Shooter Philip Bloom has posted his comparison of the Zacuto Z-Finder V2 and the Hoodman Hoodloupe 3.0. Both are reviewed in the context of using on the 5D MK2 DSLR for video acquisition.

Phil seems pretty happy with the Z-Finder, particularly this forthcoming V2 model that mounts without using velcro. This little adapter magnifies the 5D LCD as well as providing an additional point of contact, whereas the Hoodloupe offers no magification, just a diopter. Interestingly, Hoodman touts “minimal magnification” as a feature that minimizes image pixelation…in the context of still photography, I’d agree with them. Bloom notes that the Z-Finder’s $395 price tag is a bit hard to swallow. In comparison, the Hoodloupe is less than a 1/4 of that price at $80. Great stuff, a good introduction to both these loupe options for DSLR shooters.

At the 2009 London SuperMeet, scheduled for Thursday at the Kensington Conference and Event Centre, distinguished film editor Walter Murch will be one of the featured speakers. As with any SuperMeet, there will be tons to see and hear, and of course the amazing raffle. If you are in the UK and can make it, I recommend this event very highly. Details and booking links here.

Where? - The Great Hall at the Kensington Conference and Event Centre
Kensington Town Hall,
Hornton Street,
London, W8 7NX

When? - Thursday, 25, June 2009 - 19:00 - 23:00 (Doors open 16:30)
How Much? - £15.00 each. £10.50 for Students with Valid I.D. (£20.00 at door) Includes 2 raffle tickets per person.
Any raffle prizes? - Of course. £2.00 per raffle ticket or 3 for £5.00
Who should attend? - Everyone who wants to learn more about Final Cut Studio, digital filmmaking and meet others who may know more than you do.
Food and Drink? - Food (free) and Cash Bars will be available.

VFX and color guru Stu Maschwitz has created an amazing tutorial on how to use the plugins Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista to effectively emulate in your own work the distinctive color palette shared by many of the blockbuster films you’ll see this summer. Stu also uses Adobe Kuler (which we love) to show some of the color theory behind film grading choices. We are pleased to bring you that tutorial here at FreshDV. Watch below, and click the fullscreen button to see large.

Over at Creative Cow, Jim Harvey has written a LONG and very detailed report on the Redrock DSLR Cinema kit, a full-featured rig for the 5D MKII that offers a shoulder support with handgrips, follow focus, mattebox, and support cage. FreshDV first got a look at this rig at NAB, you can watch our video segment on these rigs below.

In his review, Jim really digs into the system and it’s disparate parts, and even has a whole segment devoted to using it in the field. There’s a couple of neat pics of Rodney Charters, A.S.C. with a Redrock rig on his shoulder. If you are looking for more info on these shouldermount rigs, this review is a good start. Check it out, and check out our video below as well.

So it’s no secret that we like the Canon 5D MK2 around here. This little $2700 full-frame sensor equipped camera offers a stunning featureset and jawdropping image quality for shooters in all genres of production. On June 2, Canon released a firmware update that enabled full manual controls of video functions. Awesome. We think that’s very cool.

But wait, there’s more! As of a couple of days ago, we’ve got an unofficial firmware build (well, really it’s a ROM inject hack for the time being…but we’ll call it firmware) that also enables onscreen audio meters, 16:9, 2.35:1 and 4:3 crop marks, zebras, and live headphone monitoring (via the A/V port). The firmware also disables the annoyingly hissy auto-gain control of the 5D, provides a manual gain control, and finally provides a framework to write new extensions to the code. An impressive achievement! Watch the video below for all the juicy details, as well as a quick comparison of the difference disabled AGC can offer to your audio capture.

You can get an unfinished copy of this unofficial firmware here. Read the detailed FAQ at Cinema5D also. It appears the developer has taken careful steps to avoid bricking camera bodies, as the software is only loaded into memory upon booting. From the FAQ:

“…a file named ‘magiclantern.fir’ is copied to the CF card and “Update firmware” is selected from the menu. The running firmware shuts down, loads the file into RAM and starts it running.”

“Nothing is written into the ROMs. When the camera reboots, the RAM image is flushed and the bootloader FROMUTIL at 0xFFFF0000 starts the pristine copy in ROM at 0xff810000. After any reboot (or even powersave), you must select the “Update firmware” menu item. Eventually we want to be able to boot directly from the AUTOBOOT.BIN file on the CF card.”

Even with these steps to avoid breaking things permanently, it’s probably worth mentioning that you should only load that firmware if:
A. You can afford to replace the camera, should this break it (this firmware surely violates mfr warranty).
B. You don’t test it on paying shoots with Real Clients (I’ve heard scattered “Err70″ reports).
3. Should this firmware eventually be 100% stable, kick ass, and you decide to replace a studio full of cameras with 5D MK2’s, that you buy them all via FreshDV’s B&H affiliate link (patience, they’ll be back in stock soon enough). And lots of lenses. L glass, preferably…

Until that day, the developer is looking for assistance from any programmers “skilled in ARM assembly, embedded systems, GUI programming and don’t mind risking your expensive camera…” as well as Paypal and equipment donations, specifically “steadicams, rails systems and lenses.” So if you are wetting your pants from this announcement, I’d suggest waiting for a stable release and feeding that dude some cash via Paypal in the meantime. I did, even though I have no intention of loading this on my 5Deuce just yet. Because, as the developer says, “If it breaks your camera, you get to keep both pieces.” However, if you are so inclined to try the firmware out, good luck, and report back your findings for the rest of us poor lemmings. We’re dying to hear how it runs.

(via BoingBoing)

Noise Industries is a major manufacturer of FX plugins for both compositing and non-linear editing software. They are perhaps best know for their FX Factory software, a plugin management software that gives the user a central application for adding and controling FX plugins. FX Factory is available as a free download, and additional plugin packages for FX Factory may be purchased separately. These plugins range from title generators such as MoType which I reviewed earlier this year, to pattern generators, photo montage tools and many more. Recently they announced their new Volumetrix 2.0 and HUD plugins. Here is a quick look at what these new products offer.

This plugin offers the psuedo-volumetric lighting look, ever prevalent in film trailers. There are both straight filters which can be applied to text or footage, and transitions. All parameters are fully keyframeable and even though the presets are a little cheese-ball with a little tweaking you can create some great looks. Personally I love volumetric lighting so this is a great plugin for me. Volumetrix 2 is pretty configurable, in fact you can do light rays, glows, glints and distorts. One element missing for me was the ability to map gradients to light as opposed to simple colors. This Plugin is also well suited for building light wipe transitions and such. This was a fun one to play with and really felt at home in my After Effects tool kit. Existing volumetrix users can upgrade to 2.0 for free. For new users the license is $49.

Looks like Red Giant just tapped Stu Maschwitz as a consultant to help direct the Magic Bullet product line. It’s pretty clear to me that Stu has a good pulse on the needs of indies and the larger production community, so I’m excited to see him getting involved in a product line that is so useful for the independent video producer. Congrats Stu! Now put down that champagne glass and direct us up some more killer software!

 Lentequip Production Power Solutions [7:16m]: Download

Lentequip was exhibiting at Cine Gear 2009, and I was very excited to see their power and battery solutions for the Red camera. I’ve complained previously about the frustration of changing batteries on Red shoots, every battery rotation requires a time-wasting reboot, and inevitably needs to happen when everyone else is ready for the camera dept. Lentequip’s unique battery switching solution allows you to attach and switch to fresh batteries on the fly, with no reboot required. It’s a must have product for Red rental packages, in my opinion.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Cmotion Lens and Camera Controls [12:53m]: Download

At Cine Gear 2009, Cmotion gave us a very detailed demonstration of their full-featured camera and lens control systems. Far more than just a remote wireless focus solution, they offer a host of high-end options in a really well-integrated system. There’s even an autofocus solution for manual PL lenses.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Zacuto DSLR and Libertypak Power [6:15m]: Download

Zacuto was showing new DSLR rig “Gorilla” configurations at Cine Gear 2009 and Jens took a moment to show us one of these new models in use with a Canon 5D MK2. We also got a look at the Libertypak on-location battery power solutions for production in the field.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Redrock DSLR, LEDZ Lighting, MK-V Stabilizers [6:53m]: Download

At Cine Gear 2009, Redrock’s Brian Valente showed off one of their new DSLR rig updates for cameras like the Canon 5D MK2, a slightly more affordable option called the Eye Spy rig. We also dropped by the LEDZ booth to check out their new Brute 30 LED lighting fixture, a dimmable 400-watt HMI equivalent unit that draws a fraction of the power. MK-V was also at Cine Gear, and we got a demo of their stabilizers, including the unique Revolution unit, whose absolute coolness cannot be explained in words. Just watch.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Matthews Studio Equipment [7:28m]: Download

Matthews Studio Equipment (MSE) was of course exhibiting at Cine Gear 2009, and we dropped by to talk with Ed Phillips about the Red Dolly, the Intel-a-Jib, and their new monitor mount. Watch below. They also have a few self-produced videos on their website that show the Red Dolly and monitor mounts in action, watch them here.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 ScriptE Systems Software for Script Supervisors [4:52m]: Download

ScriptE Systems had a cool product demo’ing at Cine Gear 2009, it’s a screenplay and production integration software package. ScriptE simplifies the process of pre-production by integrating with Final Draft, and eases the Script Supervisor’s job during shooting. It’s a unique software package, and we shot a demo of it on video. Check it out below.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Glue Tools 5D MKII, DPX, and Phantom plugins [7:21m]: Download

At the Glue Tools Cine Gear 2009 booth, Bob Monahan showed us a preview of the forthcoming Log and Transfer plugin for Final Cut Pro that allows simple ingest and seamless transcoding of Canon 5D MKII footage. He also showed off their Phantom camera plugin that enables realtime playback of RAW files from the Phantom high-speed camera in any Quicktime aware application. Finally, he demonstrated their DPX import tool that simplifies importing and using DPX files in FCP. Very cool stuff.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.

 Garrett Brown on Steadicam, Transvideo 3D Monitors, and UniqOptics [7:42m]: Download

At the Steadicam booth at Cine Gear 2009, filmmaking legend Garrett Brown gave us a candid walkthrough of their stabilizer line, from the Clipper to the lightweight Pilot (flying none other than a 5D MKii DSLR). We also dropped by the Transvideo booth to get a demonstration of their unique LCD monitoring solution for 3D filmmaking. And finally, Kenji at UniqOptics gave us an update on their PL lens line.

Watch the attached video below and subscribe to our podcast feed. You can also conveniently watch our Cine Gear video coverage all in one playlist here.