EOSHD writes up their experience shooting 2.5K CinemaScope anamorphic raw on the Canon 5D Mark III.
They write, "Am I over the moon about the image quality of raw on the 5D Mark III?
"Well before we were shooting 8bit, with all that banding and lack of flexibility in post. Now we have 14bit colour and can debayer the raw to 4:4:4 EXR using the full power and sophistication of an ILM workstation. That’s a bit of a step up from DIGIC 5. Effectively the image processor of the camera has been moved out of the DSLR and into the realm of Resolve, Intel and NVidia. That is a big thing. No more DIGIC debayer or mushy H.264 encoder.
RedShark News delves into the market for the Canon 1DC, writing, "The Canon 1DC is a curious camera. Based on a top-end DSLR design, with essentially only some additional firmware it becomes a 4K camcorder as well. But where does it fit into the increasingly complex matrix of options around high res, high dynamic range (i.e. RAW) devices that are available today at approximately affordable prices?
Philip Bloom tests out Metabones Speed Booster adapter, which allows the Blackmagic Cinema Camera to almost act as if it had a Super 35mm sensor.
Explains Bloom, "Metabones, who in association with Conorus have brought us an excellent EF lens adaptor for Sony E-mount cameras like the FS100, 700 and many stills cameras under the NEX umbrella. It’s powered by the camera, supports IS and lets us change the iris. Then they brought us the “Speed Booster” for these cameras. An astonishing piece of kit that I cover fully here….in essence it focuses the light from the lens projecting a larger image that is almost a stop brighter and somewhat sharper. Yes voodoo or almost Blackmagic (come on…I had to!)"
Piot Wancerz creates a most unusual travelogue of his trip to Peru and Bolivia with a cleverly plotted out stop-motion video featuring his traveling companion Marta.
Says Wancerz of creating the video, "It was not as precise as it looks — it was a lot of work in post-production...Of course, I tried to put her into the same place, but it wasn't as perfect as I wanted it to be."
Watch below and read more here on Mashable.
EOSHD takes a look at Magic Lantern's hack for recording raw video as it applies to the Canon 600D (a.k.a. Rebel T3i). They write, "The 600D is probably best compared to the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. Like that camera it records to SD cards and is extremely affordable. Currently it has a Super 16mm crop in the most reliable current raw recording resolution.
Stu Maschwitz breaks down what Magic Lantern's recent hack of the Canon 5D Mark III -- that allows for 14-bit raw 1080p video recording at 24 fps -- means to filmmakers.
He writes, "The results are stunning—the highest-quality video we’ve seen from a DSLR yet, comparing favorably to images from cameras costing much more. This is a big deal. But maybe not as big a deal as some have made it out to be. Like Ham, the chimpanzee that was launched into space on a Mercury rocket, the Magic Lantern raw hack is less notable for its discrete accomplishment than for what it portends."
Read more here on his Prolost blog.
Watch Cinema5D's side-by-side raw test footage from the Canon 5D Mark III and Blackmagic Cinema Camera.
They write, "What became clear is that both cameras provide very similarly capable RAW files. You can adjust everything and everything is possible. You can get similar details out of the sky and set all you like in post. Color temperature, tint, dynamic range, no problem. The 5D is just as strong as the BMCC, providing maybe a bit more dynamic range.
"Where the cameras differ in terms of RAW is one big thing: Noise. The 5D mark III can shoot indoors at ISO 1600 and there’s almost no noise while the Blackmagic starts to get ugly at this point. The noise from the BMCC is also apparent when raising the blacks in a shot."
DP Erik Naso reviews the Manfrotto 502HD Pro Video Head, writing, "The top plate is very wide and long and uses a longer camera plate as well. The 502 head is very smooth with both pan and tilt. Much improved over the 501 and 701 models that this one has replaced. It’s designed for HDSLR cameras to give them more surface to sit on."
Read his full review here.
Filmmaker Chase Jarvis was recently tasked by Samsung to recreate his most vivid dream in order to showcase the capabilities of the Samsung Premium Monitor Series 9.
Read here as Jarvis explains the exact process behind his colorful commercial that eventually involved cannons of colored powder, a Nikon D4, a Sony FS700, Canon DSLRs and a GoPro. Watch a behind-the-scenes video below.
Jeff Lee of AbelCine rounds up a list of when NAB's biggest product announcements are expected to hit the market.
He writes, "Now that the dust has settled in Las Vegas and we’ve all had a chance to recuperate from the frenzy of activity known as the NAB show, let’s take a look at some of the recurring themes from this year. While the buzz word on the show floor seemed to be '4K,' other big hits included anamorphic lenses, external recorders, and stabilization systems."
Read the full post here.
Cinematographer Shane Hurlbut explains lighting for day exteriors, writing, "Lighting day exteriors is as much about choosing the right time as it is about your manipulation of the daylight. Sometimes you can choose the time that you shoot. Many times, you are locked into a schedule that doesn’t necessarily work for your lighting approach. If it is not the right time, you have to go with it and do your best."
Read his full post here on his blog.
Magic Lantern are reporting that they've successfully figured out how to record 1080p raw video at 24fps on the Canon 5D Mark III. Explains Freya Black of RedShark News, "It’s been a big day for the canon cameras with No Film School reporting this morning that magic lantern had achieved continuous 24p RAW recording (not just a few seconds) in a 2.40:1 aspect ratio which in itself was very big news as it makes the new RAW mode very usable; but now it looks like they have managed to get full 1920 x 1080 24fps continuous RAW recording working using “DMA cropping routines."
Blackmagic Design CEO Grant Petty talks to Carolyn Giardina of The Hollywood Reporter about what makes his company tick and what drives them to create ever-lower price points.
He says, "The thing that annoys me the most is when the creative guys gets screwed over. Too many manufacturers make products that are way too expensive or too complicated. You have to buy their service contracts … but often they are used as a way for the manufacturer to produce poor quality products and make money off the service. That is the wrong that they industry has. … That sounds strange coming from an equipment manufacturer, but everyone forgets I’m a postproduction guy.”
Read the full story here.
At last week's Adobe MAX, Bandito Brothers' Jacob Rosenberg gave his 10 rules for filmmaking, which includes gems such as "Don’t fight over bits and pixels if you can’t tell the difference" and "take comfort in discomfort."
Read all the rules and more about Rosenberg's talk here on Larry Jordan's blog.
Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch writes: A lot can change in 28 years, and Google has put together a very graphic demonstration of just how much can happen geographically with a new effort that combines global, annual Landsat satellite image composites with its Google Earth Engine software.
The result is a series of interactive time lapse images that progress year-by-year, showing exactly how things have changed in key areas like the Brazilian Amazon Rain Forest, booming metropolitan areas like Las Vegas and Dubai, and the progress of large bodies of water like the Aral Sea.
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
DL Cade of Peta Pixel writes: Here’s an interesting Tumblr we stumbled across that, for all intents and purpose, is trying to do the impossible. The 9 Film Frames Tumblr tries to sum up movies, capture their essence, by pulling out and arranging just nine frames.
It’s a very simple idea but one that, we imagine, takes a lot of work to do right. How do you determine which nine frames are the right ones? You certainly can’t pick any nine and do a movie like Raging Bull justice. We’ll let you be the judge, but we think the Tumblr blog’s creator does a pretty great job:
READ THE FULL STORY HERE.
Claire Orpeza of Abel Cine writes: A cinematographer and lighting designer by trade, Rick Siegel has has worked on feature length and short films in the narrative and documentary genres. He photographs episodic television series as well – in music, comedy, fashion, home style, reality and magazine formats. In this blog, he tells us all about his Sony PMW-F3 rig.
When it comes to choosing a camera rig to purchase or to rent, what are your biggest considerations?
RS: I apply several criteria to determine and visualize my choices: what are the scripted elements to be photographed, who is going to see this project, what are the deliverables, what is the best equipment to frame the story elements, and last, but not least, what’s my budget. It’s a balance between artistic options, communication skills, dollars and sense.
Shelly Palmer writes: Time, Inc., together with Google, the U.S. Geological Survey, and Carnegie Mellon University’s Create Lab, have set up a website featuring timelapse animations depicting changes in Earth’s surface from 1984 to 2012. The animations are based on images collected as part of the Landsat program, conducted jointly by the USGS and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administation since 1972, in which satellites take images of the Earth’s surface. The Timelapse project’s website houses 25 planetary images, one for each year. Landsat images “contain many layers of data collected at different points along the visible and invisible light spectra,” USGS spokesperson Jon Campbell told TechNewsWorld.
Alex Buono of Alex-Buono.com writes: I’ve been looking forward to writing this post about one of my favorite spots of this season, “Djesus Uncrossed”. First I should acknowledge that this was, by far, the most controversial spot I’ve been a part of in my history with the show. Religious groups were infuriated while pop artists were inspired to create fan-art.
