By David Hague   Tue, Nov 15, 2011

For a full review of the Kymera Wand and its magic, click here. It's magical! Harry would want one! And Merlin ...

By Press Release   Tue, May 24, 2011

By David Hague   Mon, May 23, 2011

All you need to do is subscribe for free to the Auscam newsletter by filling in the details at right (Join our mailing list) or via www.auscamonline.com and fill in the details re: Mailing List and you will go into the daily draw to win a FREE 12 edition subscription to our brand new magazine, get a free subscription to the member's website AND also get our newsletter FOREVER for free.

Good odds hey!

But you only have 14 days! So go NOW!

By David Hague   Mon, May 23, 2011

.... is Vanessa of Cooroy in QLD!. Congratulations Vanessa, Sony will be sending you your prize very shortly! And of course all of us at Auscam want to see some footage of what you have created once you get your new camcorder!

Sorry to all those that missed out, but we'll have many more competitions to come - and they will become bigger and better each time! Just watch this space!

By David Smith   Sun, May 22, 2011

I’m old enough to remember the arrival of television in Australia for the 1956 Olympic Games. In those days Australian TV ended at about 10.30pm each evening with a rendition of the British National Anthem, a picture of Queen Elizabeth and then a fade to a complex set of lines and squares known as a ‘test pattern’. The test pattern was also used when the stations encountered all-too-frequent technical glitches to avoid the ultimate no-no, broadcasting black (or even worse, ‘snow’).

Broadly speaking, test patterns are designed to enable technicians to accurately align the optics and electronics in both film and video cameras. Test patterns are crucially important in studio settings where multiple cameras must be set up with as close to identical properties as possible and a great deal of time and effort is put into achieving correct alignment and especially colour setup in the period prior to a studio recording session or live transmission.

But not all colour charts are equal – indeed there is a huge variety of designs available and most alignment charts suffer from serious inconsistencies that ultimately make it extremely difficult to achieve high quality, reliable images. To help understand these issues we must take a leap into the highly technical and complex world of colorimetry – not a leap for the faint hearted!  

Enter DSC Labs 

DSC Labs was commissioned to design a high-end TV alignment system right back in 1965. Research at the time showed clearly that front-lit charts were extremely unreliable under different lighting conditions, so DSC opted instead to develop a back-lit system which ultimately evolved into their Ambi/Combi designs, used extensively in the film and broadcast TV worlds. However, research continued in an effort to produce a totally reliable front-lit alignment solution, with the impetus coming from the need for a compact chart for use in – of all things – space stations!

The result of this R&D is what DSC Labs call CamAlign Technology and the unit I was entrusted with is the CDM 28R ChromaDuMonde.  Depending on the physical size, these charts range in price from about US$1,100 (43x25cm) to US$3,300. At that price the CamAlign system is clearly for high-end professionals but it’s worth exploring the system to gain insights into the rarefied world of colorimetry.

What’s in the box?

The CamAlign CDM 28R has several components and it’s worth noting that, as soon as you open the box, it’s clear that this is a high quality professional product. The chart itself, measuring 54 x 33cm, is of solid aluminium with a highly resistant protective surface coating and a neoprene edge protector. Also included is a sturdy set of steel rods to support the chart and to easily enable the top of the chart to be tipped towards the camera. A black velvet ant-reflection panel is designed to be suspended below the lens. By ‘aiming’ the chart at the anti-reflect panel reflections are minimized.

The advantages of CamAlign compared to other commonly used systems are summarised in the following table, supplied in the user manual by DSC Labs.

The procedure is to first use the chart’s grayscale to align the camera’s gamma and tracking. DSC charts excel at this because they feature a full 11-step grayscale with virtually no deviation from spectrophotometric neutrality. By contrast, photocopy paper, often used to get a white balance, is notoriously unreliable, often having either a yellowish or bluish tint. Yellow-tinted paper will lead to a cool, bluish look, whereas bluish paper will tend to lead to a ‘warm’, reddish hue in the final video.

The first impression of the ChromaDuMonde chart is that the colours rare significantly desaturated. This is quite deliberate, the colours having been precisely calculated to represent real-life, mid-saturated vectorscope colours. Vectorscope and waveform patterns are more complex owing to the increased number of colours available on the ChromaDuMonde charts. The 28 colours on the CDM 28R chart tested here produce a hexagonal display for the primary colours, with the additional colours positioning themselves equally spaced between the primaries. This system allows very accurate calibration of even quite subtle colour shifts and the data can always be used to achieve precisely the same look on future shoots. The data is also invaluable when matching shots in post-production.

Correct colour balance is achieved by positioning the six basic colours in their respective boxes in the vectorscope. Many video cameras do not have individual controls for each hue, so the best advice is to adjust the overall gain until the crucial skin colours – red and yellow – are correctly positioned, even at the expense of the other colours.  This approach was used in my tests with a Sony Z1P HDV camera.

Why would you use the CamAlign chart?

There are many possible uses for a chart of this quality but four stand out as really important.

1. On a camera with sufficient controls, it is easily possible to obtain accurate colour reproduction by simply making adjustments until the various colours are perfectly positioned in the appropriate boxes on the vectorscope. This can be done prior to a shoot or in post-production, if a few seconds of video showing the chart under the relevant lighting conditions are included on the tape. Indeed, if you have access to a CamAlign chart, it would seem sensible to make this procedure a routine part of each setup, just as you routinely do a white balance in each location.

2. This chart allows simple, precise matching of multiple cameras. This is invaluable for any studio setting, but also for calibrating all cameras in a multi-camera shoot, such as a sporting event, car race or music performance.

3. By including a few seconds of video under actual filming conditions, and noting the vectorscope, waveform and histogram values, it is easily possible to match lighting conditions from different sets or locations during post-production or at some later date.

4. While it is possible to set a camera up for ‘perfect’ colour balance, it is also a simple matter to use the chart to act as a calibration for a deliberate variation from ‘perfect’, such as when a bluish cast is desired, or indeed any other special ‘look’ preferred by the DOP. Once the particular ‘look’ is set up, the vectorscope, histogram and waveform image can be used at any time to reproduce precisely this colour and brightness balance, either on set or in post.

The unique features developed by DSC Labs allow all of these procedures to be done with a high degree of confidence.  The charts are manufactured to extremely high specifications, with up to 288 points being measured and calibrated before the chart is passed as ready for sale. They are also supplied with an individual upgrade date and a generous trade-in discount when replacing a chart. The charts are designed for long life but this replacement program helps to ensure consistency over time.

Conclusion

The CamAlignCDM 28RChromaDuMonde calibration chart from DSC Laboratories is a truly precision instrument that enables accurate colour balancing and greyscale alignment. Once purchased, the chart should be used routinely on all shoots. Camera setup is simple and accurate and recordings of the chart make post-production colour grading both simple and reliable. The chart is ruggedly constructed and coated to make it simple to clean without damaging the underlying detail and the strand is beautifully built to a high standard. The price, of course, reflects the quality but when the critical importance of accurate colour rendition is factored into the overall video production cost, the unit will more than pay for itself. It really was a shame to have to pack this unit up and send it back to Canada!

Vendor:                               DSC Laboratories / www.dsclabs.com

                                             3565 Nashua Drive, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Price:                                   US$1,167 – $3,223 (depending on size)

Trade-in discount:            35% for annual replacement

                                             50% or more for EcoAlign subscription program

Auscam ratings 

Ease of use:                       9

Features:                            10

Build quality:                      10

Value for money:              9

We liked:                            Brilliant concept using 28 precision colours and neutral grayscales. Extremely high quality with robust design. Supplied stand of high quality.

We didn’t like:                   Price will limit use in low budget productions and by non-professionals. Otherwise nothing to dislike.

Figure legends

By Steve Turner   Tue, May 17, 2011

You can see much more of Steve's work here

By Steve Turner   Sun, May 15, 2011

Apple has just launched  Final Cut X. This should have been cause for much interest in the professional world but it's quite the opposite. I've been editing at Seven on Final Cut for the last couple of months and had got to quite like it. It's really the same as Premiere Pro with a few minor differences.

I had planned to write a comparison about the differences but now I think that's a bit redundant. I'll be interested to see FCP X but from what I've seen/read so far it's more interesting to see where Apple are placing it in the market.

The harsher critics are calling it iMovie HD and that is what it looks like. It will sell for only $299 which puts it firmly in the consumer market price wise. There are no packages with DVDs anymore. It'll be an iPad like app download. It'll compete against Premiere Elements. I'm guessing they're partying at Adobe tonight as they realise the professional market is now theirs for the taking.

The less harsh critics point out that the new FCP can do more than the old FCP. Yes it can. So can Premiere Elements  but I won't buy that for my Pro work. FCP X is simpler. Yes it is. So is Elements but I won't buy that because I need complexity for my professional world.

If you look hard in Elements all the things you need can be had. It's just harder to have everything at hand. Pro has everything laid out for you to use productively. So too did FCP 7. There was a reason for the price differences beyond just the "Pro" label. For the same reasons pros buy Photoshop not Photoshop Elements.

Even if it can deliver the goods what production house is going to have high paying clients sit in a suite that looks like the software on their home computer? It's the old argument about cameras. I can shoot professionally on my HV40 but the client is not going to be impressed. They still want to see the full big rig. Dumb but true. Size matters and now it matters in software.

Looks like Apple have chosen to bail out of the pro market to me... time will tell.

By Frank McLeod   Mon, May 09, 2011

I have to admit it – size does matter! And this is why my short relationship with the Canon Legria HF M40 won’t lead to a future together.

This recently released high definition camera weighs in a 400gms as it comes out of the box fitted with its miniscule (and somewhat demeaning) battery. Physically is it a largish handful in that there is still about 50mm between the tip of my thumb and middle finger when I try to wrap my hand around it. Still large it ain’t!

It records using the standard but surprisingly large 1/3” ‘Full HD’ CMOS with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 in the AVCHD format. Over time this format is presenting less editing problems for users as computer power increases although many prefer still to use intermediary software, like Cineform NeoScene, to reduce the load on the CPU. There is 16GB of built- in memory and two slots in its base for SD, SDHC or SDXC cards allowing for hours of recording time, depending on the size of the cards purchased.

Of the features we might consider standard, it has a 10 times optical zoom and two flavours of Image stabilisation, Dynamic for walking and Powered for distant shots fully zoomed. Given the issues with holding it steady, these are needed features for I doubt this camera will often sit on a tripod.

The M40 supports the ‘Who needs a viewfinder?’ school of design although its almost twin, the M41 still sports one. The LCD however, is good size at 7.5cm wide which makes using the touch screen controls that bit easier.

The M40 has a 3.5mm jack which doubles as the AV out and headphone jack and a second for microphone input from an external microphone. Ports for HDMI out, USB and Component out are all under the closed LCD. Under a tiny hatch on the top, a ‘Mini Advanced” hot shoe for one of the many possible accessories on offer but two small and too electronically ‘live’ for any after-market accessory you might have.

Menu selections and many controls are accessed via the touch screen which when opened also exposes the camera/playback selector soft button, as well as the on-screen Display/Battery info button. Two other buttons (for use by whom I couldn’t imagine) activate the Video snapshot mode where shot clips of predetermined length are taken, and then the ‘Story Creator’ which ‘helps’ the user ‘create’ a story with a particular theme. Another ‘vital’ function that has the same taste is the ability to use the touch screen to write and draw on or otherwise embellish the images recorded after – or during – the event.

In use, I found this camera difficult to hold steady in most positions. It rolled as I zoomed and the zoom control right-to-left rocker just didn’t fit under my finger. However, as you zoom in, it automatically goes into a Macro mode which was a very nice touch, I thought. The Record/Standby button works as expected but realistically, unless on a tripod with heaps of time, you can forget the manual controls for focus and exposure on this camera. By the time you open the menu, select the manual function you want - say focus - then touch the screen to select how you wish to use that function The action is likely to have passed you by. Then you still have to tap to screen to focus and getting it right, even with focus assist which magnifies your view for a short time is very difficult.

Does it take nice pictures? Yes it does. (Hold on!  That’s not fair.  It takes SPECTACULAR pictures with great sharpness and richness of colour.)Is it easy to use? Yes at the most basic level and if the sun isn’t affecting the LCD. Would I have one? Only as a POV camera for inside mailbox-type video or for a family member who wants to carry one in her handbag or backpack.

I seriously doubt one in 100 purchasers of this camera will use the in-camera editing and theme functions and probably less the ‘manual’ controls. This is not the camera for the serious video hobbyist but it does pack a lot good technology into a small package along with a lot of useless ‘because we can’ type stuff.

Vendor:                            Canon Australia Pty Ltd

www.canon.com.au

Price:                               $999

AusCam Ratings

Ease of use:                     7        

Features:                         6

Image Reproduction:        9

Audio recording:               6

Documentation:                7

Value for money:              8

We liked:

Picture quality was excellent.

The zoom to macro, picture quality and attractiveness for backpack travellers.

The price certainly gives good images on a bang for the buck scale;

Compact and hassle-free approach chassis for very basic use.

We didn’t like:

Lack of a viewfinder;

Difficulties with smooth zooming;

Practically useless manual ‘controls’.

The in-camera Story Creator and Decoration gimmicks.

By Frank McLeod   Sat, May 07, 2011

By David Hague   Wed, Nov 09, 2011

I am an enormous fan of the TV show Dragon’s Den. For those that don’t know, it is a BBC UK show that has a panel of self-made millionaires who judge the worthiness of ideas, products and services from aspiring entrepreneurs. If they see one they like, they bid for the right to invest in it. (an earlier series is being shown on ABC1 and ABC2 at the moment - check it out).

Dragon’s Den is entertaining, inspirational and contains many gems of business wisdom such as make sure you have a business plan, know your numbers, have a marketing strategy and more. The books each of the panel has written (including Theo Paphitis, Deborah Meaden, Duncan Bannatyne and Peter Jones) are worth a read in their own right. They are all available on Kindle, and I confess, along with similar books from Lord Alan Sugar (of UK Apprentice fame), I have used their ideas and advice to form what is the new incarnation of Auscam.

Anyway, approximately two years ago, a product appeared on Dragon’s Den that is an absolute game changer. A pair of technical whizzes had created a device that replaced the remote control for almost any device you’d like to name; it was a magic wand a la Harry Potter!

It could be waved, rotated, flicked, tapped (once or twice), swished, pushed forward or backward and more – 13 operations in total – to replicate the commands from your remote control(s).

I have resisted for a long time to order one, but a few weeks ago caved in. I have just added an XBOX Kinetic to my home theatre system and to perform the basic functions I do, whilst I have a Logitech Universal control and it is very functional, the Wand – called a Kymera– looked far more fun!

It finally arrived today in its elegant display box and instructions on Olde English parchment. Firstly you have to learn the various actions to perform commands, and this takes about 10 minutes. Next, you “teach” the commands you want to assign to each of the Wand’s options.

For example, to turn my Sony 52” Bravia on, I wanted to use the “flick up” command, and to turn it off, the “flick down”. It’s really very easy; you tap the side of the Wand twice while it is vertical to put it in learning mode, perform the required action and then point the sharp end at your remote’s infra red sender and press the button for that action. The Wand will respond with a vibration (every action has a specific vibration code to signify what is has done or it understands) and voila! Done.

In truth, it took me a few goes to get it just right, but this was down more to my ham fistedness than any error on the Wand’s behalf.

Once I had the knack of programming the wand, it was only a short time before I had the whole system setup; the Denon receiver/amp volume was controlled by rotate right and left, flicking between HDMI devices was flick left/right, XBOX options were taps and so on. The piece de resistance – the BIG SWISH was reserved for putting my Sony Blu-Ray player into play mode with something that starts with a bang!

When you use the Wand to perform an action, especially if there are others present, you simply cannot help but to ham it up a little – or a lot! And I confess, when I got the first command working, I burst into laughter. It’s just one of those gadgets that is a must have, for no other reason that it is Great Fun! You’ll want to turn things on and off, switch between devices or whatever you have programmed it for (lights, heating, iPod dock or whatever uses an IR remote) just for the sheer delight of it!

At $79.95 it makes a fantastic present. The Kymera is beautifully presented in its box, the instructions are almost worth laminating and framing and well… what more can I say. They even provide the AAA batteries it uses in the price.

In fact, I am so impressed that I have negotiated that Auscam can sell the Kymera Wand to our readers for AUD$79.95 including freight. Simply click on "STORE" in the menu bar above to order.

Or email us at david@auscamonline.com  and you can call on 08 94675922 or 0413 632286

By David Hague   Wed, May 25, 2011

It is Stuart Turner. Get in touch Stuart as we'll need your address to post your copy to!

By Press Release   Mon, May 23, 2011

Eighty years ago, on the Loewe stand at the 8th Berlin Radio Show, Manfred von Ardenne (1907-1997) presented the world’s first fully-electronic television to the public. News that this sensational development was to be showcased at the upcoming Radio Show had already been published in the “New York Times” on 16 August 1931. This presentation by the renowned German manufacturer marked the dawn of the new era of electronic television.

The demonstration device allowed moving pictures to be transmitted fully electronically for the very first time. Manfred von Ardenne, who had had ties to Loewe and its founder, Dr Siegmund Loewe (1885-1962), since the company’s establishment in 1923, used only readily available components such as cathode ray tubes in his design. They were used both to record and play back the television picture. What made his experimental design so ingenious and visionary was his selection and optimisation of components which would subsequently allow the problem-free and continuous improvement of picture quality. By contrast, the mechanical television, which had been the main driver of television development until this point, was severely limited in this respect. As a result, it made sense to adopt cathode ray tubes for both transmission and reception purposes. And so the electronic television was born. Manfred von Ardennes's experimental design, also known as the Flying Spot Scanner, was particularly suited to the projection of slides and films and continued to be used for this purpose in Germany until around 1980. Other processes were used for live programmes.

Only two years after this first presentation, Loewe introduced the first electronic television suitable for mass production at the 1933 Radio Show. The Berliner Morgenpost newspaper had the following to say of this presentation: “Even crowd scenes are sharply portrayed – the sheen on the horses’ backs is glorious. And it is interesting to see how the public get caught up in it – they don’t just look, but stand spellbound, really experiencing what is playing on the glowing glass screen." Until 1936 Loewe also cooperated with British television pioneer John Logie Baird (1888-1946), who succeeded in making the first transatlantic television transmission from London to New York in 1928.

However, the television was only launched nationally in Germany in 1952. And Loewe once again led the way with its Iris model. The first Loewe colour televisions were launched along with the introduction of colour television. These were followed in 1981 by the first European stereo television and the development of the Art 1, which from 1985 heralded a new generation of design and technology-orientated televisions. In 1988, Loewe introduced its first flat-screen TV with the Spheros. In 2005, the company took the final step to becoming one of the leading suppliers of premium flat-screen TVs. The breakthrough came with the Individual - the first flat-screen TV with customised housing options, set-up solutions and inset colours. The Loewe Connect, introduced in 2008, made it possible to connect external devices to the flat-screen TV, thus ushering in a new era of multimedia digital television and establishing the smart TV trend.

The range today includes TVs, Blu-ray players, DVD recorders, hard disk recorders, multiroom systems, speakers and racks. The different products are increasingly becoming part of complete home entertainment systems in which individual components complement each other perfectly in terms of both technology and design.

80 years of electronic television – key dates:

14 December 1930          Manfred von Ardenne transmits a slide electronically for the first time

28 March 1931                Patent registered for television design with cathode ray tubes

23 April 1931                  First films transmitted for the specialist press

16 August 1931              “New York Times” announces first fully electronic public film transmission to take place at the 8th Berlin Radio Show

21 August 1931              Opening of the 8th Berlin Radio Show and first public demonstration of the fully electronic television at the Loewe stand

By Press Release   Mon, May 23, 2011

By David Hague   Wed, May 18, 2011

This is your final reminder that VideoBlocks.com is giving you 7 days of complimentary downloads to anything you want from their entire archive of over 30,000 clips of footage, backgrounds, effects and more:

7 Days of Complimentary Downloads - 30,000 Video Clips

Simply choose a username and password, and you can immediately begin downloading anything on VideoBlocks.com. You can download 20 clips per day.

To ensure one login per customer, VideoBlocks.com requires a credit card to sign up for an account on VideoBlocks.com. However, you will not be charged anything for your 7 days of complimentary access.

VideoBlocks.com is only giving this access to a limited number of users, so grab yours before it is gone:

>> Start Downloading Your Clips >>

By David Hague   Wed, May 18, 2011

Over the last few days I have been dabbling in the waters of HD video after a bit of a road test of the new Canon FX300 we used to shoot an interview with 4 Corners producer Wayne ‘Harles’ Harley. (This is still in post-production and will be uploaded as soon as we can – apologies for the delay).

During this time, I have been struggling with terms such as Bit Rate, VBR, pixel aspect ratio, resampling and other esoterica to make sure the finished video is as good as it can possibly be in all areas.

And it struck me yesterday afternoon how we can get so bound up in the minutiae of things, the basics go begging.

So the arrival of an email from Chatswood (Sydney) company Cheatsheet Network was fortuitous, as they have put together a video based training system (that can be downloaded) to take you through the essentials of shooting interviews. Wish I had seen this a month ago to get some extra pointers.

Individual lessons take you through all the things necessary to get the very best from your camera, mic, surroundings and of course the talent and yourself. There are lots of little hints and tips, concepts such as the Rule of The Rule of Thirds and Crossing the Line are explained and shown as are dos and don’ts – all presented visually with a voice over and diagrams etc.

The entire set of lessons costs only $27 and lasts just under an hour so is a bargain at that price. It is available from http://www.cheatsheetnetwork.com/. There is also a free newsletter on offer.

To get an idea of what you’ll get, we have managed to twist their arm to get an extract from the lessons.

By Press Release   Wed, May 18, 2011

For this HD Video Showcase, Nikon worked with two guest photographers — Paul Daly, an award-winning photography lecturer of photography, and Giora Dan, an experienced UNESCO photographer — in an exciting project that required them to explore beyond their comfort zones and venture into HD video with the purpose of giving Nikon users a glimpse of what is possible to create with HD video.

To view the video “Pacific Island Paradise” please go to:  http://mynikonlife.com.au/articles/nikon-hd-video-showcase

By David Hague   Tue, May 17, 2011

BitTorrent, that curse of all filmmakers has been looked at in a different light by people associated with super brain Andrew Denton. According to the Melbourne Age, Enzo Tedeschi and Julian Harvey, co-writers of the horror-thriller mockumentary, The Tunnel, (Andrew Denton is the Executive Producer) it can be taken advantage of.

The film is about about a news crew that hunts for a story underground but finds itself hunted, was shot on a shoestring budget in derelict tunnels and bunkers under Sydney.

Instead of blaming BitTorrent for all the ills of the filmmaker and the world in general, these two have decided to enlist its help in promoting the film by making it available free of charge for download for a limited time. The ultimate hope is that this will contribute to later DVD sales. They say selling a ‘few thousand’ will allow them to break even.

"There's a huge audience right here that everyone's ignoring," Julian Harvey, the film's other producer and writer told the Age’s Adam Fulton. "I think you can't be closed to the potential."

"I don't think James Cameron is going to release his next film on BitTorrent for free," Harvey, 29, says. "But I think for young filmmakers who are about getting their story out there and getting noticed, it could be a game changer in that small part of the industry."

Their first attempt at money raising entailed selling individual frames of the movie at $1 each, however their efforts came well short of the $135,000 needed.

The Tunnel will be launched on Wednesday at Event Cinemas, Bondi Junction, in a Popcorn Taxi screening followed by a Q&A session with the filmmakers and Andrew Denton.

The full story from The Age is available here.

By Press Release   Tue, May 17, 2011

Music 2 Hues, supplier of Production Music & Sound Effects to the Film, Video, Animation, & Multimedia Industries has just added a new royalty free title to their Flagship Series line of production music.

The newest Flagship title: "Rio Jazz" is now shipping worldwide and is available on Audio CD, or can be downloaded in Mp3 and WAV file formats. 

"Rio Jazz is the first volume in a planned series of themed titles which will cover all styles of jazz genres from across the globe", says Andy Wells, president of Music 2 Hues.  

In this first volume release, Rio Jazz features classic Brazilian bossa nova and samba grooves fused with a modern styled jazz feel.

In addition to audio CD's, our new updated Music Download Center offers the ability to purchase individual tracks from all of our current Flagship Series titles, or entire CD categories with just one click in either Mp3 or Wav file formats. For just one price, clients will get all the edited versions of any one music track, including the full length theme, and any 30 and 60 seconds versions when available. 

New production music will be added monthly.

Music2Hues titles are available in Australia from Auscam Online

By Press Release   Mon, May 16, 2011

Sony Australia has announced the completion of an upgrade to the Australian Parliament House broadcast and display technologies. In a contract worth over $4 million, the new solution future-proofs Parliament House by enabling high definition (HD) footage to be captured, in addition to standard definition (SD), for distribution to broadcast networks.

“This is the third generation of Sony cameras that have been used to record the leaders and decision makers of the nation. Using Sony products will keep Australian Parliament House up to date with the latest technology to provide greater options in the form of digital files for both local and international media,” said Garry Rhodin, General Manager – Business Solutions Division, Sony Australia and New Zealand.

The Sony broadcast cameras are used within Parliament House to produce televised coverage of Chamber proceedings, committee hearings and special events as well as studio and piece-to-camera work.

Installed in the two parliamentary chambers, five committee rooms and television studio, the cameras capture live feeds of Parliamentary proceedings to provide to media who are not able to bring in their own equipment. The feeds are currently provided in SD but will be able to be sent in HD in the future, depending on the requirements of the networks. In addition, chamber and committee coverage can be viewed via the live feed available on the Parliament of Australia website. http://webcast.aph.gov.au/livebroadcasting/

Parliament House captures between 2500 - 3000 hours of footage per year.

With installation now complete, the deal encompasses a total of 44 x HSC300 cameras, two x PDWF800 XDCAM camcorders, control systems and monitors.

By David Hague   Mon, May 16, 2011

I have often lamented that vendors of cameras and camcorders have removed the viewfinder in favour of the LCD only option. There are many arguments as to why this has been done varying from "fewer people used them", to what I suspect is the real reason of cost savings.

What is common across the board though is that in bright sunshine - especially as we get it full blast in Australia - the image on the LCD simply cannot be seen and therefore correct framing becomes hit and miss. If shooting at a sporting event, it becomes mostly impossible especially in fast paced events.

The HoodLoupe 3.0 from Perth based CameraElectronic may be just the ticket for you. It has a sturdy rubber coated body that fits over the screen (best check it fits yours before you buy) and also has a dioptre to adjust to your own eyesight.

By David Hague   Sat, May 14, 2011

You may have heard the term 'GenLock' bandied around by 'old timers' in filmmaking and video. So what is it?

Imagine you are in charge of a multiple camera shoot at a sporting match. There may be different camcorders in use with all vision and possibly audio being sent and coming together at a single switching point. Because of variances in different technologies, cabling distance and other factors, the signals at the switch will most likely be out of sync timewise.

GenLocking (or Generator Locking) is a method whereby all these signals are brought back into synch again for re-mixing or tranmission.

By David Hague   Fri, May 13, 2011

I didn't invent this, I saw it on Jonathan Creek on ABC 1 tonight. Which just quietly is a brilliant show and worth watching not just for super-duper story lines, but also great cinematic tricks and effects.

Anyway...

Two girls are driving down the road, are very frustrated about being lost, and find an old, spooky house to ask directions. One of them has a can of soft drink, throws it on the verge and the camera zooms in on the 'Use By' date ....

Smash cut to the present.

Simple and clever.

By David Hague   Fri, May 13, 2011

Gain is often misunderstood by many people, usually becuuase the amount of gain is measured in dB, which most associate with audio levels - violume. A 747 taking off may have a dB level of +90 for example..

However, in simple terms, gain in video increases (or decreases) the amount of brightness in a video image. But there is a trade off. The more gain you add (which does not affect shutter speed or the f - levels which can be used to do the same thing), the more 'grainy' the image becomes. In technical parlance, itr adds 'noise' to the footage.

If you dcrease gain, then blacks can become more black, and this can also be useful under many circumstances.

By David Hague   Fri, May 13, 2011

Way back when and I ran a Tandy shop, Tandy had a thing called the Battery-of-the-Month Club. Every month you could go to any Tandy store with this little card thing, the current month would be marked off, and you had a choice of a ‘AAA’, ‘AA’, ‘C’ or ‘D’ cell free of charge.

It was a huge foot flow spinner, immensely popular (especially pensioners) and a lot of folk bought other product when they came in. It also created monstrous amounts of good will.

One year one Christmas Day (I was single then) I got in touch with a mate of mine on air at Perth’s then most popular station, 96fm#, and said to advise listeners that I was in my shop and if they wanted a free battery, they could pop by. So many who did wanted to buy them by the bucket loads (Christmas Day, electronic toys right?) and the shop made a mint!

Of course you probably wouldn’t get away with doing this today with the Fun Police checking our every move, so why do I bring this up?

Because it really gets me when a customer has spent a few hundred or even a few thousand to buy a camcorder, and when they get it home, they find that they can’t play back the footage they have shot with their new toy as there is no HDMI cable in the box. So back to the store they trudge hoping they have one (many don’t carry the mini HDMI in my experience). And hopefully, it’s not Christmas Day or another day when the shop is not open. WA in particular has arcane Sunday shopping hours for instance.

A similar, although admittedly rarer, is the buyer who needs an SD / CF or MemoryStick card to make the camera/camcorder work and again, these are rarely, if ever supplied.

The cost of these cables/cards at the volumes the vendors buy them at would be pennies. Surely the goodwill generated would far exceed the costs? I accept that only one HDMI cable will probably ever be bought, and there is a monster margin (pardon the pun) in them at retail. But memory cards are definitely a consumer item that people have multiples of. And getting them used to your brand right from the start makes perfect sense.

What say you vendors?

By Frank McLeod   Sun, May 08, 2011

The 2011 version of Corel Video Studio X4 (CVS) has just become available and remains familiar. It still uses only one monitor view screen window to play back either the project or selected clips, and this has to be selected by clicking just to the left of the transport control under the monitor. The three main work areas – monitor, library and timeline – are now dockable and can be moved according to taste to a second monitor, and of course there is a choice of layouts available.

The number of possible overlay tracks has remained at six, above the main video track. In addition there are two title tracks (although titles can now be inserted in the overlay tracks as well) a voice over track and three music/sound tracks. These tracks can be made visible or not in the Track Manager.

Corel is enthusiastic about its Library, which others might call the assets bin. To avoid clutter on your working space, it is handy to be able to decide just which assets you wish to see at any one time by turning on – or off – the display of video, still and audio clips.

The range of input formats that CVS can deal with should suit almost anyone with a digital video camera. By engaging a function called Smart Proxy, CVS takes the load off the CPU when dealing with any high definition format. The user has to decide the frame size above which Smart Proxy is used and for most in PAL land, this will be the standard 720 x 576, I would think. Thus any imported asset of frame size larger than this has a ‘Smart Proxy’ created at a smaller frame size which is then the grist for the editing mill. This appears to be done in the background (Check out Tools/Smart Proxy Manager) for I didn’t notice it happening. Editing is done on this light weight format, with all the decisions being transferred to the HD format at the time of rendering to output.

There are plenty of effects and filters that you can apply to clips on the timeline. A couple of clever new ones – RotoSketch (makes a video looks like a drawn animation) and Creative Painter (allows you to paint, draw and write on an overlay track) really open up some interesting options. There are also some free teasers from a third party company and there is some more ‘push selling’ at different stages in the program. A nice feature is the Corel Guide, accessed by an icon next to the minimise icon on the top right corner of the screen. This opens up some good stuff, including some embedded links to Vimeo tutorials on using CVS, but again more push selling...

"I don’t like push selling where inside a program you are encouraged to ‘buy, buy, buy!’ more - and largely useless - stuff you don’t need."

Apart from the free audio samples that are in the library when you open the program, you also get a number of SmartSound tracks. These now include some of the more sophisticated multilayer tracks which allow greater manipulation of the final sound to alter the ‘mood’ and the balance of the various instruments. Of course this is on top of the SmartSound original ability to smoothly finish the music in keeping with the video’s length as has been around for some years.

Virtually any playback format is supported as an output – video file, audio file, DVDs and Blu-Ray discs, record back to tape for DV and HDV, mobile devices and web upload, including Vimeo and YouTube.

There now is ability, albeit limited, to convert 2D vision to 3D for output to anaglyph displays (red & green glasses on normal TV or computer monitor) or side-by-side (3D TV and Polaroid glasses). While this is no doubt clever, I am having trouble seeing 3D for amateur videographers as ‘top of the pops’ for a while yet. Still, it is a nice inclusion, if a bit gimmicky.

Video Studio has always been a strong competitor at the ‘enthusiastic amateur’ end of the market. With more and more competition, the new editor has lots to choose from but Corel, through Video Studio Pro X4, still can hold its own.

However, one shortcoming in this version, which is a cause for complaint, is the inability to alter DVD burning speed. Although this option appears to be present, it is greyed out and not accessible. Further enquiries have made it clear that this is a known bug that was released with the program without apology or warning. Apparently the plan is for this to be fixed with a later patch. However, Corel has underestimated the negative fallout that this type of rushed marketing causes users, who spend hours trying to find out what they are doing wrong. This does Corel no service at all.

Corel Pty Ltd
Level 21, Tower 2
201 Sussex Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Price:                               $149

AusCam Ratings

 Performance:                   7

Documentation:                7

Features:                         7

Installation:                       8

Value:                              6

Help:                                7

We liked:

•  Dockable windows and more flexible workspace.
• The used of multilayered SmartSound tracks.
• The beginning of 3D editing in consumer programs.

We didn’t like:

•  The release of a new edition with known faults. While this might be in the release notes, they were not available for this review.
• The fact that nothing substantial has really changed since the last edition.
• Push selling of add-ons.

By Frank McLeod   Fri, May 06, 2011

Marisa Martin, the young principal of EoR Media, Canberra, has recently gained a lot of attention for her stop animation short film, ‘Tegan, the Vegan’. Frank McLeod heard her speak recently at an interclub meeting and thinks more people should know about her.

Marisa Martin says she has ‘always been interested in films’ from her childhood. Describing her mother as a ‘cinephile’ she recalls being enthralled by Hitchcock’s ‘Rebecca’ when she first saw it years ago. She chose her secondary school as it had some courses relating to media and went on from there to university to obtain a degree in media. On graduating, she started her own production company, EoR (‘Enemies of Reality’) Media in 2003 and has been self-employed ever since. Until she embarked on ‘Tegan the Vegan’ Marisa’s work has been largely in music and corporate videos as well as short films, all being ‘live action’ involving ‘real’ people.

The ‘Tegan’ project was born out of a desire to make an accessible film that highlighted the difficulties that can confront an adolescent who chooses to be different. Marisa specifically wanted the audience to warm to Tegan and felt that this would be more likely if she was animated and decided that clay would be the ideal medium to use. Given that ‘Wallace and Grommet’ are made of clay (I think it is fair to say she is a fan) and according to Marisa, handmade puppets have a ‘real warm charm’ where the viewer can ‘see the love that has gone into every stop motion productions’ the choice for her was not difficult. Handmade puppets just ‘reek of effort’.

While she did consider cartoon-type animation, she felt, at that time at least, that she had limited drawing skills but knew that she could ‘build things’ having always been ‘crafty – but in a good way’.

Conversation with Marisa Martin is frequently punctuated by a bubbling laugh which often accompanies a self-deprecating remark. Full of self-importance – she ain’t! 

Computer animation was never a strong contender as the idea of sitting at a computer all day did not attract her. Marisa likes the ‘real’ aspect of stop motion where the set, lights and camera are tangible whereas in computer animation everything, including the lighting and camera movements, has to ‘added in’ to achieve the desired shot. 

One other aspect of stop motion that attracted Marisa was that she could ‘translate the skills’ she had already developed – directing the action, working with actors, lighting the set – directly into a stop motion project. She described the process as similar to directing a live action production, but ‘just a lot slower’. Of course, she had additional skills to learn and in particular the art of set and clay puppet making.

To do this, Marisa consulted numerous sources, reading many books and spending a lot of time online. She trawled through the writings of many in the ‘online stop motion community’ whom she describes as ‘particularly generous’ with their knowledge to those wishing to join. By trial and error of a number of techniques, she finally came up with a structural design and ‘modus operandi’ that suited her.

Words like ‘entertaining, enthusiastic, excited and exciting’ go partway to describe Marisa Martin when she is speaking of her work.

After some consideration, and acknowledging that it would create its own problems, Marisa elected to make her puppets 1/5^th life size. This provided a practical size for puppet manipulation but it meant that all the props and accessories would have to be specifically made as virtually nothing is made in that scale. Dolls house furniture, as an example is 1/12^th scale and so totally unsuitable. However since her architect father had a ‘saw and bench thing’ which did the heavier work and her brother assisted in building the furniture, this was not an in surmountable problem. There ‘was much MDF and balsa wood’ used in constructing the set with some of the smaller props being made from the plumber’s putty. The construction phase was possibly one of the most enjoyable for Marisa.

The puppet’s skeleton was based on a twisted aluminium wire frame. Scrunched up aluminium foil was used to bulk out areas that needed size but not weight, such as the head. Polymer clay was then applied to the areas that were to stay hard, including the head, hands and forearms, and smoothed out, a task which ‘took hours’. The puppet was then ‘cooked’ to complete the hardening process. Plumber’s putty, an epoxy compound, was used to strengthen certain regions, such as the thigh, as it hardened quickly and could be shaped by filing as necessary. Areas of the skeleton around the limb joints were left bare to enable realistic limb positioning and movement. (Marisa has since decided that for future clay animations she would use ball and socket joints as the aluminium joints became fragile with repeated movement, presumably due to work hardening.) The torso was comprised of foam cut to shape and wrapped around the skeleton.

Not all areas requiring clay were allowed to harden as Tegan’s neck, as an example, had to be sufficiently flexible to allow movement of the head. However as polymer clay is not designed to be used in the flexible state, after a time this did harden, dry and crack and had to be replaced. Marisa early learnt that it was wise to make far more than the bare minimum of coloured clay to allow for running repairs and replacements.

Those parts of the puppet that were used to show the facial expressions were made separately to the main head and kept soft for ease of use. The position of the eyebrows for example, could therefore be adjusted to indicate questioning or concern. A collection of mouth shapes was made, using a reference text on the subject, so that a gamut of emotions could be displayed without too much trouble.

The purpose built elevated set stand was of a height that allowed Marisa to manipulate the puppets without bending. The downside of this was that she was standing all day but ‘comfy shoes’ made this tolerable. While the set stand legs were a constant, the set floors were varied depending on the set being used and all the walls were easily removable to allow different camera angles. By the use of dowels and angle clamps the whole structure was held rigid yet easily changeable from set to set.

6mm MDF was used for all panels in the set. This rather thin sheet was necessary especially for the floor, to allow magnets in the feet to be used to hold the puppets upright and unsupported during wide shots showing the puppets full length. (For closer shots, from the waist up, the puppets were supported by stands.) As a result the floor needed central support to stop it sagging and here a twist lock extendable pole was pressed into service.

Marisa readily acknowledges in the credits the assistance of a number of people in the production of ‘Tegan the Vegan’ and her family is well represented here. As for casting suitable people for the various voices, a grant from the ACT Government allowed Marisa to employ well known Australian actors to perform the roles. Charli Delaney, Noni Hazlehurst, Paul McDermott, Pippa Black and Belinda Barancewicz all respectively lent their voices to Tegan and her friends.

Because of the assistance of the stop motion community online, Marisa says that she felt she should ‘put something back’ and so has been meticulous in documenting her journey with the production of ‘Tegan the Vegan’. Much of this is to be seen on her website, www.eormedia.com.au where there are many still photographs of the puppets, sets, cast and crew as well as the trailer for ‘Tegan the Vegan’.

Remember this name – Marisa Martin. You will surely hear it again in the future.

By David Hague   Wed, May 04, 2011

Today I had the pleasure of interviewing Wayne Harley (“Harles”) of ABC 4 Corners about the program’s use of video technology, and camcorders specifically.

Until recently, “VJs” for 4 Corners (and that is “video journalists” not some music video oriented disk jockey) had been using Sony Z1 Handycams, however the time had come when it was time to upgrade and a long and thorough selection process decided on the new Canon XF 300 for a variety of reasons.

The interview was actually shot on a Canon XF 305 Auscam managed to get its hands on the day before with the help of Canon’s Anna Kalinowska. In the capable hands of long time video camera operator, Bill Adams (www.mylifestories.com.au) and with the kind assistance of the ABC and their Ultimo headquarters, we managed to get a couple of hours of interview time that ultimately ended up as 30 minutes of footage on a 32GB CF card.

This data will be edited using Sony Vegas, the first editor to accept the MXF format the Canon XF 300/305 produces, and placed on our site as well as Canon’s. The “words” will be transcribed for use in Auscam magazine at a later date.

While I don’t want to pre-empt what Hurles said about the Canon, from our point of view, even though we had a prototype to play with and shoot the interview, we found it a remarkable camera to get used to and operate.

A few niggles were there – the on / off switch and some back panel covers spring to mind – but apart from that, we had no issues whatsoever in setting the camera up with a set of Sennheiser radio mics on a Miller tripod. To help in lighting, the ABC supplied a small battery operated, camera mounted fluoro light.

In a previous article I mentioned the new Canon FX10 was a candidate for camcorder of the year, and a very strong one at that; the XF300/305 has, in our opinion, raised the bar for serious ENG work as performed by 4 Corners. Reportedly, the BBC has also standardised on the XF300/305 for similar work.

It seems that Canon is aggressively attacking this market, and it will be interesting to see how Sony, Panasonic and JVC react.

You can see the full video interview with Wayne Harley here shortly. Keep checking!

By David Hague   Tue, Apr 26, 2011

In addition to programming ShuttlePRO buttons for individual keyboard commands, buttons can also be programmed to cycle through a number of commands by creating a Macro. Macros allow you to perform multiple tasks with the click of a button!

Here’s how you do it...

Windows Users

1. Click on the Shuttle Icon in the Task Bar and select 'Open Control Panel'. In the 'Application Setting' field, select the setting you wish to alter. You can also create new settings by clicking on the 'Options' button and selecting 'Create New Settings'.

2. Make sure the button you're creating the macro for is selected under the 'User action' field. In the 'Computer response' field, select 'Macro'. Under the 'Macro' field that will appear, click the 'New' button. This will bring you to the 'Key Composer' tab where macros are created and edited.

3. Under ‘Macro selection', click the 'New' button and give your macro a name. If you wish, you can add a description under the 'Description' field. Under the 'Action sequence' field, select the 'New Group' button, enter the desired keystroke combination for the first action in the macro sequence, and then click 'OK'. Repeat for the desired number of actions in your macro. Click the 'Apply' button. Your new macro is complete!

Macintosh Users

1. Click on the Shuttle Icon in the Task Bar and select 'Shuttle Settings...'. In the 'Application Setting' field, select the desired setting, or choose 'Create New Settings...'

2. Make sure the button you're creating the macro for is selected under the 'User Action' field. In the 'Computer Response' field, select 'Run Macro'. Click the 'Key Composer' button to edit the macro.

3. Under ‘Macro selection', click the 'New' button and give your macro a name. If you wish, you can add a description under the 'Description' field. Under the 'Action sequence' field, select the 'New Group' button, enter the desired keystroke combination for the first action in the macro sequence, and then click 'OK'. Repeat for the desired number of actions in your macro. Close the 'Contour Key Composer' window and select your new macro under the 'Macro to Run' field. Your new macro is complete!

By David Hague   Tue, Apr 26, 2011

Sony has joined those in the tablet game with the announcement of a pair of units so far only revealed as S1 and S2.

 “Sony Tablet” is equipped with the latest Android 3.0 which is designed for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. Both tablets are WiFi and WAN (3G/4G) compatible and users can not only browse the internet or check e-mail but can also access digital content including videos, games and books through Sony’s premium network services and more, on-the-go at any time.

S1 has a 9.4-inch display for viewing the web and rich content on a large screen. Its off-centre of gravity design is said to ‘realize stability and ease of grip’ and to give a better sense of stability and lightness. To me at least, this will be a bonus as I personally find the iPad too heavy.

 S2 has two 5.5-inch displays that can be folded for easy portability. In contrast to existing tablets, its dual screen presentation and usability allows its displays to be combined and used as a large screen or for different functions such as playing video on one screen while showing control buttons on the other. Now this is a very neat idea and it will be interesting to see if the general public goes for this novel and frankly clever idea.

S1 and S2 (sorry I keep getting mental images of bananas), also leverage Sony’s investment in Qriocity which connects many of Sony’s network-enabled devices, and has been expanding its services into global markets. This places Sony mores squarely head-to-head against Apple with its iTunes. Since Apple is apparently having a squabble with developers over a 30% fee for subscriptions to certain apps, it will be interesting to see if Sony opens up Qriocity in the same way for Android developed apps.

There are no prices available as yet, but as soon as we know, we’ll pass it on. I have also asked Sony to try and get a review unit or two.

By David Hague   Wed, Apr 20, 2011

The very heart of Cinema 4D Studio is modelling. This is where you create the objects that make up all or part of your scene or animation. The key to understanding modelling is the use of primitives (parametric objects) and HyperNURBS – and no, someone new to 3D is NOT a nurbie!

A parametric is a simple geometric object such as a sphere, cube, cone or pyramid. When you are modelling using a parametric as a starting point, it can only be modified as a whole object, not by individual faces. This is somewhat limiting, so the parametric has to be converted to a polygonal object where all faces are “broken” into polygon shapes, but still connected. Each of the line segments making yup a polygon is called a “splines”, but note, these are just lines, there is no surface at this stage.

Splines are the most basic modelling unit in Cinema 4D; they can form the basis of an object at one end of the scale, or can they can be used to form the path of a camera at the other. To add a surface over a set of splines, Cinema 4D uses HyperNURBS.

Once a HyperNURB is added to a spline’s mesh (the mesh is the combination of all the lines making up a shape), it then has a surface with a much, much finer mesh now making that up. Better, for modelling purposes, if you select a single point on the mesh and drag it, all the other points will follow. Using other tools in Cinema 4D allows you to push, pull and otherwise deform this HyperNURBS mesh into the final shape of the model ()s)you want by selecting individual, combinations or whole faces of points.

To also assist in this, Cinema has a number of ‘viewports’ that let you examine  the model from all sorts of angles and even rotate, tilt, tip or otherwise move the model along and around the X, Y or Z axes.

Rather than attempt to start with a single parametric – the cube is the most used – to build one object, it is far better to break the object into much smaller pieces and then build each of these, adding them together just like building blocks. With the tools that Cinema 4D supplies, there is literally no limit to what can be achieved as some of the images blow show.

Materials

Once an object is created – or more often than not, during its creation – a material is added to it. This might be to mimic metal, wood, cloth and so on, and this, combined with lighting, is probably the key to fully understanding Cinema 4D and its power.

A material (and oodles are supplied or you could make your own as they are a simple bitmap) has a number of attributes available to add realism. These attributes are:

• Colour
• Diffusion
• Luminance
• Transparency
• Reflection
• Environment
• Fog
• Bump
• Normal
• Alpha
• Specular
• Glow
• Displacement

Using these attributes, I would defy anyone to come up with a material that cannot be mimicked from nature. And anyway if you really get stuck, there is a way out. I remember some years back in a Cinema Forum I frequented at the time someone asking for tips on making a material that resembled rusted out galvanised roofing tin – you know the ‘wavy’ type.

Creating the object was a snap, but all attempts at the material to ‘cover’ it had eluded him. Someone then gently reminded the picture was a simple bitmap, so why not find a piece of the rusted out roof and photograph it, then use a portion of the photo to make the bitmap.

While I find lighting and animation the most satisfying part of using Cinema 4D Studio, modelling is without question the most fun.