The Rough Guide to Calibrating a Light Meter in the Field
“What is that?” my gaffer invariably jokes as I pull out my light meter on set. Meters are rare in the HD world, but I’m revisiting my film roots and…
The Judd Offset: What I Didn't Know I Didn't Know About OLED Monitors
The first series of Sony OLED pro monitors looked green to me, and until recently I didn’t know why. It turned out I wasn’t hallucinating, and I now know a…
PXW-FS7, Part 2: Getting a Grip, Looking at Lenses, Better Balancing, and More
My explorations of the prototype PXW-FS7 “Vérité” continued this week with the receipt of two E-mount lenses and the XDCA-FS7 extension unit. Getting a Grip In Part 1 I whined…
NAB Show Reports
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Video Workshop: An Introduction to Adobe CS5.5, Part Three
An interview with Pete Bauer, our DVi forum moderator who recently upgraded to CS5.5. Our Intro to CS5.5 workshop concludes with Pete Bauer, who has authored several articles for us…
Review: Sonnet QIO Card Reader
Note: This article was originally published by Alister Chapmanand is reprinted here with his kind permission. I had heard about the QIO some time ago, so I approached Sonnet to…
A Spring Surprise from Adobe: CS5.5
Adobe has surprised those of us who have long been accustomed to a major release roughly every 18 months. Just a year after launching the CS5 titan, they announced not only a new version of the Creative Suites, but a new release schedule and a subscription option for their suites. The just-released CS 5.5 is an incremental version that provides improvements in 5.0’s first-generation 64 bit features, several cool new tools, and one of the most asked-for changes to the suite’s software line up: the return of Adobe Audition.
Zacuto EVF Test Drive
Note: This article was originally published by J.J. Kim and is reprinted here with his kind permission. I am very happy that I got to beta test the new Zacuto…
First S-Log Test with Sony F3
First, before I finish the story, allow me to explain what S-Log is, and why its so darn significant. The Sony F3, a phenomenal 1080p HD camera already, records 8-bit 35mbps XDcam to SXS media cards. This is the standard recording media for all mid-range professional Sony cameras working right now. When Sony created the F35 camera a few years ago, they built a full Super 35mm sized CCD sensor capable of producing some of the best images in the digital cinematography world. This was a camera designed from the ground up to be a full cinema-style system that records to the highest quality footage to HDCAM SR tape (it also costs about $250,000). The standard XDCAM recording format would not cut the mustard with such a high end camera, the problem being that video systems in general are not able to capture the wide latitude of exposure that film can. Sony thought of a clever solution. They created S-Log.
Live Video Streaming 101: De-Mystified
Sometimes I just have to pinch myself, to make sure I’m not dreaming. It’s probably the same feeling and phenomenon that my dearly departed grandmother used to describe to me…
Interview: Convergent Design unveils Gemini 4:4:4
Newsletter editor Amber Cowles, interviews Mike Schell, President of Convergent Design, about the new Gemini 4:4:4 full uncompressed recorder. Can you give us a brief description of your new HD…
Transitioning Into Adobe Premiere Pro CS5
For our third article in a series covering Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, we’ll take a brief look at the advantages of Premiere Pro when working with contemporary HD video formats, specifically the tapeless acquisition systems offered by Canon, Sony and Panasonic. That’s followed by some user testimonials culled from our online discussion groups involving some of our DVi community members who have switched or are in the process of transitioning to Premiere Pro from other video editing programs. Then we’ll look at hardware options for configuring a desktop system or a mobile editing laptop using Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.
Review: Libec RS 250M Video Support System
The pan, tilt and slide plate lock levers have stops preventing them from being accidentally unscrewed from the head. In addition, the slide plate lock lever has a 90-degree throw from horizontal against the “off” stop to vertically downward, which keeps it from swinging above the head plate, which would prevent it locking with some of the more “hippy” camera rigs. Should that change due to wear, it is adjustable using an Allen key. Interestingly, that lever shows no signs of self-locking during transit, which is a big plus, but its position down behind the RH pan bar rosette and lever is the usual pain for access. The head is very easy to level, perhaps the easiest of the bunch, as a result of having exceedingly smooth finishes to both the head ball and the receiver bowl, in combination with a very jitter free levelling bubble and a “bubble centre” dot aiding correct alignment, IF you can get a hand to the clamp knob, which I’ll go into later.
Sony PMW-350K Viewfinder Bracket Kit
Note: This article was originally published by Patrick McLoadand is reprinted here with his kind permission. I finally made the leap from an old Beta SP rig (Sony BVP-550) with…
Understanding Gamma, CineGamma, HyperGamma and S-Log
Note: This article was originally published by Alister Chapmanand is reprinted here with his kind permission. The graph to the left shows an idealised, normal gamma curve for a video…
Premiere Pro CS5 Tips, Tricks, and Notes
As a follow-up to Pete Bauer’s recent DVi feature article Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 Six Months Later, we’re presenting a collection of user tips, editing tricks, and a couple of notes regarding RAM and operating systems designed to assist your transition into Premiere Pro. Culled from various Premiere Pro discussions from within our own Adobe CS5 forum, this article takes the golden nuggets that might have been harder to find on their own from within the myriad topics on our site and presents them all together here in an easy-to-read abridged format (including links pointing to each original thread, in case you want to dive in to any particular point and explore it more thoroughly). Whether you’ve already made the switch or just recently upgraded from a previous version of Premiere Pro, or even if you’re still just thinking about it, we hope you’ll find it useful.