Viva La Difference: mixing media formats with Final Cut Pro 6
February 16, 2008
Having to render any media that does not match the format of the sequence is a problem that has plagued Final Cut Pro versions 1 through 5. With Version 6 (bundled with Final Cut Studio 2, no longer available as a stand-alone application) this problem has gone away. Version 6 of Final Cut Pro introduced the ability to mix video formats on the timeline, a long awaited feature that was the source of lots of teasing from the Avid snobs.
Read more
18th Annual Pro Video Show
February 14, 2008
The 18th Annual Pro Video Show (hosted by the Camera Company with the participation of the Boston FCP User Group, SMPTE/NE, and NPVA/NE) will be held Friday and Saturday, March 7-8, 2008 at Stonehill College (Sally Blair Ames Sports Complex) in Easton, Massachusetts. This popular annual event provides two days of informative workshops, seminars, and equipment demonstrations, with lots of opportunities to check out the latest gear. I will be presenting three seminars at the show you might be interested in attending:
- Web Video 2.0: Delivering Your Video Online (Friday, March 07, 1:00PM - 3:00PM, $25.00)
- Art of the Interview: Strategies and Techniques for Better Video Interviews (Saturday, March 08, 9:00AM - 11:00AM, $25.00)
- Interview Lighting: Professional Results On A Tight Budget (Saturday, March 08, 1:00PM - 3:00PM, $25.00
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.
17th Annual Pro Video Show to be held March 9-10, 2007 at Stonehill College in Easton, Ma
February 3, 2007
If you live in the Boston area you will not want to miss the 17th Annual Pro Video Show sponsored by The Camera Company to be held Friday and Saturday, March 9-10, 2007 at Stonehill College, in Easton, Massachussetts (Exit 17B off Route 24). This annual event provides local media makers with the opportunity to check out new equipment, talk with fellow media makers, and attend a wide range of workshops and seminars. Yours truly will be presenting two of the seminars, “Delivering Video on the Web” and “Champagne Production Values on a Beer Production Budget.”
2007 SMPTE/NE Digital Production Showcase
January 18, 2007
The New England Chapter of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) held its Annual Digital Production Showcase (which has become a mid-winter tradition) on Wednesday, January 17th at WCVB-TV’s studio in Needham, Massachusetts. My photos from the event are available on Flickr. In addition to being fed sandwiches and piping hot New England clam chowder (very appropriate given the cold snap) attendees had a chance to experience hands-on demos of the latest digital production tools in a collegial atmosphere. I thank SMPTE/New England for hosting such a delightful event in which I can catch up with what’s happening in the realm of digital production.
Panasonic HVX200 direct capture to hard drive
October 4, 2006
OK, OK, I keep hearing it, P2 cards are still too expensive and don’t hold enough video, in spite of price drops and the migration to 16G cards. But don’t give up on the HVX just because of P2 cards. There’s always the FireStore, or better yet, record straight to a hard drive connected to a MacBook Pro or PowerBook (sorry, I don’t do Windows) laptop on the set!
Read more
Instant HD, is it magical?
June 18, 2006
I love Magic Bullet Editors from Red Giant, I use it to create looks and film effects when editing in Final Cut Pro and have been very happy with the results. Thus, when Red Giant announced Instant HD, a tool for upresing standard definition footage to HD, I was expecting another amazing plug-in but the reality is a little different.
AVCHD is the new kid in town
June 6, 2006
Small, portable cameras using digital recording mediums like semiconductor memory and portable disks require very efficient data compression. MPEG-2, the codec used in HDV and DVD is getting a bit long in the tooth. The newer H.264 (a.k.a. MPEG-4 Part 10) codec is much more efficient than previous MPEG codecs (MPEG-2, H.263, MPEG-4 Part 2) and requires half of the bandwidth for the same image quality as the previous codecs (or provides dramatically better image quality at the same data rates). So far we’ve seen this new codec used for video iPod movies, the HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc standards, and many broadcast applications, it’s the wave of the future, and it’s not just for delivery any more, as these press releases from Panasonic indicate: “Panasonic Begins Development of Technology for Recording HD Images onto SD Memory Cards Based on the AVCHD Standard for Digital Video Cameras” and “Panasonic and Sony Jointly Developed New HD Digital Video Camera Recorder Format for Recording on Disc.” It looks like we’ll soon see H.264 in cameras, allowing doubled capacity with portable hard drives, Blu-Ray disks, SD cards, and P2 cards.
The Invaluable Guide to the AG-HVX200
May 29, 2006
I recently came across “The Invaluable Guide to the AG-HVX200,” a delightful document from Panasonic that provides a detailed description of the features and capabilities of the AG-HVX200 prosumer HD camcorder in a format that’s easy to read like a brochure, but with plenty of substance and details you’d expect from a well-written technical overview, it’s got lots of great illustrations. If you’re thinking about purchasing or renting this camera, you’ll want to download a copy from http://panasonic.biz/sav/p2/ (it’s a PDF document that comes in two versions, one for the AG-HVX200E European/PAL and the other for the AG-HVX200P US/NTSC versions of the camera (they are different in terms of the formats/frame rates they record).
NAB2006: My picks from the show
May 4, 2006
Here are the products that stood out for me (not in any particular order) at NAB2006.
- The Zylight Z50 is a tiny LED lighting instument that can instantly changes from 5600K to 3200K light with the push of a button and can be programmed to to produce any color you want and you can save you favorites with presets. The devices can be put together and controlled wirelessly. This is a very clever idea whose time has come. Based on technology licensed from Color Kinetics and built around a HD-led (High-Density light-emitting diode) module that packs over 230 high-power elements into a single square inch, making the Z50 the brightest portable LED light available.
