Notes On Video

Recently, I was working on a project in Adobe  Premiere which required exporting the Sequence as multiple sub-clips to .f4v format. Of course, as often happens, there was a problem with one of the exported clips, so I had to set it up in Premiere and re-export to Adobe Media Encoder . I sent the clip out to Media Encoder, and went off to do something else. When I came back I noticed that Media Encoder was just sitting there with the spinning-ball-of-nothing going. Now sometimes it takes Media Encoder a while to get it’s act together when you send a complicated sequence to it, so I waited... After another few minutes I started to worry. I closed out the project in Premiere . That had no effect. I checked to see if I had too many apps running or was running low on disk space. No problem there. I was just considering doing a Force Quit on the application - and wondering if it would remember what had been sent to it - when I remembered something: I’d...

Sony’s PMW-150 and PMW-200 camcorders meet European Broadcast Union standard for HD Broadcast Production | Sony Sony today announced that its latest XDCAM HD422 50Mbps camcorders, the PMW-200 and PMW-150, have met the standards the European Broadcast Union (EBU) recommend for long form video production. Both cameras were independently tested by Alan Roberts in accordance with the EBU camera test guidelines. Testing Your Camera’s Latitude | Shane Hurlbut | Hurlblog Let’s begin with over exposing. This test shows you how it handles the highlights. Set up your grey card and color chart on the same focal plan as your model. Frame a shot that is a medium size frame so that the charts are just in the left and right sides of the frame. There are many ways to light this test. We used a very frontal light source that was very bright so we could start at a high f-stop and then work our way down in 1/3 stop increments. Apple slashes price on Thunderbolt cable, releases additional sh...

Canon Cinema Primes vs. Canon L Series | Jonathan Yi | Vimeo Jonathan did an amusing - and informative - video about the Canon C300 last year, and now he's back with a look at Canon's Cine lenses: This is a comparison and test shoot of Canon's new Cinema Primes versus Canon's revered L series still photography lenses. Shot on a Canon C300. Panasonic unveils new A100 wearable HD camcorder | Shane McGlaun | Slash Gear I always thought Sony's HXR-MC1 little recorder would be cool for shooting some things (or hanging from the ceiling) but at almost $2,000, I just couldn't afford it. This thing is supposed to be around $300! The camera can also be mounted to a helmet or to a backpack. The camera is designed to be waterproof with an IPX8 waterproof design allowing the camera to shoot in water up to 5 feet deep for 30 minutes. The camera is also dustproof to protect sensitive electronics from sand. The camera has integrated Wi-Fi connectivity making it e...

Sony's 4K Handycam and HXR-IFR5 4K Interface Unit prototypes eyes-on | Brian Heater | Engadget Looks interesting; but I don't think it has removable lenses, and I don't think it's a large sensor (if that's the camera they actually deliver): First off was the generically labelled 4K Consumer Camcorder, a prototype device that was hanging out in a glass case at the Sony booth after the event concluded -- though there was a Handycam logo on the side of the device. It's not a bad looking handheld -- about a standard size for a prosumer model, with a viewfinder, mic and handle at the top. Understanding 4K Production with the Cinema EOS System | Jem Schofield | Canon The Cinema EOS C500 is based around Canon’s 4K, Super 35mm CMOS sensor and has two forms of 4K origination. The choice of which to use is based on the specific needs of a production. A user can choose the Digital Cinema Initiatives/DCI SMPTE 2048-1:2011 standard, which is based on a 4096 x 2160...

CES CES starts Jan 8th, so look for some announcements today and tomorrow of new consumer still and video cameras. GoPro Hero3 Black Edition review: taking action cam quality to the next level | Michael Gorman | Engadget GoPro's Hero3 Black Edition is, put simply, the most capable action camera on the market today. It delivers unparalleled resolution from a camera of its size and does so without sacrificing frame rate or field of view. Despite its meager battery life and less-than-ergonomic shape, the Hero3 provides imaging performance superior to all of its competitors at a price that won't break the bank. Review: F&V Z180 - Expandable LED lighting for everyone | Daniel Freytag | Blog Compared to my Litepanels MicroPro the Z180 Bi-Color produces a bit more light, even though I could only use half of its LEDs at once, because 90 LEDs are daylight-balanced and the other 90 tungsten-balanced. F&V also ships a diffusion filter which simply snaps-on using magne...

Episode 50: Sony NEX-VG900 Camera Review | Caleb Pike | DSLR Video Shooter A look at the full-frame sensor NEX-VG900 consumer video camera: The Sony NEX-VG900 gets a 4/5 in my book. I loved working with a full frame video camera. And having APS-C as an option that can be turned on is brilliant. Check out my review for more details and demo footage. C300 Fringe Test | Randy Noland | Vimeo There's been a bit of back and forth on whether this software update fixes color-frining on the Canon C300 . Some Canon techs have even denied that it does... This video is a quick C300 Fringe Test after Canon Factory Service installed firmware ver 1.0.7.1.00. Sorry for handheld but I had 10 minutes to shoot. I tried to mimic pushing to extreme over exposure.I think the fringing issues have been resolved. New footage from the M4/3 Blackmagic Cinema Camera shows promise as shipping on the EOS version of the camera resumes | Dan Chung | DSLR News Shooter Good news that the EOS Blackm...

END OF THE WORLD SHOOTOUT - PART 1 | Shian Storm | Vimeo Not the most polished, professional test ever, but we had 1/1000th the budget of Zacuto, and very little time. We do our best to stress the BMCC, 5DMKIII, GH3, and Hacked GH2 in a High Dynamic Range shootout. We went to some lengths to mess with the framing so as not to have the sensor crop give away which cam is which; primarily so that you'll focus more on which one(s) you like instead of trying to identify each cam. These comparisons have been graded down to the lowest common denominator to be as "equal" as possible. But in Part 2 we'll show you the raw footage. END OF THE WORLD SHOOTOUT - PART 2 END OF THE WORLD SHOOTOUT - PART 3 The Year in Tech: Reflections & Predictions | Daniel Hayek | Vimeo Comments from: Jared Abrams, Philip Bloom, Vincent LaForet, Joe Marine, Patrick Moreau, Jonathan Yi offer their thoughts on the year: Joe Marine: Blackmagic Cinema Camera (while it's still not te...

An Afternoon Music Video Shoot with the Canon C300 | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine For most of the shoot, Rick’s switching between a Tokina 11-16mm and a Tamron 70-200mm. He likes to use the 11-16 on the Glidecam for the wider field of view. “You know, with the C300 you have to shut it off when you change lenses,” he points out as he switches the lenses. “A year with the Canon C300″ | Philip Jonhston | HD Warrior Dislikes… 1. Don’t like the LCD attached to the XLRs, makes sound recording very cumbersome. 2. Would prefer a dedicated switch on the side of the camera for ISO like the C100. 3. The CF flap doors can be fiddly to open. 4. The LCD can get stuck if you tighten the knob too much. Top Tech – Canon CN-E & Zeiss Compact Primes | Australian Cinematographers Society | Vimeo Tom Gleeson, Member of the ACS Technical Committee, and Mike Seymour, co-founder of fxguide, look at the Canon CN-E range and new Zeiss Compact Primes. They note that the Canon line lacks ...

IKAN D7W IPS PANEL MONITOR REVIEW | Rick Macomber | Vimeo Rick takes an indepth look at the $1,169 ikan D7w : The new ikan D7w IPS panel field monitor is here. First revealed at NAB 2012, this monitor comes with all the bells and whistles you would want packed into a nice 7 inch 1280 x 800 HD screen. It has waveform, vector scope, RGB parade, 4 panel view and priority view. Add to that peaking, pixel to pixel, false color, clip guides and DSLR scaling all with a viewing angle of 178 degrees. There's 3G SDI and HDMI loop thru, a headphone jack and a mini USB port for firmware updates. I tested a BP-950G battery which lasted about 3 1/2 hours. Our Top 12 Posts of 2012 (or, the Tyranny of the Listicle) | Filmmaker Magazine I only got to number 9 in the top 12...though I also came in at 10 and 12. Have to do better next year... 9. Canon 5D Mark III: Does More, Costs More. New on the site this year is Michael Murie’s column, “The Week in Cameras.” The Alexa aside, this post d...

WEDNESDAY JAN 16 LearningLab: 10am–12n Bagels + Coffee Digital Asset Management Solutions Learn how to manage, access and protect all of your digital assets with an overview of the CatDV 10 media asset management system along with shared storage options from SNS and archive appliances from Cache-A presented by JB&A’s Jeremy Strootman. WEDNESDAY JAN 23 Pubnight: 6–8pm Pizza + Beer Sony F5 And F55 Overview Join Sony’s Senior Product Manager, Juan Martinez for an in-depth look at the new F5 and F55 large sensor cameras with 4K Super35mm CMOS sensors delivering images with higher contrast, rich color reproduction and greater clarity for every production application. RSVP to events@rule.com as space is limited.

Canon C100 Hands On Review | Erik Naso | Blog Nice, detailed blog about working with the C100 . Makes me wish I could afford one: Ergonomics and ease of use. This is a big one, so I I’m going to start here. Shooting all day handheld is hard enough. With the way the C100 is laid out it’s the most ergonomic camera I have used so far, straight out of the box with no add-ons. Here is why: And for some more footage shot with the C100 :  Short Film Scene with the Canon C100 | Ryan Emanuel | Vimeo How To Prepare Yourself For RAW | Ryan Walters | Blog Shooting with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera : The last thing that needs to happen before you head out to set, or leave for remote field work, is to make sure that your media is formatted properly. This is especially true if you will not have access to a DIT, or a computer system, as you cannot erase cards in the camera. As of this writing, that formatting needs to be HSF+, so you will need a Mac to format the drives correctly. ...

I just bought a Roku LT Streaming Player   player. I bought the “cheap” RT model, which is limited to 720P, partly because Amazon was having a sale on it, and partly because I didn’t really think I’d see much difference between 720P and 1080P. The 720P looks pretty good to me, but then I watch DVDs quite happily as well. I also have a first generation Apple TV , which I don’t use as much as I had originally thought I would. I use it to occasionally rent a movie, but I do that so infrequently you could probably count the number of movies I’ve rented this past year on the fingers of one hand. The reason I bought the Roku was not because I was looking to replace the Apply TV , or I was unhappy with it in any way. Rather, I got it because I have an Amazon Prime membership, and the Roku, unlike the Apple TV , will stream Amazon movies. And with Amazon Prime you get access to quite a few movies and TV shows for free. It’s not endless, but as a free add-on (free after the $50 fo...

Cameras: 2012 Year In Review | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine 1. The end of film Film’s been having a tough time of it, but did anyone in 2011 think that 2012 would be the year that film would roll over and die?This was the year that Kodak went bankrupt, Fuji announced they would cease production of motion picture film, and the major film companies announced the timetable for moving toward 100% digital distribution. It was also the year that a James Bond movie was shot digitally. “ITS A KINDA MAGIC” – VIDEO REVIEW OF THE SLR MAGIC 50MM T0.95 HYPERPRIME LENS | Matt Allard | DSLR News Shooter I have been very impressed with the performance and look of this lens.  Its ultra sharp wide open which in itself is amazing.  There is also very little if any noticeable chromatic aberration.  Now this is normally a problem with very fast lenses.  It seems very hard for lens manufacturers to get sharpness combined with lack of chromatic aberration.  SLR MAGIC se...

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SNL’s Digital Evolution | Dan Brockett | HD Video Pro Interview with SNL Cinematographer Alex Buono : The limited availability of talent has been a notable factor in Buono's mind-set about gear. "My overriding goal has been an evolution toward flexibility," he says. "Working with so many great writers, performers and guest hosts, we have to be able to react to improvisation quickly. The last thing I want to tell the director or writers is, 'I need another 20 minutes to re-light if we want to shoot it that way.' Editing raw video on a $900 Hackintosh (with $5000 Mac Pro levels of performance) | Andrew Reid | EOSHD Let down by both Apple and Microsoft, I researched a third solution. A Mac Pro without the unattainable price tag. As a Macbook Pro user, the install files for the latest OSX – Mountain Lion were downloadable from the App Store since I’d already purchased it. I used UniBeast to install these on my PC. The disclaimer is that this is against ...

5 Things I Learned While Shooting My Low Budget Short Film | Justin Minich | No Film School 1. Do the Budget Yourself On small indie projects, everyone in the crew usually ends up wearing a variety of hats. Of the various roles I took on, the one that I found to be particularly instructive was that of the Unit Production Manager; that crew member who – among other things – writes up the budget. How To Light An Interview For $26 | StillMotionBlog Seriously, you should have seen Patrick when we gave him $26 and sent him to Home Depot – he was like a kid on Christmas morning! ;)We wanted to show you that great interview lighting can be achieved on almost nothing (you can judge for yourself in our example). Uncoated Samyang Lens Test | Cinescopophilia The uncoated Samyang lenses are a great solution for achieving lens flare and a more vintage look using low-cost DSLR lenses according to Shoot Blue. All lenses are fully manual ‘cine-style’ and fitted with focus & iris g...