Ad

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Quick Links

Sony’s PMW-150 and PMW-200 camcorders meet European Broadcast Union standard for HD Broadcast Production | Sony
Sony today announced that its latest XDCAM HD422 50Mbps camcorders, the PMW-200 and PMW-150, have met the standards the European Broadcast Union (EBU) recommend for long form video production. Both cameras were independently tested by Alan Roberts in accordance with the EBU camera test guidelines.


Testing Your Camera’s Latitude | Shane Hurlbut | Hurlblog
Let’s begin with over exposing. This test shows you how it handles the highlights. Set up your grey card and color chart on the same focal plan as your model. Frame a shot that is a medium size frame so that the charts are just in the left and right sides of the frame. There are many ways to light this test. We used a very frontal light source that was very bright so we could start at a high f-stop and then work our way down in 1/3 stop increments.


Apple slashes price on Thunderbolt cable, releases additional shorter model
| Mark Gurman | 9 to 5 Mac
Apple has reduced the price of its 2.0 m Thunderbolt cable from $49 to $39. The Thunderbolt cable, which can be used for data transfers and for display attachment purposes, was originally released in mid-2011.


Canon May 'Bring the Might of Its Legal Team' if You Modify 1D X or 1D C Firmware | Joe Marine | NoFilmSchool
Another explanation is that the 1D C has a larger heat sink; it's possible they are worried about people frying their $6,000 1D X trying to run the 1D C firmware on it...
The big reason that people might want to mess with the firmware of the Canon 1D X is because at the moment, that camera only costs $6,800 vs. $12,000 for the 1D C. A $5,000 difference would be a hefty savings for people who wanted the 4K functionality of the 1D C, while still retaining all of the other great features of the 1D X. The other possible changes that could happen in firmware could be related to the HDMI output of the 1D X, which, to my knowledge, cannot be recorded cleanly without cropping (if at all). Another slight difference between the two cameras is a missing headphone port on the 1D X.


Sony HXR-NX30U Camcorder-Projector Review | Mike Houghton | VideoMaker
You now, I somehow missed that the HXR-NX30 has a built-in projector. Why do you even need that?! I mean, how good can it be....
The coolest feature by far, however, is the tiny projector on the back of the LCD screen. It literally projects recorded video and pictures onto any surface; from a white napkin to a lightly colored wall. It doesn't do well under bright lighting or long distances, but in a reasonably dim room or close up it's a whole lot of fun. It feels like you're screening your own work in your very own theater.


A Hands-On First Look at the Android-Powered Polaroid iM1836 | Michael Zhang
| Peta Pixel
I don't really want a camera with iOS in it either...
Our first impression when handling the camera is that it feels cheap. It looks strangely similar to Nikon’s 1 Series J2 mirrorless camera, and feels similar in the hand. However, the iM1836 doesn’t just feel light and plasticky like the J2 — it also feels creaky, and therefore cheap.


Looking ahead to 2013 in post-productionSome random bullet points about the year ahead | Scott Simmons | ProVideoCoalition
You, me and all the professional editors you know will continue to use Final Cut Pro 7 at some point in 2013. Many by choice, others by the choice of someone else. It will continue to work and produce the great results it always has. We will all live in fear of some Mac OS or Mac hardware release from Apple that finally signals the true end of Final Cut Pro 7.


Weapons of Mass Production: Action Cam Showdown | Kevin Good | CrisisLab
The image quality of the GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition is in a class of its own against other action cams.  I went with the Panasonic TS4 in this test because some other recent comparisons I saw showed the GoPro significantly outperforming it's rugged video competitors.  And with the stills-focused Panasonic now getting AVCHD, it told me they were taking video seriously.  Well the image quality really isn't up to GoPro levels.  But the form factor is much more usable.  If someone would mash these two cameras together, and make the manual mode not suck, we'd have a huge winner on our hands.


The Toughest Scene I Wrote: Tony Kushner on Lincoln | Jennifer Vineyard
Vulture
I wrote, literally, about a hundred different versions of the scene. Long versions, short versions, involving different things that happened or may have happened on the buggy ride. We kept shifting back and forth until we finally found the one that I could live with and Steven and Daniel and Sally liked. Am I happy with the way it turned out? They play it so beautifully, so yes.


Director Rian Johnson Explains The Difficult Path to ‘Looper’ | Jack Giroux
| Film School Rejects
The diner scene. That scene was a real beast. Even leading into production I did a lot of work on it. I ran it over with Joe and Bruce over and over before we shot it. Then we honed it, trimmed it, added stuff, and took away stuff. Actually, I recently released the script online, so anyone can look and see how different the finished scene is from what was originally written.


Lionsgate teams up with Samsung to convert more films to 3D, starts with Gamer, Crank and Bangkok Dangerous | Sean Buckley | Engadget
I thought that yesterday we agreed that 3D was dead?!
Using Sammy's proprietary 3D processing technology, the two firms will dimensionalize a handful of films from Lionsgate's catalog, starting with Gamer, Bangkok Dangerous, Crank, and The Descent. More title are on the way too, slated for future release on DVD and Blu-ray. Groundbreaking? No, but worthwhile for 3D connoisseurs. 

No comments: