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Friday, December 19, 2008

YouTube Hypes HD

I wish they'd up the length of clip you can upload (still limited to 10 minutes) but it's cool that they are YouTube is now supporting HD: YouTube pushes HD video, new landing pages

They have a page with details on optimizing video.

Resolution Recommended: 1290 x 720 (16x9 HD) and 640 x 480 (4:3 SD)
Bit rate: No recommended or minimum value
Frame rate: The frame rate of the original video should be maintained without re-sampling. Pulldown and other frame rate re-sampling techniques are strongly discouraged.
Codec: H.264, MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 preferred.
Audio Codec: MP3 or AAC preferred
Sampling rate: 44.1kHz
Channels 2: Stereo

Canon 5D Mk II Dark Spot Issue

Canon has announced that they are looking into the black spot issue on the new Canon 5D Mark II.
We have learned that some users of the Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR camera have identified two types of image quality phenomena that appear under certain shooting conditions.

* “Black dot” phenomenon (the right side of point light sources becomes black)
* Vertical banding noise

We are currently investigating and analysing the causes, and examining measures to reduce or eliminate these phenomena by providing correction firmware. An announcement will be made on www.canon-europe.com as soon as measures have been determined.


A solution for the banding problem found on Northlight Images site:
Vertical banding noise If the recording format is set to sRAW1, vertical banding noise may become visible depending on the camera settings, subject, and background. The following camera settings can reduce the phenomenon.
  • Set the recording format to RAW or JPEG.
  • Set C.Fn II-3: Highlight tone priority to 0: Disable if the recording format is set to sRAW1.
  • The vertical banding noise is not noticeable if the recording format is set to sRAW2, but please set C.Fn II-3: Highlight tone priority to 0: Disable if you are concerned about noise.


Links
CNET.com: Canon working on 'black dot' fix for new SLR
This article has the best pictures I've seen illustrating the problem.

DPReview: Canon statement

Monday, December 15, 2008

Cameras in free-fall, and more Wireless Mics

...I don't mean their prices are in free fall..

If you’re planning on using a harddrive based camcorder in free fall situations, you might want to reconsider it; seems that the hard drive parks the heads when it thinks it’s falling, and the camcorder won’t work. That’s what Matt Harding found when he tried to use the Sony SR-1 in a zero-g plane. New York Time, Pogue: The Perils of Zero-Gravity Videography
17 million watch a guy doing a gig? Jessh, I'm in the wrong business.



Even more on the wireless microphone/spectrum issue can be found here: Spectrum Talk: Wireless Mics are a Legitimate Use of Spectrum and Wireless Microphone Update: The Twisted Logic of NAB and MSTV - Now Locked in Conflict with APCO and CTIA

I particularly like his use of the term "criminal spectrum squatting."