No, that title is not a typo. At the CML after-hours NAB party there were quite a few different cameras tested and reviewed for comparison. And one such shootout involved the Genesis, VR Phantom65, and the tiny consumer Canon HV-20. Gotta love that the tripod the Canon is sitting on cost more than the HV20!

The HV20 is available for $999 from B&H and $1099 from Amazon.com

Apple and the rock band Modest Mouse have teamed up with an editing contest of sorts. I suppose the reward would be having your name attached to their video for “Missed The Boat”. The band has provided multiple angles of a greenscreen performance for download. The submission deadline is May 22, 2007.

“Modest Mouse want a video for their new single “Missed The Boat”. They know there are tons of talented fans and video directors out there who have what it takes to put it together. So that’s where you come in.”

Oh, and don’t miss this line…“You will be required to sign a release and give up all rights to the video.” So who knows if you would get any credit for the work. Call me cynical, but they don’t seem to be offering much here to entice people to participate. Am I just cranky, or what?

 Reel Stream Hydra Overview [5:22m]: Download
 Reel Stream Hydra Overview [5:22m]: Download

We’re still chewing through our coverage of the last few days of NAB Expo 2007. Here’s another one you guys have been clamoring for…
Juan Pertierra of ReelStream gives us a good overview of the new HVX-200 modification they are offering. The mod enables you to capture 2K 14-bit RGB linear data via a gig-ethernet cable (up to 325 ft. long), and supports all the standard HVX200 frame rates. Check out the video for all the details. Reel-Stream has been doing a similar mod on the DVX100 called Andromeda for a few years now, so it’s great to see them finally support this new camera.

Click the Download links above or watch via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed.

This Deal Memo looks like a good document template to keep handy. Simple, straightforward, effective.

(Via The Editblog)

 P+S Technik Update [10:41m]: Download
 P+S Technik Update [10:41m]: Download

At NAB Expo 2007, P+S Technik gave us the scoop on the new Mini35 Compact lens adapter which has been designed specifically to mate directly with HDV camcorders equipped with an interchangeable relay lens. It is significantly smaller than the original Mini-35, and makes a great combo with the Canon XL-H1. They also showed off their new rehoused Zeiss ZF lens line, with features that rival cine lenses at a very reasonable price point. And finally, we got a look at the new housing they have created for Silicon Imaging’s proven SI-2K Digital Cinema Camera. P&S partnered with SI to create a solid, usable housing that works well with existing cine accessories and workflow. It also features the Technik interchangeable lens mount, which greatly simplifies swapping between PL, Canon, Nikon, and B4 lens mounts.

Click the Download links above or watch via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed.

One of the most exciting features of Red is Redcine and the integrated workflow the Red Team has come up with. Our good friend over at hdforindies.com has just blogged a rather extensive article on the Red workflow. Some great information and one of the exciting parts of this whole project.
Check it out here.

(VIA: HDFORINDIES.COM)

Jim Jannard, of Red Digital announced this morning that there would be a mjor update to Red One prior to shipping. (VIA REDUSER.net)

We are very happy to announce that we have a significant upgrade to the RED ONE camera coming in the form of an update to one of the major boards in the camera, effectively further increasing dynamic range and reducing noise in the image. Our original goal was to complete this upgrade later in the year, but we now plan to implement this improvement prior to shipping any cameras. It will cause a minor delay, but we are absolutely certain that every customer will feel the improvement was worth the wait. It also eliminates a future board change down the road.

We will publish a new shipping schedule that reflects this update in a couple of weeks.

Jim

RED DIGITAL CINEMA

 "Crossing The Line" excerpt [0:35m]: Download

An excerpt from the short film recently created by Peter Jackson (with pre-production cameras from Red Digital Cinema) is online at long last. We have a mirror of the 1K resolution 91MB clip here, courtesy of reduser.net.

The latest version of Adobe Photoshop has a two new interesting features…one is called Import Frames as Layers and we quickly covered it in our NAB 2007 Video Podcast on After Effects. The other is called Auto-Align Layers, and is a carry-over from Imageready. John Nack posts about a very cool and very creative MIS-use of these two features combined.

“After attending NAB this week, however, Photoshop engineer Mike Clifton came up with a crafty (and, to be honest, not “as-designed”) use for the Auto-Align Layers command: stabilizing a chunk of video. First, he shot some deliberately horrible footage out the window on our floor. He then used Photoshop’s new Import Frames as Layers command* to turn the video frames into Photoshop layers. Lastly, he selected all the frames and chose Edit->Auto-Align, telling Photoshop to line them all up. To our surprise, the results are not half bad…”

You can view before and after comparisons here. Pretty sweet results, actually.

 DP Richard Bluck Interview [6:39m]: Download

Richard Bluck is the Director of Photography who shot Peter Jackson’s 15-minute short film with the Red Digital Cinema dev cameras. And we’ve got an exclusive interview with him. He talks about the challenges of the shoot, how the Red alpha-version cameras performed, and where he sees digital cinema headed. Check it out.

UPDATE: In the interview, Richard suggests that he saw about 9 stops of Dynamic Range in the camera. Graeme Nattress addresses that in this reduser.com thread, stating that Stouffer wedge charts show 11.3 stops of DR.

Framegrabs from the short film are shown below, courtesy of reduser.net. More images can be found at red.com, they will also be making the film available for download at 1K resolution in the near future.
Continue reading ‘NAB Video Podcast - Peter Jackson DP Richard Bluck Interview’

Okay guys to the top right of every page there is now a subscription link to the blog. We wanted to make sure those of you who wanted to be updated when we posted news would get it instantly so if you thought you were subscribed before you may want to check and re-subscribe through feedburner for the best results. Also you can subscribe to updates via e-mail here.

 Ted Schilowitz Interview [17:13m]: Download
 Ted Schilowitz Interview HD 720p [17:13m]: Download

At long last we bring you a video podcast on a company that took the NAB Expo by storm. Whether or not you agree with their camera system or philosophy, you have to respect their notable achievements as a company. Red Digital Cinema represents the very heart of what NAB is really about, breaking technological paradigms and forging into new realms in an effort to develop new and innovative gear. I think it is truly phenomenal what they have achieved, particularly in such a short period of time. I sincerely hope other companies are challenged to step up and serve their customers with the care and integrity that Red has to this point.

In our lengthy interview with Ted Schilowitz, we cover the history of Red One development as well as some of the features it now offers. Red Drive firewire ports (with direct edit capability), full Redcode raw support in FCP forthcoming, workflow options, additional ingest options for FCP (transcode right into ProRes codec from Log and Transfer tools), lots more.

In addition to our standard web resolution, we thought it would be fitting to provide a HD viewing option of this interview as well. So here it is in high-bitrate 720p.

Click the Download link above or watch via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed.

 Dedolight Demo [5:15m]: Download

Allen of Visual Departures demonstrates the award-winning line of Dedolight lighting systems, and explains what makes the lights so unique and efficient. If you aren’t aware of Dedolight, you really should check this out. They use advanced optics to gain major efficiencies in lighting so you can maximize your available space and power. An added bonus is that you get to see Allen slam a light head down, with no ill effects. Really cool stuff.

Click the Download link above or watch via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed.

 NAB Day 2 Misc [10:26m]: Download

Yet another Day 2 compilation video podcast from the 2007 NAB Expo floor.

*We demonstrate wide angle and telephoto lenses from 16×9 Inc on a Sony HDV camera (with comparisons to stock FX1 lens).
*Frezzi gave us a nice little demo of the Frezzi Mini-Fill (with LED bulb option) and their camera support.
*A demonstration of the Techno-Dolly motion control system. This was fun to watch.

Click the Download link above or watch via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed.

 Adobe After Effects CS3 New Features [12:00m]: Download

We snagged one of the Adobe trainers on the Expo floor and got a great rundown of all the latest features and additions to After Effects CS3. Some pretty amazing stuff, like simple frame-accurate video editing in Photoshop, and embedding that video within a PSD (which then shares seamlessly between AE and Photoshop). Some other additions of note…the Brainstorm “randomizer” jump starts project, a really cool morphing tool, using Vanishing Point to generate 3D comps in AE, and much more. Really innovative stuff that looks VERY useful in real-world applications.

Click the Download link above or watch via our FreshDV iTunes Podcast Feed.