Being hailed as the new sheriff in town with aspirations to kick HDSLRs out of the video market, the Sony NEX-VG10 with its interchangeable lenses and larger chip may just herald the end of professional applications of DSLR video. However, a closer examination seems to indicate it may still lack some of the key features so endearing to those of us who shoot with HDSLRs.  So before you go running to ebay or your local pawnshop with your HDSLR you might want to consider the NEX-VG10’s limitations. 

As first covered here in ProVideo Coalition by Matt Jeppsen, Sony has just announced the NEX-VG10 as a first response to HDSLRs which have been used for HD video productions for quite a while already, despite their well known limitations. Fortunately, the NEX-VG10 eliminates several of those HDSLR limitations, while establishing some of its own, with its initial segregated progressive policy. This article will establish the details of these limitations, their workarounds, and the way a professional “big sister” will likely make them unnecessary, although certainly at a higher price.

“Help Me”, the season 6 finale of “House”, was shot with Canon 5D Mk II HDSLRs using off-the-shelf Canon still lenses. This past week, Director of Photography Gale Tattersal quashed a few rumors about how the show was shot, and commented on what he liked about using the Canons as cine cameras.

Red Giant Software has just dropped a new tool into the family of Magic Bullet products and it might be of great interest to the DSLR shooter. Magic Bullet Grinder is a simple application tasked with transcoding your Canon 5D/7D/1D files out of their H.264 native state and into something a bit more usable. It also can create lower resolution offline versions of the same clips for editorial should you be in an offline to online position. While simple, Magic Bullet Grinder works quite well and has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Following that, I’ll show you the easiest way to time-remap footage (both speeding-up and slowing down) directly inside the timeline. One thing that I neglected to mention was that you can (of course) keyframe time changes (but you’ll see a little tool-tip pop-up during the video). Once keyframed, you can adjust the ramp of the speed/duration into the time change as well. Powerful stuff, and very easy to apply.

And lastly, I’ll showcase the ease of the new ‘Export Frame’ option, ideal for taking digital stills from your HD-DSLR video, and lightning fast in CS5 (thanks to the fact that we no longer go thru Media Encoder to process stills; just click ‘Export’, choose the format/location, and you’re done).

DSLR Workflow in Premiere Pro CS5 - Keying, Time Remapping & Stills from Jason Levine on Vimeo.

Blog on.

Berat User, a DP working in Chicago with Canon HDSLRs, came up with a clever way to monitor the camera’s image remotely while walking around the set.

Ready or not, here they come: HD-capable DSLRs are being used for high-end productions, despite their various shortcomings. One of the boldest such experiments is the 17 May episode of the FOX TV drama “House”, shot entirely with Canon 5D Mk IIs using stock Canon stills lenses.

Read up. Prepare. Watch. There will be a test afterwards, so pay attention.

A few months back, while on Press Tour in Singapore I purchased a Canon 7D. Having only worked with some 5DMKII footage (during our demo-asset creation phase) I was really psyched to ‘get my hands dirty’ and see what these cameras could do on the video side. And more importantly, really test the power and push the boundaries of the Mercury Playback Engine.

Over at Clusterflock there’s a funny graphic that charts the main stages in a photographer’s development. Ah, photographer humor.

If one theme of NAB was 3D, the other was video-capable DSLRs. The danged things were everywhere; I saw more people shooting video with DSLRs (myself included) than with anything else.

There was plenty of new DSLR gear to look at, too: the usual suspects (Zacuto, Cinevate, Redrock Micro) has lots of mounting kits, rod systems, and support accessories, and they were joined by the likes of Ikan.

Support gear for DSLRs as seen (mostly, but not entirely) at the Zacuto booth.

900x506 QuickTime movie, 1 Mbit/sec h.264.

If one theme of NAB was 3D, the other was video-capable DSLRs. The danged things were everywhere; I saw more people shooting video with DSLRs (myself included) than with anything else.

There was plenty of new DSLR gear to look at, too: the usual suspects (Zacuto, Cinevate, Redrock Micro) has lots of mounting kits, rod systems, and support accessories, and they were joined by the likes of Ikan.

Click here to see the rest of Adam’s pictures and comments about video-capable DSLR items.

Support gear for DSLRs as seen (mostly, but not entirely) at the Zacuto booth.

Click here to see Adam’s video about DSLR goodies at NAB 2010 (900x506 QuickTime movie, 1 Mbit/sec h.264).

I first learned about this on our sister site PVC. Luckily I hadn’t updated the firmware yet…

FreshDV was on-site at PMA in Anaheim, CA and also WPPI in Las Vegas, NV to get some video coverage from the tradeshow floors. This small series of video coverage is a mix of photo and video topics, and should be of interest especially to those who are embracing the HD/stills convergence offered by the new breed of video-equipped DSLRs.

Watch our PMA / WPPI coverage here, and you’ll find notes and product links below the video playlist.

PDNPulse reports that Canon handed out these L-series lookalike coffee mugs at the Vancouver Olympic games. What a brilliant idea! Here’s hoping they are available to the general public at some point, I’d love one of these.

Over on our sister site ProVideo Coalition, Mike Curtis has a great article about his move to Aperture 3.  Here’s a taste:

Two things:

1.) Apple today released Aperture 3.0.1, addressing many of the issues I raised with version 3.0

2.) I’ve been busy on my iPhoto ‘09 to Aperture 3.0 upgrade saga, but did something incredibly dumb, losing me hundreds of hours of effort.

Executive brief: Apple today released Aperture 3.0.1 fixing many known issues (no guarantees/reports it fixes’em all), and I was stupid and deleted a crucial file, aka the critical and massive iPhoto Library I’d been working on. Remember, kids - your time is more valuable than the cost of yet another hard drive, and the 5 minutes it takes to set up a backup copy rolling before leaving for the night. Even for personal projects. Shut up. It was late. I was on the phone. I was busy. I wish I’d been drinking.

Read the rest of ProVideo Coalition

Elmsford, NY - March 1, 2010 - Mamiya today announced the addition of the new Mamiya DM40 to its lineup of professional large-sensor DSLRs. Featuring a resolution of 40 megapixels with a peak capture rate of .8 seconds per frame and a sustained capture rate of 60 frames per minute, the Mamiya DM40 is the industry’s fastest large-sensor DSLR.

The trip this time presents some unique challenges in terms of weather, logistics and my personal shot goals.  The first thing I needed to consider is TSA flight requirements and what I’d have to check, vs. carry on.  Additionally I needed to check Olympic guidelines for any restrictions on equipment at events.  So far I’m in luck as the international carry-on rules seem to have settled a tad since Christmas.  Additionally, according to Vancouver2010.com, it seems that as long as I’m not re-broadcasting live, I am OK.  There are some restrictions there, but nothing I can’t overcome.

Ever wonder what exactly happens when you press that shutter release button on your DSLR camera? The following video shows the sequence of events in excruciating detail. It’s video shot at 5000 frames-per-second, looking at the internals of a Nikon D3 camera shooting 11fps continuous. As an added bonus, they show the lens stopping down to f/16 in tandem. The result is beautiful, and surprisingly violent. Watch below.

Looking for a little simple inspiration? These 40 beautiful examples of bokeh-heavy photography should do the trick. In these shots, it’s the out of focus area that draws the eye. Very cool.

David duChemin is offering 50% off his Craft & Vision photography ebooks until December 7…use discount code BLKFRIDY to make these $5 titles just $2.50. Titles include:
Drawing The Eye - Creating Stronger Images Through Visual Mass
Chasing The Look - 10 Ways to Improve The Aesthetics of Your Photographs
TEN – Ten Ways To Improve Your Craft. None of Them Involves Buying Gear
TEN MORE – Ten More Ways To Improve Your Craft
I’ve purchased Drawing The Eye and Chasing The Look and am loving them. They are beautifully laid out, and the info is fresh and relevant. A steal at $2.50.
Get ‘em while they are hot!

Having made the move recently from California to New Mexico, loving to shoot both states (and points in between), and having recently bought a Canon 5D Mark II, I was happy to have recently encountered Timescapes.org, who is currently working on a film about the area - Southwest Light - which is being shot timelapse with DSLRs such as the 5D. What makes some of these scenes particularly interesting is the motion control dolly they are using: A stepper motor is incrementing the camera’s position between shots along a slide rail, combining the sensation of panning (a “dolly shot”) with timelapse - nice work.

Although I have spent a fair amount of money to buy camera equipment and digital printers which can produce a more-perfect image, the truth is that my personal aesthetic is more along the lines of wabi-sabi: an appreciation for the aged, weathered, and decayed. So what happens when I take a clean photo of the San Diego Museum of Modern History, a fine modern architectural example of a glass, metal, and stone? I have to distress it. The irony is, the result won a prize - and few realized it was a digital print of a photograph. Here’s one photograph’s journey into the realm of accelerated aging: