Notes On Video

Just got back from the Boston Meetup with Philip Bloom. I'm not sure what Philip had thought was going to happen, but it actually turned into quite a Q&A lecture, where he showed some movies and answered a lot of questions. Several attendees also showed their own videos. It was nothing like this video:

When the HDR-AX2000 and HXR-NX5U were announced, Sony quoted the US list prices as being $3,500 and $4,950 respectively. But when they came on sale, retailers were actually offering the HXR-NX5U for $3,999. The comparatively small difference (it's larger in other countries) makes the choice between them difficult because you get a lot of extra features for only $500 more. Now the price of the HDR-AX2000 seems to be drifting down a little, which isn't a surprise as the HDR-FX1000 - the HDV based pre-cursor to the AX2000 - retails for $3,199. Over the past couple of weeks I've seen it on Amazon for about $100 off, but right now, Amazon has a couple of sellers offering the HDR-AX2000 for $250 off the list price: Sony HDR-AX2000 Handycam camcorder

Marshall is known for producing high-quality field monitors. With rugged construction and features like false color and peaking filters, they are pretty much standard equipment for professionals. But monitors like the V-LCD70XP and the V-LCD651ST cost between and $1,150 and $1,600. Now Marshall are entering the budget market with the 7" M-LCD7-HDMI monitor. This is sold as a kit including the monitor, a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable, standard HDMI cable, A/V cable, PC cable, battery, AC power supply, stand, hot shoe camera mount adapter, and remote. There's currently three models available that work with either Canon LP-E6 batteries (used in the Canon 7D and 5D Mark II) the Canon BP511 and the Nikon EN-EL3E, and each includes an appropriate after-market battery. What doesn't it have? This model looks suspiciously like a monitor being sold by some other vendors. It's construction and the quality of the screen may not be on the same professional level as some of other Ma...

In addition to Sonystyle.com, you can also now pre-order the Sony NEX-VG10 at B&H. Price is $1,999.99 with an approximate arrival date of September. B&H: Sony NEX-VG10 Interchangeable Lens Handycam

The Boston Final Cut Pro Users Group has been on a bit of a roll lately. While they’ve been holding monthly meetings for several years, things hit a high-point this past month with the Boston SuperMeet two weeks ago, a great “regular” meeting last night, and still to come this week are a Meetup with Philip Bloom on Friday, and two day-long workshops with Philip on Saturday and Sunday. How is BOSFCPUG leader Dan Berube going to top this? Seriously, if you live in Boston and you’re interested in video production and editing – even if you don’t use Final Cut – you should be going to these meetings. And though this weekend’s workshops are full, you can still come to the Meetup on Friday. Last nights meeting was another informative session featuring Patrick Inhofer on the "The Tao of Color Grading,” and Dean Schirm demoing Smoke for Mac . The meeting was held at Autodesk’s Waltham office, which is a really nice space, and there was even free food courtesy of AJA Video Systems ...

More information on Sony's just announced NEX-VG10: Engadget has a bunch of photos of the camera taken at an event in London: Engadget : Sony NEX-VG10 HD camcorder preview Sample video from Sony shot with the camera: DVCulture : Sony’s New NEX-VG10 Footage! Imaging Resource has an overview: Sony NEX-VG10 Overview And Philip Johnston thinks this camera may spell the end of the HD SLR revolution: Sionara DSLR time is running out…! but I think it's a bit soon to make such a prophecy.

It’s only been a few hours, but already the Internets are buzzing about the Sony NEX-VG10 , which was announced this morning: What does it mean to the HD SLR market? How will it perform? What about 24p?! When it comes down to it, the NEX-VG10 has two outstanding features; interchangeable lenses and a larger chip, the latter making for shallower depth-of-field when working at large apertures. But have they messed up a couple of important things? The camera only supports 1080/60i. There's no 24p, and it’s a bit vague on 30p (it appears the video file is 1920 x 1080/60i, but created from a 30p output sensor, so may technically be 30p) The lack of 24p capture might be their biggest mistake; lots of people buying HD SLRs want 24p – along with shallow depth-of-field – to get the “film look.” Sony's second mistake may be in pricing and bundling. Including a good lens makes sense, but means the bundle costs more than twice what the Canon T2i body costs. And people look at t...

Back when they announced the NEX-5 APS camera, Sony talked about an interchangeable lens HD camera using the same chip, but we all thought it would be close to the end of the year before they even announced that. Clearly Sony had other plans, as they have just announced the NEX-VG10, though it won't ship until September. Coupled with Sony's powerful BIONZ processor, the camcorder's ExmorTM APS HD CMOS sensor realizes high resolution video and 14 megapixel still images. Approximately 19.5 times bigger than the standard sensor found in conventional camcorders, the APS HD CMOS sensor enables an extremely shallow depth of field. This allows videographers to achieve cinematic results with stunning background defocus (bokeh). Users can also enjoy DSLR-quality photo capture with features like Auto HDR, Handheld Twilight, and Anti Motion Blur, as well as catch fast action sequences with a continuous burst rate of up to seven fps. It will come with an E-mount 18-200mm lens optimi...

createasphere has been offering some free webinars. The latest is: Life Without Timecode (Audio for HDSLR) Aaron Murphy, Audio Supervisor for shows like Top Chef, and Rode Microphones are going to be on hand. Aaron Murphy has been working in television since 1994 and now trains and hires other crew members to work in reality TV. Rode Microphone's VideoMic is a popular solution as an on-camera mic, but their expertise is not limited to on camera solutions and their perspective will be a valuable addition to this program. Topics to be covered: * Range of solutions based on style of production * Life without timecode * Workflow * Third party solutions When: Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 11:00 AM PST It's free (though limited to 500 people) but they also tend to make the webcasts available the next day. I DO NOT RECOMMEND REGISTERING At the moment I personally do not recommend using their registration system. Firstly, there's no guarantee you will be able to get i...

A documentary about David Lynch is being financed by online contributors, who will receive a limited edition self-portrait by David Lynch in return for donating $50. In addition to receiving Lynch's artwork donors will also receive newsletter updates and access to exclusive footage once filming has begun. This form of fund raising on the web seems to be taking off; the website Kickstarter provides a way for artists to make similar offers without having to create their own website and payment systems. LYNCHthree project NotesOnVideo : Kickstart your project

If you often embed YouTube video's in your blog or web page, you'll appreciate the new Custom Tool they have added to their embed code generator. Now, rather than just pick from the preset sizes, you can enter either a height or width and it will calculate the other value and adjust the object code for you. Great for me, because the width of this blog column is narrower than the current smallest size of 560 x 340. Of course, you could edit the object code yourself, but this tool saves you a minute or two! QuickOnlineTips : YouTube Video Custom Size Box Makes Video Embeds Easier

Canonrumors continues to believe that the 60D will be coming soon. They also think it will have an articulating screen and will be 18mp (rather than the 14 reported a week or so ago.) I'm pretty certain it will be 18mp; it would be difficult to sell with the T2i and 7D at 18mp, despite the possible advantages of larger pixels (i.e. lower noise). An articulating screen could be really useful for some video applications... Canonrumors.com: Announcement Dates & 60D Specs [CR2]

Most of my equipment struggles playing 1080 video from YouTube, so I don't know what to make of this, but I'm sure some people will be happy. ...video cameras that shoot in 4K aren’t cheap, and projectors that show videos in 4K are typically the size of a small refrigerator... Hmm...so who will be making use of this?! YouTube : What's bigger than 1080p? 4K video comes to YouTube

VP8 is the royalty-free [possibly], open-source video codec that's part of Google's new WebM video format. The Graphics and Media Lab at the Moscow State University conducted some tests comparing VP8 with H.264 , and the results seem to suggest that VP8 isn't as good as H.264: “When comparing VP8 and x264, VP8... shows five to 25 [times] lower encoding speed with 20 to 30 percent lower quality at average. For example, x264 high-speed preset is faster and has higher quality than any of VP8 presets at average.” but the VP8 developers counter that the video clips that were used for the tests were previously compressed using another codec, giving H.264 an unfair advantage. As pointed out by other developers, H.264 and MPEG-like encoders have slight advantages in reproducing some of their own typical artifacts, which helps their objective measurement numbers but not necessarily visual quality. This is reflected by relatively better results for VP8 on the only uncompressed inp...

iPhone Movie Making Equipment Want to shot your next motion picture on an iPhone? Zacuto has the rigs for you: the Zgrip iPhone Jr. is $69, while the Zgrip iPhone Pro is $295. Zacuto: Zgrip iPhone Jr. Seven well known Fetishists Stu Maschwitz thinks Vincent Laforet should stop his obsession with gadgets, and Philip Bloom needs to widen his field of focus. In his latest ProLost blog he takes a shot at some of the best known people in the industry and their various "fetishes," and tells them all to lighten up. Something tells me articles like these will only encourage them. ProLost: Seven Fetishists And Why They Should Relax

Sony has posted on YouTube an interesting short on the shooting of a 3D commercial for their new 3D TVs. You can watch the advertisement itself at YouTube: New Sony 3D TV advert featuring Kaka  (the ad is presented in 3D/2D i.e. you see the two parts of the image merged together.) They shot the football sequences using four stereoscopic rigs with eight cameras; resulting in 700 boxes of camera equipment! The video features a great goalpost explosion:

...but not edited using iMovie! This video claims to the be the first corporate film shot using the iPhone 4. I have no idea if that's correct or not, but it's interesting to see anyway. Note that he has a ContourHD camera on his helmet!

Love him or hate him, Michael Moore is probably one of the most successful documentary producers, and he has now been elected to the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition, director Kathryn Bigelow and film editor Anne Coates were also elected for the first time. Oscars.org: Academy Elects Three First-time Governors, Returns Nine Incumbents

I previously listed the upcoming Boston Final Cut Pro User Group meeting about color grading with Patrick Inhofer on the evening of July 14th. It turns out there will also be an event with Patrick that morning at Rule as well. The Tao of Color Grading Featuring the Euphonix MC Color Control Surface & Apple's Color Colorist/Finisher, Patrick Inhofer , shares insights, techniques, workflows and tools acquired during a decade of color correcting with non-linear software. Patrick will provide real-world grading examples, a renewed understanding of key concepts and a discussion on how ProRes and devices like the AJA Ki Pro can help maintain the quality of your images throughout the finishing process. Using the powerful Euphonix MC Color, Patrick will demonstrate how a control surface results in faster grading sessions while increasing the quality of the finished product. Wednesday, July 14, 2010 10am to 12noon with Breakfast Rule Boston Camera, 395 Western Avenue,...

JAG35 Shoulder Rig Review Ron Risman at CameraTown does a full review of the JAG35 Full Shoulder Rig . This rig is being sold primarily into the DSLR market, though it could also be used with traditional video cameras, and at $649, it is one of the best deals around. Ron's been using the rig for a couple of weeks, and has produced a very indepth review: For me, the biggest advantage of any rod-based shoulder rig is the flexibility they offer, and the JAG35 allowed me the flexibility to conjure up configurations that made my shooting workflow so much easier. Yes, there are plenty of shoulder rigs on the market that use industry standard rods, but JAG35 has brought a quality rig into a price range that is much more palatable for many of us. Cameratown : JAG35 Full Shoulder Rig For HDSLR's JAG35 : Full Shoulder Rig Crowdsourced Movies There seems to be at least a couple of attempts at crowdsourced movies (think of them as web-based video " Day in the Life " proje...