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Showing posts from March 30, 2014

Public Beta version of Lightworks for the Mac.

The date for the release of the Mac Beta of Lightworks has been announced: it's June 11, 2014 Red Shark News :  Date announced for Lightworks for Mac Public Beta: this is the date it's available to everyone!

Importing into Final Cut Pro X from the Sony FDR-AX100

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The weather here in the Northeast has been miserable the last week, but I’ve finally started shooting stuff with the Sony FDR-AX100 , and here’s what I’ve found out so far NLE Support. It turns out that Adobe Premiere CS6 does not like 4K footage from the FDR-AX100. Prelude seemed to import it okay, but when I transferred it to Premiere , there was garbage displayed in the Source panel. An image was displayed in the Program panel, but I couldn’t play the footage, even after rendering it. After rendering, it would just jump between two frames and not play anything else. It seems like you’ll have to get the Creative Cloud if you want to edit 4K (unfortunately, at the moment I can’t as I’m working on a computer behind a network that the IS department won’t approve any cloud-based software.) One option might be to use DaVinci Resolve to create 1080 footage from the 4K and then edit in Premiere . Final Cut Pro X , fortunately, happily imported the video and lets me edit it.

The News

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Calling all colourists – Grade Panasonic GH4 4K ProRes next to Arri Alexa 2K ProRes | EOSHD The camera records a LOT of data in 4K mode. The internal codec is compressed to 100Mbit/s and packed into an 8bit 4:2:0 codec but 4x the resolution of 1080p means you can oversample 2K from it and gain 10bit precision and 4:4:4 colour sampling. This theory has been backed up by people in the know, specifically David Newman at CineForm / GoPro in this EOSHD interview. New Canon XF205 And XF200 Professional Camcorders Deliver Ideal Performance For Run-And-Gun, Cinéma Vérité Filmmakers | CanonRumors Positioned above the XF105 and XF100 Professional Camcorder models, the new Canon XF205 and XF200 Professional Camcorders are equipped with the upgraded zoom lens, CMOS sensor and image-processing platform featured in the XA25/XA20 High Definition Camcorders.  Canon Announces $33K US 17-120MM ENG Style Servo Lens For Large Sensor Cameras | News Shooter Canon have pre-released informa

The News

Panasonic GH4 4K Production Diary – Day 2 – Test Footage | EOSHD I have not seen any moire in the GH4′s 4K output yet. The only artefacts in the 4K image are related to aliasing from 4:2:0 colour sampling. Mr Uematsu told me that all internal processing and debayering is done in 10bit 4:2:2. However the internal 4K codec drops this to 8bit 4:2:0 to save space. You’re thankful for the light footprint of this codec though after using Blackmagic 4K ProRes or 5D Mark III raw files! Much more practical to store and archive. Andrew Reid at EOSHD has also been tweeting as he goes: It's interesting how good the GH4's 4K looks at 2K. Colour and tonality all look like 10bit 444 if you ask me :) — Andrew Reid (@EOSHD) April 2, 2014 Using GH4 has made me want to upgrade my TV. I think Panasonic 4K strategy is working :) — Andrew Reid (@EOSHD) April 1, 2014 And if you read French PRISE EN MAIN DU GH4 AU PAYS DES TULIPES | Pampuri Panasonic a eu la belle idée de m’inv

Red Magic Updates BulletProof

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Red Giant announces an update to BulletProof: Red Giant BulletProof Takes Aim with More Camera Support AVCHD and Canon XF Support. Faster Import. PluralEyes Integration. Today, April 1, 2014, Red Giant announced BulletProof 1.2, an update that brings more camera support and other improvements to its footage backup and preparation tool. Bruce Sharpe, Shooter Suite business unit manager said, “Last year at NAB, we released BulletProof - a product that we knew had the potential to become an essential tool for shooters. This year, we’ve updated it to support the AVCHD and Canon XF format, two formats that are a mainstay of the industry.” In addition to the existing support for Canon and Nikon DSLRs and GoPro cameras, BulletProof now includes support for Panasonic and Sony DSLRs, and for the Canon C-series and XF-series cameras. BulletProof is designed to solve several challenges that, since the DSLR revolution, have plagued shooters, both on set and right before post-product

The News

Andrew Reid and Frank Sauer shoot with the Panasonic GH4 – Production Diary Day 1 | EOSHD The even more astonishing thing is the 4K codec has such a light footprint. About 100MB for a 10 second clip. 8x smaller than Blackmagic Production Camera 4K in ProRes. 1GB for a whole minute… approximately 64 minutes per 64GB card is very nice when you are used to 12 minutes per 64GB with 1080p raw on the 5D Mark III… yet this is 4K. So 8bit 4:2:0 has its advantages after all… wow. THE DEATH OF MICRO FOUR THIRDS? SOURCES CLAIM PANASONIC AND OLYMPUS ARE MOVING TO FULL FRAME ON ALL FUTURE CAMERAS | Noam Kroll Last week, multiple sources stated that Panasonic will be dropping the Micro Four Thirds format on future cameras. The rumors came after a recording that is said to be from a recent Panasonic staff meeting was leaked onto YouTube. In it, two reps (possibly from the company, but again not confirmed) discuss how the company is having to restructure and refocus their efforts (specificall

New DJI Phantom Software

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An interesting update to the DJI Phantom 2 software includes the following: Main controller firmware now includes the Flight Limits functions, inclusive of maximum height radius limits, which is aimed to help users fly more safely. Max height is set at 400m and max radius is 1600m by default. The default parameters can be configured in the Assistant Software v2.00. The max descent speed has changed to 3m/s. Reader Paul Antico notes: New DJI ground station firmware released for Phantom 2 won't even let you use it within 5 mi of a major airport... They are also limiting down speed to 3m/sec. Mostly for safety but this also effectively limits how far up you can go. Point is this is a peek at the future: regulated use of drones based on GPS and flight envelopes. Nothing to stop the future from being limited in height or based on gps coordinates. The airport limitation may be limited to the iPad Groundstation software  or it may apply to both (I haven't been able to