New Cameras from Sony

Sony SLT-A99

Sony NEX EA50EH

Sony is rolling out several new cameras that look really exciting. In particular there are two that I like, the new SLT -A99 and the NEX EA50EH both shoot full 1920 x 1080 60p.

Philip Bloom has a nice overview of the new Sonys and several other new cameras.

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Revenge Of The Great Camera Shoot Out 2012

 

Revenge of the Great Camera Shoot Out 2012

Kudos to Steve Weiss and Jens Bogehegn for Revenge Of The Great Camera Shoot Out 2012. A brilliant documentary and important piece of filmmaking history. What more can I say?  It MUST be seen.

Revenge Of The Great Camera Shoot Out 2011

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SDHC Card Failure

Adata SDHC

I’ve been on the road a lot this year, and after returning home from a trip to Austin Texas I discovered one of my memory cards had been fried by the TSA. In going through airport security in Austin TX, the TSA left my carryon bag containing my photo equipment in the scanner for several minutes while they changed the settings and peered deeper into my cameras and lenses. I stood there and watched as the monitor changed colors as they increased the power to peer deeper and deeper into my gear. Like most of you I wasn’t concerned as I had been told by everyone that the X-rays would cause no harm to memory cards and gear. Then, they ran it through again repeating the same process and looking at my bag full of gear from a different angle. When I returned home my 32GB SDHC memory card that was in my Sony A65 was fried. The card was not recognized by the camera and would not mount in my Mac computer. Everything had been working fine before the intense TSA scanning. I tried Rescue Pro, Disk Warrior and several other disk / file recovery programs, but with the card not mounting, none were of any help. So I called several data recovery services who felt confident that the data could be recovered, but their prices were quite expensive. In talking to the data recovery services I found out that this is a fairly common occurrence. Then I noticed that the card has a Lifetime warranty so I decided to call the manufacturer Adata. I was pleasantly surprised to find the people at Adata to be very friendly and helpful. They sent me links to additional recovery programs, and when none of those worked they offered to recover my data and replace the SDHC card, which they promptly did. I’ve been using Adata memory for about 3 years now and with great customer service like this they’ve won me over as a satisfied loyal customer.

I travel a lot and this is the first time I’ve had this problem, but in talking to the data recovery companies and Adata this is more common than we have been previously told. With the falling prices of SDHC cards I have been using them as one of my archival backups. But another lesson that I learned from this experience is that SD cards and probably all sold state memory are only meant for short term storage of a maximum of three years. So I’m still searching for the ideal tapeless work flow.

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Large Sensor Cameras

 

 

 

 

Great Camera Shootout Pt 2

The Great Camera Shootout part2, the Zacuto cosponsored testing of large sensor video cameras, is posted. Comparing the cameras side by side naturally you see a difference, but in the real world, depending on the desired look, or circumstances, budget etc. all of the tested cameras delivered a very usable image. The Arri Alexa, which is at the top of the list, in quality and price, looked incredible. With 14 stops of latitude, the color, highlight and shadow detail is amazing. Farther down the list and much lower in price is the Sony F3, which continues to warm my heart, and with the S-Log upgrade brings the quality very close to Alexa but at 1/4 of the price. And at an even lower price point the Panasonic AF100 performed very well and delivered an outstanding image. All of the DSLRs didn’t perform quite as well, they’re all at the bottom of the quality list, but they are also the least expensive large sensor cameras.

Check out the full Part 2 Test:

http://www.zacuto.com/the-great-camera-shootout-2011/episode-two

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Hottest For The Money

Now that Sony has released S-Log for the F3, we’re talking Arri Alexa quality at a fraction of the cost. It changes the sensitivity and the gamma curve which effectively changes the dynamic range from around 11 to almost 14 stops. Abel Cine measured 18db on the F3 at 6400 ISO, and when you enable S-LOG your sensitivity doubles.

It’s not cheap, the F3 $15,000, S-Log upgrade $3,860, AJA KiPro Mini $2,000. But that gives you a camera package that will record 444 in 10 Bit Pro Res HQ to the AJA KiPro Mini.

A crazy HOT camera, but still out of my price range, thank god for rental houses.

Check out the S-Log test footage.

http://www.vimeo.com/22540499

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Expectations

The first upgrade to FCP X is expected in a couple of weeks and some of the missing pro features are expected to be included. Multicam, is one of those features that is expected in this upgrade. As anticipated Apple is leaving XML, OMF, AAF, EDL and other exchange formats to be implemented by 3rd party developers. Automatic Duck is offering the first FCP X export utility, Pro Export FCP 5.0, which allows you to send audio from FCP X to Pro Tools.  http://automaticduck.com/products/pefcp/

Camera manufacturers are updating their plug-ins to work with the new 64-bit architecture to convert your video for use in FCP X. You can find a list of supported cameras at  http://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/cameras/en/

Sony offers an XDCAM Transfer app that converts XDCAM video into FCP X without transcoding.  http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4724

Using the free RED software REDCINE-X you can transcode RED RAW video into ProRes for editing in FCP X. https://www.red.com/support/all/downloads

In an upgrade coming this summer, you will be able to assign audio tracks by type for export using metadata tags.

Additional customization of export settings beyond the ones currently in FCP X will be done in Compressor 4.

Connecting a second computer monitor to your Mac gives you the option to display the interface across multiple monitors. But, like in previous versions Apple is relying on 3rd party developers to create drivers for external video monitors. AJA has already posted beta drivers for their Kona card. http://www.aja.com/support/konaNEW/kona-3g.php

3rd party plug-ins are being updated to work with the new 64-bit architecture and should be shipping by late summer or early fall. Noise Industries is currently shipping the first plug-ins for FCP X & Motion 5. http://www.noiseindustries.com/

Motion graphics effects, titles, transitions, and generators can be built in Motion 5 as templates for use directly in FCP X.

Singular Software announces a Cross Grade Promotion – 50% off PluralEyes for existing users switching NLEs.  http://www.singularsoftware.com/crossgrade.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=text_get_code&utm_campaign=pe_crossgrade

Although not a timeline or list of release dates Apple appears to be responding to some of our questions and requests.

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