You are here
Arts Computing Film Hardware Production 

The death of DSLR revisited: Blackmagic Design’s new affordable digital motion picture camera

Amid all the shiny new toys announced and demoed at NAB 2012 by the usual suspects of companies such as RED, Arri and Canon, one company not even known for cameras at all lay the smackdown on all the camera manufacturers. Past the initial shock and gadget giddiness, I’ve had a chance to collect my thoughts on this exciting new development.

Blackmagic Design -best known for their high end video capture cards and cross converters- unveiled their new DIgital Cinema Camera to the shock of everybody at NAB2012. It is a 2.5K camera that shoots in Prores, AVID DNx, and RAW in the ADOBE CinemaDNG format in 23.976/24p/25p/29.97/30p fps. All for $2995 USD. This is big news. Seriously. The key lies in how it shoots and records

Read More
Arts Computing Photography Production 

Canon 60D or Nikon D7000: A Filmmaker’s Decision Part 3

It’s been a while since I first embarked on this 3-part article. Since then, life happened as it always does and before I knew it, quite a bit of time has passed and the digital camera landscape has completely changed. But always for the better. Newer and more affordable video and cinema cameras have surfaced that surprised everybody. For the sake of completing this series, I will not discuss any of the new developments. That is best left for another article altogether.

Read More
Arts Film Hardware Photography Show video 

Filmmaking on a Lo-Fi Budget: The $4 Focus Lever

I first saw this while looking for some kitchen utensils at a home/kitchen store. It is a silicon jar opener. Composed of a rubbery silicon material with a hard plastic tightening collar, it is made to open the toughest of jars.

Read More

Canon 60D or Nikon D7000: A Filmmaker’s Decision part 2

Nikon was the first camera company to enable HD video recording on their D90 DSLR in 2008 and thus ushered in the ensuing frenzy that took hold of the video world. For once in the history of video cameras, there was now a sub-$7000 camera that shot 720p 24fps HD video on a sensor that dwarfed even broadcast cameras, but as well allowed people to interchange and use the seemingly endless variety of DSLR lenses! It was the independent filmmaker’s dream come true. Thus the HD-DSLRs were born.

Read More

Nikon announces the D5100 DSLR, coming late April

Today Nikon announced the newest addition to their line of DSLR cameras. Fitting in nicely between the entry level D3100 and high-end prosumer D7000, the D5100 replaces the D5000. Now Nikon has a complete range of 1080p video capable DSLRs to combat Canon in every price point. The D5100 is a substantial upgrade from its predecessor, and features many of the same spec’s as its bigger brother, the D7000. It has a 16.2 MP sensor, 3 inch 920,000 dot flip-out display, 11 AF points, and an IS0 range of 100-6400….

Read More

Panasonic’s New LUMIX GH2 Announced

Panasonic announced and showcased the highly anticipated followup to their GH1 camera, the LUMIX GH2, at the latest Photokina, held every other year since 1956 in Cologne Germany.  More of an update than anything else, it appears Panasonic has listened to their customers and improved the features based on customer feedback on the GH1.  In a nutshell, here they are: a brand-spanking new 18 MP multi-aspect ratio sensor that offers 16.05 MP output ISO range of 160-12800 in 1/3 EV steps touch sensitive LCD screen HD video at 1080 60p…

Read More
Arts Hardware 

Fresh Look Through an 102 Year Old Lens

Photographic experiments can often yield some pretty interesting results, especially when you mix the old and the new.  In a mashup of old and new camera tech, photographer Timur Civan put a 1908 (that’s the year , not the model number) Wollensak 35mm , F 5.0, Cine-Velostigmat lens  on a Canon 5DmkII and walked out into the streets of Manhattan. The results are on view at  Colt + Rane. Enjoy.

Read More

HD Video Bitrate Standards – Clearing up the Confusion

While reading about the new Nikon D7000 and its initially unimpressive sounding HD video modes, I’ve come across a lot of opinions by many people who are disappointed about it’s possible 19.3 Mbps (Megabits per second) data rate. This includes many indie filmmakers thinking that rate may be too low for their purposes, myself included.  We’ve all heard much about what are the good bitrates to look out for are, which ones are broadcast ready, which ones are crap and so on.  Well, I stopped and asked myself, “Wait-a-minute, just…

Read More

Sony NEX-5 camera review

We first got a quick peek at Sony’s NEX-5 at a Sony event a couple of months back, and were suitably impressed with the overall design.  It’s not as bulky as a full on DSLR, while having more control, than your average point-n-shoot pocket camera.  We finally got a review unit from Sony a couple of weeks back and have passed it around the bullpen.  Click on past the break for our impressions, and some sample images from the NEX-5.

Read More

Nikon Officially Announces The New D7000 DSLR

Breaking News – Here it is, the moment a lot of people have been waiting for.  Nikon has finally announced their new D7000 DSLR which replaces the D90 with features that even goes above their D300. Here are just some of the specs: – New 16.2 MP DX sensor (APS-C) – a massive 39-point autofocus system – 100 percent viewfinder coverage – 1080/24p and 720/30p HD video with a limit of 20 minutes of recording – dual SD card slots – a standard ISO range of 100 to 6400 – 6fps…

Read More