Organizing a gel collection
December 7, 2007
As you collect more and more gels and diffusion, organization and storage becomes important. I store my gels and diffusion using the following two holding methods (as far as rolls go, those usually live in their original boxes).
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Using SATA drives in the raw with your MacBook Pro
November 4, 2007
A while back I wrote about Using SATA drives with a MacBook Pro, and I also compared MacBook Pro external drive performance using SATA, FireWire 400, and FireWire 800. Today at the Boston Media Makers meeting I discussed my solution for cheap backup and archiving: bare SATA drives, this is attractive when you consider that Seagate 500 GB SATA drives are now down to $120 and come with a 5 year warranty. Other backup and archiving options like DVD-R or Blu-Ray disks takes a long time to burn and LTO3 tape systems are expensive. Hard drives offer a fast and cheap solution (but with the caveats I mention later).
Comparing MacBook Pro external drive performance
July 20, 2007
Yesterday I wrote about using SATA drives with a MacBook Pro. Is it worth the trouble going the external SATA route with a MacBook Pro for editing? It’s certainly valuable when doing media ingest in the field (e.g. P2) direct to a mirrored pair of disks. I like it simply because I need to move external SATA disks between the laptop and my desktop editing systems. But there’s also a performance advantage. But how much? I decided to run a little test comparing the performance of the following:
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Using SATA drives with a MacBook Pro
July 19, 2007
Need fast, cheap, reliable storage for video editing on your MacBook Pro? Tired of paying a price premium and performance penalty with external FireWire drives? Tired of dropped frames with that USB external drive? Want to be able to move a project between the laptop and a PowerMac or MacPro and keep it on a fast SATA drive? Several interface cards are available for the MacBook Pro to interface with SATA drives.
Canon TX1 Movie Test
May 8, 2007
OK, so the big question is, what’s the tiny Canon TX1 like as a video camera? To answer the question, I made a short video this weekend. I’m not much for testing with charts and side by side comparisons these days, image quality is only part of the camera equation, so instead I do some shooting and from the results, I ask the question, is the image quality reasonable given all the other aspects of the camera that come into play when making the decision of what camera to purchase or use, for example, handling, form-factor, weight, cost, features, image processing, media formats, lens, ease-of use, etc.?
Canon TX1 First Impressions
May 6, 2007
I’ve been shooting with a Canon S100 Digital Elph since 2000, and after seven years the camera was looking very long in the tooth, with dead pixels and starting to fall apart, it was time for an equally tiny replacement. For serious still shooting I’ve got a Canon 10D w/ an EF 24mm-70mm f/2.8 lens, and for video, a Sony HVR-A1U HDV camcorder, and even though the images from both of these puppies are spectacular, I don’t always want to deal with the weight and bulk of these cameras. I like having a small digital camera I can take with me wherever I go, that I can wear on my belt and forget it’s there. But I also would like to shoot short movie segments, so I’ve been waiting for something with at least 1280 x 720 (720p) video capability in the Digital Elph form factor. Finally Canon introduced the TX1 that fits the bill, so after years waiting and considering, yet not purchasing, many alternatives, I settled on the TX1.
ffmpegX flv encoding test
March 13, 2007
DLO HomeDock Deluxe: Integrating the iPod with your television and stereo
January 12, 2007
I listen and watch podcasts on my video iPod as I commute to and from work. Sometimes I want to watch or listen to podcasts on my home stereo system in the living room. My wife would like to listen to her iPod on the stereo too. As far as audio goes, it’s easy to simply hook up a cable, and the same goes for video, but it leads to a gnarly mess of wires.
Santa provided a more elegant solution this holiday season, delivering us a DLO HomeDock Deluxe.
While I have mixed feelings about this gadget, it provides an acceptable solution to the problem of integrating a video iPod into a home stereo system and television. It comes with RCA line outs for the audio and both composite and S-Video connectors for the video.
iPhone: A cinema, jukebox, phone, browser, and e-mail client in your pocket
January 9, 2007
Today at MacWorld expo Apple introduced the iPhone. I am rarely inspired to write about any product introduction, but I think this one is as paradigm shifting as the original Macintosh, QuickTime, and the iPod. And this device presents many new creative opportunities for media makers. No longer will getting good video to a smart phone be a hassle like it is now with so many formats. Just publish your video as an iTunes compatble video podcast and that’s that. I was expecting Apple to introduce a 16:9 video iPod and a separate iPhone, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear that the iPhone (in the best Apple design tradition) combines a phone, widescreen iPod, e-mail, and web browsing in one small elegant Internet connected device. Like earlier major milestones in Apple history this new device introduces a whole new platform and a reinvention of an entire product category.
Final Cut Pro color correcting blues about to change their hue?
October 28, 2006
It’s no secret, Final Cut Pro’s color correction tools pale in comparison to the Avid. But Apple’s recent purchase of Silicon Color technology is certainly to have an impact on future color correcting capabilities in Final Cut Pro. And even if the capabilities are slated for the rumored high-end version, I hope we’ll get some trickle down capabilities. It’s interesting that the FinalTouch color correction demo was one of the more interesting things I saw earlier this year at NAB, and I made the semi-serious joke at the time, sure wish Apple would acquire Silicon Color just like Shake and Logic and integrate the technology into the Pro Apps…
