Notes On Video

Paul Antico sent in this report on his experience with the 10.9.3 update: I just downloaded 10.9.3 and tested it on my 8 core late 2013 "new" Mac Pro D700s and my 5" late 2013 15" Retina Macbook Pro. I have a 40" Seiki 4K  display hooked up to the Mac Pro HDMI port. You can now do "retina" on the 4K panel (HIDPI scaling) and it works ok in most situations. This means photos/video/visual content etc. are shown at native 4K resolution on a big 4K monitor or HDMI 4K/UHD TV, but the screen elements and UI remain at a normal size - say what you see on an iMac at 2560x1440 - but much sharper. It's quite nice, and how the Retina Macbook Pros work. It's not a straight 2x scaling (it actually scales to 5120x2880 and scales down to UHD resolution, but from a slight distance it looks as good as the Retina screen does on my Macbook Pro.) FCPX on those mentioned computers supports broadcast monitoring (HD, and 4K) via HDMI right out of the comp...

First, the good news: We have restored Adobe login services and all services are now online. We will be sharing a complete update on the outage soon. — Adobe Customer Care (@AdobeCare) May 16, 2014 Creative Cloud login offline for almost 24 hours (and counting) | Digital Photography Review A serious outage has taken login functionality offline for almost 24 hours, leaving subscribers to Adobe's Creative Cloud unable to access their accounts or do much of anything else - including downloading new apps. As yet, Adobe has been unable to offer any indication of how long the outage will last, but a message on the CC homepage states that the company has 'identified the cause [and is] working to restore the service as quickly as possible'. Adobe did offer this stop-gap solution: Creative Cloud Help / Creative Cloud Service Outage | Adobe Other News Stu Maschwitz decides to return his Panasonic GH4 In short: Poor low-light performance and a noisy, contrasty imag...

In response to yesterday's comments about the new Canon 16-35mm f/4 lens, reader Paul Antico writes: I read your lens article. I have like 8 or 9 lenses ranging from cheap (but excellent) rokinons to the canon f2.8 70-200 is II which cost like $2400. What lens do I use for video most constantly on my video cameras? The 24-105 f4L IS.  For video usually f4 or F 5.6 is where I want to be for most shots anyway to ease focus and allow a bit of depth. The lens looks nice, is relatively rugged, and has decent IS. It's a great all around stills lens too. And the c300/100 and my 5D3 have more than enough low light ability to compensate for the stop difference over 2.8. Only on set up shots or interviews do I really use anything else actually. For quick setups and being mobile or running around, it wins every single time for quality and a great selection of useful focal lengths. (I use the 17-55 IS on the c100 too but it's a horrible lens body with nice glass inside). Pa...

Canon today announced a couple of lenses; an EF 16-35mm f4 IS lens  ($1,199), and an EF-S 10-18mm f4.5-5.6 ( $299 ). Interestingly, the announcement of the 16-35mm f4 lens seemed to have prompted a rather ho-hum reaction; some saying they'd stick with the EF 16-35mm f2.8 , while others suggesting that the Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 is a better deal. As someone who likes wide-angle lenses, owns the EF 16-35mm f/2.8, and has used the Sigma 18-35, I thought I'd weigh in on this new lens too! Firstly, like Stu Maschwitz , I think I'm going to stick with my f2.8. lens. It's a nice solid lens. The Sigma lens is nice too, but it's not quite as wide, it doesn't work on full frame cameras, and I didn't find that extra 1 1/3 stops a must-have feature when I was using it. The new Canon f/4 16-35mm lens includes IS, which is useful if you're moving the camera around, but other than that, this lens doesn't really stand out when compared to the other two. What i...

Jay Leno was the commencement speaker at Emerson College this year, and he offered some surprisingly good tips for those interested in going into show business. It starts at 9:25 Comedy lights up 134th Commencement | Emerson College The Andover, Massachusetts, native then gave graduates his “20 rules of show business in no particular order.” Those rules included: Never go on stage mad because “anger robs creativity”; when you get too comfortable, move on, saying, “you should always try to find the toughest audience”; and to not have a relationship with a partner who “doesn’t get it,” saying, “you need a soulmate, not a cellmate.” Product Review: Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera | Photo District News In my testing, I found the ProRes movie files to be almost on par with the RAW footage I shot, but they took less work in DaVinci Resolve. Let’s face it though: If you buy this camera, you’ll probably want to shoot the 12-bit RAW video and while it takes some time to process the...

Check out the First Indie Short Film Shot on the 4K Panasonic GH4 | No Film School Aside from being truly funny, the film does a great job of giving an entertaining overview of Panasonic’s new camera. Really, Le Cas GH4 is one part indie short, one part GH4 camera test, and one part pseudo GH4/5D Mark III shootout. Editing Interview Footage – Tips and Techniques | Learning DSLR I got to watch Chris Fenwick who has been an editor for many years to cut one of my videos while we were at NAB2014. Warning this is a long video, but I think you will learn a lot like I did. HERE'S HOW MUCH EDITING WORK (AND HOW LITTLE TIME) WAS INVOLVED IN SNL'S EPIC BEYONCÉ SKETCH | CoCreate Starting from Friday afternoon at 4 p.m., we see the production unfold through the lens of the Adobe Premiere editing software interface, revealing a constant state of video flux until dress rehearsal, airtime, and the export of the post-production version. Apparently, sometimes the process is daunt...