Well, this comes at no surprise. Google just announced that it will be shutting down it’s completely forgotten Google Video service as of April 29th.
Going back in time, Google Video was the search giant’s answer to YouTube back in 2005 when the video hosting market was still seemed up for grabs. Not long after that (and with a majority of videos still on YouTube), Google decided to raise the white flag and simply buy the video hosting site for $1.6 billion instead. Since then, the service has been slowly going the way of the dinosaurs. In fact, users haven’t even been able to upload videos to the site since May 2009, but existing videos kept the service barely alive until now.
Google has suggested that its users move their videos over to YouTube if they haven’t done so already. Otherwise those videos will suffer the same fate as the search giant’s video site and be gone forever.
CES is now almost two weeks away but with this year’s big announcements about affordable 3D cameras and tablets, it still feels as relevant as ever. One camera that seemed to be under almost everyone’s radar but had some very promising abilities was Casio’s EX-ZR100. This camera, is able to shoot at 30fps in Full HD mode, 240fps in 432×320, 480fps in 224×160, and 100fps in 224×64 as well as shooting stills up to 12 MP. The exciting thing about this camera is not just that it can shoot at 1000fps, but that this ability exists at all for cheap cameras. Yes, the 224×64 resolution is probably too small to use on screen, but with faster processors constantly coming off the line, it can only be a matter of time before we see it in full HD resolution as well. This is why we went to check out Casio’s newest offering at CES to see if it lived up to its hype. Check out the video below to see if for yourself! The camera is available for $299.
Getting video off the beaten trail is certainly easier with the ContourGPS, but being able to compose a shot to include what you want is invaluable. Think of how often you use the LCD screen on a camcorder or DSLR – translate that onto your mobile and you have yet another use for the biggest screen you can find on a touch phone.
The combination of built-in Bluetooth and the mobile app, reveal a viewfinder in one piece of equipment that should already be on your pre-shoot checklist. Shot composition is versatile with the multi-mount camera, which also has a rotating lens and lasers for built in guides, but when that’s not enough, your iPhone or Android can act as the viewfinder. Composing shots with your helmet may not seem appealing, but after attaching the camera to something like a vehicle, a multitude of inspiration can be found. One more perk is after imported to your computer the GPS function will provide a map when editing with Final Cut Pro or iMovie.
The Videomaker staff has landed in Vegas and is sharing the showroom floor with some of the latest electronic gadgets from top companies around the world!
Innovative and updated technologies will be brought to you, fresh from the showroom floor and you don’t want to miss out on any of the news. So subscribe to our blog updates on all of the latest news for the next three days and join us for some exciting new products to kick off 2011.
CyberLink has released the latest version of its award-winning video editing software, PowerDirector 9. Designed with high usability for consumers and powerful, pro-like features for prosumers, PowerDirector 9 unleashes users’ full creative potential with performance-driven technologies including CyberLink’s new TrueVelocity Engine.
PowerDirector 9 is designed to make the editing process not only easier, but also faster. TrueVelocity editing technologies take advantage of native 64-bit OS support and leading CPU/GPU components to significantly reduce video processing time, while powerful, high quality tools such as the new unified keyframe control and a greatly improved timeline editor allow users to create even the most demanding and complex video productions. You can check out a free trial download available on the Cyberlink Website. MSRP:$100
Videomaker’s Webinar Training series continues next week with an all new topic: The Art of Title and Graphics. Our live webinars are taught by our experts and feature a wide spectrum of video production and post production topics such as Green Screen and Special Effects, Advanced Editing, Advanced Shooting, and Documentary Production. Next week, Videomaker’s team is pleased to present The Art of Title and Graphics.
Great titles and graphics can add a professional element to your video production. However, if not done properly they can be the tell-tale sign of an amateur.Videomaker’s The Art of Titles and Graphics webinar will cover purpose, design and placement, as well as mistakes to avoid. You will learn how to create great-looking titles and graphics that are clean and professional.
In addition to valuable information, our The Art of Title and Graphics Webinar will also include a live Q&A segment; our team answering your questions. Next week’s The Art of Title and Graphics Webinar starts at 11:00am on Wednesday, September 15th, so be sure to sign up soon!
Well, this was a long time coming. Apparently, Canon brought out a 4K 8 megapixel camera at their 2010 Expo for shooters all around the world to drool over. While the body may look like an oversized hair dryer, it’s what’s on the inside that will make Canon blow you away. The camera can shoot in 60p at a full 4K resolution, a 2/3rds inch CMOS sensor, and a fully functional flip-out HD LCD. Unfortunately, this is just a concept camera and Canon has said that they have no intention of bringing it to market so those of you who already started to count the remaining savings in your bank account, can safely deposit your money away. I can’t say for sure why Canon would ever dangle the 4K carrot in front of us without a solid release date, but they are definitely not the first to do so (read: RED cameras). All of the ranting aside, the camera is actually not meant for video capture (as if anyone really believes that) but instead is a “multipurpose image capture device.” This means that one is supposed to use the device like a camera that is constantly taking photos giving users a ton of potential pictures to choose from when it comes time to edit. Capturing photos this way sounds mildly innovative but one still can’t help but think that the camera would just do better as an incredibly high resolution camcorder. Nonetheless, this camera at least marks Canon as an intentional competitor in the emerging 4K camcorder market while at the same time proving that 4K is the next big revolution to hit video. I have no doubt that we’ll be seeing more of these kinds of cameras soon so keep a keen eye out on the market.
Imagine you’re in a restaurant and you knock over a full glass of water. To stop the spilled water from landing in your lap you put a napkin barrier around the spill and prevent any further encroachment. This is similar to the way light spill works. You turn your light on, the light spills forward and, if you don’t block certain areas off, you’re going to get light in places you don’t want it.
There are many reasons you might choose to control the spill. Perhaps the spill is interfering with another light source, or maybe you want to strategically place a dramatic shadow that will conceal an area of your scene. Whatever the reason, learning the ways in which you can control light spill will allow you to light your scene more effectively.
You can control light spill in a number of ways while creating either hard edge or soft edge lighting. For example, a barndoor is an accessory that mounts onto the front of a light and is characterized by its adjustable hinged doors. Barndoors physically mask the light from reaching areas that don’t require it, while creating a hard edge where the light and the shadow meet. Other ways to control your spill include using diffusion screens, flags and lights equipped with Fresnel lenses.
Experimenting with different light controls, and the learning the techniques involved with each one, will allow you to successfully mask light spill during your next shoot. Eliminating unwanted spills will increase the effectiveness of your lighting setup while improving the look of your video.
For more information about spill control and techniques whether you’re indoors or outside, check out Light Source: Mop Up That Spill!
In the ever increasingly complex world of company buyouts, Snapfish announced on Monday their purchase of Motionbox, a video platform for families and friends to share their memories online. To make things even more complex, this actually comes shortly after Motionb0x acquired the highly successful personal video blogging service Viddyou in October. While this may seem like a bold move for Snapfish, which deals mostly in printing and sharing photographs, it is upon closer inspection, a natural evolution for the company (which was bought out by computer giant HP in 2005). What Snapfish has realized is that even though photos are important ways to store and share memories, it’s no secret that with the dwindling cost of high end cameras and a veritable bevy of software to edit them with, that people have begun to turn to video as their main way of sharing memories with loved ones. At the same time, not everyone wants that video to be seen by thousands of complete strangers on sites like YouTube and Facebook, which is one of the biggest reasons for Motionbox’s existence. This same idea also held a lot of promise as an upgrade to Snapfish’s service, so HP naturally decided to join the fray by buying the already developed technology of Motionbox.
As for the site itself, HP says the “current Motionbox site” will remain open until August 10, after which the service will be moved over to Snapfish.com. Unfortunately this means that for users of Motionbox, their videos will need to be downloaded from the site before it moves over to Snapfish. Thankfully, for this trouble, Snapfish is giving Motionbox Premium members a free year of Snapfish’s video service.
For what seemed like ages, wireless technology was either considered too slow or obtrusive for regular use in video workflows. Instead, users were forced to use USB cables, FireWire cables, and recently, to plug their media straight into the computer. While transfer technology has definitely improved over the years with FireWire 800 and USB 2.0, there is still a sense of somehow being chained down to the computer. I mean who wouldn’t want to skip an entire step in their video workflow? Enter Eye-Fi and Toshiba. When Eye-Fi introduced their wireless SD card technology back in 2007, they showed every SD card manufacturer that there was a real demand for wireless storage devices. So with Toshiba’s announcement to put together a standard for wireless SDHC memory cards, it finally seems as if the wireless data age has definitely arrived for both stills and video.
Getting rid of the cables would be great, but in order to be a complete wireless storage solution, Toshiba will have to agree on not only a standard for SD cards (which work on AVCHD camcorders), but also a standard for CF cards (which work on DSLRs). The only real solution to this problem right now is to use a wireless SD card set inside of a CF card adapter. However, if companies can fit a wireless adapter into something as small as an SD card, can you honestly tell me that they can’t also fit one into the much larger form factor of a CF card? It seems like only a matter of time.
At the same time, if you’ve ever hauled around both a monitor and a camera at a run n’ gun shoot for a client, you know just how much of a hassle cables can be. They can get in the way of your controls, trip up both the operator and the client, and drag equipment precisely when you don’t want it to. That is why having an affordable real time wireless video transfer system would be the icing on the wireless cake for video enthusiasts. There are already wireless video transmission solutions for some camcorders, but unless you have a serious amount of cash just lying around and a really expensive camera, they are usually impossible to get. That’s why it would be a huge game changer if companies like Eye-Fi or Toshiba could make wireless storage cards that could monitor video. Maybe with the addition of Toshiba to the wireless storage market, we’ll start seeing these kinds of cards soon. Either way, it’s about time that other manufacturers joined the wireless media revolution. With the advances that result, we may finally be able to put away our cables for good.
Well, this comes at no surprise. Google just announced that it will be shutting down it’s completely forgotten Google Video service as of April 29th.
The Videomaker staff has landed in Vegas and is sharing the showroom floor with some of the latest electronic gadgets from top companies around the world!
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