This article is part of a series of tests FreshDV conducted with the Sony XDCAM PMW-EX1. Thanks to Miami rental house and Sony dealer Midtown Video for providing a XDCAM EX camera. And thanks to DSC Labs for providing test chart patterns. You can read more about ours and others experiences with this camera here.

We are still knee deep in footage and image tests of the Sony XDCAM PMW-EX1 camcorder, so stay tuned here at FreshDV for continuing coverage as we make sense of it all. Today we present a 8-minute video demonstration of the EX1 camera body and external controls layout. I walk through each button and feature on the body of the camera and explain what each function is. For a detailed analysis of the regular camera menus and picture profiles, check out our previous coverage of the EX1. You can download the hi-res Quicktime video manually, subscribe to our audio/video podcast feed, or watch the embedded Flash version below.

 Walkthrough of the PMW-EX1 Body and Controls [8:43m]: Download

 Mocha-AE Review: Download

Mocha AE Planar Tracking
by Kendal Miller

Imagineer Systems
Retail: $289
FreshDV Score 5/5

Fresh Points: Finally an affordable planar tracking solution for After Effects! An incredible set of tracking tools that brings a professional solution for solving complex tracking problems to the After Effects compositor.

Stale Points: I would prefer to see more seamless integration directly into the After Effects user interface.

IMAGINEER SYSTEMS:

Mocha-AE is custom designed and priced for the After Effects community, this stand alone 2D tracking tool packed with features that make the effects compositors life easier. Now compositors can avoid the guess work and inaccuracies that result from hand tracking challenging shots, speeding up the process of generating solid 4-point tracks, giving position, scale, rotation, shear and perspective matched tracks and exporting the data to Adobe After Effects. Version 5,6,7 and CS3.

Based on Imagineers unique 2.5D Planar Tracking technology, mocha-AE helps solve problematic shots that traditionally break point based trackers, such as footage with objects moving out of frame, lack of detail, motion blur and heavy grain. mocha-AE’s innovative AdjustTrack tool helps remove drift and enables the compositor to extract offset tracking data for areas that go off screen.

mocha-AE allows tracking to be completed in less time, with higher accuracy, giving you an unfair advantage versus your competitors!

Continue reading ‘FreshDV Review: Imagineer Systems Mocha AE’

This article is part of a series of tests FreshDV conducted with the Sony XDCAM PMW-EX1. Thanks to Miami rental house and Sony dealer Midtown Video for providing a XDCAM EX camera. And thanks to DSC Labs for providing test chart patterns. You can read more about ours and others experiences with this camera here.

If you read FreshDV daily, you already know that we are testing a Sony XDCAM EX1 this weekend, courtesy of Midtown Video. It’s a beautiful camera that makes incredible images, I have been very impressed with it’s performance. For the most part, this one lives up to the hype.

That being said, we all know that every camera has an achilles heel. That’s just the way it works…engineering is all about tradeoffs. And the XDCAM EX1 is no exception. As the EX uses CMOS as it’s imaging tech, it is subject to rolling shutter artifacts. We recently talked about how rolling shutter artifacts are cropping up in Red Digital Cinema footage…and I noted the same issues are evident in EX1 footage shot this evening. Right-click the download link below for a half-resolution example of this strobe artifact. It was shot on the EX1 @ f/1.9, 1/48, 9dB gain at 1080/24p HQ (XDCAM35/VBR). Selecting higher shutter speeds doesn’t help, in fact the artifact becomes even more apparent. 1/32 shutter doesn’t fix it either. So it’s definitely an issue to be aware of in your production work…perhaps the EX is not the best solution for a fashion show or wedding reception…or police car strobes.

UPDATE: Quite a few people wrote in to tell me that the issue reportedly goes away when the electronic shutter is turned off. So I tested the camera with a flash in all the different formats, shutter ON vs shutter OFF. Here are two studio test framegrabs that show this issue less prominent but still present in 1080/24p footage with the shutter mode toggled off. The downloads are full-resolution frames exported from FCP timeline as jpeg-12. I haven’t spent much time digging into the footage, but the camera looks to be catching probably 40% or 50% of the flashes mid-roll. Small flashes that don’t light the whole frame slip through more easily it seems. So maybe 1 out of every 2 don’t appear to get caught.

 EX1 Rolling Shutter Strobe Artifact [0:10m]: Download
 HQ 1080/24p @ 1/48 electronic shutter: Download
 HQ 1080/24p w/ electronic shutter off: Download

(Focus on this shot is off a touch, and I’m shooting through tree branches. Not perfect. But it clearly shows the issue I’m talking about)

Thanks again to both DSC Labs and Midtown Video for making this EX1 test series possible. Stay tuned here or at our EX1 link page for more test results.

Microfilmmaker has a thorough and extensive review of the insanely affordable Aiptek GO-HD, a tiny palmcorder that records to SD card media at 1280×720. It is available at B&H for just $219. We previously mentioned it’s younger sibling, the $200 A-HD.

FreshDV recently had the opportunity to review the full Lowel Super Ambi kit, and one of the components included was the Rifa eXchange softbox. This is a unique softbox solution with a twist…you can swap out the lamps from tungsten to fluorescent on demand. The benefits seem obvious…you now have the choice of outputting daylight or interior balanced light from your softbox, and of course flouro lamps are much more energy efficient. In this video, Kendal Miller walks through the features and construction of the Rifa EX, shows how lamps are swapped, and finally we measure and compare output from both lamp options.

 Lowel Rifa EX Review [4:49m]: Download

FreshDV’s full review of Matte Box units is in the November print issue of DV Magazine, you can read it online at DV.com. While we were working with the matte boxes we captured some hands-on video footage that shows how the units match up. In the following video clips we cover the major features of each mattebox system, mount the units to our fully-loaded HVX test rig, and highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each solution. We encourage you to view each of these videos and determine which system may meet your unique requirements and needs. UPDATE: Check the comments below for a note on the Petroff review. The matte box bag solution referenced in the Chrosziel video can be seen here.

 Intro and Petroff P44 Mattebox Review [8:41m]: Download
 Cinetech AB02-B Mattebox Review [8:36m]: Download
 Chrosziel 450MA Mattebox Review [7:17m]: Download
 Chrosziel DV Sunshade Review [2:11m]: Download

You can view the video reviews in either Quicktime MOV format (right-click the links above) or as Flash video streams (watch embedded below). Note that the above Quicktime versions are higher resolution and quality. You may also be interested in our accompanying review of five popular follow focus systems.
Continue reading ‘FreshDV Reviews Matte Box Systems’

We reviewed Redrock’s microFollowFocus recently both in print for DV Magazine and here at FreshDV with video examples. I noticed another review of the new RR gearing for the unit over at Ryan Walter’s blog. He seems pleased with the upgrade…

Digital Camcorder News has posted an original review of the powerful (and popular) Canon HV20. As with most reviews, the HV20 earns great marks on it’s image quality, ease of use, 24p, and of course the killer low price point (currently in the mid-$800’s at legit online stores). DCN dings it a bit in the area of manual controls and handling, which is a common issue noted by reviewers.

“Yes, the Canon HV20 has a downside or two in the handling arena and manual control set, but what manufacturer wants to make the perfect camcorder? I mean, really! For the features it does offer, and for the price at which it offers those features, the Canon HV20 cannot be beat. Unless another manufacturer makes a surprise announcement before the end of the year, or Canon tries to upstage themselves, the Canon HV20 is almost a shoe-in as camcorder of the year.”

If you are considering picking up your own Canon HV20 Camcorder, purchasing via this B&H link helps support FreshDV at no additional cost to you. For those that prefer Amazon, please use this link.

Anthony Burokas has posted a VERY detailed feature and design comparison between the Panasonic DVC 60 and the newly announced Sony HD1000U HDV camcorder. He draws some interesting parallels as he obsessively covers each feature and component of the cameras. Here is a very short snippet.

“Looking at Sony’s latest HD1000u on-shoulder camcorder and comparing it to Panasonic’s long-time AG-DVC60 and DVC20 on-shoulder prosumer camcorders, it’s clear where Sony’s inspiration came from. Both shoot on MiniDV tape. Both look more professional than they are. Both offer a stereo microphone, integrated lens, XLR audio input and plenty of space to stick on wireless microphones and other important production gear. Both only have one ring on the lens. But even though the panasonic clearly offers more direct access to control the capabilities of the camcorder, the key difference here is that Sony has taken the design and updated it for HD.”

You can read the entire article at Anthony’s IEBA blog.

One topic that seems to crop up a lot lately is the subject of sensor artifacts in CMOS-based camcorders. The “Rolling Shutter Skew” phenomenon in particular is a primary concern…it is present to some extent in CMOS-equipped camcorders from cheap consumer models all the way up to the SI-2K and RED One digital cinema cameras.

In a detailed writeup at DVXuser, Barry Green discusses the different image artifacts of the two technologies and how to address them. He has also included video examples of common CMOS artifacts like Rolling Shutter Skew, Partial Exposure, and CCD’s own issue with Smear. So if you aren’t sure what the big deal is with these artifacts, head on over and start reading. Great stuff.

UPDATE: A response from Cineform in the comments below.
The following article is a review of Cineform’s NeoHD utility for removing 3:2 pulldown from the Canon HV20, and an opinion on the quality of the resultant images. Article contributed by Eugenia Loli-Queru.

Cineform is pitched as one of the best providers of a good and well-supported intermediate video format. Among their accompanied utilities you will also find HDLink, a capture and converting tool. We tested the tool for its 3:2 pulldown removal ability with the Canon HV20.

The application weighs just a few MBs and it is easily installable, although you might need to manually “register components” after installation (it’s a provided .bat file). It is comprised by the camcorder control widgets on the upper side of the window and three tabs on the lower side. Through the “Capture” tab you can view which clips are captured from the camcorder, from the “Convert” tab you convert existing captured files from your hard drive to another format, while from the “Export” tab you can write back to the camcorder’s tape.
Continue reading ‘Review of Cineform NeoHD for HV20 Pulldown Removal’

Lately we here at FreshDV have been focusing a lot (har har) on Follow Focus systems and how to best utilize them on set. I thought I would combine all our recent follow focus related articles into one big roundup post for easier reference.

*Career First AC Bob Sanchez spent a day with the FreshDV crew and provided a unique insight into the role and techniques of pulling focus. That is available as a three-part video series entitled The Art of Pulling Focus:
The Art of Pulling Focus (Part 1) - Kendal Miller interviews Bob Sanchez on what it takes to be a First A/C on a production set.
The Art of Pulling Focus (Part 2) - A continuation of Part 1, Bob explains the tools and techniques he uses on a daily basis.
The Art of Pulling Focus (Part 3) - Go behind the lens as we block out scenes and Bob demonstrates his technique on a handheld camera rig.
*FreshDV’s review of five popular follow focus units appears in the October print issue of DV Magazine. You can read it online here.
*We have posted video reviews of those same five follow focus systems here at FreshDV, get a more detailed look at each unit.

*UPDATE: We have added a 720p HD Quicktime H.264 version of The Art of Pulling Focus Part 3 Demonstration. It is packaged up in a 450MB ZIP archive. Simply download, unpack, and play. FYI, the actual resolution of the clip is 1280×1440, as the Part 3 demo stacks two HD clips in a split-screen.

UPDATE: A sixth Follow Focus review, the SGfollow focus from shoot35, has been added as of July 13, 2008.

FreshDV’s full review of 5 seperate follow focus units is in the October 2007 print issue of DV Magazine, and also available online at DV.com. While we had the follow focus systems in our possession we also took some time to capture video footage of the units in action. In these video clips, I walk the viewer through the major features of each follow focus system, mount the units to our test rig equipped with a 35mm adapter, measure gear lash, and finally use them to drive a 35mm PL-mount cinema lens. Each unit we tested has unique strengths and weaknesses, we encourage you to view each of these videos and look for a system that meets your unique needs and requirements.

 Introduction and Chrosziel DV Follow Focus Review [8:57m]: Download
 Cinetech Titanium SL Follow Focus Review [5:32m]: Download
 Redrock Micro Follow Focus Review [5:33m]: Download
 Petroff Mini Follow Focus Review [7:27m]: Download
 Indifocus Follow Focus Review [9:51m]: Download
 Follow Focus Accessories [2:16m]: Download
 Shoot35 SGfollow focus [4:13m]: Download

You can view the video reviews in either Quicktime MOV format (links above) or as Flash video streams (embedded below). Note that the above Quicktime versions are higher resolution and quality. You may also be interested in our informative three-part series on the role of a First AC and Focus Puller, also embedded in the player below.
Continue reading ‘FreshDV Follow Focus System Reviews’

Anthony Burokas has an Adobe CS3 for Mac review in print and also up at EventDV.com. He goes pretty in-depth on the Premiere Pro interface, and spends some time comparing specific features and capabilities vs. Final Cut Pro. Excellent review on a highly-anticipated new software package. And as a FCP editor, I found his comparisons extremely informative and helpful. While it doesn’t sound like Adobe will be replacing my primary NLE anytime soon, it could be a worthy addition to the editors toolkit, particularly if one needs some of the other interesting features and integration offered in the CS3 Production Suite.

Letus has released a new 35mm Lens Adapter product with a greatly improved design. The latest “Letus Extreme” product revision includes a solid metal casing, swappable lens mounts, prism flip, internal batteries, and only 1/2 stop of light loss. Quite a roster of upgrades, and the light loss improvement is impressive…but does it hold up to the hype?

Ryan Walters has written an extensive review on the new Letus unit, and he was pretty impressed. He thoroughly tested the Letus Extreme, and has shared resolution and color charts, as well as vignetting and bokeh examples. Excellent writeup. Ryan pulls no punches in outlining the adapter’s pros and cons.

UPDATE: The Letus team has also shared Video Samples and a model Comparison Chart.

(Thanks Dan)