Digital Camcorder News has posted a review of Premiere Elements 4. Here’s an excerpt:

Adobe makes it easy to create quick, appealing home movies with the latest installment of Adobe Premiere Elements. A slick interface, better integration with Photoshop Elements, and better support for Flash-based sites like YouTube make Adobe Premiere Elements 4 a great choice for video projects, but the current lack of AVCHD support makes it a product I cannot fully endorse for anyone wanting to edit non-HDV video.

The following is compiled from a comment by FreshDV reader “Adam” that was so detailed and extensive I decided to promote it to a post. You can view the original comment thread in context here.

FreshDV reader Adam says:
Mine arrived last week and here are my initial observations, cobbled together from various posts I’ve made elsewhere. It’s light and heavy at the same time, in a good way. Very light for its size, but still a good 50% heavier than my FX1. The bulk is comforting. With the big battery on the back it’s nicely balanced, but we’ll see how I feel after several hours of shooting. Shoulder pad is, as others have mentioned, unbelievably hard. They couldn’t stick a pad on it? Also, while it has a huge lens shade, they give it a cheap plastic lens cap and no place to put it while shooting. It just dangles there. At least my old VX2000 had a clip so you could stick it to the hand grip while shooting. For this price they couldn’t give you the “barn-door� lens shade like the FX1? Even though it isn’t mentioned anywhere in the literature; the way the leash attaches to the hand-grip, you just pull the other end of the leash and it snugs the cap up against the grip. The leash is still dangling, but at least the cap isn’t banging around while you’re shooting. Still would love a lens hood with the barn doors, but I understand why they don’t have one (yet). On the FX1 and FX7 hoods (neither of which fit), the locking set screw for the hood itself is on the opposite side from the barn-door switch, which means the set-screw bangs into the forward hand grip beside the lens when you try to lock it on. If they can design a hood with both of these pieces on the side by your left hand, it would work.
Continue reading ‘Sony HVR-HD1000U User Report’

Via Anthony over at Techthoughts comes this great little Conan O’Brien bit where he takes over the Late Night director’s role for a few minutes (while concurrently hosting). Gives a little insight into the process. Watch below.
Continue reading ‘Conan Live-Switches Late Night’

HD Expo and Panasonic are offering a free two day camera production workshop for ASC, IGC, SOC and other guild members who have been affected by the Writers Guild Strike.

“The P2 Workshop is being offered at no charge to guild & association members in a show of support for the cinematography community, and will offer career-advancing training that can be utilized once crews return to work. The workshop prepares the professional cinematographer with sophisticated knowledge and understanding of this dynamic tool set that is changing production models. The P2 Workshop is an informative, professional-level class that will introduce attendees to the next generation of solid state, P2 HD camera systems and support equipment. It will impart an understanding of how to integrate the benefits of non-linear, file based IT compatible technology into a production workflow.

The two-day session is set for February 29 and March 1, 2008 at Panavision in Woodland Hills, CA. Several industry stalwarts have lined up to support this educational event including Panavision, Fujinon and Birns & Sawyer. Panavision is contributing the use of its stage, screening room facilities, support gear and staff. Birns & Sawyer will provide camera and support equipment, and Fujinon is donating lenses and sponsoring lunches for participants.”

Registration forms are available online, and you can contact HD Expo at 818.842.6611 with any questions.

Over at VideoUniversity, user Shawn Lam has posted a number of pictures from his brand new Sony HVR-Z7U as well as a detailed description of overall design and features. It’s quite informative. Here’s a few key points that caught my eye (a few have been noted previously):

* Menu scroll dial is on left side, not back.
* The CF recorder module covers the battery when attached to the proprietary connection port.
* Tape transport door is in vertical configuration, opens to the back.
* Connections on back include Component, Composite, LANC, Headphone and 6-pin Firewire (yes, that is the big plug). A HDMI port exists on the left side of the body.
* As stated in previous documentation the top handle has a second cold-shoe, towards the back. It comes dissasembled but can be added with a screwdriver.
* A/C Adapter is a fake battery that occupies the entire battery port. The charger handles two batteries and has a LCD status display. Like the EX1, it makes you choose between charging the batteries or powering the camera, not both at the same time.
* Shawn says “7 LBS 2 OZ with tape, large battery, and CF recorder attached.”

Read on for the pictures and more details. B&H has the Z7U listed at $6,299.95. You can read more of FreshDV’s Z7U and S270U coverage here.

The crew over at christianfilmmakers.org have posted rules for their day-long filmmaking competition. The 2008 Christian Filmmakers Contest goes live on March 1st at 6AM CST and ends 24 hours later. Completed entries are to be submitted via Youtube and must clock in under three minutes. The top entry chosen will win a $500 prize.

“Our goals for this contest are to (1) have fun, (2) get to know who is good at making Web videos and (3) showcase what Christian filmmakers are doing today. Even if your film doesn’t win, it’ll get seen. And if you win, that’s a bonus!

1. At 6:00 AM CST on March 1, 2008, on this web page, a list of “security elements” – props, dialogue, settings, etc – will be revealed. Your job is to include any three of these in your film.

2. You need to do a good job weaving these security elements into your film in a way that clearly demonstrates that your film was produced (filmed) in these 24 hours.”

Alex at Editing Organazized has a great post up that talks about studying Cosmo-style “art of flirting” articles for a better understanding of human behavior. A firm grasp of the nuances of a natural and comfortable conversation can be a valuable aid in the editing suite. Here is an excerpt from the linked article.

“The essence of a good conversation, and a successful flirtation, is recipro-city: give-and-take, sharing, exchange, with both parties contributing equally as talkers and as listeners. Achieving this reciprocity requires an understanding of the etiquette of turn-taking, knowing when to take your turn, as well as when and how to ‘yield the floor’ to your partner. So, how do you know when it is your turn to speak? Pauses are not necessarily an infallible guide – one study found that the length of the average pause during speech was 0.807 seconds, while the average pause between speakers was shorter, only 0.764 seconds. In other words, people clearly used signals other than pauses to indicate that they had finished speaking.”

Note that some of the images in the presentation linked by Alex are mildly NSFW.

I just noticed that B&H dropped their price on the PMW-EX1 camcorder. It was previously listed at $6699.00 and has been recently reduced to $6,449.00 (and is currently marked “In Stock”). This is a great development for a camcorder that is still in high demand. New EX1 buyers should also remember to take advantage of the 8GB SxS card rebate (PDF) and also the EX1 + Accessories rebate. We’ve been been doing a series of EX1 reviews and tests, click on over for more info on our results.

In an extremely detailed and well thought-out post, Roughly Drafted calmly pours a steaming mug of SimmaDown for the video community that is perpetuating the rumor that Apple is shopping it’s Pro Applications around to the highest bidder. These rumors really surfaced after Apple’s announcement that, like Avid, they would not have a booth presence at NAB 2008. This post is well worth the read if you are even mildly concerned that Final Cut Studio will be leaving the Apple fold in the near future. Continue reading ‘Reports of ProApps Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated’

Canon’s amazing 1200/5.6L USM tele still lens is a beast that weighs in at 36lbs, is over two and a half feet long and sports a massive 9″ wide front element. Canon builds this lens on a special order basis and since 1993 has shipped less than twenty of them. No word on what it costs new (if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it), but B&H does have one used 1200/5.6 for sale for a cool $99,000. Just in time for Valentines Day…

“The viewfinder is surprisingly bright, and though somewhat sluggish as compared to the latest-generation Canon EF lenses, the 1200 was usually able to nail the focus on the first pass. The hard part is figuring out what you’re focusing on because the angle of view is so narrow. If you’re not familiar with the landscape you’ll find yourself peering out over the top of the camera every so often trying to figure out what you’re looking at. As for image quality, even wide open it’s quite lovely. Stopped down to f/8 and f/11 it’s actually quite remarkable. How remarkable? From midtown Manhattan we were able to read the street signs on the corner of JFK Boulevard East and 43rd St. in Weehawkin New Jersey when viewing image files at pixel resolution.”

“…Apart from a few minor cosmetic blemishes, this particular lens is extremely clean inside and out. Included with this lens is a leather slip-on ‘lens cap’, a fitted aluminum trunk case, and a prodigious measure of ego satisfaction. Pack mule not included.”

Simply amazing. I’d love to see this on the front of a 35mm adapter rig…

LetusDirect has announced an update for Letus Extreme shooters who are using the adapter system with the new Sony XDCAM PMW-EX1 camcorder. Some users have reported that edge sharpness appears to suffer on the new Sony camera. The new “Sony EX1 optimization kit” includes an achromat lens that is tailored to work specifically with the unique Sony Fujinon lens, and a 77mm thread ring that fastens directly to the Letus. The kit is available as an addon to new or pending orders for $199, or as a standalone package for $349.

Cinevate Brevis Flip 35mm Lens Adapter Review (Part2 of 2)
By Matt Jeppsen

Cinevate
www.cinevate.com
(647) 723-2664 (Canada)

The following is Part 2 of FreshDV’s two-part test and review of the Cinevate Brevis flip adapter. Today we cover Image Performance and Workflow, Accessories and Miscellaneous and finally Summary and Conclusions. You can read Part 1 here. Download the supplementary archive of all referenced charts below.

 Brevis Flip Review Supplementary Chart Pack: Download

Image Performance and Workflow
Having a flip option solves one of the biggest issues in the 35mm adapter shooting workflow. Without an adapter that inverts the image correctly, users are forced to find inventive ways to monitor and frame their images. Many arrive upon the solution of a production monitor like the Ikan or Marshall, mounted upside-down on an articulated arm. On some cameras you can use a strong neodymium magnet to engage an LCD’s forward-facing flip, while others even do minor surgery on a camcorder to engage that switch. I should note that with any 35mm adapter it is highly recommended that you use a high-quality external monitor to check critical focus…when you are shooting wide open on a fast telephoto lens DOF can be as shallow as mere inches and minor focus errors will ruin a shot. That being said, it is not impossible to use only your camcorder’s LCD, particularly when it is as sharp as the EX1 or even the Z1U. And using an adapter that flips the image really opens up this option for users.
The other area of workflow that the flip improves on over the Pre-flip is post-production. When shooting with a non-flip adapter, footage has to be manually inverted in your editing software. This is relatively simple to accomplish, but can introduce other challenges. For instance, when you place inverted footage on a Final Cut Pro timeline, the thumbnails on the clips remain upside down. This is a minor annoyance, but it really can impact the speed of editing if you have learned to lean on that particular feature. Shooting with the Brevis Flip is elegant in the sense that you don’t have to mess with these workarounds and patches. It just works.
Continue reading ‘FreshDV Hands-On Review - Brevis35 Flip Adapter (Part 2)’

Via CDM comes this link to an Instructables article on creating your own “time-slice” capture rig ala The Matrix. Interesting project.

Via Motionographer comes this unique approach to incorporating a shot list and project details in a work reel. Sweet.

It seems that Apple will be “pulling an Avid” for this year’s National Association of Broadcaster’s Expo. They have announced that they will not have a booth at NAB Expo 2008. A very interesting wrinkle, to be sure. I don’t think this is indicative of a larger issue with Apple, it just sounds to me like they won’t have any major announcements and as such NAB doesn’t fit into their strategy for this year. Has anyone else heard rumors of the hush-hush project “Phenomenon” being delayed? Perhaps that figures in here.

The good news is that NAB is a HUGE event and this development will effectively give the FreshDV team a little more time on the floor with even more vendors. Building on last year’s very successful coverage of the event, we’ll be bringing the latest and greatest announcements and solutions from the Expo floor. Stay tuned in the coming months as we outline more details and exciting changes.