Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past few weeks, you are probably aware of the following two news items. So this update is for those rock-dwellers. Apologies to everyone else, carry on with your tweeting and such.

First, Canon announced a BETA availability date for their EOS Log & Transfer plugin for Final Cut Pro. Well, not a specific date, but sometime in March. This software product will be made freely available for DSLR video users and enables simple and straightforward acquisition of footage from CF cards via Log and Transfer, just like you would with P2, XDCAM, Red, etc. It’s a fantastic standardized workflow for FCP users, and kudos to Canon for making this available free of charge. If you were thinking that this software is eerily close in featureset to the Glue Tools product we demo’d at Cine Gear, well you’d be correct. That’s because it is. Missed that Glue Tools demo? No worries, I’ve embedded the video at the bottom of this post.

The second bit of news came in the past week, first in the form of that Canon 5D MKII firmware rumor we posted, followed by official news from Canon that the new MKII 2.0.3 firmware would be available worldwide March 17, 2010. New features confirmed in this firmware update include:

* 1080p 24, 25 and 29.97fps recording options. (24p is actually 23.976fps, and 25fps requires the camera first be set to PAL mode).
* 640×480 30 (29.97) and 25fps (25fps requires camera first be set to PAL mode).
* Video histogram display (Canon notes on this only show brightness histogram, but an earlier rumor presentation slide indicated RGB hist as well).
* Manual audio level control (with meters!).
* Audio sample rate changed from 44.1KHz to 48KHz.
* Aperture (Av) and Shutter Priority (Tv) in Video Mode.

This is an incredibly useful update for filmmakers, fixes several workarounds we’ve had to deal with, and GIVES US PROPER EXPOSURE TOOLS! The video histogram should prove to be incredibly useful. There are some limitations of course. For instance, the histogram cannot be viewed while recording, only before hitting record. If you’d like to see the framerate menu and audio meters in action, take a look at this behind-the-scenes Canon promo video And you can see these menus and other details in Canon’s posted notes on this firmware update.

Here is the Glue Tools Log & Transfer plugin demo from Cine Gear 2009:

Im case you’ve missed it, DVXuser’s BetrayalFest entry deadline is on March 5th, 2010 at 4pm Pacific Standard Time (GMT -8). If you are looking for some exposure and community feedback for an appropriate short film, you might want to look into this one. Details in this thread.

We mentioned this excellent article on Canon 5D Post-Production when it was first published, and then Oliver had to pull it for a few weeks. Well it’s back online now, and I encourage you to check it out!

Canon Rumors has a post that claims the Canon UK site temporarily shared Canon 5D MKII firmware update information, before pulling the web page. CR says the info posted was:

Features
Live Histogram for Video
Sound Level Control
24p/25p

The release date was marked as March 17, 2010. So we’ll soon officially know if these features make it into the final firmware release.

UPDATE: Apparently there was a presentation today in Poland where Canon 5D MKII new firmware features were discussed. In picture from the presentation, there is a list of features that will be included (assumedly in the next firmware update). They include:

NTSC Modes:
1920×1080 @ 30fps
1920×1080 @ 24fps
640×480 @ 30fps

PAL Modes:
1920×1080 @ 25fps
1920×1080 @ 24fps

Adds manual sound recording functions (64 levels) with audio meter.

Adds histogram display (brightness or RGB).

Adds shutter-priority (Tv) and aperture-priority (Av) exposure modes.

Changes the audio sampling frequency from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz.

Michael Ballhaus has posted an under-exposure/over-exposure video test of several popular digital cameras, the Canon 5D Mark II, Sony XDCAM PMW-EX3, RED One, Sony F35, and Arri D21. If you are looking for side-by-side comparisons of how each camera and format handles challenging exposure situations, look no further. Video embedded below.

Michael Ballhaus : HMS Kameratest - Testmaterial from zoom magazin on Vimeo.

Need some pseudo film flash/film burn effects to dirty up your footage? Here’s a few freebies available in HD resolutions.

The MovieMaker Magazine Winter 2010 edition is out, and in it they have their annual 50 Best Blogs for Moviemakers. We’re honored and delighted to announce that FreshDV made the list.

Thank you for watching, listening, and reading the content that we share, both here and at our ProVideo Coalition channel.

We have great new content on the way, written and video reviews and tutorials. And of course we’ll be bringing you daily video coverage from NAB and Cine Gear expo’s. This will be our fourth year covering NAB, and our third year covering Cine Gear. 2010 looks bright for FreshDV, and we thank you for your support and encouragement!

We’re also happy to see fellow ProVideoCoalition contributors The Editblog and HD For Indies on the list. Congrats, guys!

A friend of mine just turned me on to the Zoom R16, an 8-input, 16-track recorder and portable mixer. It’s fully loaded with XLR inputs, phantom power, can be USB bus-powered or run on AA batteries, records to standard SDHC cards, and features REAL BUTTONS and sliders.

Price for one of these bad boys? $399. $399! Holy crap. I will own one of these. It really looks like an unbeatable system at this price point. Here’s a review at audiomidi. And for the non-B&H users, here’s an Amazon link at $379.

Were you hoping that Canon would release an APS-C sensor equipped camcorder, a VDSLR wrapped in a proper camcorder body? I was. I was wrong. Oh so wrong. Why? To put it in nautical terms, Canon is a Battleship, and Red is a Destroyer.

Oh, and if you can’t be on-site to watch the SuperMeet in person, they are posting a live stream of the event here at 6:45pm (I assume that would be US Pacific Time).

A couple weeks ago, Cinema5D posted an extensive review series of gear for DSLR video rigs. They tested various kits and accessories from eleven manufacturers in total. I was excited at first when I heard about this large review, but my excitement quickly abated when I dug into their opinions and findings. Much of what was stated in the Cinema5D review is in direct contradiction to my own experiences with the same gear. And a number of the statements made in the review aren’t just a difference of opinion, they are factually incorrect.

I cannot address every rig tested in this review, I’ll only speak about the systems that I’ve personally used. But knowing the errors and omissions in their review for the gear I have used, well, that calls into question the information they present on gear I haven’t personally used. Another concern: in the week following the review, information surfaced that indicated that when the reviewers first contacted manufacturers, a condition of submitting gear for review was that the reviewer got to keep the gear that won. Seriously? That’s akin to demanding a ransom if you want your gear reviewed. This was never stated publicly by the reviewers, until a company not participating in the review (Zacuto) outed the information.

Somewhere in the shakeout following the review, previous Cinema5D supporter Cinevate was banned as a sponsor. It’s unclear to me why that came to be. Some commenters have complained that the fact the stated winner of the review (Vocas) was a Cinema5D sponsor indicates bias. I don’t think that’s a fair point to make, it’s impossible to prove there was any bias as a result of a sponsorship (and Cinevate was a sponsor too, until they were banned) so it’s really a non-sequitur as far as I’m concerned.

At FreshDV, we know full well how hard it is to present a well-researched, thoroughly-tested review. In particular, it’s VERY hard to do a proper side-by-side comparison review where a single unit or brand is declared the overall winner. It’s almost impossible to address every concern for every unique configuration…and declaring an overall winner is rarely a useful exercise for filmmakers, as needs and uses vary so widely. It is not my belief that this Cinema5D review was biased or determined by any ulterior motive. It is my observation that they simply bit off more than they could effectively chew. The scope of this review series is ambitious, and I believe that they simply did not have enough time and production experience to properly evaluate and test each system. As such, it’s my opinion that their findings, and their final star ratings in particular, are inconclusive. Regardless of any bias allegations from the community, there are a few factually incorrect issues in the review that I’d like to address below…

Shortly after the review was posted, Redrock Micro requested that their portion of the review be removed, citing specific concerns with incorrect configurations used and faulty setup of their products. Redrock’s Brian Valente wrote a detailed list of his concerns, two of the most obvious which I will quote below:

- Not the Rigs we sent:
We never submitted anything the “tripod” category. In fact, we weren’t even made aware there was such a category until after the review was published. Apparently to fill the gap, the reviewers configured their own version of a Redrock tripod rig based on parts (some of which we didn’t even provide), and then were critical of what they created. What they ended up with does not represent Redrock, and based on the pictures they showed, I wouldn’t use or recommend what they developed either. Of the two rigs we did provide, the first was modified from the configuration we sent (see below), and the second one (theEvent) wasn’t even included in the review.

- Changed rig configurations provided:
One of the concerns stated the review on the eyeSpy rig was that it didn’t sit flat when put down, due to a single handgrip configuration. The rig we sent for review included two handgrips and the handlebar (which you can see in their picture on the “first contact” page) which allows it to be balanced when set down, but for unknown reasons this was later removed for the evaluation portion. In addition, no mention was made that the Redrock eyeSpy rig is the only one that can be directly attached to a tripod using the integrated baseplate in the shoulderpad - a feature we specifically designed to allow easy setting down of the rig and fast change between shouldermount and tripod. This misrepresents our product and its capabilities.

The faulty analysis wasn’t limited to Redrock. The product reviewers slammed Cinevate gear, calling it “a lot of cheap looking plastic parts, and unfortunately, poorly manufactured gear.” There are many ways to criticize and opine on all kinds of gear, and one is certainly entitled to one’s opinions. But calling Cinevate gear in general “cheap plastic” and “poorly manufactured” simply doesn’t jive with reality. Cinevate nearly always uses CNC aluminum and stainless steel components in their gear…it’s the opposite of poor manufacturing, and certainly not cheap to produce.

As a recent example, Cinevate’s Durus follow focus is one of the strongest, toughest follow focus systems I’ve ever used. It oughta be…it’s largely constructed of CNC aluminum! There are certainly flaws in any system, but low quality and cheaply built it is not. I encourage you to watch my review of the Durus follow focus and compare that to the Cinema5D review findings.

They also took a few shots at Cinevate’s carbon-fiber rods, calling them “poorly-crafted” and suggesting they would wear out sooner than competing rod designs. This is a direct contradiction to my own findings with Cinevate’s carbon rods. I know this, as I purchased a set of Cinevate carbon rods in 2007, their original hollow carbon design. After noting a few issues with inconsistent widths along the length of the rods, I spoke with Cinevate about the issue. They went back to the drawing board and completely replaced their stock of hollow carbon with solid carbon fiber rods. I’ve been using a set of solid-carbon Cinevate rods on a regular basis since then (over 2 yrs). They’ve never even so much as shown any wear, and their design, specifications, and manufacture is of excellent quality.

There are a number of other errors and mistakes in regards to Cinevate gear in that review, so much so that Cinevate’s Dennis Wood took time to respectfully but firmly address them in a video here. I encourage you to watch the Cinevate response video and compare to the opinions stated in the Cinema5D review.

Another product that was (in my opinion) unfairly maligned in this review was a mattebox from Genus. The reviewers called the quality and workmanship of the mattebox into question, complaining about noisy rattles, loose screws, and a french flag that would not adjust properly. Ironically enough, when this review went live, it just so happened that I was I putting the finishing touches on my own Genus mattebox review. And my findings are completely at odds with nearly every complaint they had. Notice a pattern here? I found the Genus system to be a delight to use, well-crafted, and basically everything the Cinema5D reviewers did not. It’s mindboggling how differently we see the same product. Contrary to their findings, I found the quality vs price proposition for the Genus mattebox to be perfectly balanced. I encourage you to watch my review of the Genus mattebox here, you can see me working with it, shaking things (it’s rather quiet, thanks), and decide for yourself.

I have a few other more opinion-related issues with the review in general. For instance, they lauded the ARRI MFF-1 follow focus with a lot more praise than I believe is warranted. It’s a good system, sure. But I personally find it more at home driving an HD camcorder like the EX1 than a full cine lens kit. In particular, ARRI’s arm design has (in my opinion) too many points of adjustment and can slip away from the lens. It’s not as solid as other systems I’ve used. It also requires both hands to adjust the arm, as it tends to flop around. Ironically, that’s something the Cinema5D reviewers dinged the Cinevate handheld rig grip design for, but they don’t seem to mind it on this follow focus. It’s a good example of the clear lack of consistency throughout the entire review. To me, that means this is less useful as a head-to-head, feature-to-feature comparison review, and really more of a large lump of personal opinions from a few self-professed filmmakers. Here is the Cinema5D reviewer’s curt response to criticism of his opinions and findings.

In short, and at best, it’s my opinion that the overall conclusions of this review series are inconclusive and lacking. Speaking for myself, I’ve taken the review as a whole with a larger-than-normal portion of salt. I encourage you to do the same. Opinions are fine, but reviews should be based on a consistent “yardstick” or standard measure. As users and consumers, we should demand a higher standard of gear reviews.

Editor’s note: This article was written as a response to what we believe to be an inconclusive, poorly presented review series by Cinema5D that presents information that may not be factually accurate. As FreshDV has been sponsored in the past by a few of the brands noted in this article, I think it’s important to reiterate that this article was not created as a defense for any particular sponsor or relationship. Any prior sponsor relationships had nothing to do with the impetus to write this article. Rather, my first concern is that faulty information was being presented to filmmakers. Secondly, I have a concern that reviews like this one will cast a bad light on reviewers in general. For FreshDV to be able to present gear reviews and information, we depend on manufacturers being willing to provide their gear for testing. They assume that their gear will get a fair and complete evaluation and that the facts be presented. I worry that when flawed reviews like this one are presented, it casts a bad light on reviewers in general, and I want to distance FreshDV from that. Our reputation for fairness and reasoned review analysis is very important to us. Finally, I cannot address every point I disagree with in this extensive review. So in the above article I simply refer to specific gear and products that we’ve actually used and tested first-hand in real production environments, and stick with addressing things that I know to be incorrect in the Cinema5D review.

CoreMelt is running a contest called Show us Your Pixels, and they are giving away $25000 in prizes. The submission window closes “end of business on the 8th February 2010.” Bear in mind that CoreMelt is based in Australia, so they are roughly 12hrs ahead of the US. Winners will be chosen on Feb 10th.

Prizes include:
Orangutan Adventure Trek to Sumatra
AJA Kona LHi Board
Euphonix MC Transport Controller
Crumpler bags
Red Lightning HD Monitor Pro
Artbeats Video Packs
Final Cut Studio 2009
Final Cut Express
Digital Juice Packs
Creative Cow packs
motionVFX templates
+ Many more!!!

Categories:
Best existing work:
Work previously created for a commercial or spec project using CoreMelt plugins.

Best student work:
Work created by a current student in Digital Media, Motion Graphics or Editing using CoreMelt plugins.

Best rainforest themed work:
For creation of a new piece on the theme of Rainforest Rescue’s projects. CoreMelt and Rainforest rescue will provide stills and video footage that can be used in this category.

Over at Ryan Walters blog, he’s penned a few words of warning for indie filmmakers about the impending release of Red Scarlet. Most people agree that they want Scarlet’s RAW image acquisition, but Walters says, in essence, be careful what you wish for. Here’s an excerpt:

“The next revolution in filmmaking is upon us, however, I fear and it is my prediction that a lot of small indi-productions are about to get burned. Now, do not get me wrong- I really enjoy shooting with the Red. Shooting RAW has changed my life and I do not want to go back - ever. But that is not to say that it has been a smooth transition, nor is it as friendly or easy as it may appear from the outside looking in.”

So it’s been just about a year since Ikonoskop initially suggested they’d be shipping the A-cam dII digital cinema camera. So far they’ve managed a few blog updates and posted some footage from a single beta tester. We’ll they’ve just announced another camera system that you can’t yet purchase, a stereoscopic configuration of the as-yet-unshipped A-cam dII, dubbed the A-Cam3D. At least this little teaser doesn’t appear to be a render, so maybe they are already prototyping the thing.

Maybe we’ll see one of these cameras on production some day. At this rate, Scarlet will ship first. I’m sure glad I didn’t postpone a camera upgrade waiting for Scarlet or the dII to ship. Did you?

Canon has announced a new MPEG-2 4:2:2 codec with a 50 Mbps datarate and standard MXF support. It will be used for their forthcoming line of 1920×1080 tapeless HD camcorders. In conjunction with this announcement, Canon will be showing a new tapeless HD camcorder at the 9th Annual SF SuperMeet.

Dear Canon, please put this codec on my DSLR, kthxbai.

It’s that time of year again, this is just a last-minute heads up that the Ninth Annual San Francisco SuperMeet is this Friday. The SuperMeet will be held at the UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center. It all begins on Friday, February 5, 2010 at 3:30PM for the SuperMeet Digital Showcase, and the Open Screen Theater and SuperMeet begins at 7:00PM

Some interesting last minute information: Canon USA will be making the “first US public announcement that they are going to introduce a new Canon MPEG-2 codec and workflow to the industry at the San Francisco SuperMeet. They are also going to have the first US public preview of their new tapeless HD video camera.” Hmm, I wonder if this is perhaps related to the oft-repeated rumor of a new XLH1 type body with APS-C sized sensor and interchangeable DSLR lens mount? Or is it simply Canon’s solid-state upgrade to their HDV line? The MPEG-2 workflow is no doubt related to their new MPEG-2 4:2:2, 50 Mbps codec announcement, details here.

Other announced topics include:
* Smoke on Mac OSX - Alexandre Domingue
* “Destroy Me” - Jordan Livingston (music vid)
* AJA KiPro - Jon Thorn
* Best Workflow for Canon File-Based Cameras - Joe Bogacz
* Motion 4 Does 3D - Mark Spencer
* The Idea behind IDEO’s Living Climate Change - Matt Silverman
* The New Speed Tools in FCP 7 - Kevin Monahan
* Hand Held Hollywood - Taz Goldstein

You can buy your SuperMeet tickets online for $15 each. Tickets are $20 at the door, if there are any still available (historically these events tend to sell out). More info at www.supermeet.com