Currently browsing posts by Tom Stratton.

Hilarious take off on the iPhone vs. HTC video adapted for RED vs. Alexa

If you have been paying any attention to the Alexa or the RED you really need to watch this. Fair warning – it’s got some profanity!

Is the EPIC from RED back on track? Jannard says it is!

Here is the post from Last night that “announces” the resolution of the killer bug that has been keeping the EPIC out of our hands. Way to go!

EPIC

We are not just behind schedule anymore… we are embarrassingly late. Trust me when I tell you this is a complicated and aggressive project. When one of the most respected companies in the industry is just releasing their brightest new star that does 1/5 of the resolution, half the maximum frame rate, in a box three times the size and for 3 times the price… that should tell you how tough a trick EPIC is.

Having said that, we have located the wicked, mean and nasty bug and our engineering team has put a bullet in the back of it’s head. That pesky bug has put us behind in our schedule (obviously) since it also held up the work that followed it. We are now making the type of progress we had hoped to be making a few months ago.

We have working EPIC cameras… and are adding features on a daily basis. Firmware upgrades are happening fast and furious. But please remember that we are not going to release a buggy camera with limited features this time, so keep that in mind. Lots of testing, upgrading, new features, bug patrol… and all of the above happening now. The RED ONE is now one of the most reliable cameras in the industry (after a humble beginning)… EPIC will not be a step backward.

During this development/testing time we have made the decision to add 13mm of length to the brain (about 1/2″ for those who are metric challenged), which means lots of new board spins to fit. This is small stuff compared to the battle we just had on monster bug patrol.

Tattoo cameras will go out as soon as we have a stable platform with a standard set of features… production to follow as soon as the Tattoo owners give us the thumbs up. We are in a hurry… but not so much as to get it wrong. I don’t think it is productive to promise another date… but we all are on the same page. The sooner the better.

Scarlet is moving along side the EPIC program as the big bug hit it as well. Production of Scarlet will trail EPIC… not exactly sure by how far. A lot of it has to do with just how fast we can get EPIC production rolling and solid.

In the end… we have a great project going on here. Once again… this is not an easy task (neither was the RED ONE)… which is exactly the way we want it. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else doing anything different.

OK… next question?

[From Questions... answers. - REDUSER.net]

Canon Wonder Camera concept uses video to take photos | Electronista

I don’t think that this future is going to take 20 years (Canon’s estimate) – I think we’re a lot closer than that…

Canon Wonder Camera concept uses video to take photos Canon Wonder would have instant focus, huge zoom

Canon at the Shanghai World Expo has shown a rare camera concept that outlines its plans for the future. Only called the Wonder Camera so far, it would completely drop the notion of separating stills and video. An extremely high-speed focus would always keep the shot in focus and, along with large amounts of storage, would provide static images simply by picking one of the video frames.

The device would also have a very high (though unspecified) resolution that photographers could crop without losing practical levels of detail. Canon also believes it could deliver a camera with fast wireless networking, face detection that could cover many more subjects, and super telephoto ranges even with a fixed-lens camera. Image stabilization could be strong enough to handle shots at the far end of the zoom range.

Canon ostensibly claims that the Wonder Camera is a preview of what the company could do 20 years into the future, though it’s already believed that much of the technology could be implemented much sooner, at least in DSLRs.

[From Canon Wonder Camera concept uses video to take photos | Electronista]

HD Magazine Reports that the Arri ALEXA Ships

It’s a big day today for digital cinema – The Arri is shipping. Not really something that I can afford to shoot with but I see this as driving the industry forward. I think that there will be a big impact on the HDSLR market as a direct result of the easy availability of these higher-end digital cinema cameras.

ALEXA ships in June as promised but without full implementation of ‘direct to edit’ recordingARRI today announced that it has fulfilled its commitment to ship the new ALEXA digital camera in June. Production ramp-up of the new camera is now underway, with initial delivery priority given to customers who purchased the flagship D-21 camera following ALEXA’s first unveiling to the market at IBC2009.

[From HD Magazine - HD Mag - Arri ALEXA Ships]

First one in the wild? | “Apple of My Eye” – an iPhone 4 film on Vimeo

First iPhone 4 Video that I’ve seen posted – check it out…

It’s pretty shaky – wonder when RedRock is going to have a shoulder rig for the phone… I can almost hear the directory telling the little girl to remember to lick her “ice cream” cone. I guess mashed potatoes don’t really lick that well

a Majek Picture | majekpictures.com Shot and edited entirely on the iPhone 4 / iMovie App (in 48 hours).

[From "Apple of My Eye" - an iPhone 4 film on Vimeo]

See the video by reading on…

Jim Jannard says pro HDSLR users should be “embarrassed” on REDUSER.net

Jim makes it clear that he doesn’t consider HDSLR cameras as competition to the RED platform – and in their current incarnation he’s 100% right. He doesn’t seem too concerned about the financial resources available to Canon (et. al) and apparently thinks that they won’t be setting their sites on creating a studio quality movie camera in the near future. I think he’s probably wrong about that!

I fully expect the DSLR mfgs to get it right at some point. Make a non-line-skipping 4K camera. At that point, the difference will be RAW 5K and 6K vs. whatever they make. Until then, a line-skipping 1080P camera is just not in the running for a pro camera. Can you make OK images with a line-skipping 1080P camera? Sure. Should you be embarrassed? Yes. We are not in that business.

I saw the Canon commercial about shooting “motion stills”. They should be ashamed. Just try to take a still from their motion 1080P capture…

Jim

[From REDUSER.net - View Single Post - Bug...]

RED EPIC, Scarlet hit by major bug, dropped manufacturer | Electronista

Ouch! a 2 month delay puts the brakes on upgrade plans for a lot of RED owners who were excited to get their hands on the new gear. The firmware was buggy and they are going hunting for a new manufacturing partner. This is a big blow for RED at a time when there are so many competitors that have product in the pipeline. I hope that they get this resolved quickly!

Read on for the article in Electronista…

The lowest cost follow focus rig you may ever find for a VDSLR!

Some people seem to have a lot of time on their hands to invent and create new ways of doing follow focus with VDSLR cameras. This guy (who doesn’t identify himself on his web pagesbut I’m inferring that he is Scott Lerman from his URL and the name of one of his products) has created two unique and decidedly low-tech ways to get follow focus with his 5D.

Yes, Virginia, that is a hand drill! You have to check out his videos… Here is a device he calls the “Scocus ring” (Scott’s Focus Ring) and the beauty pictured here is the “Focus Drill“. His demo videos aren’t very interesting but you’ll definitely get the idea.

MacVideo TV – Editing – Features – Blackmagic roll out DaVinci for $995

Quick note (thanks to a tweet from Rodney) about a new piece of software that is sure to set the VDSLR world on fire. A fantastic color correction suite that used to cost $200,000 is now available to run on your Mac for (a mere) thousand bucks. Check, out the full review at MacVideo (link below)

Blackmagic roll out DaVinci for $995 World-class colour correction software now affordable to the masses

Rick Young DaVinci for $995 – FCPUG NAB SuperMeet, April 13, 2010

Blackmagic Design has announced a revolution in high end color correction with new DaVinci Resolve 7.0 that includes support for the Mac OS X platform, upgraded user interface, improved video field support, a new EDL library, improved shared database support, as well as new pricing for all models starting from a very affordable $995.

[From MacVideo - Editing - Features - Blackmagic roll out DaVinci for $995]

Why haven’t I heard of this before? Optimize your Mac for Photographic work

I’ve just stumbled upon this site that seems to answer all of a photographer’s questions about how to optimize their Mac computer to work most effectively with photo-centered applications. The Mac Performance Guide is really up to date too – I found it after noticing a mention of optimizing your mac for Photoshop CS5! You can even buy pre-configured systems from them that are pre-optimized for you.

Now, if only he would do this for Final Cut we’d be off to the races