Notes On Video

Sony PMX-F3 compared to Panasonic AG-AF100 Dylan Reeve at Crews.tv gives his opinion on the Sony F3 vs the Panasonic AF100. Both cameras a quite different. While there is a significant commonality in their markets it’s clear that Sony is aiming for slightly higher-end buyers than Panasonic and will get them in with features like Dual-Link SDI and S-Log colour. Out of the box both cameras are going to be pretty similar, the differences really come in how far you can take them – the Sony PMW-F3 can be extended to deliver much higher quality video signals, than Panasonic, but that flexability comes at a premium price. crews.tv : Sony F3 vs Panasonic AF100 All The Reasons To Get A Panasonic AG-AF100 Over at dvxuser, Barry Green lists all the things the AF100 does that a Canon DSLR doesn't, including: Clean monitoring at full 1920x1080 resolution, suitable for recording to an external recorder Clean HDMI output at full resolution even during recording, suitable for recording...

Rebel T2i/550D Firmware 1.0.9 Firmware version 1.0.9 incorporates the following fixes. Fixes a phenomenon in which tone jumps become noticeable in some images, depending on the shooting scene, when shooting with the Auto Lighting Optimizer settings (Low / Standard / Strong). T2i Firmware EOS 7D Firmware 1.2.3 Firmware version 1.2.3 incorporates the following fixes. Fixes a phenomenon in which the settings of the Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2 revert to the default settings when both the camera and the ST-E2 are set to auto power off. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Macro Ring Lite (MR-14EX, MT24-EX) and slave flashes do not sync while shooting wirelessly. 7D Firmware

How did that happen? B & H has a page up for the Sony PMW-F3 , and they are listing a price of $13,300. That's still a lot more than the Panasonic AG-AF100 , but less than the $16,000 (list?) figure originally quoted. B & H: Sony PMW-F3L Super 35mm Full-HD Compact Camcorder [$13,300.00] B & H: AG-AF100 Micro Four Thirds Professional HD Camcord er [$4,795.00]

Sony PMW-F3 Impressions Alister Campbell at XDCAM-User got to play with the Sony PMW-F3, and though he says it wasn't really long enough to review, it was long enough for him to decide to place an order! The PMW-F3 will give you around 11 stops of latitude with the built in EX style cinegammas and Sony claim in excess of 12 stops will be available when the 4:4:4 option, which includes S-Log and Hypergamma curves is introduced in April 2011. Remember that 1 stop is either double or half, so an extra stop is double the dynamic range. We really are into film performance territory here. [...] Look at the most successful movie of the year, Avatar . All the live action (well all the real camera work) was shot using Sony HDC1500 and F900 cameras at 1920×1080. I didn’t hear anyone complaining about soft pictures or poor image quality, so you have to ask whether you really need all the extra complexity, data storage and monitoring headaches that 4k would bring. For me the F3 is a winne...

It's Black Friday, and I'm doing my best to avoid the shops and lines, and spending money on things I don't really need... BUT if you're a Mac user and don't have the latest version of Mac Office , you might like to check out today's deal on Microsoft Office Home & Student . It's $40 off the Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011 - Single License  for $79 (regularly $119 ERP) and Office Mac Home and Student 2011 - Family Pack (3 Licenses)  for $109 (regularly $149 ERP). Note: if you want to install it on multiple computers you need the 3 license version as the installation is locked to the computer .

ContourHD 1080p Full HD Helmet Camera A full 1920 x 1080p camcorder for recording all your adventures on land, in the air, on the side of a mountain.... pretty much wherever you feel the need to explore. Price: $279.99 Instant Savings 20.00% Offer ends 11/29/2010 You Pay: $223.99 Sony HDR-CX110 HD Handycam Camcorder [Black]  or [ Blue ] and [ Red ] Sony's HDR-CX110 Handycam Camcorder is an entry level high definition camera that captures 1920 x 1080 video and 3MP digital stills to flash memory. Our Price: $448.00 Instant Savings -  $50.00  Offer ends 11/28/2010  You Pay:  $398.00 Sony HDR-CX150 16GB HD Handycam Camcorder [Black]  or [ Red ] Sony's HDR-CX150 16GB Handycam Camcorder is a mid-range high def camcorder that provides numerous features and functions. Our Price: $498.00 Instant Savings -  $50.00  Offer ends 11/28/2010  You Pay:  $448.00 Flip Video UltraHD Video Camera (Black, 2 Hours) If you're look...

The $100 discount Canon has been offering on the Canon 60D expires tonight! B&H: Canon EOS 60D DSLR Camera [$1,099 - $100 = $999 ] Amazon: Canon EOS 60D 18 MP CMOS Digital SLR Camera with 3.0-Inch LCD (Body Only) [ $999 ]

The next meeting for the Sony CineAlta Production User Group is on Tuesday, December 7th in NYC at 550 Madison Avenue in the Sony Wonder Technology Lab HD Theater, entrance on the ground floor in the Annex. The meeting will take place from 7pm to 830pm Agenda PMW-F3 Super 35mm camcorder The features of the F3 will be explained and footage will be screened shot with the camera. S-LOG Demystified S-Log is a gamma function applied to Sony’s electronic cinematography cameras, in a manner that digitally originated images can be post-processed with similar techniques as those employed for film originated materials. Since S-Log can reproduce the entire tonal range captured by a CCD or CMOS imager, the S-Log image can be described as the “Digital Negative” of the image acquisition process. Shooting in S-Log will enable the cinematographer to decide the exposure value by using a light meter, and offer a smooth transition from film acquisition to digital acquisition. S-LOG is unique t...

Redrocks new Running Man Nano reviewed Matthew Jonas at Small Town Photojournalism takes a look at this new light, low-cost rig from Redrock. Liking the quality, price and lightness of the rig, he thinks it's great for those that want something small and portable to stabilize their camera whether shooting video or stills: It’s lightweight. When I am working I usually carry at least 2 camera bodies each with a lens and a waist pack with extra batteries, a strobe (or 2), memory cards and audio gathering equipment. The last thing I need is another heavy piece of equipment on my shoulder. The Running Man weighs basically the same as another short lens. He has a bunch of close up pictures of the rig too. The Nano is just $439.95 at B & H. Small Town Photojournalism : Redrock Micro: Running Man Nano DSLR Rig Review Sony NXCAM 35mm and PMX-F3 pics Jon Fauer at Film and Digital Times has put up several pictures of the new PMX-F3 and NXCAM 35mm prototypes taken at InterB...

Filmmaker Jared Flesher was in New Hampshire last weekend at the SNOB Film Festival with his first film: The Farmer and the Horse . Jared made the movie with a limited budget and a Canon Vixia camera. The documentary follows three young farmers who are just starting out and want to use horses rather than tractors. There's a lot more to it than that, because starting out farming - whether with horses or tractors - is not a simple proposition. In the course of the movie, you learn their motivations and see the struggles these people go through during one season. The movie also covers the history of farms and farm mechanization, as well as the decline of small farms in New Jersey. Jared Flesher How did you come to make the film? My background's not in film, it's in print journalism. I write for newspapers, magazines and websites. I was working up in Boston, I had an internship and I started writing stories about sustainable energy, renewable energy, and they were ge...

Goodbye DLSR Director and Editor El Skid wonders if some of the power-pioneers of DSLR (Bloom,Hurlbut et. al) will move to cameras like the Sony PMW-F3, and leave DSLRs behind: BLOOM, HURLBUT, LAFORET, ELSKID – BLOG RIP? Bloom Plays With The Panasonic GH2 Maybe he's going to switch to the PMW-F3, but in the meantime Philip Bloom is playing with the Panasonic GH2 and likes the fact that it has HDMI out: First bit of filming with Panasonic GH2 and good news about clean HDMI OUT! Switching to Premiere Pro Chris Fenwick, who's been talking up switching from Final Cut to Premiere Pro a lot lately, notes that switching can be hard because of the little things: Switching IS hard. Apple makes Find My iPhone service free Previously you had to subscribe to MobileMe ($100 a year) to be able to find your iPhone, but now you can do it for free! Engadget: Apple's Find My iPhone / iPad service now free, doesn't require MobileMe

November Videography Magazine Online You can view the November issue of Videography magazine online: Videography November Diffusion Panels for Outdoor Lighting Over at IzzyVideo, a short blog (with video) on using diffusion panels to help control outdoor light. IzzyVideo : Diffusion Panels for Outdoor Video Lighting Asylum VFX House Closing Its Doors Post-production house Asylum is closing it's doors. Bryant Frazer at Studio Daily has an interview with Asylum VFX CEO Nathan McGuinness . What happened was we couldn’t compete with the rest of the world. We couldn’t compete with the tax incentives from other countries. The work I’ve seen coming from around the world, the U.K. especially, is stellar. Amazing. We could do the same, but we weren’t given the same playing field. Over at the Animation Guild blog a different perspective on the impact of the closing: Effects studios are not high-margin businesses. Competition is fierce, and the attrition rate is high. And...

The firmware update for the Sony NEX-VG10 is now available on Sony's U.S. website. There's versions for Mac and PC: Firmware Update (version 02) NEX-VG10V2_Update1011a.dmg Firmware Update (version 02) NEX-VG10V2_Update1011a.exe Sony's support site goes to different pages for different OS's (i.e. 10.6 Mac is here ) but I think there are only two installers. One Snow Leopard (Mac OS 10.6) user at the dpreview forum encountered a problem when he tried to run the installer: I followed the instructions for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and proceeded to update the firmware. During the update (Sony runs a small installer program that has an interface that shows the update being applied) the Mac Mini (new 2010 version) suffered a Kernel Panic and drew a grey screen and froze still! The Mac was able to restart but the VG10 was dead- nothing I could do would cause the VG10 to operate (removed battery and restarted, removed SD card etc....camera was dead!) dpre...

Fresh off the Asia Red Epic Tour, Ted Schilowitz "Leader of the Rebellion" of RED Digital Cinema and Tonaci Tran get together in Vietnam to talk about the Red Epic camera. Here's a quick summary of the questions/answers, though watch the video for the full details. When will it ship? - When it's ready How much does it weigh? - Body only about 5lbs. Typical configuration about 9lbs. How do you take stills and motion at the same time? - Not sure I followed the answer...press a preset button? What accessories from the Red One will work with Epic? - Short answer is almost everything Does HDRX work in camera - There's an easy HDRX mode that works in-camera. - HDRX mode extends the usable range from a little over 13 stops to 18 stops.  Talk about the redesign and cooling he does Can you have two on-board LCDs at the same time? - Yes Is there a 5.5K mode coming? - Never say never. What happens if you put a non-Canon lens in? - It goes to a default...

V.I.O has a new HD POV camera coming that will capture 1080. Priced at $599, it should be shipping just before Christmas. The recording unit features a 2-inch LCD screen to view footage in the field, edit video and make exposure control adjustments. A simple set of controls allows the user to easily “tag” the best footage in the field, so final editing is finished quickly back in the studio. The 2-oz wearable camera head captures 142 degree FOV, at 1080p 30fps—the widest point-of-view camera angle available on the market. The camera head also features video capture at 720p 60fps, a high-quality 6-element glass lens and a native 1080p CMOS sensor designed specifically to produce optimal-quality, Full HD video. VIDEO - 1080p HD Video Resolution/Frame Rates: 1080p/30fps, 720p/60fps, 1080p25fps, 1080p/24fps Video Codec: H.264 Video Container: MPEG-4 Records to SDHC cards Exposure control: Automatic Exposure Control and White Balance There are other POV cameras out there which...

Zoom H4n Firmware Update Zoom has kicked out a firmware update for the Zoom H4n recorder. System Version 1.7 now let's you set the recording level of INPUT1 and 2 individually. The inability to set individual levels was one of the reasons why several professionals were preferring the Tascam DR-100 . Zoom : H4n Software Download Amazon : Zoom H4n Handy Portable Digital Recorder [ $299 ] Amazon : Tascam DR100 Portable Digital Recorder  [ $294 ] Google TV Gets Criticism David Pogue and Walt Mossberg take a look at Google TV - as implemented by Sony and Logitech - and they think it's too complicated: But no matter how many times the industry tries to cram Web+TV down our throats, the masses just don’t swallow. That’s probably because when we sit down at the TV, we want to be passive, with brains turned off, and when we surf the Web, we’re in a different mind-set: more active, more directed  - Pogue The quest to bring the full range of Internet video to your TV in ...

You can't even pre-order it (just ask to be notified when it's in stock) but B & H has a page up for the PMW-F3L : Sony PMW-F3L Super 35mm Full-HD Compact Camcorder

WARNING: This is on the New Zealand Sony site. It's unknown if this update supports U.S. cameras, and the software is not yet on the Sony U.S. site. Sony promised an update to the NEX-VG10 that would add support for auto-focus with A-mount lenses, and they seem to now be making the firmware update available. The update does not appear to add any other functionality. Note that there are different Mac and PC versions, and you must also update the firmware in the LA-EA1 Mount Adaptor (link to that update is on the page.) Sony NZ - Mac: NEX-VG10 Firmware Upgrade Ver.02 (Apple Macintosh) Sony NZ - Windows: NEX-VG10 Firmware Upgrade Ver.02 (Microsoft Windows)

Sony Electronics U.S . says that at this time they cannot confirm if the NXCAM 35mm camera they announced a couple of days ago will use the same sensor as the PMW-F3 that was announced last week. Meanwhile, at Film And Digital Times , Seth Emmons reports on Sony’s recent Super 35mm event at the George Lucas Building at the University of Southern California. While this meeting was ostensibly about the PMW-F3, the NXCAM 35mm camera was also touched on. Although there were those who questioned the choice of a 35 Mbs codec [ in the PMW-F3 ], Crithary answered with what we thought was the biggest surprise of the night. SR Memory is closer than you think, and more affordable. Although he declined to put a price tag or delivery date on the SR Memory recorder, called SR-R1, he did expect it to be within reach of many cinematographers. The ability to record up to 440 Mbs (and higher) onto solid state, RAID-5 protected cards of up to 1Tb should meet the needs of any of any high-budget, ...