling is the placement of the stone structure next to the end of the front section of the house (the red line in the image above). If you comp...