These short clips are not intended to test all aspects of the cameras, of course. They are taken from a number of tests made with the cameras, and show some reasonable comparisons of quality.
Nikon D4 and Canon 5D MkIII video test clip
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Tag Archives: video
Master Photography Awards – merits video
You can now watch a low resolution, 33-minute video of the original HD1080p movie slide show produced from all the 550-plus merits awarded for the 2011 Master Photography Awards.
From these merits, the Awards of Excellence and the category winners, the International Master Photographer of the Year, the UK/European/World Portfolio winners, and the UK and Overseas Best Image of the Year have been chosen and will be unveiled at the awards dinner on Sunday October 9th.
The dinner takes place at the Hilton Newcastle-Gateshead hotel on the south bank of the Tyne. To attend the event, call MPA on (+44)(0)1325 356555 – dinner tickets are still available. There will be a Hasselblad Broncolor studio for hands-on demonstration during the day, and the awards will be shown as an exhibition of over 40 large display panels.
The music for the video is from the two CDs of royalty-free soundtrack for use by professional photographers in their own client presentations and DVD delivery, commissioned from an independent composer-producer and available from the MPA shop.
Nikon D3S video: dark, rain and wind 400mm f/2.8
As part of my tests of the Nikon D3S (British Journal, report in December, with additional material by Richard Kilpatrick who is shooting with Nikon on November 25th at a press event) I dragged the £6,000 400mm f/2.8 AF-S IF ED G supertele into the rain as darkness gradually forced the ISO up from a mere 10,000 to the maximum 102,400. The object was make a short video showing rising floodwaters, no threat in our town but still dramatic to watch.
Here’s how it came back from the hour in the rain, a quick wipe down with an oily rag and it was all as good as new. Actually, it needed a thorough drying with the towel then a clean up with a lint free microfibre cloth to remove dust and towelly stuff. The very deep lens shade kept the exposed front element totally dry despite the wind and rain; I just made sure it was never aiming into the wind.
During the shoot, wind noise was a major problem. I locked the microphone to level 2 manual gain, not automatic which would have been a disaster. Many clips had to be shortened, some discarded due to violent wind noise I could not mask. The sheer weight of this combo made lugging it with a decent Slik tripod (pan and tilt head for video) difficult; I drove to the evening location with the rig laid flat on the back seat of the car, but still had to walk several hundred yards for some shots. I wore a Tog24 parka and found that by pulling the fur-lined hood over the camera body I could cut out nearly all the wind noise. I must have looked like a view camera operator with a dark cloth, or something out of Monty Python with my jacket pulled up and the hood over the Nikon!
But, this seemed such a good solution to the wind noise I would consider unzipping the hood from the parka and using it as a baffle in finer weather.
My favourite part of the video is the one with the worst noise, where I was not able to keep the wind away from the direction of shooting – the sequence of the road (flooded by the morning) with headlights, tail lights and cars in rain. This consists of three takes blended with long crossfades. During each take, the manual focus of the 400mm used at near wide open f/3.2 aperture was pulled to bring the moving traffic in and out of focus, and create huge bokeh circles from the lights. This would be impossible with a camcorder and not all that easy with a conventional high-end video kit. The combination of full frame 35mm format and the fast 400mm has enabled a highly effective cinematic technique to succeed on the first time of trying. With some markers on the focus ring, some practice and many more takes the result could have been refined further.
But I was getting very wet and so was the camera!
The first part of the video is all on the 400mm with tripod, with High ISO video enabled. The ‘next morning’ stuff is on the 24-70mm, hand held, locked down to ISO 200 at f/8.
I’m not sure when our final review of the camera will appear in the British Journal, it should be early December.
The video is encoded to best quality 720p from iMovie09, and can be best be downloaded and viewed without any YouTube jerkiness at full res if your connection is not good.
– David Kilpatrick
Nikon D5000 short film with pull focus
Though autofocus is not possible with live video in any current true DSLR (the Panasonic GH1 promises this) it is possible to use pull-focus effects with a little planning. We now have a Nikon D5000 – it won the competition for best fine image detail when comparing results frame by frame with Canon’s nominally higher resolution rival. It was also a very good deal, £629 inc VAT with an 18-55mm VR kit lens and a SanDisk Ultra II 8GB SDHC card plus Crumpler Messenger Boy 2500 bag thrown in free (from Jacobs). You Tube sample –
Canon video firmware update for 5D MkII
Canon announced today it will release a firmware update for the EOS 5D Mark II allowing users to manually control exposure when shooting video. The new firmware will be available for download from 2 June 2009 on Canon Europe’s support web site.
Pentax K-7 – pinnacle of video?
PENTAX UK is pleased to announce the launch of the PENTAX K-7 lens-interchangeable digital SLR camera. The K-7 combines a variety of advanced functions and user-friendly features to ensure outstanding reliability and capability within a compact, lightweight body.
The K-7 joins the current PENTAX K digital SLR camera series as a high-end model in the range. True to its series concept, it has been designed to deliver outstanding image quality combined with ease of use, to benefit photo enthusiasts of all levels, including advanced amateurs. The K-7 also includes revised and upgraded features including viewfinder, shutter unit, continuous-shooting capacity, and exposure and autofocus systems.
Protected by a durable, high-quality metallic body, the K-7 is extremely compact and functional — as with all other K-series models — delivering enhanced portability and manoeuverability. The model includes several new user-friendly features, including video recording, high dynamic range (HDR), and automatic horizon correction. All of these features serve to deliver a highly effective photographic tool, perfect for all discerning digital SLR photographers.
Kelso Races – D5000 freehand with 70-300mm VR
The wind noise has made filming with the D5000 almost impossible for the last few days, because it has been very windy. Simple as that. So I devised a popshield or wind sock for the tiny microphone by cutting a piece of red nyloop fabric from a pad which once belonged in the bottom of a lens case. Then the 70-300mm lens arrived, so I tried this combination on a race when the light was reasonable and it was not raining.
Technically, it’s not a good idea to pan with action when holding a lens of this size at arms’ length in order to see the framing on a rear screen. However, I had already experimented with a monopod and found that didn’t work – my pans tended to skew the horizon too easily – and for this clip, I did not want to use a tripod. I wanted to see what the VR did, and how well it worked with a fixed focus set on the fence before starting.
– DK
Nikon D5000 HD video – May Day evening
True to promise, the Nikon D5000 did become available on May 1st in the UK, and my review camera turned up mid-day in time to be photographed and have its battery charged. Taking it out on my walk to the post (regrettably, to send in large sums of VAT and tax…) the sun came out though it was a very cold and windy day. With the sun, the breeze dropped to a reasonable level and on the way back I was struck by the motion of the trees, leaves and flowers.
Canon EOS 500D video test
The clip originally shown here has been replaced by an edited selection, shot in a mixture of 1080 and 720 modes, assembled using iMovie and written as a 720p final project for YouTube. Don’t mean to cause confusion, some visitors may have linked to this post already, and I do not want to add another post. Please feel free to link directly to the YouTube vid or to this page.
AdobeTV tutorials now on-line
Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced Adobe TV, a free online video resource for expert instruction and inspiration about Adobe products, including the company’s Creative Suite 3 family of world-class creative tools. With multiple channels, original series programming, and content from Adobe, leading training organisations and the world’s leading subject matter experts, Adobe TV delivers a virtual library of entertaining and instructional videos. Designers, photographers, video professionals, and developers will find product deep-dives, innovative tips, techniques from luminaries, and behind-the-scenes tours of the hottest creative shops and Adobe product teams.
Designed to educate, inspire, and entertain the creative community, Adobe TV is immediately available online from the Adobe Web site at http://tv.adobe.com. “Adobe TV is the online video source for anyone with wants to see how Adobe tools are being used to create stunning work,” said Bob Donlon, executive producer for Adobe TV. “It brings together experts from Adobe and the creative community to inspire and teach how to get the most from the software that is empowering the delivery of high-impact print, online, video and mobile communications. It’s also the perfect showcase for Adobe’s broadcast video technologies in action.”
Videos on http://tv.adobe.com can be sorted by Most Recent, Most Popular and Top Rated to see what others in the community are watching. Additionally, viewers can easily share their favourite programs with others by posting them to their blogs or Web sites, or e-mailing links to friends. Adobe TV videos come with lightweight links that make it easy to spread the word about interesting content.
Rich Library of Video Content
Adobe TV features four channels, each targeting a specific audience: Photographers, Designers, Video Professionals, and Developers. Each channel features programming from Adobe evangelists, leading trainers, subject matter experts, and luminaries who pull in the crowds at industry events around the world. More than 200 videos are currently available on Adobe TV, with programming that mixes how-to information, case studies, personality-driven shows, and workflow deep-dives. The first set of videos offers secrets about Photoshop software, podcasts and design tips for Creative Suite, techniques for Photoshop Lightroom, tips on Adobe Flash Professional software for beginners, approaches to taming the Web, and information about video and audio production.
“The creative community instinctively turns to the Web as a primary resource for tutorials and information on how to use Adobe products, but before now this content was scattered and difficult to find,” said Joseph Princz, CEO of the interactive agency, Wrecking Ball Media Group. “Adobe TV makes it easier than ever to search for and subscribe to Adobe video content that not only inspires new creative ideas, but also helps us to refine our skill sets and dive further into the essential tools our business depends on every day.”
Creating and Delivering a Complete Online Video Experience
Adobe TV demonstrates the power of Adobe’s leading video technologies from creation to playback. Using components of Adobe Creative Suite 3, Adobe TV programming is scripted and storyboarded, and the graphics and imagery are developed. During production, Adobe OnLocation software monitors quality and records directly to disk. Visual effects are produced in Adobe After Effects software, the audio is cleaned up or created in Adobe Audition software and Adobe Soundbooth software, and then the programming is edited and output from Adobe Premiere Pro. Adobe’s Emmy-award-wining Flash technology, the most widely used platform for delivering interactive experiences online today, and Adobe Flash Media Server then package and deliver Adobe TV.