Anti-Ken

I rarely indulge in video clips on the computer. There is too much to do in my own computer room on my own files - not to mention writing two more blogs at home - to spend time watching people bicycling into trees or crashing cars in Russia.

Last night, however, I chased up a video segment that had popped up on the work computer. I'd dialled up Ken Rockwell to look up a specification on an old lens - he reviews them on a regular basis. The Google search engine turned up another blogger who makes long video segments - one promised to tell us how Ken Rockwell was dangerous for photography...

Wrong, annoying, crass...these were adjectives I could understand. But dangerous? That seemed sort of inflammatory. So I did the right thing - I did not indulge here on the firm's time - I waited until I was at home to look this one up.

The blogger has a dead set against Rockwell, but he excuses it by saying that he has talked with the chap himself. Then he proceeds to malign him liberally for advice he has given on a small camera. The advice might have been simplistic, but the audience that Ken was writing for in respect of the little entry-level camera are simple people with simple needs.

The performance of the blogger, with his wingman and "producer" watching was interesting - theatrical and overblown. Perhaps it was aimed at a particular audience as well. I found it as annoying as anything that Rockwell writes but without any of the charm.

Investigate it at your leisure - or your pleasure, if it proves to be so. I think I am going to let them both disappear over the mental horizon firing on each other and not bother going to search for survivors...

iSee You And iHear You

iHave recently purchased an iPad for use in travelling and am undergoing instructions from my daughter in its operation. iAm not quite the dinosaur she thinks me, and have been able to switch it on and off quite unaided. You just whack it on the edge of the table and it goes off.

For those of you who are also on the road and are using the iPhone we have a number of Røde accessories that might assist you.

1. iGrip - this is a metal bracket that grips the iPhone securely and lets you hand hold it or attach it to a standard tripod. This means you can record sound without picking up shuffling fingers.

2. iGrip and lenses  - here is the iGrip with additional supplementary lenses to fit the iPhone. more options for camera reportage.

3. SC2 patch cable to let your iPhone take the audio from your DSLR camera.

None of these will help me attach my new iPad to my Linhof Kardan E monorail camera but I am going to ask Ernest to make a special fitting. He's good with engineering solutions.

iCan look forward to his response.

Moom Pitchers - A Particularly Handy Small Hand

Our Video Lady, Melissa, has popped this on the blog desk with the note that it is a very good idea for videographers who are using DSLR cameras and want to mount a separate monitor screen or microphone. A still photographer might fancy mounting a flash unit at an odd angle to fire down on a macro subject. You could slip a doughnut over it in case you get hungry during the shoot.

The arm is 7" overall but you can also get them out to 11". The knob clamping the movement is smooth and positive - no creeping of the arm in operation. If you just need a particularly sturdy column up from the hot shoe, the articulated portion unscrews.

Best of all is the reasonable price:  $49.95.

Magic arm. Melissa-approved.

Tiny Cinema - Giant Results

By now a lot of people are familiar with tiny cinema.

No, I don't mean those boutique multi-cimemas that they cram into basements - where you get 6 seats and a slushy machine and pay $24 for a ticket to a movie for French people sitting around a table eating*...I mean machinery to let you make your own motion pictures via video. Without having to have a Technicolour camera and a crew of fifteen to operate. Little cameras.

Some people use handicams. Some people use compact cameras. Some people use DSLRs. All good, but not many of them can produce images and operating streams that are good enough to go on a really big screen - professional work.

Black magic make a big camera that can do just this. It's big, sleek, takes Canon lenses and lots of audio feed. They also make a very small camera that can do this - the Black Magic Pocket Cinema Camera.

Get a largish pocket if you want to keep the micro 4/3 lens on it, but if you don't mind demounting the optics you can indeed slip it into a shirt pocket. The illustration has a beautiful Panasonic Lumix 12-35 lens but remember that you could put an Olympus or Sigma lens on as well. And it needn't be a zoom - a pancake 18 or 20mm is available.

Whaddaya get in the camera? 1080P. Lossless CinemaDNG RAW files, and SDXC recorder,Apple ProRes 422 (HQ). High resolution monitor.Super 16 sensor with 13 stops of dynamic range.

And a particularly simple menu interface in the screen for the cinema adjustments.

There are 1/4" threaded sockets top and bottom on the metal chassis - tripod and mic mounting is easy.

Quite frankly, it looks like it blows your average handy cam corder out of the theater.

We've got 'un for rent and we're gettin' 'em for sale. Come see what then next generation of  tiny cinema will look like.

* And smoking. Eating, smoking, and sneering at the bourgoisie. I'm glad they did not make " Mary Poppins " in France, as it would have been ghastly.

Cinematographers' Consumables

That's bits for moom pitchers to the rest of us - the accessories that make professional video and film shoots go smoothly. If you are a cameraperson or art director or set or props expert you may well need to tape up something, or clean something, or mark something for sound - or just find something to throw at the actors to get them moving.

If you need to mark spaces or bits of gear we have multicoloured tapes. If you need to string something p or tie something down we have all sorts of super gaffer tapes. If you need to clean screens or filters or other surfaces we have all sorts of wipes and polishes. If you just need to get the actors to behave we have a bag of professional-quality rocks.

There's clapper boards. padded eyepieces for video cameras, and X-Rite colour cards to let you get the same look in each shot. You might advance from making inadvertent art to  crafting deliberate science...

Here's a celebration of goodies on offer right now:

Moom Pitchers - The Weekly Video Bit

We are getting more active down here at the shop - and it is not just shifting cabinets and putting out new displays. We are also getting more equipment that can assist with video work.

Of course users of the Canon and Nikon cameras know of the video capabilities of these - they use them every day with the fine lenses to make videos at weddings and worksites and all sorts of things. Some are used for major productions and in big shoots.

One of the new products on our shelves is a recorder for the output for these cameras - the Ninja 2 from Atomos. Our video expert, Mel, has given me the lowdown on this.

It is distinct from the on-board capabilities of the cameras in that it takes an enormous solid-state drive card - 240Gb. It runs 10-bit 4:2:2. It has a camera trigger start and stop. There is a a camera timecode synch in it. And it has a good big screen to let you see what is going in there as you do it.

When you want to mount it on a rig, there are 14" sockets top and bottom - the 800 x 480 pixel screen is one of the touch types. there are focus assist tools and audio level meters and if you are at all inclined to be distracted this can show you as many squirrels as you care to chase.

I noted from the package that the thing runs Mac or PC and mentions the ability to work with Apple, Adobe, and Avid products easily.

Looking at it, it is really a simple black shell box with a huge card slot in the side. Two battery slots in the back. Cable slots and sockets on the same side as the cards slot. Not too heavy to mount on a camera. Please see pictures.

Now, if Mel will set this up and show me how it runs, I will know more.

Rental Mystery Man

Jason, our rental guru, is being all mysterious today.

He has just skootched by waving a small camera box with what appears to be the picture of a compact camera on the front. But he said it is a compact video camera made by Black Magic. How can this be?

Is he fooling with me or is this a new coup for the rental department? He said he is going to do a rental blog on Facebook so keep an eye on this and see what he is up to. I'll spy on him from here and report what I see...

Listen To The Duck

Here is the newest Camera Electronic employee - Ms. Jemima Puddleduck - demonstrating the new Røde Lavalier microphone.

While she is using it as a wing-held mic, you will probably find it most useful as a lapel microphone for interviwes. The DSLR owner who wishes to do video sometimes finds that the in-built microphones can pick up noise from the mechanism or cannot reach out to someone speaking away from the camera position.

If they clip a lapel mic to their speaker and either feed the resulting audio back to the camera with a wire - or elect to record it out at the speaker's position with a small recorder or mobile phone - the sound is much better.

Please note that the kit comes with a waterproof carry case, a dedicated metal lapel clip, and a windshield. The larger furry windshields are referred to as dead cats or dead kittens...this one is a dead shrew.

Or it could be one of the dust balls from the anime film " Totoro"...

Listen Up Dummies!

Those photographers who wish to listen to their clients...and listen in stereo...will be pleased to see the new microphones and recorder that have come into the store.

The Røde microphones are made in Australia. Here. Where you live. Buy one and the money stays in the country. ANZAC, meat pies, kangaroos, beer. Wave the flag and go all tearey-eyed. Now that we have gotten that out of our systems, the microphones are good quality and good value for money. The one you see mounted on the Cullmann Copter tabletop tripod is stereo and intended generally for the top of a DSLR - a wedding show or a school concert would be perfect for this one. it is not heavy, despite the size. It is adaptable to most DSLR's directly or you can go the super-professional route by connecting it to....

The Tascam DR-60D Linear PCM recorder. The device records sound onto SDHC cards - in stereo normally or in up to four separate channels. Input connectors for regular small jacks as may be found on the cameras are on the left hand side of the box. There are also the big plug and cannon plug inputs there as well - you can feed it from a variety of microphones.

On the right hand side is the card slot as well as headphone, line, and USB output. Joy of joys - the battery compartment in the back is accessible without dismantling the rig and it only takes 4 AA batteries!

Note that there is a camera attachment on the top and a tripod attachment on the bottom - you can bundle the lot up and then run, gun, or sit on a tripod just as the occasion presents. Please note the little bars on the sides of the front fascia. I was initially afraid that they were just an attempt at fake rack handles to make for cosmetics but I've decided that they are for attaching straps to let you hang it off your shoulder. Cool.

Peak display on the front, Three sets of channels coming in. Easy start and finish buttons. Retire the dear old Nagra field recorder and give your Revox A77 to the Sally Ann. This one looks like a winner.

Please note: The purple tripod is completely professional. It's just a different profession...

Multicoloured Bingo Card Now In Stock

Those of you old enough to have someone else's teeth in your mouth will recognise the heading image. McBeth Colour Checker. X-Rite Colour Checker. Piece of cardboard with standardised colour panels on the front. Everybody's got one and everybody can talk the same colour over the phone because they are all the same.

Prop one up in the leading frame of your studio, wedding, or film shoot and then look at what you've got when you see it on the main computer screen at home. Curse, shout, or smile, as the occasion takes you, but in the end do whatever you need to do to get the output to equal the Colour Checker.

The panels have been variously described as Caucasian or African skin, Foliage Green, Sky Blue, etc. About the only really definite statement you can make is that there is a cyan, yellow, and magenta and a pretty good blue, green, and red there. Plus a white to black progression. The nipple pink block in the middle is the colour that Canadians get when they mix all the remnant tins of paint in the garage together to get enough to paint the back porch. The purple patch next to it is the same thing but in this case it pertains to Finnish-Canadians. Trust me on this...

The surface is matt and the colours are fast - mine has stayed the same for decades. And the cardboard is really sturdy - you can beat your studio assistant about the ears with it and it won't fall apart.

Happiest Masking Tape In The World

Okay, kids, it's getting fun around here again.

Our video and filming expert, Melissa, has ordered a big box of specialised products and they have arrived. Some of them are strange to a still photographer but sound useful nevertheless. Note that the video and film people already know about them so they can just come in and buy straight away.

Remember in a previous post I mentioned gels? Well the Rosco ones are the ones Melissa ordered - the big ol' box of large gels was whisked off to a film shoot but there is no reason that we cannot get more. We've got he small packs in right now.

The multicoloured stack at the top of the post is a masking tape-like set of rolls that are used apparently to mark out actor's positions on sets and to colour code various items for smooth production work.  Very Cheerful!

Joe's Sticky Stuff is a roll of ribbon gel that is similar to the adhesive that they stick free gifts onto magazine covers - sort of a plasticized hot glue ribbon. It is used to temporarily stick filters onto lenses and can be peeled off without leaving a residue. I see it in my table-top studio as a wonderful way to secure props without having to make complex supports for them. It is clear and re-usable.

Apparently there is also a great good line of different gaffer tapes available - some matt black for plugging up light leaks, and some stronger than regular types. Who knows what has been stuck to what with this stuff...

More reports as she sets things out.

Ooh - Look At All The Coloured Lights!

1960's and 1970's - heyday of the coloured gel in the studio. With the new flash systems you could put a piece of extremely expensive cellophane in front of the and fire them off and get funky effects. We knew they were funky because we saw them in advertisements in German magazines. A lot of us weren't exactly sure what funky meant, but...

Reel forward ( Reel? I will explain reels to you later children, once the arthritis medicine kicks in.) to now and the necessity of applying delicate touches of colour to studio work. See the heading illustration. All major flash makers produce some form of gel holder for their light shapers - generally it will clip onto the front of a standard reflector:

You can enclose the gel in a cardboard frame or you can slip it in there palin. What you cannot do is slip in a piece of cheap newsagency cellophane over a modelling light (I'll explain cellophane children, as soon as the gout medicine ramps up.) as it will melt, catch fire, or start twerking. You have to use real gels designed to withstand heat.

Enter the Rosco Gels. Here are a variety of them in convenient packets. You can get colour correction, violent tints, diffusion sheets, or theatre colours. Better still, I see the Rosco people can also supply the stuff in rolls - 48 inches wide and 100 square feet on he roll. This means you could gel a soft box as easily as you could do it on a standard reflector. The big rolls are a special order through us but the small packets are in-store now.

One thing to remember with gels. Too much is rarely enough.

Goat Feet

Tripod manufacturers up till now have generally based their products on memories - generally the memory of the mount for the Vickers or '08 Maxim machine guns. Perhaps they used to make them in the good old days. In any event they have big spikes and knobs at the ends of the legs designed to lock into the terrain and take the recoil of a wide angle lens on a DSLR. Them 24mm' s can be vicious...

Manfrotto have re-thought the idea with an eye to the wedding market. Their new MVT502AM tripod has all the features that a lightweight videographer needs to support a DSLR or small videocam, and the feet are designed for the indoors.

Look up at the top first - the fluid head is big enough for whatever the legs will support and there is a captive ball and socket leveller to let you reach equilibrium quickly once you are in place.

In the middle are twin-shanks and clip locks for fast set-up. Light and rigid - the spreader folds with the legs.

Down the bottom there are rubber-covered goat feet to grip a smooth surface without marking it. No longer do you have to panic about turning the spikes inward when you put it down on a parquet floor. You can pick it up and chase the bride and plunk it down fast when you corner her.

This is a good sign for the future - Manfrotto have sometimes over-engineered and over-weighted their pro products. Now they have realised that we want to move faster, smoother, and lighter. Now they need to get someone in the front office to invent better names for the products - names that people will remember.

I vote for " Goat Feet ".

New Tripod Coming From Miller

Miller are an Australian company long famed for tripod and cinema accessory manufacture. i would be willing to bet that every television studio and film production unit in Australia - and a considerable number of users overseas - has some for of Miller equipment for its field operations.

Now the users of lighter DSLR video cameras will have to opportunity to have a proper fluid head and a tripod structure under it that will not break their backs. ( Or pocketbooks.)

Miller are set to release an AIR tripod system for DSLRs that will suit cameras up to 5Kg. Their preliminary literature mentions a 10-year lifespan and the ability to cope with rugged outdoor conditions. The image is a man shooting a DSLR on a frozen lake with a twin-engine airplane on skis behind him. He has a grim expression on his face and as the aircraft exhibits Norwegian registration, he might well have lost his way. It does not look like Meekatharra.

Apparently the tripod is due in late August. We'll report if one flies over.

Bundle Of Joy - From Canon

The Canon EOS 1-DC certainly captured the imagination of DSLR users a few months ago when it was announced - after all it has video ability far in advance of many cinemas - and it is a real working tool for video makers...even in advance of other DSLR cameras. Now Canon have decided to sweeten the deal considerably with a bundle of goodies. Read on.

The promotional bundle will only be available at Authorised Cinema EOS Dealers and Professional Camera sores. That means us, I am happy to say. the deal is you buy the Canon EOS 1-DC and you receive over $ 3500 worth of fee equipment.

Yep. $ 3500 worth. Wow.

You get:

1 Miller Air Solo System Tripod

1 SanDisk SDFXP-128G-XQ4 Extreme Pro CF 128 GB 100MB/s memory card

1 Canon Pixma Pro10 Printer

You'll need to notice - this offer is limited to 20 bundles only and orders for this must be placed by close-of-business on 23rd of August -so you need to be zippy.

The Miller tripods are a new item that will ship at the end of August.

Lens not included in the bundle.  ( Note, we'll be happy to sell you one, though, or two, or fifteen...)

This is a heck of an opportunity to get the best DSLR video camera on the market with the sort of ancillary parts that make it a pleasure to use.

Hey Mum, Look At Me!

The business of the selfie has become big business for the digital age. Of course there have always been self-timers on cameras ever since shutters became mechanical rather than animal-powered*. But nowadays we can get many more options for self-recording than ever before.

Case in point is my own Fuji X-10 - the standard 10-second self timer coupled with the integrated flash means I can record myself in a number of restaurants whenever I go on holiday in glorious colour and good exposure.

But if I am determined to capture myself on a Gopro or Ion action camera - or a DSLR or mirrorless that has video recording - and I plan on bouncing about in front of the thing wrestling Schnauzers or whatever, I need someone to track my movements. No mate to watch me run into a wall, and no video to post on EweTube**.

The answer for the new photographer is the Soloshot. The orange box you see in the images is an electronic tracking system that mounts the camera on top. It is in turn set up on a dedicated tripod and the subject of the video is given a small padded transmitter to strap on the arm - about the size of a matchbox.

Set the device to talk to itself, go out about 50 feet away from the tripod, and let it lock on. Then as you
run back and forth it moves physically to track you and you appear in the middle of the video. It works - we've seen videos of water skiers using it and they look as good as a professional tracking them.

In store right now.

* Photographers fingers and the lens cap...

** New Zealand website...

A Good Night Well Spent - With Kingsley And Crew - DSLR Video

Did goe to Shoot Photography in Stirling Street laste night and was greatly amused.

The venue was warm on a cold night, and filled with enthusiasts, equipment, and expertise - and I benefitted greatly from the lecture.

Kingsley Klau from Photo Coffee in Rockingham hosted a beginner's course on the video capabilities of the DSLR. This was to assist members of the WAPF to access the video section of the cameras that they already own - and to prepare them for an upcoming competition. The Nikon company will be sponsoring a video comp in conjunction with the WAPF and there seem to be a number of really valuable prizes on offer.

Never mind the prizes - what Kingsley had to offer last night was really valuable - the logical presentation of the subject with practical help to each member of the audience in setting up their own camera. There was a variety of ancillary equipment to be seen as well, courtesy of one of the experienced members, and good advice from a professional in the video business. But the inspiration that Kingsley gave was what people really need - he recognises that some of the new capabilities of the equipment ned to be matched by confidence on the part of the users.

We got a mention, naturally, and hopefully someone will come in and buy everything in the shop from the specials list...My particular thanks go to the lady who provided the coffee-time cake and Florentine slice. A good Florentine slice bespeaks elegance and fine character, and if that isn't a broad hint, I don't know what is. Canadian butter tarts are also considered grounds for canonisation.

Apart from this, we got to meet Nikon again - always a pleasure - and come away with the determination to record something - anything - and get out there and experiment. Ah, Inspiration, thy name is Klau...

Good News For Earlier Customers - Hoodman

I mentioned the new Hoodman Custom Finder and loupe for the DSLRs recently. It used the new 3.2 Loupes for Canon cameras.

Good news - they have also sent us their new Custom Finder Base Plate kit for $ 219 - and it has an adapter frame that lets you mount the older Hoodman 3.0 loupe with the new convenient frame. The 3.0 loupes are obviously not as wide a coverage as the 3.2, but if the 3.0 was the correct fit your older DSLR screen this frame will hold it in place very elegantly.

Will it go onto a smaller point and shoot? Next experiment, Dr. Watson...

At Last - Hoodman Makes The Video Loupe We Have All Been Waiting For

Yup. Hoodman have done it. They brought out the camera support frame to marry their new Hoodloupe to the Canon DSLR cameras.

This was on the cards for a while - as soon as the H-32  and CH -32 loupes came out with the integrated 1/4 20 threaded socket set into the underside of the body, we knew they were working on a support system for it.

In the past they had depended the 3.0 loupes from the hot shoe of various cameras - and we hasten to add that this option does still exist for users of cameras other than Canon. And there were rubber straps that hugged the DSLR body to position the 3.0 loupes as well. Heck, I even got one to sit successfully on an Olympus compact camera, which surprised even me...

But now we have the new Custom Finder Kit. Machined aluminium anodised black frame, with a firm and direct connection to the 32 loupe, and a proper connector for the tripod screw socket at the bottom of the camera. As you'll see from the images, there are also two adjustable support arms that rest against the front of the camera body and prevent twisting away from the loupe.

We do not know if these arms are going to let the custom finder frame sit against cameras from other manufacturers, but you can bet we're going to find out in the next few days. A little experimentation with an allen key is in order.

You'll note a big brass knob on the LHS of the frame - you can release the loupe holder from the main frame if you want to take the rig apart for normal still shooting.

Okay - if you are determined to take video with your Canon, this is your rig.

Ready For Your Close-up, Mr. De Mille?

In the world of studio flash and portable speed light, we often forget the photographers who want or need to work with constant light. of course if they are prepared to go outside and put up 12 square metres of reflectors and swat mosquitos and all, they can use the natural daylight. Good until you go inside...

For the rest, and we are particularly thinking of videographers who need to get a great deal of light in a small space, there are hot lights. Here's an economical one - the red headed studio light with he 800 watt output.

Nothing could be simpler - set it up on a standard light stand, open the barn doors, and turn it on. Yo can focus the tube in and out with the control wheel for a greater or lesser spread of light. Set your white balance and away you go.

This is available as a single head or in a pack of three with stands and reflector - and the three-pack comes in a professional travel case.

All you need to add is Scarlet O'Hara and a burning Atlanta and your career is made. Well, it worked once, why not again?

Please note the sticky suction cup Manfrotto mount is not part of the light kit - it is just a very convenient way of sticking things onto a smooth surface.