I have been quite busy of late. In addition to several shooting jobs, I finished editing a website video for a client, updated my reel and shot and edited a video for my grandmothers 90th birthday. I also helped with an audition for a friend. This was all after participating in the Olde English Faire at Wildlife Prairie Park.
As if that wasn’t enough, my wife was watching kids for several different people and my step kids are in town for several weeks. A couple of times last week we had 9 children in the house at one time, ranging in age from 4 months to 17 years. To say it’s been a bit chaotic would be an understatement!
I also have been looking into podcasting with a couple of Twitter friends of mine. It’ll be a pro/con discussion of filmmaking topics. Stay tuned for more info.
I now have a much better understanding of my Canon Rebel T2i. It really is a remarkable camera and I’m glad I get to shoot with it. With care, you can produce images you couldn’t have imagined as little as 5 years ago. The whole Canon line of HDSLR offerings is really wonderful. Now they need to move the technology into video hardware for ease of use in the field.
If all this isn’t enough, Apple released the iPhone 4. It looks spectacular and my Dad has one! Hopefully, I’ll get to lay hands on it tomorrow night when they come over for dinner.
I’m going to try to start posting more often. It’s been a bit sparse around here lately. Let’s hope I can fix that!
I’ve had the iPad since April 3rd and thought I should give some impressions after a few months of use.
I have to say, I’ve found it extremely useful. For a great many things, it has completely replaced my laptop. It is my primary device for news, mail, social media and web browsing. I also find it very useful for reading books and comic books.
The iWork apps need proper cloud syncing. They are not really useful except for starting on the iPad and then transferring to the Mac for finishing. This should be near the top of Apple’s todo list for fixes.
From a filmmaking standpoint, it’s handy for reading and writing scripts. It really needs a good PDF app with annotation ability. I’m using Good Reader and it’s close but needs some UI improvements.
A nice addition would be an HDMI input adapter to allow the use of the iPad as an external monitor. Either that or a Canon EOS app that connects to the camera connection kit. This would allow monitoring of my Rebel T2i.
All in all I’ve found it to be extremely useful. I’m sure it’ll become more so in the months to come.
The story so far…
I ordered everything the same day. Two lenses from B&H (The Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 and a Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8.) and the body from Amazon on pre-order. I got tired of waiting for Amazon to get the body only T2i. (They still don’t have any.) So on March 3rd, I went to Peoria Camera Shop and bought one with the kit lens. I then immediately traded in the kit lens and got some money back. Good people there and a great place to shop.
I also got the bits from Redrock Microsystems to put together a shoulder rig. I did this because I plan on primarily using this as a video camera. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the quality of the stills this camera takes but video is the reason that I bought it.
I have to say, this camera is awesome. Beautiful images even in low light. A fast lens is essential. I’ve also gotten a Nikon F mount to Canon EOS mount adapter. This will allow me to use my fast Nikon glass with the T2i, albeit in manual mode. It’s not as rugged as a 7D with it’s Magnesium alloy body but for the price, it’s a nice compromise.
Canon has also released an EOS plugin for FCP. It allows you to import your footage using the Log & Transfer tool. It is way faster than converting you footage using Compressor and then importing it to FCP. It also adds timecode to your footage using the start time of the clip and renames the clip using date and time info. Very handy and a time saver.
The term “game changer” is applied way too often in the tech and camera industries. For the small, indie filmmaker however this may be one. With the Canon EOS 550D/Rebel T2i we get a near Super35 sized sensor giving us image characteristics very much like film. We don’t have to deal with the light loss caused by 35mm adapters.
I’m just getting to play with it as we’ve been moving. I hope to post footage sometime next week. It should be pretty spectacular.
Canon recently announced a new camera in their consumer line of products, the Canon EOS 550D / Rebel T2i. It is a step up from their previous model the EOS 500D / Rebel T1i. On the outside, there are some minor cosmetic changes. Most of the upgrades are internal.
First, there’s an increase from 15.1 to 18 megapixels. This puts it on a par with the EOS 7D. It’s the same resolution as the 7D but, according to Canon, it’s a different sensor. In addition, the sensor is an APS-C CMOS.
The 550D contains one DIGIC 4 processor with ISO 100-6400 (Expansion to 12800). The EOS 7D has two DIGIC 4 processors.
The biggest change is that the 550D has full HD video at 1080p with frame rates selectable at 30, 25 or 24 fps. In addition it can shoot 720p video at 50/60 fps and VGA quality 50/60 fps. Also included are redesigned buttons and new movie/live view button, customizable auto ISO ranges, improved 63 zone metering (iFCL), and a 3:2 format screen. This camera also shoots to SD, SDHC, and supports SDXC cards.
For still shooters this is a nice mid level DSLR. It would make an excellent backup body for a 7D. For video shooters, this is an excellent starter HD-DSLR to hone your skills. The APS-C sensor is pretty close to cinema 35mm size.
I think this may have set a new standard in DV Rebel shooting. So does Stu Maschwitz in his ProLost post here: http://prolost.com/blog/2010/2/8/the-revenge-of-no-more-excuses.html
The best part is the price, $799 body only, $899 with an 18-55mm f3-f5.6 zoom lens.
The iPad was announced on January 26th. Pundits, developers, haters and fanboys have been arguing either for or against it since. I’ve been reading a lot, and I do mean a lot of info in both directions. What follows are my opinions.
Many people have mentioned that Flash brings rich media experiences to the web that can’t be produced with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They’re right, they can’t. On the other hand, the controls on the touch devices can’t interact well with those sites anyway. You need a keyboard and mouse to properly utilize that content. So those sites would be useless on almost any tablet.
For me, and others like me, rich media isn’t what I use the web for, I use it for information. I don’t need a rich experience to find out how something works or how to do something. I need text, images and/or video and these are all things an iPad could do well.
The iPad is not a revolution, technologically speaking. Like all Apple products, however, it is an evolution of a lot of technologies. It is a revolution in how we think about computing.
We’ve had tablets before. They’ve always tried to shoehorn an existing desktop/laptop OS,designed for keyboard and mouse input, onto a device designed for input with a stylus or fingers. Inherently, these devices were doomed to failure. They were trying to be a laptop when that isn’t what they were.
The iPad is likely to succeed because it’s not trying to be a laptop. It can’t multitask, which makes it more stable. It’s apps are vetted, which makes it more stable. It doesn’t run Flash, which makes it more… you get the idea. It’s aiming to be a device which allows people to do the things most people do; browse the web, send email, track their calendar and watch videos. It also allows them to read books and do basic productivity.
I can already think of dozens of uses for this device, on and off set, in my industry. I can think of another dozen or so around the house. That’s one guy in one field. Imagine what others will dream up.
If you think about it, there are 300,000,000+ people in the United States alone. If only 1% want and buy an iPad, and only buy the 16GB WiFi model, thats $1.5 billion dollars. That’s in the U.S. alone. By any measure, I’d call that a success.