This is a great little read from BHPHOTOVIDEO.com 'Inisghts'. You've probably read a few times many professionals might shoot at F/5.6 to F/8.0 but this could be simply because they are using F/2.8 lenses. There's a difference between getting everything in focus as to what's really the sharpest setting on your lens. It might be a bit confusing reading this here, so take the jump over to the Inisights article and try some of the suggestions against your own lenses.
It's a great article, so remember to Twitter, Facebook, Digg or whatever you do using the share links below.
If you're not too busy with World Cup stuff, there's a huge DSLR meetup this weekend in San Francisco over at the Marina District. Ok, i'm lying. There isn't such an event, but I guarantee there will be a huge crowd of DSLR's roaming around the SF Crawfish Boil festival. I just thought i'd share one of my favorite festivals coming this weekend and let everyone know that myself and a few other DSLR enthusiasts will be running around the area. We got in contact with one of the guys who runs the Festival and setup a time to do some interviewing and then we'll be running around picking up some b-roll. This is the 7th Annual event which includes "All you can eat Crawfish" & First hour, Beer on the house! So technically it's not a DSLR meetup, but my friends and I sure can turn it into one! See ya there if you can make it, More information following this link.
First of all I wanted to thank all the readers that come to this blog, provide feedback, and comment on some of my really Cheesy DIY ideas. So many people have picked up on the things I make, link back to my blog, and even take the time to create videos about their own DIY adventures. It's been an exciting week having been featured on the News section of Cinema5D.com, one of the largest DSLR video forums. Now just yesterday I was Podcasted by Dave Dugdale over at LearningDSLRVideo.com. I'm a pretty boring guy on audio, but Dave grabbed me for some really good questions about the projects I've been sharing with the DSLR community. I even mentioned a little secret information about the next version DIY Skater - 'Spider Trax Dolly' i've been drawing out (get your wheels turning). Check out my Podcast with Dave at LearningDSLRvideo.com, and stick around his website to view more Podcasts and some very informative Video tutorials.
This probably isn't the real music in the above video. It appears someone may have pulled down the video, remixed the music, and then published via Vimeo. So if you're not seeing a Video above, it's probably been taken down.
The point of this post is to point out that this music video was shot with DSLR's, I'm guessing most likely Canon since Nikon isn't up to par with 1080. All that work and no 1080 just doesn't make much sense to me. Anyways, don't listen to the music so much as to view the actual Video footage caught on DSLR's. Kylie Minogue - All the Lovers
If you own a digital camera and shoot in RAW, Adobe Lightroom is a 'must have'. Lightroom 3 is now available and although it looks similar, it's faster and more feature packed than before. If you haven't tried it out, go for the free download from Adobe's website. Features should include support for 'tethered shooting' (no more EOS utility), and also support for importing DSLR video files? If you think you'll get lost around the application or all of the new features, you should always check out some of the free training videos over at Adobe TV.
Just a reminder about those 'Instant' Canon rebates going on right now. One of the hottest lenses for first time DSLR users is the Canon 50mm. Instead of opting in for the $99.00 dollar version, I highly suggest you dive into the Canon 50mm F/1.4 that has a better build, better Aperture, and better focus ring. Instant Rebate savings end about a month from now, but you can check out a list of Rebates all together on this page over at BHPHOTOVIDEO.com
I know this blog is more about photography and video, but the iPhone does these things quite well too. The new iPhone 4G wasn't a big secret, and now it's been officially announced today by Apple I believe as ' iPhone 4 ' with a new operating system OS called ' IOS 4 '. Supposedly there will be 100 new features including a front facing camera, second microphone on top (this all leads to video conferencing on a mobile phone), and a higher pixel display quality at 326 pixels per inch. A more scratch resistant screen, and LED flash, and still 25% thinner than the previous iPhone 3Gs. Wow, there's alot of new things which i'm sure includes faster processor and now 4G speeds. I haven't caught anything online, but there was rumors of the new iPhone shooting in HD. If so, that would be an awesome little camera for the Tiffen Smoothee. Check out the new iPhone Video Stabilizer from Hague. Anyone hear anything about that HD recording?
Update: Readers commented with 720 HD 30fps and new iMovie for iPhone. Check out the Comments for more iPhone 4 details. Thanks readers! I guess those video Stabilizers (above) would be awesome now!
DSLR's are such versatile tools. I talked about Timelapse videos and how someone must be skilled to be both a Photographer and Videographer. You have to be able to conceive the end result to setup the shots. Here's another cool little video by FreddieW from YouTube, that mixes both of the skills of understanding Photography and Videography. Don't expect to get this type of footage from even the best point and shoots since there's alot of long exposures and flash syncs. Check out the Behind the scenes first, and then onto the final video project.
BTS Footage:
Final Project:
YouTube Information from FreddieW:
Enough with the rainbows and flowers - it's time for guns and missles! This is the true power of light painting: every weapon at your fingertips.
Behind the Scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TBMWz...
We had a lot of help with this one! Super duper special thanks to:
Jon Salmon, light
David Welch, light/headshotted dude
Alex Reeves, light/goon
Niko Pueringer, weapons artist
Sam Gorski, weapons artist/particles
Jimmy Wong, hero
Heldine Aguiluz, goon
Mike Arnold, goon
It needs to be said - some really precise weapon and grenade animation from Sam and Niko, the MW Short directors. Looks like art school paid off!
Total of about 13 hours of shooting over the course of two days.
If you've read deeply into any of this blog, you'll find i'm pretty biased with all Canon Camera stuff. Sue me if you're disappointed, but as far as DSLR Video related stuff is going on, Nikon's been pretty late in the game. Well here's another late entry by Nikon (or by some knock-off artist). After much much rave around the Canon Coffee Mugs, here comes the Nikon Coffee mug! So for all you Nikon shooters who had to sit in the cube next to the guy bragging about his fancy little Canon Mug (yes I do that), you can finally stand your ground. Check out the prices and availablity on the Nikon Coffee Mugs here.
Canon 24-105mm Lens Mug Coffee Cup ' 2nd Generation Update '
In other related news. The Canon 24-105 Coffee cups have had a complete redesign. So we knew that the 70-200mm F/4 Canon Mug was legit. Then someone had the idea of designing a cup based on the Canon 24-105mm F/4 L lens with IS. We knew this was a cheap knock off and the quality of the design was even terrible. So this wasn't something I really talked about. Well I just got news that the 24-105mm cup has had a redesign they are calling '2nd Generation'. With better letter printing, overall build, and even working switches on the side (not even the 70-200 has this feature), the new version is looking really really really good. I'm grabbing mine now. Check out the prices and availablity on the Canon 24-105mm Len Cup.
