David Williams

Alister Chapman has nice article on his blog which shows the striking difference in the level of image quality between the latest Canon DSLR and an EX1. The Canon of course come off rather poorly, being a stills camera with video, compared to a dedicated video camera.

That’s not to say you can’t get some nice video out of the Canon, but it must be done in a very limited way which maximises it’s only advantage, shallow depth of field. This advantage also just happens to mask most of the image issues by blurring large areas of the picture. Otherwise you end up with a nasty combination of soft images, moire, aliasing and compression artefacts. Combine that with impractical controls in audio, lens functions, ergonomics, paint settings, etc, it becomes a very limiting tool. Beautiful within it’s limit though.

Canon T2i Test

Probably the strangest and funniest shoot I’ve been involved with. Hopefully this pilot will be picked up.

Thanks to Alysa Grigoriev for her excellent photos.

[View with PicLens]

 

Sony has release user update-able firmware for the EX series cameras. This is a good thing. Ablecine has the info.

Firmware

This update seems to have enabled full overcranking to 60fps using SDHC adapters, where previously this produced errors over @ 48fps.

Art Adams has a nice set of simple tips for Camera Ops over at Provideo Coalition.

A nice article on grading over at ProLost.

An excellent primer on MTF over at Ablecine Blog.

New video cameras are coming, cameras which are relatively cheap, but also relatively complex to operate. We’ve already seen many disasters born of the ignorance of many producers and directors who have little real technical knowledge, and jump on the band wagon with no idea what they are setting themselves up for. Not employing a competent crew, not setting aside time and money for post, simply believing the camera is all they need. It will get worse before it gets better, now that cheaper versions are getting closer. Only two years late, but closer none the less.

Read these warnings, please, and remember them. The band wagon is already overloaded.

Scarlet Warning

There’s a lot of speculation, as well as some official announcements, on Canon’s upcoming range of solid state camcorders to replace the current XH and XL series. Some very interesting potential here to displace some of the current market leaders.

DVinfo Canon Article

Alister Chapman has the beginnings of some custom profiles for Sony’s new 2/3″ XDCAM EX camera, as well as some explanation of the settings.

Alister’s Blog

A short write up by Adam Wilt on the recent RED promotion. I’m hoping they are ready to move from fashion accessory, into creating serious cameras designed to be used by camera operators.

RED Day