The Dell Mini 9 Netbook

I've tried several methods of making my demo video as portable as possible. Ipods and Zunes can work in a pinch, but the screen is pretty small among other issues. Many in our field have used those portable DVD players for this purpose as well. they Never seem to last.

This little netbook not only serves this purpose very well, it's actually pretty darn useable as a computer! Not only that, but it's quite cheap too. Video playback works pretty well up to a point, as the little Atom processor struggles with some high bandwidth or HD content out there.

I'd suggest in most cases not to go for the Linux version unless you have experience with it. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Linux. I'm a fan of the whole open software movement in general. Whle the Ubuntu flavor of the operating system on these machines is quite good, it does not have the software and media support that XP does.

The correct use of color bars

The importance of color bars cannot be overstated. One of the most important steps in making your video look the best it possibly can is knowing how to use them.

Some of you out there probably think that the familiar SMPTE color bar image is only useful with scopes. Not true.

Here's an excellent article on the subject.

Some of the TV industry doesn't quite get it

I've missed the past few weeks of BSG (Battlestar Galactica) and I really wanted to get caught up to the present. I went to hulu.com and there they were! Well, on closer examination, the most recent couple of episodes were there, and the previous new episodes had an icon with a subtext that said "Watch on SciFI.com"

No problem really. I do like hulu's interface quite a bit, but I'm not so hard to please. On clicking the icon, I get a 404 error from SciFi.com. Huh?? Seems they pulled all but the more recent couple of episodes. Why?

It's not just them either. Other networks have done the same, and prefer to allow you to see only the most recent shows. It took years for the Networks to figure out that we wanted the option to watch full length shows via computer. How long will it take them to figure out we'd like to see a whole season?

Maybe it's the economic times. They don't give hard drives away after all! Oh wait, I have several good unused drives laying around that I'd be willing to donate. They'd hole more than a whole season of a few shows.

New stupid thing from Sony

First of all, let me say that this has very strong language, and is definitely NSFW!. I have to admire the production work from the Onion. These folks are so spot on. You may have seen this already, as it's definitely been making the rounds. I've not heard anything from Sony about this. Could it be that they actually have a good sense of humor? Or perhaps do they realize all press is good press? Well, we all know they darn sure ain't dumb.

On camera LED lighting - Great if you can afford it

These are the LED lighting units from Zylight. While I've not seen these first hand, I have read quite a bit, seen video demos, and so on. If I had the money, one (or more) of these babies would be my first choice. The ability to tune the color temerature is amazing.

Do I now use LED lighting on camera? Well, no. I use a Luxman dimmable 50 watt halogen mostly. Why you may ask? After all, arn't LED lights better in every possible way? In a word, no. For one thing, they are expensive. An entry level Zylight kit is about $750. Sure, you can get lights in the $300 to $400 range, but there are problems will all of them as far as I can see. First of all, virtually every one is a default 5500K or so in color temperature. What was the thinking here I wonder. Virtually all event video work I do is at night, or indoors where the color temperature is 3200K, not 5500k or more!

For those that may not know, mid day sun is about 55oo to 6500K in color temperature. Tungsten lighting is about 3200K, a much cooler light. Our eyes adjust quickly, but the camera sees sunlight as bluer, and indoor light more in the yellow/orange range. Sure you can put gels on these lights, but that just knocks the output way to far down. A couple of models offer flip up gels, but looking at units such as the one offered by Varizoom look way too fragile. In fact, several lights I've looked at in the price range look rather fragile.

Don't even consider one that lacks a dimmer, as you will piss of the guests, and then the client in that order. Also, you will probably want some sort of diffuser with most LED based units. Unless I have some sort of winfall, I suspect I'll stick with my halogen.

Panasonic AG-HMC150

This was to be the new camera that the HDR-FX1000 finally won out in a couple of important areas. Ironically, it was not image quality. The Panny produces a beautiful image at it's highest quality setting. It's also suprisingly good in low light, and probably as good as any HD cam anywhere near this price range in low light situations.

So where did it fall short? It wasn't the lens configuration, which has a real absolute zoom unlike the Sony. In fact, design and operation was pretty darn good overall. It seems almost exactly like an old DVX, so if you're coming from the old Panny workhorse, you'll feel right at home. This of course does make it seem a bit dated, but who cares? I would say a better flip out display would be nice. Menu navigation could be a bit better too. Minor issues really.

Turns out to be two key areas I took issue with. First of all was the AVCHD file format. The compression is efficient, allowing about 90 minutes on a single 16gig SD card. This however seems to also make it rather choppy in the editor as compared to HDV. Sony Vegas does provide native AVCHD support nowadays, but it puts such a load on the system that stepping preview resolution way down is mandatory. Render times can be quite long as well. Mind you, this is a 2.88ghz quad core intel with 4gigs of ram!

I could have probably worked around that. Again, the image quality is simply vibrant with beautifully saturated colors, and very crisp as well. Seems however for some reason Panny has dropped the batteries used with the ol' DVX, and gone with a new system. Not only is the highest capacity battery almost $200, it only runs about 90 to 120 minutes! Huh?? The largest capacity L series Sony batts will run over six hours and cost half of that.

The other issue came from the fact that unless you plan to buy countless numbers of SDHC class 6 cards, you have to dump your video to hard drive before you can shoot again. You'll of course want to back up that hard drive as well. With the old tape system, it's not so urgent. I can turn around an shoot aother six hour event right after the first with no trouble.

I suspect this cam might be better suited for applications other than event video. It would be ideal for the budding filmmaker. Or for doing short shoots where you need to get into post right away.

As for me, I don't see going tapeless for a little while yet.

Sony HDR-FX1000

After much research, I finally decided to pull the trigger on Sony's new camera. This is a much more fitting replacement for the venerable HDR-FX1 than the HDR-FX7 was. On the plus side, the latter can be had at much reduced prices now, and is a good camera for the current price.

Several advances come with this camera, including new glass, and new CMOS sensors. Amazingly, Sony has finally decided to include progressive scan and real 24P! A first for them in this price range. One of the most attractive aspects of this camera is the low light sensitivity. An amazing 1.5 LUX makes it one of the best HD camcorders anywhere near this price. Several other improvements include esentially doubling the number of pixels in the external display. It's amazingly crisp and bright.

I wish they'd included XLR inputs, but you have to look to Sony's higher end models for that. There are some other quibbles too, such as puzzling over why they removed the absolute zoom lever, and went back to the continuously spinning ring. For the money however, I just don't think you can go wrong.