News From Here & There

Camera Exposure Comparisons
Cinematographer Geoff Boyle shot a collection of dynamic range and skintone tests at the Gothenburg Film Festival, at workshops organised by Camera Centre. He used an Alexa, Canon 7D, SI-2K and RED MX and has posted some stills at Cinematography.net.

They make for interesting comparisons, though Geoff is careful to point out this wasn't a shoot-out; he just did the best he could in the conditions he had. There's quite a bit of discussion about it in the Reduser forum, including this post from Jim Jannard:

We feel compelled to do the DR tests again when we are present. We have no idea what was done in these tests and certainly get different results. We have acknowledged that the Alexa is a great DR performer but the RED ONE MX does better than these tests suggest. We'll post with all specific details of how the tests were done, firmware build, post methodology, etc. so people can duplicate the test results.

Cinematography.net: Gothenburg Skin Tests
Reduser: Camera testing and comparisons
Geoff Boyle



And You Thought WebM Would Be Free?
Back in May 2010 when WebM was first unveiled by Google, there was some question whether the VP8 codec didn't do things covered by existing patents (specifically H.264 patents.)

MPEG-LA - who handles licensing for H.264 - is moving forward with this question, inviting member companies to submit any instances where they believe VP8 violate their patents.
Electronicta: MPEG-LA calls for instances of Google's WebM patent
CNET: MPEG LA patent move blemishes Google's Web video plan
NotesOnVideo: Some things you might want to know about WebM and VP8



Spending the Day with Philip Bloom
Geoff Charters got to spend the day with Philip Bloom - and play with various camera gear - while Phil was in Australia.
GeoffCharters: A day with Philip Bloom



HDTV Input Lag
Seems that HDTV's can have a bit of a lag; the difference in time between a frame arriving at the TV's input and it being displayed onscreen. This is caused by post-processing in the HDTV, and seems to be a problem for video games rather than those just watching content. Unacceptable lag for gamers seems to by anything over 3-4 frames.

High-end Panasonic plasmas seem to have the lowest input lag, whereas LG plasmas seem to have the most. Samsung falls somewhere in between

HighDefinitionForum: The HDTV Input Lag Thread