Notes On Video

Low light comparison between the RED Scarlet & Canon C300 | Nino Leitner | Cinema 5D Nino does a low light test with the Scarlet and C300, and finds the Scarlet noisier: 4K sounds vastly superior - it’s 4 times the resolution of 1080p. But apart from the computing-heavy post production, there is one other downside to it: light sensitivity. If the pixels sit densely on a chip, they absorb more light, less resolution leaves more light for the individual pixel. The other part of the reason is the fact that the Mysterium-X sensor inside the Scarlet is now around 3-year-old technology. It’s not the most recent tech anymore and light sensitivity is an area where sensor technology seems to improve exponentially in recent years. RED will be bringing a new sensor to market which is supposed to be much better in low light. DP David Kruta and the Red Epic | Michael Murie | Filmmaker Magazine After seeing Dave talk about the Epic at a recent Rule Boston Camera event, I interviewed...

Kessle takes a new stealth approach to Sliders | Dan Chung | DSLR News Shooter If you need to be mobile in the field, smaller and lighter is better: Enter the new Stealth hybrid slider which takes the Pocketdolly’s portability and combines it with drag control and a super smooth rolling precision stainless steel ball bearing wheel system on the carriage. It does not have the crank handle from the Pocketdolly and the overall design is more sleek than previous dollies. It can be used with DSLR as well as larger cameras like the Sony F3 or even some broadcast models. The Latest OS X Lion Hackintosh Recommendations for Video Editors | No Film School Save money, build yourself a Hackintosh: I recently upgraded my machine to OS X Lion (it’s working great), and so I also updated the guide to reflect an easy way to do it, courtesy Unibeast from Tonymac: The guide has been updated to reflect the latest hardware recommendations and OS X Lion instructions. My machine’s currently running ...

EOSHD tests the new Magic Lantern Unified on 5D Mark II | Andrew Reid | EOSHD Testing a beta of the next version of the Magic Lantern firmware hack adds high frame rates and HDR: HDR video alternatives between low ISO / high ISO frames and then you blend them in post. Brilliant feature. On fast motion you can get a bit of ghosting, I recommend a faster shutter speed to avoid that. More on this feature on EOSHD soon. Eve Hazelton lighting tutorial two: Using lights around the house to add that extra sparkle | Philip Bloom Blog Eve offers some interesting, low cost, ideas for lighting: #2 – Fairy lights! It’s Christmas. Don’t try stealing them off the tree just yet, but do go bag yourself some in the sale to keep in your lighting kit. We all know Phil loves a bit of Bokeh! and when you are shooting at a shallow DOF with these lights in the background its easy to see why! The beautiful out of focus discs of light can add colour, interest and of course movement (gentle twinkling o...

Sony FS100 Prime lens vs Zoom lens | Shawn Lam | Blog Shawn continues his lens testing with a comparison of the Minolta MD Rokkor-X 50mm f/1.4 prime lens and the Sony SAL1650 DT 16-50mm f/2.8 wide angle zoom lens: I saw a very slight advantage for the prime lens at f/2.8 in both sharpness and contrast but not much of a difference afterwards. The prime was also a bit more consistent when it came to light transmission across the different exposures. I was also interested to see the depth of field differences at the various f-stops. 14 Cameras in one year Part TWO | Philip Johnston | HD Warrior The second part of a look back at 14 interesting cameras released this year: Panasonic HDC Z10000 I first saw this 3D camcorder at IBC 2011 and it had an impressive number of features for the money. 3D is not for everyone but if you are looking at a semi pro 3D camcorder this must be one of your choices. Get Your Free Copy of “Becoming the Reel Deal” | Evan Luzi | The Black And Blue ...

An Affordable Remote Controlled Time-lapse Camera | Richard Harrington | 3 Exposure Using the ContourGPS camera for timelapses? That's not something I would have thought of doing! The unit is very small (95x58x34mm) and can easily be attached to a variety of mounting points. It’s also super light, weighing just over five ounces. It has good battery life at 2.5 hours, plus you can swap batteries in it for a longer day. For its size, it offers a capable 5 Megapixel Sensor. Book Review: Rotoscoping: Techniques and Tools for the Aspiring Artist | Nick C Sorbin | Renderosity I always been intrigued by rotoscoping; and Rotoscoping: Techniques and Tools for the Aspiring Artist looks interesting: Modern rotoscoping, which is still the same basic concept, is used to create mattes, by which parts of a live action scene can be isolated in order to insert effects, color correct, hide rigs or wires, etc. As rotoscoping is a crucial part of any video production today, so is the i...

Four Minutes With ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ | Gavin Edwards | New York Times Editors Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter with director David Fincher discuss a scene from the movie: To illuminate that job, and the trio’s ongoing collaboration, we asked Fincher, Baxter and Wall to break down a four-minute sequence that occurs early in “Dragon Tattoo.” The narrative set-up: The journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is visiting the aging industrialist Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer), who is asking him to investigate a decades-old mystery involving his niece Harriet. Blomkvist agrees to listen, reluctantly, though he is determined to catch his 4:30 train. And ... action. Nela | Sebastian Wiegärtner | Vimeo Oh my! This is probably the first baby video shot with the Canon C300 ! Short film about my baby girl Nela, which I shot on her first day on planet earth (18th December 2011). Love my girls Eva, Annabelle and Nela. x Camera: Canon C300 Pre Production Model C-Log 720/...

DIY Indie Air Cannons | Realm Pictures | Vimeo Very cool little tutorial video showing how to create a practical effect explosion with an inexpensive air canon. They are also offering some other tutorials: For a tutorial on how to create your own DIY compressed air cannon like the one shown in the video, along with 9 other action tutorials, skip along to our KickStarter page and pick up the Indie Action Pack! The Ultimate Guide to a Camera Assistant’s Toolkit | Evan Luzi | The Black And Blue Another interesting article at The Black And Blue about putting together a toolkit: For me, I started out working heavily with the RED One on feature films. As such, my initial toolbag purchase was catered towards that kind of work. Nowadays I have been working a lot on commercials that use DSLR’s. Many of the tools I had acquired to work with the RED don’t have functions while shooting with a DSLR. On the flipside, many of the basic tools I have work in both types of gigs. Build A Jib F...

When You Find Me – Awesome Canon C300 / 5D Short Film | Paul Joy | Blog Canon had a competition where they invted people to submit photographs and Ron Howard would shoot a movie based on those pictures. Originally the movie was supposed to be shot on DSLRs, but evidently mush of it was shot on the C300 . You can see it on the web at YouTube: Project Imagin8ion I’ve not seen any details from Canon confirming that camera that were used on the film but it’s widely reported that a prototype of the Canon C300 was the main camera with some HDSLR’s being used as well. I’ll update this post when more info comes to light. “Sugared Art”, a new short film on the Sony FS100 | Philip Bloom | Blog Sony hired Philip for this project. You can read about it, and see some BTS footage, though Philip notes he was'nt a very happy camper because he'd put his back out the day before: Gear wise, obviously the FS100 and Zeiss ZF macro lenses 50mm and 100mm. The Zeiss ZF 50mm and 85mm F1.4 too. ...

14 New Cameras in one year (Part One) | Philip Johnston | HD Warrior The first part of a look back at 14 interesting cameras that were announced this year: I decided to take the F3 through to Edinburgh one cold January evening to film some low light footage and I was astounded at the footage I brought back, this was indeed the king of low light filming. Stage 4 - Reservations are now Open | Jarred Land | RedUser Order an EPIC now and save! Given the price increase coming in the new year, We are opening up EPIC Stage 4 for deposits today so everyone interested in stage 4 can lock into 2011 Pricing. We have a few Stage 2 orders to still mop up, so Stage 4 will not start shipping until those have been completed and the process of Stage 3/3.5 has begun . Since Stage 3 and 3.5 have the opportunity to be a lengthy processes ( sending in cameras, inspected, etc. ) Stage 4 orders and Stage 3/3.5 will be shipping in the same time frame.. with Stage 3/3.5 orders given shipping priority...

Vancouver, British Columbia, December 15, 2011 — Singular Software, a developer of workflow automation applications for video production, is pleased to announce that the PluralEyes for Apple Final Cut Pro X Public Beta is now available. The multi-award winning PluralEyes technology works alongside Final Cut Pro to instantly sync multi-camera video and audio tracks; saving hours of tedious, manual syncing during post. "We have a large PluralEyes for Final Cut Pro user base, so it was imperative that we added support for the latest release," says Bruce Sharpe, CEO of Singular Software. "Many of our PluralEyes for Final Cut Pro users employ multi-camera and dual-system audio workflows...relying heavily on PluralEyes to facilitate the media sync. Whether editing with Final Cut Pro version 7 or X, we want to ensure our customers enjoy all of the same advanced synchronization capabilities that PluralEyes has to offer. Final Cut Pro X editors can download the ne...

Sony has released a firmware update for several NEX series cameras: the NEX-3, NEX-5, NEX-C3 cameras, NEX-VG10 Handycam Camcorder and the Sony NEX-FS100U . Firmware update 2.0v specifically adds support for the LA-EA2  [$333.05] translucent mirror Lens Mount Adapter In these cases, the new firmware provides compatibility with the recently launched LA-EA2 translucent mirror Lens Mount Adapter. Prior to this firmware update, the LA-EA2 only worked with the αNEX-5N , NEX-7 and NEX-VG20. We know owners of the previous models were eagerly asking for compatibility to enjoy phase detect autofocus when using one of Sony’s A-mount lenses. I can't find what it does for the NEX-FS100U (whether this adds the international frame rate support they were promising, though I doubt it) but it does add the focus peaking feature to the NEX-VG10 and the other NEX still cameras. There don't appear to be any other changes. αNEX Cameras:New Firmware Enables Translucent Mirror Adapter Compat...

Milpitas, USA - December 15, 2011 - Blackmagic Design today announced DaVinci Resolve 8.2 for Microsoft Windows™ public beta is now available for download. D aVinci Resolve for Windows public beta is available in both the full featured DaVinci Resolve 8.2 and free DaVinci Resolve Lite versions. The DaVinci Resolve 8.2 for Windows license is included with the Mac OS X version, so all current Mac OS X customers automatically get a license for the Windows version, and can download it now to use in their facility. Read rest of the: Press Release

First look of Canon C-300 | Paul Steinberg | Vimeo C-300 with Directors Commentary Paul was lucky enough to borrow a C300 from Canon Canada for a weekend and did some shooting with it. The two clips he has posted are essentially the same, but the second one has a commentary track added. A couple sensitivity shots at the end of the video including a 20,000 ISO shot. Details for my fellow nerds; Camera was left in 5400K, Canon Cinema mode | 50Mb/s Lenses: 15mm f/2.8 fisheye, 17-35 f/2.8, 24-70 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8, 300 f/2.8 DSLR Lighting techniques from Eve Hazelton | Eve Hazelton | Philip Bloom Blog Eve Hazelton, DP of the Underwater Realm , provides an introductory lighting tutorial: First off – don’t just point a light at your subject and hope that’s enough. You are painting with light here, be a little more subtle! There are a number of problems with this shot – but first off we are going to tackle the lack of contrast between myself and ...

F65: Hands On Review | Steve Marshall | FearSomeSteve Despite initial skepticism about Sony's past offerings, Steve seems impressed by what he saw of the F65 at a recent demo event: Only time will tell but I think the F65 is going to catch on big time. It’s workflows will appeal to TV shows and feature films alike. It’s price point is low enough to attract a number of owner-operators, albeit not as many as RED. The 8k sensor at the heart of it seems to produce really good, clear images (from what I’ve seen). They definitely have some traction in the true 4k argument. I’d really like to see Epic and F65 footage side by side. I’m sure we’ll be seeing some comparison tests in the new year. Canon EOS C300 at BBC Scotland…First Impressions | Philip Jonhston | HD Warrior Philip's impressions of the C300 after seeing it at a demo event: We also had a chance to see the iPad working with the C300 now here is my dilemma, it looks the business but has a small delay in transmissi...

The link in yesterday's post was botched, and also the price has dropped another $40 ( so just as well you didn't buy it yesterday! ) but B & H is currently selling the  Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital Camera (Body Only)   at $1,999.95. (Note: this site is a B&H affiliate .) Will it drop further? Does this mean a 5D Mark III is coming soon? I don't know! I doubt it means the Mark III will be announced for CES, but it seems likely that something will appear next year...surely?

Looks like the fun just continues next month. Rule Boston Camera is going to be hosting two great Pub Nights: Jan 5th, 6-8pn Canon EOS C300 Pub Night (Beer & Pizza) Jan 25th, 6-8pn Sony F65: True 4k and Beyond Pub Night (Beer & Pizza) RSVP: events@rule.com

Sony Steps Up Manufacturing After Pre-Orders Land F65 4K Camera in U.S. Top 200 | Carolyn Giardina | Hollywood Reporter If you thought the Canon C300 was expensive, then don't even look at this baby, which costs $65,000: Sony plans to begin shipping the camera to customers in early January and started to take pre-orders in September. Kanemura said US-based resellers of the F65 would include AbelCine, BandPro and Rule Boston Camera. Sony's F65 Camera Get First Shoulder Rig | HD Magazine SHAPE of Canada has developed a shoulder rig for the F65 ; how much does that thing weigh? - 35 pounds! There's a short teaser video: SHɅPE WORLD PREMIERE F65 TEASER | SHAPE | Vimeo THE SONY FS100: A LIVED IN REVIEW | El Skid | Wide Open Camera After spending some months with the NEX-FS100 , El Skid offers his thoughts: It really is that kind of camera, on the one hand infuriating, on the other hand, just brilliant. Funnily enough though, all those reasons that bugged the hel...

SECAUCUS, NJ (December 12, 2011) – Panasonic today announced pricing and availability for its latest professional 3D camcorder, the HDC-Z10000 , delivering in December at a suggested list price of $3500. The Z1000 achieves the industry’s nearest close-up of approximately 17.7 inches (45cm) for a twin-lens 3D camcorder, while maintaining an equivalent 32mm wide angle of view. It records close-up images that would be conventionally difficult to capture in crisp detail. The Z10000 is Panasonic’s first integrated twin-lens 2D/3D camcorder that is fully compatible with the AVCHD 3D/Progressive standard. Based on the AVCHD format, which offers high quality, efficient compression and excellent compatibility, this new standard has been upgraded to AVCHD 3D, which uses MVC (Multiview Video Coding) to record and play 3D images via the Frame Sequential Method (each frame is full resolution). AVCHD 3D/Progressive is the latest format in the 3D domain and assures frame-by-frame beautiful resul...

BTS Of Reverse Parthenogenesis | Wide Open Camera | YouTube A short video where Jared Abrams shows the lighting setup they are using for a scene. Phantom Flex Test Shot - 2000 FPS - ISO 1250 | Tom Guilmette | Vimeo Tom has posted a very short video shot with the Phantom. at 2,000 fps. The explanation is well worth reading: The set we were on was huge. That meant a large area had to be lit. I asked the DP to use large wattage lamps to avoid 60 Hz flicker in the high speed footage. I also wanted plenty of room to work. Even in front of the key source. We had a 3 ton grip truck. The main key source were two nine lights camera right through silk. The fill was camera left and consisted of a 5k and 2k through silk. An EF 70-200 f/4L IS II in Mid January? [CR1] EF 35 f/1.4L II & EF 24-70 f/2.8L II | CanonRumors There are reports that Canon will be updating several lenses in the springtime. You just have to wait until CES to find out (CES runs January 10 - 13) I'm mos...