NAB 2011 was all a-flurry when Apple announced it was finally releasing a new updated version of it’s Final Cut Pro editing software program, and the flurry hit a fervor when they announced it was going to be a completely new rewrite. In fact, there was little left but standing room at the Final Cut Pro User Group’s Supermeet in April when Apple’s VP Randy Ubilos and Peter Steinhauer hit the stage.
Now, the excitement is back again with the announcement of Final Cut Pro X’s availability in the App Store today. If you’ve also used Apple’s motion graphic editor, Motion or Compressor in the past, they have new versions also available in the App Store for only $50 each. However the big news is that for only $300, you can digitally download Apple’s new program to see if all of the new features have been worth the wait.
Speaking of features, Apple’s got a laundry list of new one for their latest release. The new Final Cut Pro uses a “magnetic timeline” to allow editors to move clips around without losing audio or video tracks due to overlapping. It also has the ability to correct footage as it’s ingested for audio, color, and motion issues – features that were once part of different applications within the Final Cut Studio suite.
Final Cut Pro’s interface has also been majorly overhauled with only three real windows left: a preview area, a new media browser, and an editing timeline. In a way, this new “upgrade” makes the program feel a bit more like After Effects or iMovie than what people have come to expect from Final Cut Pro.
Apple has also added the ability to edit footage even before it’s been transferred and can categorize your footage based on people’s faces and what type of shot it is. A handy tool for sure. You can also assign all kinds of metadata and keywords to your footage in order to be able to find areas of your footage quickly and easily. Apple also included the ability to “audition” clips with different effects before applying them and claims to have more presets than ever before for their effect library. Lastly, there is now an option to group together audio, video, and transitions into single clips called a “Compound Clip.” This is very similar to nesting but allows for easier access to the elements inside of the group for easy tweaking.
One of the most applauded features of Apple’s presentation back in April was the ability for Final Cut Pro X to utilize the full power of Grand Central Dispatch and the 64 bit architecture. This means that Final Cut Pro X can render everything in the background all while utilizing multiple cores of power – something that no editing application does incredibly efficiently.
Though there are a lot of great new features to Final Cut Pro’s upgrade, there have been a few noticeable features that many users have already found to be missing. One of the biggest is the lack of support for projects from previous versions and the inability to import XML or EDL. Also, Apple got rid of support for tape based ingestion and export, making it difficult to use for the many editors that still need to use tape in their workflow. Lastly, Final Cut Pro has also lost the multicam feature that many live event videographers used to make editing a large amount of clips a little simpler.
Videomaker awarded Final Cut Pro X our “Best of NAB” award for editing software at this year’s National Association of Broadcasters tradeshow in Las Vegas. With its low price, faster renders, and complete redesign, Apple was a clear favorite in this field.
Of course, with all of these new features, almost every editor will want to find out if the software is worth the wait. Actually, we’ve been wondering the same thing ourselves. Thankfully, Videomaker reviewer Ben Balser has an advance copy of FCP X and is working on a review of the program for Videomaker as we we speak. Watch for that review coming soon to see if the new Final Cut Pro will be a game changer for Apple or simply game over.
Just announced from the NAB show floor, the Matthews Studio Equipment Inc. DC-Slider. A unique, precision, counter-balanced, multi-function, variable-angled camera platform that can create far more than a smooth horizontal camera movement. One platform will take any camera up to 22-pounds on an exciting ride across, up and down, over and, everywhere else – to get that perfect shot.
Mount the DC-Slider on a single tripod or placed on level or uneven surfaces. The constant counter balance feature will always maintain a uniform pressure for smooth camera movement throughout the full tracking length of 63-inches (160cm).
Combine the slider with the mini-jib function and the DC-Slider now captures a wide range of vertical images. No matter how acute the angle, the counter balance system will keep the camera steady and stable. The positive locking adjustment allows for camera placement at exact vertical or off-axis positioning.
Remove and reposition two handles and DC-Slider becomes a tower allowing for an exact vertical camera move through the full range of the 63-inches (160cm). The counter balance system maintains a steady resistance to camera moves allowing for unprecedented smoothness from start to finish. Read the rest of this entry »
Well, it’s NAB season and bigger sensors, better sound quality, and cheaper prices are once again all the rave. This is the time of year where companies can announce their cool new gear that they’ve been working feverishly on around the world. To reward companies for their great achievements and to help you separate the spectacular from the mundane, Videomaker will be handing out their first Best of NAB awards next week at the show in Las Vegas. Here is our list of categories:
Best Computer
Best Camcorder
Best HDSLR
Best Lighting Gear
Best Microphone
Best Monitor
Best Software
Best Tripod or Camera Support
Most Innovative
Best of Show
As you can see, we’ll be giving out awards for everything from hard drives to camcorders so stay tuned to check out our blogs and see which companies are doing the moving and the shaking this year!
Just about everyone loves watching movies. With both the clarity of sound and the resolution of the screen, theaters can uniquely make you feel more a part of the film than your television at home ever could. That was, until now. Even during all the hype of 3D, television manufacturers the likes of Sony, Sharp, Panasonic, and Samsung have been quietly releasing televisions with the same resolution of major Hollywood films. That means watching both television and movies at 4K resolution right from the comfort of your own home. Panasonic even went as far as releasing a 150 inch plasma screen at 4K resolution at CES in an effort to beat the competition in the 4K market. Having been to CES, I was able to actually see this screen with my own eyes. As a result, I can say that I feel confident that 4K is the future of television.
Unlike most televisions, when watching in 4096×2150 resolution, one can actually see more details in the picture as you get nearer to the screen. When watching a 4K television at NAB, to my amazement when I got closer to the Kung Fu movie on the screen, I was able to count the amount of noodles in the chow mein that a monk was eating way in the background giving the picture a breathtaking amount of realism. With experiences like this, it would seem that giving TVs higher resolution makes a picture more realistic than even putting it in 3D, with today’s technology. Of course, this would also make cinematographers and filmmakers happy as they could finally display their masterpieces in homes at the full resolution it was originally shot. With these kinds of benefits it is clear that television manufacturers see 4K as the next step in the future of the television market. As evidence, a company spokesperson for Sharp, talking about their 4K TV said, “We developed this LCD panel focusing on the upcoming ‘super HDTV’ generation. That is pretty exciting and with the constant improvements in video resolution and computer speeds, it seems like only a matter of time before you’ll be able to count the laces on a baseball thrown in a game broadcast in 4K HD.
The NAB Show (National Association of Broadcasters) wrapped up a few weeks ago, with an announced attendance of 88,044, up from 82,650 in 2009, and including 23,000 international attendees from 156 countries. Major themes at the show included momentum behind Mobile DTV, production equipment and tools for 3D TV, and broader support in editing tools for new HD camera formats.
Mobile Digital DV
Live broadcast TV is coming is coming to portable devices, via your local broadcast stations. As described by the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC), TV stations can simultaneously deliver the primary HD channel and multiple additional digital multicast channels to homes, plus now multiple mobile digital television channels to “on the go” viewers.
Mobile DTV products demoed at NAB showed the range of possibilities for adding TV broadcast reception to mobile devices, including:
a demo version of the Samsung Moment mobile phone, built on Google Android.
Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Entertainment prototype netbooks with HD display.
Portable DVD Players from LG Electronics.
Tivizen Mobile DTV receivers from Valups, which receive over-the-air Mobile DTV and beam it via Wi-Fi for reception on products like the iPad, iPhone, and laptops.
3D TV
3D Cameras from companies including Sony and Panasonic provide the equipment needed to produce content for all those 3D TVs announced at CES. The conference sessions also included fascinating discussions by broadcasters on early experiences shooting major events in 3D.
The Sony 3D Production System covers from cameras to recorders and processors, to monitors and projectors.
Amazingly, you can edit 3D video today, even in your favorite editor. For example:
Sony lists several third-party add-ins for Vegas Pro – CineForm Neo 3D, Medtron Make3D, and Pantarheon Bororo 3D.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 is already tightly integrated with CineForm (also available for Final Cut Pro).
Sony has released a whitepaper on Editing Stereoscopic 3D in Vegas Pro 9, showing how to edit 3D directly in Vegas Pro using synchronized tracks.
Video Editing Tools
NAB also saw updates to popular professional video editing tools.
Adobe Creative Suite 5 updates some 14 core applications, with major performance enhancements from 64-bit processing and GPU acceleration, especially in Premiere Pro and After Effects, at $2599 for the Master Collection.
TheSony Vegas Pro 9.0d update adds new closed captioning and PSD layer support, enhanced import support for memory and disk cameras, and numerous fixes and enhancements.
Avid Media Composer v5 features expanded format support through Avid Media Access (AMA), including direct editing of RED R3D and QuickTime video formats, plus mouse-based editing through drag and drop in the timeline.
Autodesk has brought its high-end Smoke software to the Mac for finishing work beyond Final Cut Pro — plus applications including editorial, color correction, paint, cleanup, titling, and 3D compositing — all in a single tool, for $14,995.
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Doug Dixon is an independent technology consultant, editor, author, and speaker specializing in digital media.
Loosely explained, 3D technology tricks the mind into thinking it is seeing a three dimensional image by setting objects closer to one camera lens for one eye, and farther away to another camera lens for the other eye, then melding the two images together.
In a perfect world with the right visual conditions, and eyesight that can quickly change between this dual-camera trickery, you get that 3D feeling. But, unfortunately, there are too many situations where it won’t work quite right for some eyes, or the glasses, lighting, or other environmental conditions in a home rather than in a theater setting won’t allow the user to see the screen as well.
Remember when you were a kid and you played that blinking game where you blinked quickly between the left and the right eye to make objects appear to move? This is sort of how 3D imaging works and for some people, that imaging makes them sick.
According to a recent CNET report, some people watching 3D imagery suffer from side effects such as dizziness, headache and fatigue in lesser situations, and seizures in more serious situations. This, according to the report, is due in part to the fact that our eyes aren’t designed for that blink-closeup, blink-wideshot, blink-closeup, blink wideshot movement. It’s not natural.
Due to their beautifully captured footage and high quality lenses, DSLRs have seriously captured the hearts of filmmakers the world over. In fact, if you were at NAB this year then you no doubt know that this was the year of 3D and the video DSLR. Everywhere we looked while running to and fro on the show floor there was at least one person holding a shiny new DSLR camera. Even Videomaker this year decided that in order to get the best quality possible for our readers, that we would use our Canon 1D Mark IV to capture interviews. So when we spotted the kind people from Cinema 5D with a sleek looking DSLR rig, we decided to figure out just exactly what equipment they had and why they went the the DSLR themselves. Ironically, they were using the cousin to our camera, with their Canon 5D camera mounted on a Redrock Micro DSLR cinema bundle shoulder mount, a LitePanel Micro, and a Sennheiser shotgun microphone. It’s seriously enough to make your mouth water. Even though we didn’t have a nice Sennheiser microphone and a shoulder mount, our interview with Cinema 5D’s News Director Jared Abrams still ended up looking beautiful. Check out their rig in it’s full glory in the video after the break!
Litepanels brings the Fresnel into the 21st century with the new Sola series. Offering beam control of 70° to 10°, the revolutionary new daylight-balanced Solas provide the controllability and single-shadow properties inherent in a Fresnel light, but utilize just a fraction of the power of conventional fixtures.
Like all Litepanels, Sola Fresnels feature instant dimming from 100% to %0 with no noticeable color shift. The SolaENG provides manual focus and dimming control via camera lens style ergonomic controls. The Sola6 and Sola12 provide on-fixture motorized control of focus and local dimming via a convenient touch screen, and are also remote-controllable via their integrated DMX interface. Output is fully flicker free, and remains consistent even as the battery voltage goes down.
Employing Litepanels’ ultra-efficient LEDs, Solas draw 90% less power than conventional tungsten lights, with very little heat generation. Additionally, Litepanels’ cool-to-the-touch lighting systems substantially cut down on air conditioning requirements in studio applications. Importantly, the Solas weigh only 1/3 as much as their HMI predecessors with no external ballasts. The fixtures have a universal AC input and can be used on any 85-245 watt power worldwide.
Litepanels Solas are available in three models. The Sola6 draws 75 watts yet produces output equivalent to a 650W tungsten unit, and weighs 6 lbs. (2.7kg). The Sola12 draws just 250 watts yet produces output equivalent to a 2000W tungsten and weighs only 14 lbs. (6.4kg). Designed for both on-camera and off-camera mounting, the SolaENG is only 4” x 4” x 5” (102mm x 102mm x 127mm) and weighs just 10 ounces (.28kg). Employing a 3” (7.62cm) lens, it draws 30 watts yet produces output equivalent to a 250W tungsten. The SolaENG runs on 10-20VDCsources such as camera batteries, or via an AC power adapter.
Manfrotto unveiled the 504HD today at NAB. One of the most innovative fluid video heads ever introduced by Manfrotto, the new 504HD incorporates a full-range of new state-of-the-art features and industry-leading versatility in a chassis boasting the company’s hallmark Italian style and design.
The 504HD is the first in a series of video fluid tripod heads that will feature Manfrotto’s revolutionary Bridging Technology. A unique design which adds style and enhances performance, the bridge design improves rigidity as well as reduces the overall weight of the head. Additionally, the bridge design protects the ergonomically improved, PAN friction control dial from knocks.
All structural components of the new 504HD are made from aluminum, with the PAN axis rotation unit using ball bearings to obtain smooth, totally vibration-free controlled movements that can be adjusted using the head’s Fluid Drag System (FDS) variable friction system. FDS, available on both the PAN and TILT axes, ensures consistency and precision at all temperatures, with all types of equipment and under all loads.
The new 504HD has been designed to offer a load capacity of up to 16.3 pounds, making it suitable for a wide range of camera equipment. Additionally, the redesigned CBS counterbalance system offers four presets to accommodate a number of camera weights, including 0, 2.5kg-5.5lb, 5kg-11lb and 7.5kg-16.3lb. Levelling the head is also easy thanks to the 75mm diameter half ball and the back-lit bubble level.
Further adding to the versatility of the Manfrotto 504HD are two 3/8 inch threads which have been integrated into the top plate to allow accessories, such as monitors and arms, to be directly and securely attached to the head. Attaching theses accessories directly to the head helps cut down set-up time, keeps the camera hot shoe free and does away with have to use a clamp.
The 504HD will be paired with the 546B and 546GB, two new tripod systems which are also being introduced at NAB 2010. These two systems will offer amazing value, delivering professional performance at an unbeatable price. The 546B and 546GB feature 75mm half balls and newly designed spreaders. The new 504HD is also suitable for the Manfrotto PRO series of video tripods with mid-level or ground spreaders and for the Manfrotto 536K and 535K MPRO carbon fiber, single leg tripods.
Kata today introduced its new Air Bag System (ABS) at NAB. The perfect protective carrying solution for the globe trotting videographer or cameraman, the Kata ABS is an inflatable case designed to never weigh down the on-the-go shooter.
The Kata ABS is stored folded in a compact carrying pouch and can be inflated in roughly one minute to provide adequate protection for stowing one’s camera in the overhead compartment of an airplane. The Kata ABS will come in two sizes, including the ABS-HD ($165.00) and ABS-HDV ($110.00).
NAB 2011 was all a-flurry when Apple announced it was finally releasing a new updated version of it’s Final Cut Pro editing software program, and the flurry hit a fervor when they announced it was going to be a completely new rewrite. In fact, there was little left but standing room at the Final Cut Pro User Group’s Supermeet in April when Apple’s VP Randy Ubilos and Peter Steinhauer hit the stage.
Due to their beautifully captured footage and high quality lenses, DSLRs have seriously captured the hearts of filmmakers the world over. In fact, if you were at NAB this year then you no doubt know that this was the year of 3D and the video DSLR. Everywhere we looked while running to and fro on the show floor there was at least one person holding a shiny new DSLR camera. Even Videomaker this year decided that in order to get the best quality possible for our readers, that we would use our Canon 1D Mark IV to capture interviews. So when we spotted the kind people from 
Litepanels
Manfrotto
Kata
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