Notes On Video

Christmas comes early with a new free version of Resolve called DaVinci Resolve Lite and DaVinci Resolve 8 , which is a free update for existing customers. DaVinci Resolve Lite First, the limitations: DaVinci Resolve Lite limits projects to SD and HD resolutions, only two color correction nodes, a single processing GPU and a single RED rocket card. Also, Stereoscopic 3D features, noise reduction, power mastering, remote grading and sharing projects with an external database server are features only offered in the full DaVinci Resolve . But, DaVinci Resolve Lite still includes high quality optical resizing, curve grading, XML import and export, 32 bit float processing, YRGB image processing, multi layer timelines, stabilization, window tracking, primary and secondary color correction, real time processing, capture and playback with deck control, compatibility with third party control panels and more. DaVinci Resolve Lite will be available in July Blackmagic : Blackmagic Des...

SUPERMEET: TICKET UPDATE: Last tickets will go on sale Tuesday, April 12th at 10AM PST (Vegas time) at http://supermeet.com It's still unknown whether the event will be streamed or not. Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Update: Adobe has announced CS5.5, a paid upgrade to CS5 (the Production Premium upgrade starts at $399.) It should ship within 30 days . Adobe has also announced a new  subscription option which starts at US$39 per month for Adobe Premiere Pro and US$85 per month for Production Premium . The update includes: performance and workflow improvements, new creative tools, and new audio editing capabilities. The Adobe Mercury Playback Engine broadens its graphics processing unit (GPU) hardware support to include laptops and more supported cards. Adobe Press Release : Adobe Unveils Creative Suite 5.5 Production Premium Adobe Creative Suite CS5.5 Production Premium web page Adobe : After Effects CS5.5: What’s new and changed Adobe : Subscription Editions Ado...

Well, not completely, they had already announced the three new things: 3D firmware for the XF305 & XF300 Two new PL-Mount lenses HDgc Portable HD zoom lens with 2x Built-in Extender They'll also be showing the Technicolor CineStyle for the Canon 5D Mark II .

Panasonic Announces 3D and HD camcorders Panasonic also had a press conference, and they announced their 2nd generation 3D camcorder (take that Sony!) the AG-3DP1 a 3D twin-lens P2 HD shoulder-mount camcorder with 10-bit, 4:2:2 independent-frame, full 1920 x 1080 resolution AVC-Intra recording. Availability is listed as fall, and there's no price quoted. Panasonic AG-3DP1 “ Less than a year ago, Panasonic simplified and lowered the cost-of-entry to high-quality 3D production with the AG-3DA1, the industry’s first fully-integrated, 3D camcorder ,” said Joseph Facchini, Vice President of Sales and Product Management, PSC. “ Now, the shoulder-mount AG-3DP1 offers a larger imager, 10-bit color depth, AVC-Intra recording to P2 media, and EFP-style shooting to expand the universe of affordable 3D production for live events, sports, documentaries and independent films .” Unfortunately, they haven't yet posted any good pictures of the camera! [ Added! -Ed ] Panasonic : PANASON...

Sony held it's NAB news conference today, and as expected, announced a 4K camera; the F65 . (And expect the price to be very expensive...) You can see the product page here: Sony F65 Sony F65 F65 Features: Industry's first 8K 20M-Pixel CMOS imager for digital motion picture production From this imager, the F65 will derive brilliant HD, 2K, True 4K resolution, and higher 16bit Linear RAW output F65 adheres to 1.9:1 aspect ratio, DCI Projection standard (4096 x 2160 or 2048 x 1080) Choice of picture composition as needed: 1.85:1, 1.78:1, 1.66:1, 1.33:1, 2.35 spherical, 1.3x anamorphic, or 2x anamorphic cropped Wide dynamic range, low S/N ratio, and high sensitivity Optional SR-R4 on board SRMemory recorder HD-SDI Monitoring outputs with viewing LUT's The camera can shoot 1 to 120 fps 16 bit-RAW recording in SRMemory™ card (sold sep.) There might be some confusion about 4K and 8K and so on. The pixels of the sensors in CMOS (and CCD) chips can't measure c...

Those Canon 5D Mark III rumors It seems likely that Canon will update the 5D Mark II some time this year; but when? In the past two days, two different predictions have appeared: CanonRumors heard August, while a DPReview poster claims he was told be a store rep that the camera would be announced within a month. If I had to put money on it, I would say August is more likely....either way, I don't think you'll be seeing it at NAB. CanonRumors :  Upcoming DSLR [CR1] DPReview :  Launch of 5d3 coming up... 1001 Noisy Cameras: Dealer rumors: Canon 5D Mk3 and 7D Mk2 within a month Color Grading Newsletter Every Sunday Patrick Inhofer puts together a collection of links of interest to the color grading community. Check out too, part II of his interview podcast with Warren Eagles : " What Makes a Great Colorist? " The Tao Colorist : Sunday Reading, April 10 [ Podcast ] Part 2: Warren Eagles, Colorist - " What Makes a Great Colorist? " First Fea...

The run up to NAB continues (the show floor opens Monday): [ UPDATED 2:00PM: ] For those that can't get to NAB, Monday's " Post Pit " run by the Final Cut Pro User Group Network , it will be streamed live. It runs from 9:30AM to 5PM PDT. SuperMeet Post Pit It's listed as TEMPORARILY SOLD OUT, but the SuperMeet page says (as at 11:30 AM EDT) that they will have one last round of tickets available....stay tuned. DXVUser collects together their coverage at this page: NAB SHOW 2011 And Jake Carpenter at DXVUser offers his tips for maximizing the experience: To recap: Comfy shoes, lots of water, and have a plan. Some tips to maximize your NAB Show experience Mikko Wilson will be tweeting and posting photos live in real time from the show. NAB 2011 Photos, MikkoWilson.com @mikkowilson Planet 5D will be live blogging and tweeting their way through NAB: pre NAB live blog FilmMaker Magazine will be covering NAB too, and offers this intro (wi...

3D, 4K, both?

[10:33PM] - from the SuperMeet website : STAY TUNED FOR TICKET ANNOUNCEMENT: We will announce shortly our last round of tickets - Temporarily Sold Out Vincent Laforet lists his appearances and a few "interesting" product announcements, including the new Canon PL zoom lenses. NAB – Lectures and live appearances on Teradek TV The arrival of these Canon PL lenses has prompted concern that Canon's next DSLR will use a PL mount: DSLR 4 Real : Total Specualtion - Canons New Lenses Personally Canon going PL seems unlikely; they may just be making a lens to sell for other cameras, or they may have a video camera coming that uses a PL mount (they do have a video division.) It's doubtful they'll abandon the EF mount for DSLRS. At least not for the majority of users Boston DP Tom Guilmette will be at NAB working the Vinten booth April 11 to April 13th and the Zacuto/Kessler Booth the morning of April 14th. He'll be posting updates at @tomguilmette Ba...

Sidney Lumet directed over 50 films, including one of my all-time favorites, Twelve Angry Men (starring Henry Fonda) Scott Myers has collected together some links to articles and video clips:  R.I.P.: Sydney Lumet (1924-2011) Amazon :  (1957) Twelve Angry Men | (1974) Murder on the Orient Express | (1975) Dog Day Afternoon | (1976) Network | (1982) The Verdict  

3D News CamcorderInfo does in-depth review of JVC GS-TD1 Camcorderinfo got their hands on the 3D pro-sumer camera from JVC, the GS-TD1 , and while it does a better job than the Panasonic HDC-SDT750 they already reviewed, they note a lot of problems including: a slow menu system, confusing playback interface and a headache inducing "glasses-free" 3D LCD. And they had problems with the footage and shooting good 3D: The 3D footage captured with the camcorder, while better than what we saw from the HDC-SDT750, still had problems with trailing and interference, and it was nearly unwatchable if you moved the camcorder around too fast during recording. Shooting the perfect 3D video clip requires precise camcorder movements, intricate staging, and proper lighting. If you have the money and want to play with the latest 3D gadget, it might be the one to get, but you're paying for it. Camcorderinfo : GS-TD1 Sony Handycam HDR-TD10 First Look DigitalCamera Review posts a f...

There's really no news, but Apple taking over the upcoming SuperMeet to announce the next release of Final Cut Pro is such a big news event that I have to write something...I feel like one of those 24 hours news cable announcers repeating variations of the same thing over and over again... Ask the AV Guy Chris Eschweiler claims to be the AV guy for the SuperMeet [ you're right, this is definitely getting very cable newsish -Ed ] and though nobody met his asking price of a small tropical island (with submarine) to reveal what he knows about the SuperMeet, he did tweet: Exporting logos for #SuperMeet. And there are just as many logos as there were a week ago. Huh. Funny, that. #dontbelieveeverythingyouread @chrisesch "Don't believe everything you read"...... hmmm... Meanwhile, Philip Hodgetts , who knows a person or two involved with the SuperMeet, and maybe even some people at Apple, tweeted: I can't reveal my source but Supermeet is definitely FC...

Red Giant Software has pre-announced their NAB announcements: Colorista Free . Colorista II is a great color grading plug-in that works with Adobe After Effects , Premiere Pro and Apple's Final Cut Pro . Think of it as a step up from the Final Cut three-way color corrector, without the confusion of Apple Color . Colorista Free is a sub-set of the Colorista II plug-in, available for free! No word on availability or what feature set is implemented. LUT Buddy is a free tool for sharing Look Up Tables. [ UPDATE Both are now available for download here: Two New FREE Tools for Color Grading & Color Decisions ] Magic Bullet Grinder 1.5 : a free update to this Mac tool for converting DSLR footage. Three new options for time-code, and two new main codec formats ProRes HQ & LT have been added and support for conforming from 30p to 25p (it already supports 30p to 24p) Also, Guru Preset Packs , and for the iPhone , Magic Bullet Movie Looks and Noir Photo . Red Gian...

Final Cut Pro: There's news about Final Cut other than the goings-on at the SuperMeet . Canon to update the EOS Movie Plug-in . Canonrumors.com reports that Canon has announced vers 1.2, an update to the importer plug-in that will make importing faster and easier. It will be available April 25th. Canonrumors: Canon Updates E1 Plugin for FCP DE:Noise 2.1.3 : An update to this filter which fixes a problem with crashes in Motion: RE:VisionEffects : Downloads: DE:Noise Deleting Render Files : A quick tip video from Larry Jordan answers the question "Should you delete all render files and how do you do it?" YouTube : Final Cut Tutorial: Deleting Render Files.mp4 - Larry Jordan micro tutorial Cameras In the field - A cautionary tale . In this blog post Robin Schmidt talks about his experiences using the Sony PMW-F3 and the AJA Key Pro Mini on a recent 48 hour film challenge. Rather than a review of either, this story is more a cautionary tale about using equ...

[ Update 4/13: To see what was revealed, check out SuperMeet reports : Final Cut Pro 10 - Sneak Peak Wrap Up ] The presentation with #FCP at the #Supermeet ends one of two ways. Big Win or Epic Fail. Nothing in between." - @walterbiscardi Walter Biscardi - who's definitely on the "not applauding" side of the fence when it comes to Apple's apparent heavy-handed takeover of the SuperMeet - has written his FCP X manifesto: In the parlance of Las Vegas, Apple has gone “All In” for this one event. There is no Apple booth on the show floor. There is no Sunday Apple Marketing event. There is no ANYTHING from Apple other than a complete takeover of one of the largest paid gatherings of video editors at NAB. In other words, just one shot in front of an audience of the very people who will make or break the product and presentation . He then goes on to list seven things he thinks this release has to have. Now he does say "forget the interface," at the beginn...

Video review of the Sony PMW-F3 Philip Johnston of HD Warrior reviews the Sony PMW-F3 : He likes it! He really likes the low-light capabilities of the camera, and he mostly likes it's layout and operation (much better than the NEX-FS100 , anyway!) About the biggest dings against it; the lack of a tape hook for measuring focus distances, and the fact that the Sony lenses won't fit other cameras. He also demonstrates how to remove and attach lenses. HDWarrior :  Video Review of the Sony PMW-F3 Sony PMW-F3 Kit Lens Quality While we're talking about the Sony lenses that are included with the Sony PMW-F3 Kit, Matthew Duclos at the Circle of Confusion took apart one of those lenses, and he wasn't impressed, finding lots of plastic and poor build quality: While I was taking the lens apart I came across so many things that rubbed me the wrong way like the plastic all over the place, the screws didn’t line up with their holes and were stripped before I even touche...

Ever wonder how the companies come up with their camera designs? We did too, but after seeing some of the behind-the-scenes process for the Sony NEX-FS100 , now we think we understand it:

Canon will later this summer release a firmware update for the XF305 and XF300 Professional Camcorders that includes the ability to configure two units for 3D HD video capture. It will include Canon’s 3D Assist Function that allows two units to be easily set up for 3D HD video, as well as an updated Scan Reverse function, Double Slot Recording for instantaneous backup, and the option to disable Relay Recording. Canon will be demonstrating this functionality at NAB. 3D Shooting Capability The new firmware includes the ability to perform OIS Lens Shift to aid in optically aligning two XF305 or XF300 camcorders and a Focal Length Guide to display the zoom position of each camera in relation to each other and help calibrate zoom settings. This adjustment can be done through the menu system while the camcorders are mounted to a rig or tripod. Once aligned, the amount of the angle-of-view change is displayed after zoom adjustment, preventing camera misalignment and simplifying adjustme...

a friend has seen new FCP says its 64 bit and awesome and he is a long time Avid user. said Avid will need to play catch up - @ronsussman From the March 2011 Editors' Lounge : In this panel discussion Mark Raudonis says he was at the pre-reveal of Final Cut , and that Apple has good lawyers, but: Here's what I can say. I was there. It was awesome. -Mark Raudonis He then goes on to say that he can't give details, he can only speak in metaphors, and then suggests that Apple is looking into the future, rather than extending what we have... There's also some speculation from other panel members, including this: "We've heard that there's no tape I/O" fcp.co : Pre-NAB buzz on the future of FCP from the guys who broke the SuperMeet rumour Breaking - Charlie Sheen to give Apple Keynote at Supermeet. Hopes to make up for Detroit. #winning - @comebackshane Final Cut Pro vs. Avid Aaron Weiler does an amusing little spoof of the Avid vs. Fina...

[UPDATE 6:06 PM Now the page says: Temporarily Sold Out! WAITLIST IN EFFECT . We are currently working to accommodate more seats. But there's nothing about how to get on the waitlist (that will probably appear shortly...? This is exciting stuff, no? [ Not if you don't use Final Cut Pro , No. - Ed ] [9:00PM] Now the waitlist text is gone....   -END] [UPDATE 6:00 PM Site now just says: Temporarily Sold Out! We are currently working to accommodate more seats. Unclear if any tickets were made available this afternoon. If they were, they went fast! -END] [ UPDATE: 2:00 PM @AJAVideo tweeted earlier: @NABShow 4/11] #AJAVideo is the exclusive sponsor for #NAB11 #FCPUG #SuperMeet live video stream Which is kind of odd if the live stream - as others have reported - will not be happening. Scott Simmons at Studio Daily rips into Apple for kicking everyone else off the program: If Apple is confident in the awesome, jaw-dropping, stunning product it has produced t...