SionPhoto

Merry Crisis...

Yesterday I was asked to come up with an e-card Xmas video for the channel...

Happy Christmas and all the best for 2009.

Point Blank Trailer Roughcut...

A rough cut for a Razor TV discussion programme called 'Point Blank'. The previous trailer for the programme used a bullet motif and the brief was to update it.

Many thanks to Rebecca and Fiona for putting up with me on the day. Shot with the Panasonic HVX 200 (on a rare overcast day in Singapore), edited in Final Cut Pro, colour look applied using Color, bullet animated using Adobe After Effects.

Headache relief provided by Panadol.

Net Noise Roughcut 02

A roughcut for a trailer for 'Net Noise', an internet review show on RazorTV, the Singapore Straits Times internet video/social network portal.

Shot in our production office with a Panny HVX 200, edited and colour corrected on FCP and Color.

Bride of Frankenstein...

Redrock have released a follow focus/support rod/matte box combo to bolt onto the new video-shooting DSLR's.

It's beautifully engineered, but I can't help thinking its kinda using a cruise missile to crack a walnut. If you end up carrying something that bulky, you might as well get a video camera.

Buy! Buy! Bye Bye!

Still thinking of buying that newfangled all-singing, all-dancing DSLR/Video hybrid thingy?

Here's a tip for ya.

Buy tinned food instead.

If Your Pictures Ain't Good Enough, Your Mike Ain't Close Enough...

Walking out of the Straits Times staff canteen today, I saw a bloke setting up a Canon photocopier display...and taking pictures of the display with the new Canon 5D MkII.

WTF? Gimmegimmegimme!

After politely snatchi...er, asking to look at the camera, I can now report some findings from a preliminary fondl...erm, in-depth technical assessment.

People looking for a more detailed reviews can check out my good friend and colleague Ed Terakopians blog, and of course, the extensive content on the Vincent LaForet site, but I can give a brief view from the perspective of someone with feet in both the stills and video camps, so to speak.

The camera of course surpasses the quality and handling of the 5D, which is expected, so we can get that out of the way. It has a stunning top ISO of something like 25,000 with more than acceptable noise, it's light and quiet, with a full frame chip. So far, so drooltastic.

The 'killer app' which is causing a stir however, is the cameras video shooting capabilities. From a brief look I have to say its mighty impressive...but not perfect.

The camera shoots lovely 1080p video footage to CF cards (15 mins per card)...but its 30p footage, which is a shame.

The Holy Grail for many video shooters is getting their video to 'look like film' and althought the 5D MkII achieves one aspect - the ability to blur out backgrounds at wide apertures (difficult on small chip video cams), it doesn't shoot 25 frames a second, which is another aspect of the cinematic 'film look'.

The 5D MkII's chimping screen is used to view as you shoot the video, but the screen is pretty small and not too great for the critical focussing required to shot Hi-Def. What looks good on the chimp screen can be well muzzy on a big plasma telly...which should be the ultimate arbiter, not some poxy 320x240 web-window.

After all, we're all here to raise the bar...riiight?

The camera shoots such nice looking video out of the box, that it's easy to get carried away with the visual aspect, and to forget that as the saying goes, 70% of good video is good sound, and for that, you need good microphones.

The mike outlet (mono, not stereo) is on the back of the camera (eh? why?) and there doesn't appear to be any way of monitoring the sound, either visually or with earphones...so you have no real idea what audio you'll be getting until you've finished recording. This is a crucial aspect of good video and something that I think will hobble many people initially using the camera.

Apparently there is an external mike available (there's a socket for one in the side of the camera), but I'd say the only way to get good sound would be to use a separate audio recorder like an Edirol or somesuch...so you end up faffing about with added bits and bobs, which was the thing this camera was supposed to stop.

Although a stunning piece of kit, inevitably for video, it's a compromise. I'm currently using a Panasonic HVX 200 video camera, which has four channel sound, a Leica lens (hoo yeah baby), shoots 1920x1080 progressive, variable frame rate video to tapeless media and is built like the Tumbler.

You can attach excellent fixed or wireless mikes, and monitor the sound visually and with earphones as you shoot.

So the 5D Mk II is not a 'real' video camera?

Not quite...but it IS a photographers camera, and that's the clincher.

For many photographers, using the 5D MkII will be a no brainer, as they'll already have the lenses and the cards. Some will already have audio recorders for shooting slideshows, so after some faffing, they'll be getting good sound.

Until the Red Scarlet or their 'Monstro' DSLR-killer camera comes along, this combination camera can't be beaten, and will be a tipping point for many photographers.

Lights! Camera! Traction!

All the recent 'blog posts about stills/video hybrid cameras have taken on a particular interest for me lately...'cos on Monday I'll be starting off as a 'Multimedia Editor/Videographer' at the Singapore Straits Times Digital Media Unit.

I'll be shooting and editing tapeless video for same day transmission on the Web, rather in the same way I used to shoot, edit and transmit stills for print...aah, those were the days.

About two years ago, I wrote a blog piece trying to predict what was coming down the line for 'photojournalism' (whatever that is these days) and what our response should be.

The patterns I saw then, have if anything, intensified, and the current economic climate means we need to adapt to survive.

Vincent LaForet:

"The truth is - our way of doing things - not only the way we gather our content, but also the way we package, deliver and the way we expect to be remunerated for that work - is being shattered by a variety of internal and external forces that simply aren't going to go away."

Canon Killer?

The Chase Jarvis 'blog gets da scoop on the new Nikon D90, a digital SLR that also shoots 720p video...

...blimey.

I think a corner has been turned.

In the short term this is a major tremor before some more seismic imaging gear comes down the road.

The D90 will enable photographers to shoot video using their existing Nikon lenses, with all the control over depth of field that they offer...one of the things that tends to hobble existing small chip video cameras, requiring lens adaptor workarounds for that elusive 'film look'.

You'll be burning through a LOT of camera cards, and I'm not sure how good the sound is gonna be, but for photojournalistic short-form web video, this is a total game changer.

Delay No More...

It's timelapse time again. ...a short film I shot with a Canon G9 while pottering round Hong Kong a month ago, shortly before dropping like a sack o' spuds and coughing like a howler monkey:

There's another film to follow, which I'll post once I've faffed with it a bit more.

Love Handles...

Red Scarlet Video Camera with DSLR-style 'Smart Handle',

for shooting stills and video to CF cards.

I havent blogged much recently, because after a trip to Hong Kong (where the air was like breathing sandpaper), I then went down with mycoplasmic pneumonia and took to my bed for a month.

Just before I conked out I attended an Apple Final Cut Studio event in Singapore, and briefly talked to Jim Jannard, the creator of the Red video-camera system.

I had a chance to see their astonishing Red One camera which shoots 4K Ultra-High Def video, but what I really wanted to talk about was their Scarlet 'Pocket camera', which is predicted to be out next year, to shoot 3K footage (3000 pixels plus) to CF cards AND to have a stills mode...which means the cameras imaging chip is theoretically capable of shooting frames approximately the same file size as several current top-end DSLR's at speeds in excess of 25 frames per second.

I've blogged occasionally on the convergence of stills and video technology and what this means for photojournalism, and wrote about about the Scarlet recently - the Beijing Olympics is probably the last summer Olympic Games where 35mm stills cameras will be extensively used  - but maybe the camera shape will stay the same...Jim Jannard was very cagey about the Scarlet during our brief conversation, but recently posted the image above on a Red User forum.

It's a design for the Scarlet video-cam with an optional 'smart handle' attachment.

Look familiar?