PharmerPhil

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Posts posted by PharmerPhil


  1. Great post, but a small clarification:

    Quote

    3. Progressive – DSLR’s do not do interlace, and films are definitely not interlaced.



    True, but neither is film progressive. Both names describe a process of acquiring a single frame over a period of time. True film, on the other hand, captures each single frame all at once. And progressive has it's own problems when capturing moving images.

    One other big distinction to me, although not as important for skydiving use, is the low-light capability of DSLRs versus small-sensor video cameras.

  2. If you use Safari browser on a Mac, use the "Window" pull down menu and select the "Activity" window. In this window you will see everything that is being downloaded for any given page. Look for the biggest file, and double-click it. The file will be downloaded to your "Downloads" folder.

  3. Quote

    Its not worth it unless you are trying to learn all the keyboard shortcuts to the product. Most people are mouse users so unless you are trying to edit via keyboard only the easier thing to do is to just print out the keyboard shortcuts and use that.



    I am not sure I disagree with what you are saying technically, but I disagree with the resignation to using primarily a mouse instead of keyboard shortcuts. I find that almost everything that I can learn to do with keyboard shortcuts is MUCH faster than anything I do with a mouse (and not only in video editing).

    I would argue that an editor who uses primarily his mouse is a slow editor. In Final Cut Pro (and I am sure most other NLEs as well) many tool selections are just a single keystroke away. Want to switch to the razor blade tool? "B." Slip? "S." Back to the selection tool? "A." Viewer window? "Command-1." Canvas? "Command-2." Timeline? "Command-3." etc., etc. All of which are much faster than performing the same things with a mouse. And what editor worth his salt doesn't use JKL (or "I" and "O" for that matter)?

    That being said, you are right that most people probably are primarily mouse users, but at their own loss of time and efficiency. And I have never personally used one of these NLE-specific keyboards (although I have been tempted, I am sure there are a lot more keyboard shortcuts and time savings I could learn). It certainly isn't necessary to use one of these keyboards to learn keyboard shortcuts. However, if an aspiring editor could spend $100 and greatly improve their editing speed, I would argue that is money well spent.

    My two sense...

  4. Here's how I did mine. I mounted the flash to a small CF sled that was compatible with my quick releases set-up so I could mount it a number of ways.

    And here was another question on this forum about this topic.

    You will need a off-camera shoe cord from Canon or others. There is a 1/4-20 screw hole on the bottom of the flash cord, and that is easy enough to adapt to a mount. Use a strap of some sort over the front of the flash to keep it secure. (And it is a good thing your front mounted camera is inverted because otherwise the shoe cord might show up on your video image.) The flash can be flattened to keep the height down and the weight lower. Just make sure you mount it so you can access the settings and the batteries (using a fill flash in daylight can eat up batteries). Also, when flattened, the flash defaults to a medium angle of coverage. You will need to over ride this to make sure you get flash coverage compatible with whatever lens you use. This is doable on the 580EX, not sure if you can do it on the 430EX.

  5. Quote

    Still, in which category would standard tandem video go to? Dozen crossfades, couple of titles, two audio tracks, one instance of program... Light?



    Audio shouldn't be a problem with anything that can handle decent video editing, but scrapping the cross-fades will speed things up. Use simple cuts instead. If you don't think they are "professional" enough, then watch what the major networks do when they edit. 90 percent of their transitions (or more) are simple cuts. (Although I'll admit NFL broadcasts are using some pretty creative transitions these days between plays.)

    Also, if you aren't delivering (or planning on delivering) your videos in HD, shooting and editing in SD should speed things up considerably and reduce the demands on your processor.

  6. Quote

    ...the best protective setup with easy access to the media card and camera features when filming students.



    Two conflicting requirements, and one unnecessary one IMHO. Best for camera access? No box at all. Best for cards access? Unfortunately any box. Sony never learned on tape-based cams how much of a PITA bottom loading was, and now they have carried that stupidity into their flash cam line. As far as "protection," I have never felt a box/cage/whatever is necessary on a top-mounted camera, and takes one of the big advantages of a modern cameras (i.e., small size) and compromises it severely.

    If it were I, I would go sans box and use USB for file transfer. Of course, your work-flow may require otherwise...

  7. I always carry my rig on in a carry-on roller-board suitcase, and carry my cameras and laptop in a bag that fits under the seat. Everything else is checked, including my actual camera helmet (sans cameras), which I put in a pelican case with weight belts, altimeter, tools, etc. If I had to choose one or the other to carry on board, I would carry the cameras and check the rig as it is harder to hurt a rig by dropping or smashing it around, and is less recognizable as a valuable, pocket-able, and pawn-able item. And you could always borrow a rig if you had to.

    I currently am using the LowePro Fastpack 250 which I love. It holds my laptop, cameras and lots more. Plus, for day to day, it holds my laptop, DSLR, flash, lenses, chargers and has a top section for lunch, hard drive, sweater, etc.

  8. The external, stand-alone burner is certainly the quickest, but if you want to go the computer route on the cheap, I believe some older DV cameras have analog pass-through to Firewire. And I'll bet someone at most DZs has an old one kicking around.

  9. I have read great reviews for this product, but all are pretty basic reviews, and I haven't seen real comparisons to it versus several different Mac computers doing it on their own (i.e., no hardware accelerator). I am guessing that the more powerful your machine is, the less of a benefit you will see (but I am not sure of this). I have both a Mac Pro with 2 x 2.8G Quad Xeons and a MacBook Pro with a 2.4 i5. But I can't seem to find info as to how much faster it might make either of these machines individually. Any hard-core, numbers-based review forthcoming?

  10. I don't use either, I use a blow switch. This has been hashed out in previous posts where everyone seems to recommend whatever they have jumped for years. I'm no exception. I like the blow switch because they hold up, and it is easier (for me) to simply compress some air in my mouth than to manipulate my tongue or teeth (also leaves you free to stick your tongue out at the subject).

    My blow switch has a couple thousand jumps on it without a problem. Everyone I know with the tongue or bite switches seems to have to replace them on a regular basis.

    The one down side of a blow switch is its size (and you have to do some very minimal wiring). It is far bulkier than the others, but it you have a Vapor or other flat top style helmet, there is plenty of room for it.

    Just my too sense...

  11. I always find it a little sad that people can put a lot of time and effort into putting together a camera helmet, but still can't take a simple static shot on the ground and get it in focus. Not picking on you alone, but I think it is an indication that the proliferation of better and cheaper cameras doesn't necessarily equate to better videos and pictures.

  12. Quote

    One thing that hasn't been mentioned here yet is that Carbon Fiber is extremely conductive....



    It is good advice to be careful, but I have never heard of someone actually messing up their electronics because of CF dust. Just a lot of "potential" damage so far. I do drill, cut and sand far from everything (and I use a downdraft sanding table) because it is messy as hell, but I no longer seal holes of even edges of CF. No problems yet...

  13. Quote

    Anyone else have this problem?



    Almost. But my drop was to a concrete floor, and my results were worse than yours. Either way I'd recommend not dropping them or not editing after the beer light is on...

  14. Quote

    The best solution?
    Don't make a freakin' wedding video THREE HOURS long.



    LOL! Got that right. Even Hollywood has a real hard time selling movies that are that long. Believe me, your friends and relatives won't sit through it with you (unless they are just being extremely polite).

  15. I use iPhoto to library my photos. I don't tag, but everything is by date, and my log book (for skydiving) and calendar can point me to any photo I need to retrieve. I don't use iPhoto for editing, but have it set up so double clicking a photo opens it in Photoshop. My photos are on a separate internal drive on my computer.

    I am tape based for video (or was until this week, and still will be for skydiving through this year) so I don't keep videos on my computer once I am done with a given project. My tapes are my archive*. While I am working on a given project I have an internal scratch disk and an external Raid array (for speed, not redundancy, I forget whether that it 1 or 0). Once I have captured the video for a longer project, I copy it to both drives just in case (capturing tape is very time consuming), and use the Raid for the video clips while working on it, and the internal for rendered files.

    I clone all drives for back up using Superduper by Shirt Pocket (Mac only I think). I love that if I have a drive fail I can simply swap it out and be up and running immediately. I have cloned drives both locally and remote. Local is cloned once a week unless I just imported bunch of stuff, and remote is cloned whenever I get around to swapping the drives (sneaker net). Cloned drives are connected using a Voyager raw hard drive dock connected with eSATA. The system is very fast, automated, and easy to swap out drives (although I wish I had gotten the Firewire dock, as SATA can't be hot-swapped negating some of the speed advantage). I also use Time Machine to back up my system drive (in addition to the clone) for frequent back-ups. But I don't really like it, and hope I never have to use it. Time Machine is a simple background back-up, but 'll bet it would be a nightmare to actually retrieve anything from Time Machine if your drive and system crashes.

    If all this back-up and redundancy sounds a bit much, it is actually simple once installed, and anyone who has lost valuable data can attest to what a nightmare it is if you don't have a good back-up plan.

    *BTW, I just got a Sony CF Memory Recording drive (HVR-MRC1) for my larger camera, and am dying to use it. But I still like the fact that I have an instant tape back-up. Tapes rock for archival purposes, and I will be sad when they go away unless I can replace them with something similarly cheap and robust. Hell I have old hard drives that I don't even have a way to connect to my computers anymore (SCSI).

  16. Quote

    maybe you could keep your lens cold by holding it out the door for part of the ride up.



    I have had quite the opposite experience. I find that when I keep my lens warm, it is less likely to fog on descent through warmer air. Warm air holds more moisture than cold air, and when air cools, it releases that moisture. That is why moisture often condenses on the already cold lens as it descends through warmer and warmer air.

    Think about a cold beer bottle taken out of the fridge on a hot day. The warm moist air cools when it reaches the cool bottle, and the moisture condenses on the cold surface of the bottle (the same way moist air, when it rises and cools, releases it's moisture in the form of rain I believe).

    I find if I can keep my lens warm, sometimes by positioning my helmet so the lens is in my crotch or hands, helps to reduces condensation.