Notes On Video

Over on Gizmodo , Frank Beacham tells a charming story about Orson Welles, the early days of Sony Betacam, and dreams that might have been. Whenever I see a tiny new camcorder introduced, or see Apple upgrade a revolutionary application like iMovie, I think of Orson. Oh, how excited he'd be. The pure magic of it all! If he were alive today, he'd be making his movies without regard to raising huge amounts of money. That, for both Orson and his audience, would be an achievement that we'll never be able to enjoy. It’s really worth reading: Orson Welles and His Brief Passionate Betacam Love Affair ...and connects nicely with the story of Fede Alvarez, who made a $300 video and landed himself a $30 million contract with Ghost House Pictures .

Tonklemoose [ really?! -Ed] the Twitter account for UK video equipment retailer creativevideo.co.uk reports that the Sony NXCAM model will be called the HXR-NX5, and that it will be available in January (probably after CES ?)

Camcorderinfo.com takes a bash at reviewing the Canon 7D’s video performance . They don’t do a full review, but then you can find that at Digitalcamerainfo.com ; the two sites have actually created a combined review with Camorderinfo doing the video aspects, and Digitalcamerainfo.com doing the still camera functionality. The Camcorderinfo page sums up most aspects of video performance. They found that color accuracy was no better than the competition, they were “fairly impressed” by the motion performance, and it did better than the others in low light, but for sharpness it was found to be weaker than the Panasonic GH1 and Canon 5D Mark II. Make sure you go to the linked pages at Digitalcamerainfo.com that go into more details, as they  also compare the performance relative to some video camcorders as well. While the Canon 7D's sharpness numbers aren't that bad, they definitely are lower than some consumer HD camcorders are capable—specifically in bright light. The Canon HF...

Overheating continues to be an issue for some users of the Canon 7D, with lots of theories about what is causing it, or how to avoid it. There are some things we know for certain, and many things that are the subject of wild speculation. Here’s what’s known: Reports of the 7D overheating seem to be more prevalent than they were/are for the 5D, though there have been reports of the 5D overheating, so it's not entirely unique to the 7D. The camera continues to operate (most of the time) with the thermal warning on, and most people don’t really notice a degradation in the image quality, though one user reported a glowing pixel in the dark areas of later footage. Most people are encountering the problem after an extended period of operation (i.e. into the second hour of non-stop usage.) Some cameras seem to display the warning earlier than others (though it’s unclear whether this is due to differences in operation, or actual differences in the way cameras are calibrated.) Here’s some c...

Film director Werner Herzog was interviewed on the radio program onpointradio today. He talks about his new movie The Bad Lieutenant , his book - diary really - about the making of Fitzcarraldo , and mostly just about movie making. The book Conquest of the Useless: Reflections from the Making of Fitzcarraldo is currently available in hardcover: Originally published in the noted director's native Germany in 2004, Herzog's diary, more prose poetry than journal entries, will appeal even to those unfamiliar with the extravagant 1982 film. From June 1979 to November 1981, Herzog recounted not only the particulars of shooting the difficult film about a fictional rubber baron—which included the famous sequence of a steamer ship being maneuvered over a hill from one river to another—but also the dreamlike quality of life in the Amazon. Perhaps more interestingly, he’s offering Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School : In January 2010, Herzog is offering a series of weekend seminars to sel...

I'm loath to write about this as I'm not a fan of "competitions" and "festivals" that have high entrance fees; I secretly suspect that they are just ways to make money from the entrants. At $40 per entry, the Can-Do Festival and Competition is enough to get me concerned because: 1) Though there's mention of a BluRay "projected at a major media event" there's little information about what the festival part actually is. 2) You'd be forgiven if you thought the event was sponsored by Canon: the Canon logo is the only graphic logo - in a fairly prominent place - on every page, there's a direct link from one tab to a Canon web page, and there's a reference to Canon Inc where it says "Canon Inc and RAWworks prizes", which can be taken to mean Canon Inc is involved, but could also simply be a reference to the make of the prizes. 3) Other than the judges, there's no information about who actually is organizing this event. ...

Tim Smith of Canon is back with more about the upcoming firmware update for the 5D Mark II, which will add 24fps, and now, it seems, support for 720p at 60fps as well. The Planet5D blog has posted the information , along with a short video taken at the Createasphere workshop. Tim also retells the story of the history of the camera , which he has repeated on more than one occasion. Great excitement for Canon 5D owners!

VholdR has just announced an underwater case for their Contour camera which costs $39.99 and should be available in December (though not yet, and it's not listed at Amazon!) It's looks good, with an operating depth up to 10 meters, and power and record switches. The only downer for me is I just spent $160 a month ago for an enclosure for my Sony camera . BUT, it's not all bad news as the Sony does give you - limited - viewing of the LCD screen, and an operational zoom button. Still if you have a Contour camera, the waterproof case looks like a good investment. They also have a new Handle Bar Mount for $29.99, and a Lens Kit for $29.99 which provides extra lens covers and a replacement Lens Ring. There's also a Lens Adaptor Ring that lets you add a standard 37mm lens filter to the camera. Check they're accessory page , though note that buying only a few of these can start adding considerably to the original cost of the camera.

I’ve had a Canon 7D for about a month now, and I have to say, it’s turning into a love/hate relationship. On the love side, it is a really nice DSLR. Of course, I would say that; my previous DSLR is the Canon 10D. A couple of notes about the 10D vs the 7D; it’s amazing how similar the two cameras are in size, shape and arrangement of controls. If you’re happy with the way Canon puts cameras together, it’s easy to go from one to the other. And the 7D is definitely a big improvement, though the two things I notice most frequently is the difference in focusing (the extra focus points and routines really change the way that works) and the much larger LCD screen, which makes it easier to review pictures on the fly. There’s lots of other tweaks along the way, and who can forget the difference in resolution, though frankly, I don’t need 18MP… But back to video. Where to start? Well, firstly, the good: It is really neat to be able to use your SLR to record video sequences, even if it’s just im...

I'm not a RED expert, and if you want to get positively biased information about the RED Scarlet, then you should head straight to the source. I kind of ignore RED most of the time, because their $17,000 camera is well beyond my budget and needs. But a while back they announced a "budget" camera called Scarlet that the RED fans have been saying for most of the year will blow Canon DSLRs - and pretty much every other video camera under $10,000 - out of the water. I just bought a Canon 7D. RED's been dripping out information about the camera for some time now. It's kind of interesting because I have to admit that I've spent a lot of my time over the past year at canonrumors searching for news on new cameras, and appleinsider for news of an Apple Tablet. So I'm a rumors/news junky. But I have to say, hearing about something months and months prior to it's release is a bit frustrating; with that amount of lead time you have no real idea when the came...

I mentioned the online Sony HD Expo and how there's a video introducing the NXCAM featuring Juan Martinez, SXZenior Product Manager for Sony Broadcast & Professional AV Products and Andy Munitz, National Training Manager . Previously, you had to register to get in to see it, but Sony has now posted that video - along with a teaser promotional video for the NXCAM - on their NXCAM webpage . It's about 10 minutes long, and if you're at all interested in the NXCAM, it's worth watching.

The iPhone storyboard application Hitchcock, which I reviewed a few weeks back , has changed it's name to Storyboard Composer . The update just appeared - for me - on iTunes , and it said that it added PDF Export, though the function seems to be the same as in the previous release. [ UPDATE ] Interestingly, while the application name is changed, and the exported PDF has a new product name/logo on it, the email you receive from their server when the uploaded storyboard is available still says " Cinemek Hitchcock " [ UPDATE 2 ] Turns out it was Export to PDF fixes .

There's been very little to write about this week. Apple released an update to Final Cut Server , and ahh.....well that's about it. Other than that, I've been checking the Black Friday deals at Amazon , and already bought a 7" monitor, so it's been good...or bad, if you're trying not to spend money. Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Nigel Cooper at dvuser.co.uk got to spend some time with the NXCAM prototype, and his article adds some more information about the camera: NXCAM is a “brand” not a model name. The camera will get a model number when it is announced. The camera has an overcrank/undercrank feature, limited to 12 seconds A new “Super Steady Shot” system that sort of works like the stabilization filter in Final Cut (it reduces the image area slightly and figures out how to smooth movement of the frame around that extra "slop"). He says there’s some reduction in image quality, and it’s not perfect, but “ I found it to be more effective than the lens damped version that has been around for many years, but nobody is going to be putting Steadicam operators out of a job anytime soon ” Oh, he also seems to think that this won't replace the Z5 immediately, and Sony plans to keep selling HDV cameras while demand exists. I'd agree with that - they'll keep selling HDV cameras for a while - ...

Questions 1. How does it compare to the EX1? Does it replace the EX1? It probably doesn't replace the EX1, since the EX1 has 1/2 inch imagers instead of 1/3 inch. Also, they just updated the EX1 with the EX1R, so clearly it's not going away for a year or two. The EX1R sells for $6,299. 2. Does this replace the Z5U? Probably. It's essentially the same body, and HDV is dying. Given the pricing/features of the EX1, this gives us a good idea what the NXCAM will sell for (the Z5U sells for $4,095.) 2. AVCHD? Why not XDCAM EX? Since Sony owns XDCAM, it's probably not a licensing issue. AVCHD takes up less space (24 vs. XDCAM EX's 35 Mbps) and given recording to flash memory, size is probably a big consideration. Both are 8-bit, and 4:2:0. AVCHD gets a bum wrap because it's mostly been in consumer cameras, often at the lower bit rates (24 appears to be the maximum for the standard at the moment.) But it's also a more efficient compressor than MPEG2 (which can be a ...

For the past year it seemed that Sony was the lone tape supporter for pro-sumer, low-end professional cameras. JVC went tapeless and even embraced QuickTime with the GY-HM100U , while Panasonic has the AG- HMC150 . And even though Canon is still selling the XH-A1s HDV camera, they’ve been so preoccupied with the Canon 5D Mark II and 7D you can almost overlook the fact that they seem to be overlooking this market segment. Only Sony was still selling tape and telling people that was the way to go. Until the day before yesterday, when they announced the NXCAM , a camera based on the FX1/FX1000/Z5U body shape that replaces the HDV tape mechanism with AVCHD on Memory Stick recording. This is big news. November 18, 2009 may go down as the day tape died . At least for video acquisition. The camera also has an optional solid state recording module that -at least in the prototype- holds 128GB. According to Sony, the camera will automatically switch cards when one is full, and it can record to ...

Sony has an online HD Expo , which went live today. It runs live all day - there are Sony people hanging out in the chats, so there's some value to popping in today if you have questions! The demo videos etc., will evidently remain available until March. There's some interesting prerecorded lectures, including one on the just announced NXCAM: PDW-F800 and PMW-EX1: Battle Proven in Afghanistan (Run Time 16:45) Basics of Professional Blu-ray Encoding and Authoring: Part 1 (Run Time 54:21) Broadcast Fundamentals Part 1: Nomenclature, Basic Color Theory, the new xvYCC Color format, Film & Frame Rate Basics, Progressive vs. Interlaced Display (Run Time 44:02) Broadcast Fundamentals Part 4: Video Compression Basics (Run Time 45:53) Brooke Rudnick, Event Videographer, on Sony's UWP Microphone System (Run Time 10:31) Sneak Peek at Sony's NeXt Affordable Professional HD Camcorder (Run Time 9:13) Dusty EX1 Thierry Humeau, talks about documenting the war in Afghanistan with a ...

Rule Broadcast Systems has been hosting a series of lectures/workshops relating to video production. The Nov 11 workshop on sound featured sound mixer G. John Garrett . John started with an introduction to the human auditory physiology; the parts of the brain that receive and process sound, and noted that the bone surrounding the inner ear is the hardest bone in the body. He then asked, somewhat rhetorically; how do you know when the sound is right? Some one yelled out from the back; “ when the producer says there’s no money left. ” Getting down to specifics, John didn’t have many positive comments about on-camera audio hardware, noting about one camera “ What do you think they spent on the audio hardware? Probably $50? ” One audience member said she’s heard that the audio on the RED camera wasn’t that good, and he agreed, noting that the very first version didn’t even have audio, and that Sound Devices had tested the RED and found it to be closer to 12-bit sound than the claimed 16-...

When I first saw the JVC Picsio I was interested in it because it was low priced, looked pretty and Engadget blasted it for falsely claiming it was HD. I’m not sure whether it’s my natural inclination to doubt Engadget , but I added the camera to my bookmarks, and sat back to wait for reviews. After a somewhat favorable review on Camcorderinfo , questions started to appear when the first review on Amazon was negative. But that’s one review. MacWorld was a little less flattering , when they touched it. But now it’s been blasted by Gizmondo , and the ratings on Amazon have turned abysmal: it has a rating of 3 ½ stars after 7 reviews. Worse yet, one of those five stars is from someone that doesn’t even own the camera, jumping to the defence of budget cameras. The other ratings one 2-stars, and four 1-Stars. I had the worst time trying to get good quality video out of this device. The build quality was cheap and flimsy, the controls were awkward and counterintuitive, the video was un...

Engadget's video producer, Chad Mumm, provides his impressions of the Canon 7D for video work . He does a pretty good job of listing all the drawbacks (audio, 12 minute recording limitation, etc.,) and notes a concern about over-heating. There's nothing new here if you have been following the 7D, but I really like his summary, which is pretty much how I'd describe the camera to someone: We like to think of the 7D as another very specific tool in our arsenal. [...] there is a time and a place for this camera. If we're running around shooting a mile-a-minute, we're still going to reach for our trusty HD camcorder. Meanwhile, Gizmodo does a comparison of some low-budget cameras , and crowns the Flip Ultra HD the winner, the Flip Mino HD losing because of price and the "lousy touch controls." Most interesting of all, the recently released JVC Picsio GC-FM1 really scored low, with a rating of: sucked. It's spectacularly ugly (think Ed Hardy-inspired) and c...