Notes On Video

Now of a kid in school that's into film/video making? You might want to tell them about the 2008 Insomnia Film Festival . On November 15 at 9:00 a.m. EST, the clock starts ticking. Apple will post the list of required elements for entries in the 2008 Insomnia Film Festival. Then you and your team will have the next 24 hours to make and upload your 3-minute movie. That's the easy part. [...] Earn the #1 rating from either the public or the pros, and you'll land one of two grand prizes. Everyone on your team will get a MacBook Pro, Final Cut Studio 2, Logic Studio, Shake, and a year's worth of One to One personal training to help you use them. Note that: All five registered team members need to be current students in the U.S. attending high school (9th through 12th grade) or an accredited college or university

Seems that Ken Rockwell really likes the Canon 5D Mark II ; if you're shooting landscapes. If it's news or sports, stick with Nikon. It's an interesting page, but I'm not so sure I can agree with his comments about the D90 being preferred for theatrical release. The Nikon D90's 24 FPS rate is ideal for theatrical release; the Canon's 30-frame rate will look more like video while the D90's 24-frame rate will look more like film. While the frame rate of the D90 suggests it's better for going to film, the "jelly" issue, and the lower resolution make me think that the Canon 5D would be a much better choice; even if you have to do a translation to 24 fps. Or course, if you are going to film, maybe a "real" video camera that shoots at 24p would be the better choice.

Well, it turns out the specs were right. If you do a movie at 1280 x 720, the frame rate must be 24 fps . If you do it at 30 fps (even if the transfer rate is the same) the Apple TV won't even "see" the movie. So it turns out that 960 x 540 @ 30 fps is probably the best choice for transferring HD video to the Apple TV.

While I'm still waiting to see more in-depth reviews about just how good the Canon 5D Mark II video is, there's no doubt that it seems to promise pretty awesome video capabilities. Might be good enough to use to shoot "serious" video? Some people think so, but let's face it, using an SLR to shoot video - even on a tripod - is probably going to be a little bit of a challenge. The camera is designed for shooting stills more than for shooting video. Enter Redrock Micro, who has come up with a rig to hold, and control a DSLR (and to make you look more like a "real" movie maker too!) The Redrock video DSLR Bundle (catchy product name) offers the following features: Follow focus for accurate and repeatable focusing Swing-away mattebox for light management and easy access to changing lenses Shoulder mount and handgrips for steady handheld use Support cage for enhanced stability and low angle shot It's going to be available starting October 28th (price may...

Apple TV I bought an episode of Top Gear last night just to see what it was like. I would have bought the whole season, but that takes up 5GB, and I just don't have that much free space on my iBook right now ( ouch!) A one hour episode is 546MB. Quality; well it's certainly acceptable, but not as good as a DVD It turns out that while I can synch (i.e. copy) content from one iTunes library, I can also stream another iTunes library. Which means that maybe I'll buy Top Gear on the other computer...the only problem is that the computer has to be on to stream... Looks like 1280 x 720 @ 30 fps doesn't work. I made a test movie, and Apple TV didn't like it. I have to remake the movie at 24fps just to confirm that's the issue, and I didn"t mess something else up! Sony HDR-FX7 Sony dropped the price on the HDR-FX7 by a grand; it's now $1,999. Right now B & H lists the new price as $1,999, and the used price is $2,199! I have - and like - the HDR-FX1. Unfo...

I often like to play back video I’ve edited on an HD television that’s down the hall from my editing suite (that sounds a bit pretentious; the suite is a Mac in my office.) In the past I’ve been burning HD content onto an anamorphic DVD, which works fine – even if it takes a bit of time – though there is some noticeable resolution loss. For ages, I’d been thinking that if I had a Blu-ray burner and player then it would provide a higher-resolution solution. But the failure of Apple to deliver on Blu-ray support has caused me to reconsider my options, and perhaps come up with a better solution. Apple TV Okay, so the Apple TV is no Blu-ray. In fact, it’s highest resolution is 720p; 1280 x 720 @ 24 fps 5 mpbs, or 960 x 540 @ 30 fps 5 mbps. That’s not Blu-ray resolution, but it’s a bit better than an anamorphic DVD. And there’s other advantages too; most noticeably the savings in time compressing and burning, and also the savings in not burning as many DVDs. I’ll also include the ease of ...

The speed with which new toys come out is truly dizzying. Was it just this January that Casio's EX-F1 was being talked about excitedly because of it's ability to do super-slow motion? And now, heres the EX-FH20 offering similar features in a smaller footprint. It's available for $599 from several online reatilers. Unfortunately, assuming that the video quality is similar to the EX-F1 (which went way down in resolution and way up in noise as the frame rate went up) it's ability to capture short sequences at high frame rates is not that useful. Fun to post short sequences on the web - maybe - but probably not much use for anything else. It does claim 720p (1280 x 720 pixels) video though.

I've been using YouTube for a couple of years to post videos, and I'm generally happy with it; it's easy to use, has a big audience, and you can embed video in other pages easily. And most people seem to have no trouble with it, so if it ain't broke, why fix it? Except that most stuff I do these days is in HD format, and YouTube doesn't support that yet. I have to letterbox things (or pan-and-scan) before posting them. So the quest for an alternative begins. Vimeo looks interesting. They support 720P (1280 x 720), and you have the option of a Free Account, or Vimeo Plus , the latter giving you more storage space (500MB vs 2GB), more uploads (1 a week vs unlimited) and other features for $59.95 a year. What? We have to pay?! While I can't find it on that page, camcorderinfo says that you are limited to 5000 streams . Is that a year? Month? Simultaneously? Well, I'm going to have to do some experimenting with it to see how it compares to YouTube. There are ot...

Apple may not be keen on Blu-ray, but Amex Corporation has announced the Portable Blu-ray Super Multi Drive , a very sleek and sexy external Blu-ray player and reader. It supports both OSX and Windows XP, though note that the Mac OS doesn’t support Blu-ray playback, so the usefulness of the player-only version is rather limited. The BDP-2 Blu-ray Player US$289.00 The BDR-2 Blu-ray Recorder US$389.00 An Intel Core 2 Duo and NVIDIA GF8000 Series or better is required. The text at the top says “New MacBook, Pro and Air. Get this with Toast, and you’d be able to make Blu-ray discs. Firewire Meanwhile, Steve Jobs has reportedly responded to a query about why the new MacBooks don’t have Firewire : Actually, all of the new HD camcorders of the past few years use USB 2. It’s a good point. While HDV tape-based cameras require Firewire to transfer video, all the harddrive and chip-based cameras work with USB (as I’ve found with my new camera.)

Yesterday’s comment about Blu-ray licensing at Apple's MacBook announcement had me puzzled. What was this "bag of hurt" that Steve was on about? Is it the money that Apple would have to pay to put in Blu-ray hardware (and software that writes to Blu-ray?) Is it licensing issues for people writing Blu-ray discs? Or is it both? Or something else? Well I did discover that Roxio already has a Blu-ray plug-in for Toast that will write Blu-ray content to either a Blu-ray player, or even a DVD disc (I didn’t even know that you could put Blu-ray content onto a DVD!) Interestingly, it’s an additional $20 (ontop of the $80 for Toast.) I can't help thinking that one of the reasons they didn't just include it in the package was because of extra licensing fees they had to pay. At a guess, it sounds like if Apple added Blu-ray support to iDVD (iBlu-ray) would they have to pay $10-20 per machine for licensing too? That’s probably the kicker. As to licensing issues for users, t...

Apple came out with new MacBook Pros, and MacBooks today. Built using a new manufacturing process, they feature a glass trackpad, LED-backlit display, new graphics chip, and a new mini display port. They don't include Blu-ray, but someone asked about that omission in the Q&A at the end : "Blu-ray is just a bag of hurt. It's great to watch the movies, but the licensing of the tech is so complex, we're waiting till things settle down and Blu-ray takes off in the marketplace." - Steve Jobs

DPReview.com has their review of the Nikon D90 up. They are a little concerned about the matrix metering and how the highlights tend to slip a bit more than they'd like, but otherwise they seem to like it. Video get's a mixed review, with them noting it's hard to escape the impression that this is a first-generation implementation . After describing the problems of the rolling shutter, they go on to note: The automatic exposure can result in rather 'stepped' exposure changes - the aperture is locked so the problem seems to stem from amplifier stepping. Color rendition is not as convincing as in stills recording, with the red channel appearing to clip in our bus sample. Autofocus is also only available prior to recording, using the less-than-spritely contrast-detect mode, so once the 'rec' dot appears, you'll be left having to focus manually. The sound quality (11kHz Mono) - with no option for an external mic - was also criticized, and in the end they co...

With Blu-ray players still hovering around $300 - and Apple still not supporting Blu-ray authoring *grumble* - I've been disinclined to jump on the Blu-ray bandwagon. But now comes rumors that a Samsung player may reach down to $149 ; at least on sale. That's quite something. On the other hand, I'm still inclined towards the PS3 as the Blu-ray player of choice because you get a game machine, and it seems to be more future-proof than the stand-alone players . Reviewers have taken a crack at deciding between the PS3 vs. standalone player before (note that the review is over a year old) and come away with mixed feelings, but at $149 vs $400, I'm suddenly remembering that the PS2 I own has a fairely heavy layer of dust on it. So do I really care about future prrof players? About Profile 2 with support for secondary decoders, local storage and internet connections, or does all that not really matter if all I'm doing is watching a movie? I guess I'll wait and see wh...

I just finished the previous post, and discovered that DPReview now has a couple of new Canon 5D Mark III sample videos up on their site: get them while they're fresh! . They are both just over 20 MB, and run at right around 39 mbits/s. On the computer I watched these on (a lowly 1.83 GHz Mini Mac) playing in QuickTime Player, the bicycle rider plays very smoothly, but there's a strangely colored frame at 3:16 and I have no idea what's caused that. (I tired playing it on a Windows machine and see the same thing, though it's reported at 3:17!) These clips were taken with a pre-production model. Oddly colored frame (right) in sequence In the second clip (the street scene) the same thing happens at 4:16. Also, the pan is kinda jumpy, which I have to think is caused by the tripod rather than the camera (as the first clip doesn't seem to have that problem.) No obvious jelly problem (but then these are fairly slow pans.) Canon 5D Mark II HD Video samples @ DPReview.com

myDesert.com (website of The Desert Sun , Palm Springs) has an article from Jefferson Graham of USA Today about the Nikon D90 and Canon 5D Mark II that focuses (pun!) on these cameras video capabilities: New Canon, Nikon SLR cameras shoot video . The article pretty much confirms what I've picked up from other sources, but it's always good to hear that what you think is true, still seems to be so. His main points: [he doesn't like] Live View. If you try composing your image in bright sunlight, it's nearly impossible to see. [these cameras let you] make use of the mouthwatering, supersharp, add-on accessory lenses that camera makers promote to let us zoom in really close or go wide for wonderful vistas. Auto focusing is very problematic, more so on the D90 than the 5D [on the D90 it's manual focus only once recording] . [...] On the 5D, Canon adds a cool button on the back of the camera to keep the image in autofocus. Advances in low-light sensors have gotten so g...

* Josh Lowensohn at CNET wonders if a new theater view in the YouTube Player could be a precursor to HD support for YouTube . Personally, I’d love it if YouTube made some effort to support widescreen format videos. A lot of the content I’m now producing is wide screen and if I want to put it on YouTube I have to either letterbox it or pan-and-scan it. I just wish that YouTube would take the content and letterbox it itself. * For a whille there, it looked like Apple might not be releasing new MacBooks next week, but never fear! Apple has sent out invites to the media for a special event about new notebooks on the 14th! One interesting note: Should the price points prove accurate, however, they would imply that Apple is prepared to slash the price of its entry-level MacBook by more than 27 percent. * RealNetworks has some software called RealDVD that – ostensibly – was designed to let people “back-up” their DVDs. 'Not so fast,' says the movie industry, that violates the DMCA!

DPReview has a Photokina Interview with Canon Inc's Director and Chief Executive of Image Communication Products Operations, Masaya Maeda . Lot's of variations on "No Comment," but there was one interesting answer to a question about possible issues with the sensor 'heating up' when shooting extended movie clips (an issue I wasn't even aware of until the announcement of the Nikon D90, when that was given as the reason for the limit on movie clip length): "We don't have that problem with heating because power consumption is very low in our newly developed sensors. There is no impact on stills image quality even after shooting extensively in movie mode." UPDATE: I realize that it might be a bit confusing that I have a comment from a Canon guy and a reference to a Nikon Camera. The Canon guy is, of course, being asked about the movie mode in the Canon 5D Mark II. The Nikon D90 also has a movie mode, and when it was announced, there was talk tha...

Apple is supposed to be rolling out some new hardware on October 14th. Everyone seems to think it’s going to be new MacBooks , but my Magic8Ball iPhone app says “Don’t count on it” (seriously, that’s what the Magic8Ball says, I don’t have any inside track on this folks!) But I’m not really that worried about MacBook updates…what I want is Blu-ray support. Come on Apple! You’re part of the Blu-ray Consortium thingo , why no Blu-ray support? I could understand back when the whole Blu-ray HD DVD thing was going on, but that’s been over for aaaaaages. Maybe Steve just doesn’t care ? If they don’t announce something October 14th I’m going to have to write Steve Jobs a carefully worded letter! What does the Magic 8 Ball say? Damn!

B&H Photo sends out an electronic newsletter now and again, and the latest issue has a hands-on with the Nikon D90 written by Allan Weitz. It's worth checking out if only to see the sample video they have there (some nice shots; though watch the curve of the helicopter blades!) I don't think it says anything particularly unexpected about the feature: [...] the camera's DX-format CMOS sensor is far larger than the sensors found in most consumer camcorders. As a result, the image quality of video captured with the Nikon D90 is noticeably sharper and contains fuller detail and tonality in the mid-tones as well as in highlights and shadow areas. [...]autofocus and viewing the action through the camera's viewfinder, is replaced with viewing, composing and auto focusing on the 3" display and AF locks at the moment the record button is pressed in D-Movie mode. There's also a good explanation of the cause of the "jelly" video effect [...]Unlike tradition...

With nothing else to talk about, here's an interesting article about the Canon 5D Mark II: Canon EOS 5D Mark II: Worth the wait? It's interesting for two reasons: it has a pretty good comparison of the major features of the Nikon D700, Sony Alpha DSLR-A900, Canon 5D and Canon 5D Mark II, and the writer is kind of ho-hum about the whole thing, especially the video capability: While there are some obvious applications for it in areas like wedding, law enforcement, insurance and other professional and commercial environments, a lot of its usefulness will rest on the implementation. In a nice touch, the camera has a minijack for an external microphone. Clearly this guy isn't blown away by the idea of video, and if that's the case, then I guess the camera almost looks like a 21 MP version of the original 12MP camera, and some people aren't pleased about that! If you aren't sure that the Mark II is that much different from the original, it's worth checking out...