Just noted on Twitter that @ikancorp is liquidating some old V8000HD monitor stock. If you can use a solid 8″ HD monitor, here’s a chance to snag one of their limited stock for $395. As a side note, FreshDV reviewed the V8000HD some time ago for DV Magazine. It’s a good piece of kit, in my opinion.

Take a look at the two framegrabs embedded below. One was shot with the Canon 7D’s Standard Picture Style. The other was shot with a modified picture style intended to increase dynamic range and give you more options in post-production.

As you can clearly see, the difference is rather striking. Watch this video tutorial and find out how to do the same for your Canon 7D or 5D MKII DSLR.

Art Adams and Adam Wilt teamed up recently to get the skinny on sync rates and flicker issues when shooting with HMI lighting fixtures. They very thoroughly explain the issues at hand, and offer best practice guidelines for shooting. They also make a good case for dispensing with that old-fashioned shutter degrees nonsense when shooting digital, in favor of fractions of a second. Here’s a snippet:

“An absolute shutter speed states exactly what the exposure time is: 1/48th, 1/60th, etc. A relative shutter speed is usually denoted in degrees, because that’s how film cameras work: at 24fps, a 180-degree shutter results in a 1/48th of a second exposure; but at 23.98p, a 180-degree shutter results in a 1/47.96 exposure, which is NOT an HMI safe speed.”

It’s a fantastic article, check it out.

Over at PVC, contributor Steve Hullfish has an nice detailed article on Sorensen 360, a full-featured video distribution service that can be used in concert with Sorensen Squeeze, or even take encode jobs from the browser with their Squish tool (which actually installs in the browser and encodes client-side…handy if you are on the road!). It’s a nice long writeup on what looks like a solid end-to-end encoding and delivery service.

I was recently a guest on MacMediaTech podcast, and one of the other guests was a filmmaker named Paul Zadie. He’s got some great posts on his blog, and I wanted to highlight one that I think new freelancers will find to be helpful. It’s on the subject of what to charge for an edit, and Paul offers some great advice (in particular, the Freelance Switch calculator he links to is most excellent). Check it out.

Some time ago, Zacuto came out with an $295 iPhone 3GS mount intended to stabilize handheld video shooting, dubbed the Zgrip iPhone Pro. They followed that one up with a more indie-priced option, the $69 Zgrip iPhone Jr.

Well I just ran across another option online, called the OWLE Bubo. OWLE stands for “Optical Widget for Life Enhancement,” and the device is a combination camera mount, stabilizer, and off-iPhone mic. It also includes a built in 37mm (.45x) wide-angle lens (which I imagine helps hide some of that handheld shake). It’s constructed of anodized aluminum, and a plastic version is in the works. Price tag? $120 MSRP, but currently at $100 introductory pricing. It’s certainly and interesting option, I’d love to hear from any OWLE users.

So you’ve got your snazzy new Canon 5D MKII, 7D, or 1D MKIV (well, your pre-order anyway)…now what to do for high-quality audio capture?

It’s well known that these cameras all have issues in the firmware that lead to overly-noisy audio…but all is not lost, young grasshopper! A number of third-party options exist, some require you to sync sound in post from a standalone recorder, others allow you to record directly to the camera. Recently P3Pictures conducted a number of audio tests with several popular third-party options, namely the $299 juicedLink CX231, $299 Samson Zoom H4n, $177 M-Audio Microtrack II, and the $374 Beachtek DXA-5D (<-- B&H buy links).

Allan Tépper has each of these video tests conveniently embedded all in one post if you wish to get an idea of the testing methodology and process. P3Pictures category leaders are as follows:

Standalone Recorders: Zoom H4n (low noise, good interface, remember to turn on hi-pass filter and use deadcat outdoors)
In-camera Solutions: juicedLink CX 231 (quiet active preamps, will not block 5D battery, lowest-noise solution overall)
Overall Winner: juicedLink CX 231

Finally, it’s important to note that the Beachtek solution allows you to record directly to the camera without using any third-party firmware hacks. That is, it works right out of the box. In contrast, the juicedLink CX231 is not going to deliver optimal results until you add the Magic Lantern audio-gain disable firmware loader, a simple solution to the 5D’s nasty autogain settings. If you are the type who shies away from community/hack solutions, perhaps the best option for you is the standalone H4n. Otherwise, the juiceLink looks like a fantastic option.

Leandro Marini of Local Hero Post has blogged the third part in their series on maximizing the image from the Red One. Part Three, Go RAW.

This is slightly off-topic from our normal fare, so pardon the interruption if you will. I recently read an interesting article at GizMag about 10/GUI, a fresh approach to the Graphical User Interface. It builds evolutionarily off recent advances in multitouch technology, but what’s revolutionary about the concept is how they approach window management. I’m curious what FreshDV readers think about the following video demonstration, and how a similar multitouch system could affect a video editor.

10/GUI from C. Miller on Vimeo.

Awesome. Phil Bloom is linking to a rental-only package offered by a company in Sydney…they’ve integrated a Canon 5D MKII into a professional Sony betacam shouldmount body, calling it the Hyper 35.

Hyper 35 features in addition to what the 5D offers:
* Electronic B&W or Colour viewfinder
* On board 7″ SD director/client colour monitor
* On board stereo camera audio & pre-amp with Sennheiseer M66 camera microphone
* and/or on board 48k/96k 2 track flash recorder

They’ve got stills and a comparison video showing the video results side by side with pro 2/3 cameras here. It looks like it’s only being offered for rental at present, but there is a contact note on the bottom of one of the pages; “Convert your old Sony Betacam to a Hyper 35 or express an interest in a proposed new body.” Looks pretty cool.

Note to those who may be buying Windows 7…if you want to run Adobe Creative Suite (specifically the apps Premiere Pro and After Effects), pay for the 64-bit version of Windows now; you’ll see instant performance gains and avoid having to upgrade your OS later when Adobe ships a new version of CS. They’ve officially stated that the last 32-bit compatible version of CS is CS4.

“New Macs run 64-bit directly; if you are buying a new PC, make sure to choose the Windows 7 64-bit version. You’ll see up to 200% performance gains on CS4 Production Premium immediately, and you’ll avoid having to upgrade the OS later.

We’ve optimized and architected the past three versions of Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects to deliver better performance on 64-bit operating systems, and our customers have seen significant productivity gains as a result. For example, HD workflows using CS4 Production Premium on a 64-bit system with 16GB RAM are 50% to 200% faster than they would be on a 32-bit system with 4GB of RAM. Performance gains include increased editing speed, rapid switching between tools, and faster rendering—leaving you more time to be creative.”

Just something to be aware of…

Midtown Video’s Jesse Miller is hosting another live webinar this evening, 10/22, at 6:30pm EST. You can join in at www.jtown.tv. Tonight’s topic is “How to broadcast video to the internet.” While you are at the site, check out clips from the last broadcast, “Tips and tricks on the EX3.” So head on over there this evening (or this afternoon for you West Coast folks) and check it out.

Hand Held Hollywood caught up with Cinemek’s Jonathan Houser at DV Expo, and he had some interesting updates on what’s coming in future versions of Hitchcock. Jonathan also spoke to some of the interesting ways new customers are using the iPhone app. Check out the video embedded below.

DV EXPO ‘09 - Interview with Jonathan Houser, Creator of Hitchcock from Hand Held Hollywood on Vimeo.

Kenn Bell has launched a new podcast called MacMediaTech, and the premiere episode features a discussion between filmmakers Paul Zadie, Paul Del Vecchio, and myself. We talk for over an hour about gear, gear-fixation, general filmmaking, and of course, Macs. I think you’ll find it an interesting and relevant discussion, and hope you give this podcast a shot. You can subscribe directly here.

In a blog posting about the new Canon 1D Mark 4, Vincent LaForet broke out the ‘ole “paradigm-shift” terminology. I’m not a fan of using that phrase, as it’s a bit cliche’d and generally gets overused on things that are not quite paradigm-shifters. Anyway, someone else had a problem with it, and has posted a cogent, concise rebuttal. Good read.