Auscam Issue #43

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The Video Magazine for Broadcast, Film, Professional, Enthusiast and Beginner

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Feature: IFISH with Tackleworld! Interview: Anita Jacoby and Gruen Transfer Reviews: Sony, Panasonic, Nikon

Run and Gun Camcorders Accessories: Wireless Azden WD Sentinel

5VUPSJBM 4UBCJMJTF 7JEFP 4IFSMPDL )PMNFT FÄšFDUT write | light | shoot | edit | distribute


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the video camera redeďŹ ned Beautifully defocused backgrounds and the option to select different lenses for different shots are powerful creative tools that cinematographers have long used for maximum visual impact. The NEX-VG20 makes those tools more accessible and easier to use than ever before, while offering a number of video-specific innovations for all-new expressive potential. Sound plays an essential role in cinematographic storytelling as well, so the NEX-VG20 is equipped with a powerful Quad Capsule Spatial Array microphone providing advanced stereo and surround recording capabilities that match its outstanding imagery. For full product speciďŹ cations and pricing visit v

Interchangeable Lens Video Camera


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Insider/ Insider/ Hardware/

From the Editor ____________________________________________________ 2 Buddy’s bits & pieces _______________________________________________ 4 Sony NEX VG20 ___________________________________________________ 6

Sony HDR-PJ760 Hardware/ Software/ Feature/

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Azden WLX-Pro ___________________________________________________21 Panasonic HC-X900M _____________________________________________22 Adobe Touch Apps _______________________________________________24 Lenovo Edge E430 ________________________________________________26 Casio Exilim EX-ZR200 ____________________________________________27 Nikon D800 ______________________________________________________28 Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 ____________________________________29

Airshows Pro/ Hardware/ Pro/ Hardware/ Software/ Feature/ Hardware/ It’s a Wrap/

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ENG camcorder shootout __________________________________________10 Edius 6 __________________________________________________________14 Grey marketing. Good or bad? _____________________________________17

IFISH with Tackleworld Hardware/ Hardware/ Pro/ Hardware/ Hardware/ Pro/ Hardware/

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30 Creativity unplugged _______________________________________________34 Bits and pieces ___________________________________________________36 Creating “Sherlock Holmes” text _____________________________________37 Sony NEX-FS700/K _______________________________________________38 ProDAD Mercalli Easy Stabiliser _____________________________________40 Interview: Anita Jacoby ____________________________________________41 Tamron 18~200mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III VC E-Mount Lens ___________________42 What’s wrong with this picture? _____________________________________44

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n the Gold Coast recently, News Ltd top banana Kim Williams labelled a section of Australians as “copyright kleptomaniacs” and the downloading of material off the web via BitTorrent such as movies and TV shows as “scumbag theft”. Strong terms Mr Williams, and in the main I agree. But the media itself has to take some responsibility for people doing this in my opinion. Let me digress for a moment. Today, Channel 10 axed some dancing show that nobody watched, we are stuck with yet another Big Brother, cooking shows abound as is X Y and Z Factor so it is not surprising that people are switching to other material delivered by other means. “These persistent downloaders are far less likely than others to purchase DVDs, download pay-per-view programming, buy content from iTunes or even go to the movies,” Williams is reported by ABC News as saying, but to this I say claptrap, and I have history on my side and experience to back this up. In a different life and in a different decade I was the PR manager for CBS Records, now part of Sony Music. Think the era of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, the start of Dire Straits and so on. In those days (pre CD), the rumbling and grumbling on copyright was all about people copying records to blank cassette tape (look it up kiddies or should that be ‘kiddyz’) to be able to play their music in the car. Of course the rumbling and grumbling was for the masses and the press to see, because behind the scenes, we were secretly rubbing our hands with glee KNOWING that the majority of people who did this almost always bought the real cassette from the record store in the end. The copying of VHS cassettes was a similar situation. The point is, that the providers of content have become far too concerned with profit so they have cut the costs so that the current crop of TVs show is just appalling. As such, most of these downloads are people – in my experience – who are finding stuff they have enjoyed once and want to watch again. The addition of the extra digital TV channels has helped to a degree, and ABC’s iView is a godsend – the other channels are still in catch up mode on this one – but until the stations work out what WE want to see, and it’s easily accessible, then of course people are going to hunt out their favourite material and the BitTorrents of the world will continue to supply it. It is NOT a case of breaking the law for breaking the law’s sake; it is a case of people saying to the media barons, “screw you, you now make stuff on the cheap we don’t want so I’ll find what I want elsewhere”. And I have no doubt, while there will be the rogue who couldn’t care less that they are taking the hard earned out of the hands of the writers, actors, directors, lighting and audio people and all those folk who make their living from producing content, many more and certainly the majority, will end up getting the ‘official’ copy. My next door neighbour freely admits to downloading material; but he has the BIGGEST video collection I have ever seen, with a wall containing close to 2000 videos. He ‘tries before he buys’ in effect. Me? I wondered if Blakes 7 was available. I found it online and downloaded one episode to see if after 30 years, I still liked it. I then bought every edition, Ditto many, many other programs. I am hoping my son will watch them in the future, and his kids after that, so that they have a glimpse at least into the past of this wonderful medium we call film and TV and how it has evolved. And with a bit of luck, as I did and my Dad before me, they get involved in the industry and enjoy it as much as I do. David Hague

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Publisher & Managing Editor David Hague Contributors Dr Frank McLeod, Steve Turner, Ben Longden, David Smith, Drew Turney Design & Layout Drew Turney psipublishinganddesign.com Photography Ross Gibb rossgibbphotos.com.au Advertising David Hague david@auscamonline.com Ph: 0499 089 034 Auscam is published by VBtheDog Productions Pty (ACN 128 231 247) 4 Cox Pl Echuca VIC 3564 Tel: 08 9467 5922/0499 089 034 Web: auscamonline.com Email: david@auscamonline.com Printed in Australia

The data in this publication has been compiled from information supplied by various manufacturers and distributors. As such, Auscam, its writers, editors, contributors and employees cannot be held liable for any errors therein with regard, but not limited to, specifications or prices.As with any purchase, please check all details before continuing with the transaction.

Budweiser The Dog w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m


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Buddy’s bits & pieces

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Budweiser the Dog’s monthly round-up of all the latest news.

Blackmagic at the Olympics Blackmagic Design has announced that Netherlands based Broadcast Rental has built a video routing network based around the Blackmagic Universal Videohub for use by Dutch Broadcaster NOS at the 2012 London Games. The Universal Videohub is being used by NOS to distribute highlights and games footage from their media headquarters at the game’s International Broadcast Centre (IBC) to other Dutch Olympic facilities; Holland Heineken House and Medal Plaza. The video routing solution will also be used by the broadcaster at the centre of operations in the IBC, a 24 hour media hub for around 20,000 broadcasters, photographers and journalists. Controlled via PC touch screen monitors, the signal will be locked and ingested via an EVS XT and IPDirector workflow to an Avid Unity System before it is packaged up with Avid Media Composer. The final output is then routed back through the Universal Videohub before being distributed to the Netherlands broadcast network and other Olympic screening facilities.

BenQ adopts Vertical Alignment technology BenQ has decided to adopt Vertical Alignment (VA) LED panel technology across the range of its monitor lineup. BenQ launched the world’s first VA LED monitor two years ago, and has now decided to extend VA LED panel technology across the monitor range, providing consumers with a higher native contrast ratio to show 4

true black and vivid colour BenQ says surpasses other displays. VA LED monitors are energy-efficient and eco-friendly, greatly reducing power consumption and are manufactured mercury-free, making them less costly to the Earth.

Adobe CS6 Users: New Shuttle Settings are Available Now! New Contour Shuttle Pro settings are now available for After Effects CS6, Audition CS6, Encore CS6, Flash CS6, Illustrator CS6, Photoshop CS6. In Adobe Premiere Pro, the springloaded shuttle wheel enables you to move quickly through the timeline, while the jog knob gives you hands-on, frame-by-frame control. Located right above the Shuttle Wheel are buttons 5 through 9, which come programmed for playback navigation, including commands for moving to the previous or next edit, stopping, and playing forward or backwards. Buttons 14 and 15, located on either side of the Shuttle Wheel, are programmed for adding and removing In and Out points. Other buttons are programmed for performing Insert and Overlay edits, Lifting, adding Transitions, and Trimming, allowing you to edit quickly and efficiently.

Singular Software Invites Adobe Premiere Pro Editors to the Public Beta of PluralEyes 3.0 Singular Software has announced the public beta of PluralEyes 3.0 for Adobe Premiere Pro editors (OS X).

The upgrade features a new, interactive workspace that displays the syncing process as it happens, giving editors more control and confidence that footage is syncing accurately. This release supports Premiere Pro from CS5.0 and forward. The new PluralEyes Connector for Adobe CS6 also saves time by completing many intermediate workflow steps automatically rather than manually. Editors simply access PluralEyes from within Premiere Pro without the need to convert files or import them from another application.

AFTRS Revives Broadcast Training With Sony The Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) has revived its television broadcast training programme with the launch in Sydney of Studio 2, a dedicated studio refurbished with a full complement of Sony HD equipment. The initiative for broadcast training arose from research conducted by AFTRS within the industry to see if there was a role for training. “We researched over 40 production companies and broadcasters to understand their requirements and the resounding response was that they wanted us to provide broadcast training,” said Tim Sadler, Director, Technology & Infrastructure at AFTRS. “We were told that existing training schemes ensured there was no shortage of people who could push buttons but the big challenge was finding people who could craft using broadcast tools and elevate the quality of the finished product – which is what AFTRS is about. At all levels we teach students how to tell stories”. w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m


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Review: Sony NEX VG20

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The email then the phone call came out of the blue, says David Hague. Then a Virgin Business Class ticket turned up too …

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t Auscam we often say that we give a better idea of how good or bad a camcorder (or standard camera) is because we give them a much harder test than many. We don’t just give them what I call a “bench review” but actually take them out in the field as you would, and give them quite a hammering. So on a recent trip to Japan, I took along a Sony NEX VG20. I took over 4 hours of footage ranging in conditions from dark and gloomy to bright light on snow; inside restaurants, on the Bullet Train to Sendai (yes where the earthquake was) and in bright neon lit streets that Tokyo is renowned for. Ergonomically it is just about perfect. I am naturally left eye dominant and had no problem using the viewfinder (my preference over an LCD any day). Balance was good and all the controls were easy to use and access. After using a rocker based zoom for so long, it did take a bit of getting used to having a front ring mounted control, but that is simply a habit that has to be broken. A MAJOR step over its predecessor, the VG10, is the small ridge on the right hand side of the camera body that enables you to solidly grip the VG20. It’s amazing how such a small change can make such a big difference. One annoyance though was what one of my colleagues called “lens creep”.

Simply this means that if the camera is held vertically, the zoom lens will slowly drop out so that next time you go to shoot, you are at full zoom. This can be a bit disconcerting, especially if you after trying to grab something in frame that is not going to last long! One party trick is the inclusion of a Zoom Focus button. When pressed, this temporarily zooms in the on the subject matter letting you get fine focus before starting to shoot; a damn fine addition as is the secondary record button to the front of the zoom focus button. Of course being a NEX based camcorder, lenses can be changed. As part of the trip took in a monstrous camera show in Yokohama, we went

Auscam Rating

6

Performance

9

We Liked

Documentation

9

Interchangeable lens, zoom focus, balance and grip

Features

9

Disliked

Setup

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“Lens creep”

Value for money

8

Price

$2,999

Contact

Sony Australia sony.com.au

mad adding new lenses (with adaptor mounts) and playing around. The attached photo shows freelancer Chris Nicholls (who had the advantage of speaking and reading fluent Japanese) mucking around with a lens with the delightful name of The Borg. With this beastie added (for about AUD$800 including all the necessary mounts), we could zoom in almost full frame on the full stop in a Sony sign 20 metres away! Depth of field is of course shot to bits, but for astronomers and sports shooters, this is the ducks guts. Knowing I was going to a trade show, I left my credit card behind at the hotel (see more at tomytec.co.jp/borg. it’s in Japanese but you’ll get the idea) I found the VG20 a fine camcorder to use; it has all the bits and bobs I need and the killer feature is the interchangeable lens system. It’s a little big to lug around in a backpack over a three day period I have to say. I’d used something like a Sony HDRPJ50V as a second backup camera for that. But for sports shooting which is my bag, apart from that lens creep, it’s perfect. David Hague w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m


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Sony HDR-PJ760 camcorder

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New Sony camcorder with projector impresses, as David Hague learns.

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he world of the camcorder has been somewhat dull of late. The lower end seems to have languished, perhaps finally giving in to the March of the Smartphone – or as one exec. recently told me, why not just buy an inexpensive but decent compact still and get reasonable video thrown in? The mid-range, around the $1000 mark, has been stagnant too, with little or no new innovation and more a race to see who can cut the most features that really should be there – viewfinders, external mic and headphone sockets spring to mind. At last though, the higher end seems to be getting some attention with prices/ bang tumbling; just look at the models from the likes of Canon and Panasonic of late such as the XA10 and the AG HMC41E; these now have features that were unheard of in this price range 3 years ago. Bordering between high end consumer and low end professional is the new Sony HDR-PJ760, and it has been packed full of every feature you could possibly think of. Auscam has been lucky

enough (or we schmoozed better than anyone else) to get our grubby little hands on a real life version and it is more than fair to say we are impressed. Starting at the front, it sports a 10x optical zoom, 26mm wide angle Carl Zeiss lens sitting below an array of mics offering 5.1 surround sound. One thing we did like very much is the programmable knurled knob next to the lens; we’ve said it before and no doubt we’ll say it again that a lens ring is preferable, buy hey, if for whatever reason we cannot have one, we’ll have this instead. The internal processor is the venerable Exmor R with an “enhanced” optical steady shot system capable of stills up to a staggering 24.1 megapixels. This alone (the steady shot I mean) is worth mentioning. You know how when panning quickly, if you stop suddenly the imagery on playback comes to a jarring halt? Well the boffins at Sony have got together and

eliminated this problem. I don’t pretend to understand the technicalities behind the genius – and really, does that matter? – but suffice to say imagine the lens is suspended inside some thick gel. As you stop the pan, the gel “buffers” the lens bringing it to a gentle halt. I am sure it is much more techo than that, but you get the idea. In fact, if you give the camera a bit of a shake, you can feel the lens inside moving and if you point it at you and give a rapid left /right movement, the lens physically moves. Quite eerie, but eminently workable. In operation, it takes a little getting used to, but the results are brilliant. An excellent touch is the inbuilt LED light above the lens giving more than enough power to light a face or dark room and although nocturnal wildlife is a bit sparse in these parts of Sydney, except for the odd rabbit, I am sure it would also suffice for this sort of night video shooting. And of course there is the Sony Nightshot system there. Sony pioneered the ol’ “projector in a camcorder” trick, and the HDR-PJ760 also has

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this feature, with the projecting LED built into the exterior of the flip out LCD. I have to say you either like the idea or not; I can accept at a pinch or at a party say, it could be useful and even fun, but I’d rather playback on a shiny big screen any day. However the LED output is nice and bright even in a less than darkened room. THE LCD is also the control panel for all functions as the HDR-PJ760 is touch screen based. The menu system is very easy to follow, and the screen is sharp and clear. Shots and video (AVCHD as is the norm these days) can be stored either on SD card or Memory Stick, and there is an internal memory of a whopping

96GB as well. You might think that so far we have a gadget laden beastie that couldn’t go any further. Wrong! The PJ760 also has a built in GPS system – some people love these and others, including moi, are more meh! about such a thing. To me GPS has become all invasive with my car, phone, dSLR, compact and no doubt soon, watch all having one. Just how much do we need to know where we are – or were? Of course the ultimate would be a fridge with GPS, or perhaps your microwave… Sadly, the model I received does not have a manual with it so I cannot comment on the level of quality, or not, of this, but generally Sony manuals are pretty good. What IS supplied though – hallelujah – is anHDMI cable.

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It definitely seems the tide is turning in this regard as more and more camcorders are being shipped with these in the box. There have been numerous improvements over previous models such as a physically larger lens (52mm thread) and indeed, a new lens (CZ as against the previous G lens). Reading some of the specifications also suggests the viewfinder has also seen improvement as has the “face mode” system. At a price of around $1899 it is very good value for money for the serious short film maker and enthusiast alike. A mate who is an ENG shooter (TV news etc) even says it is good enough to be a backup camera for his shoulder mount beast.

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Auscam Rating

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Performance

9

We Liked

Documentation

n/a

Steadyshot system, LED light, supplied HDMI cable, massive onboard RAM, programmable front knob

Features

9

Disliked

Setup

9

It’s possibly a tad heavy

Value for money

8

Price

$1,899

Contact

Sony Australia sony.com.au 9


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ENG camcorder shootout This is a series of articles we’ve been doing at Auscam. David Hague selected three pieces of equipment (which could be camcorders, radio mics, still cameras or even software) and played with them to ascertain their suitability for the task at hand.

Conditions placed For this first set of articles, we have placed a number of conditions on the equipment to keep a reasonable playing field as even though we are not comparing like with like per se, in this case for example, the units picked are all suitable for a particular task as a “run’n’gun” camcorder as might be used by ENG specialists, short film or guerrilla filmmakers and video journalists. We set a maximum price of AUD$5000 for these three cameras. The top of the price range is the Sony HXR-NX5P and the lowest the Canon XA10. Prices ranged from $4899

down to $2265 (these are street prices not RRP and do NOT include any “grey marketing” values. All products are based on Australian sourced and warranted). The only concession we made to “averaging” was to use a Rode NTG3 microphone on all cameras as against a manufacturer supplied one.

Models chosen Last year we gave the Canon XA10 the “Camcorder of the Year” moniker for a number of very good reasons. But how does it shape up against some competition in real life and in a real situation?

Panasonic AG-HMC41E How it feels The AG-HMC41H weighs in at a smidgeon under a kilo sans battery, SD card and XLR adaptor. When fully optioned, this rises to 1.4Kg.The battery compartment area is huge, with the standard battery only using half the space; it is very balanced with this battery inserted so we imagine a larger heavy duty one would cause some rear end heaviness. Controls are easily accessible with one set of buttons under the flip out 2.7” LCD screen and another set forward of the screen on the body of the camera. There is a single SD card slot on the left hand side with a door that needs to be opened via a small slider. The camera will not record if the door is not shut. The controls include three “user” buttons, zebra button, colour bars, focus and focus assist and an iris thumb wheel so the professional user is well catered for. The lens is a Leica Dicomar with a zoom range of 40.8 to 490 mm driving

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three 3MOS imagers. Maximum bit rate achieved is 24 Mbps in PH mode. There is a full focus ring and this can also be used for either Iris or Zoom. We fitted the AG-HMC41E to a Hague seat headrest mount in a Holden Monaro. Clearance to the roof lining was tight but adequate and the camera balanced nicely with no tendency to tip although the Manfrotto head used on these mounts had to be screwed up very tightly. There was little vibration to tend with and what did occur we could easily remove from the footage with the affordable proDAD Mercalli Easy Stabiliser software. For our backpack test, we loaded the AG-HMC41E into a standard sized Black Wolf backpack. Weight wasn’t an issue but physical size was, especially with the Rode mic attached. For maximum portability then, the camera should be disassembled (external mic and combo handle/mic controls/XLR inputs removed). To a degree, this negates the run and gun attractiveness of this camera. Low light capability was very good we

found. Claimed specification is 1 lux at F1.8 with 34dB gain and ? sec shutter speed as minimum specifications.

Not so good … There was one major impediment to really liking the AG-HMC41E. It only affects a small number of people our friendly local ophthalmologist tells me, but I am left eye dominant. While this (and does) affect my use of camcorders ergonomically, I have learned to adjust to most things, and in some cases, especially doing motor sport on an anticlock wise circuit, having my right eye free to keep track of what is coming can be useful. However, on the AGHMC41E, the rubber eye cup cannot be reversed. A quick call out to Panasonic and their engineering bods confirmed this, and there is no replacement cup that can be purchased. Another annoyance was that the Rode NTG-3 mic wouldn’t fit in the external mic holder properly. Whilst accepting this is not necessarily Panasonic’s issue (and Rode tell me there is no set

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standard for this sizing) it is a bit of a pain to either wrap some paper around the mic to pad it (aesthetically a bit sloppy too) or have to buy the add on adaptor from Rode. (To be fair, it didn’t directly fit the other two cameras either).

Verdict Everything you would want in a “run’n’gun” camera from a technical viewpoint is there. Usability is good as are the ergonomics (eye cup besides), the Leica lens could not be questioned and even the 10.6Mp still capability would be adequate for a newspaper to use (or magazine). The physical size is a bit of an issue for backpack totin’ guerrilla video makers, if you are left eye dominant, I’d

pass sadly, but apart from these issues, this is a damn fine camera and one to put on the “must check this out”. Perhaps a weekend rental would be in order to see if it suits your style?

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of the big attractions of the XA10 is the simple fact it has all the fruit, bells and whistles a pro shooter would want including XLR mic inputs, lens ring, 64GB of inbuilt memory, dual SD card slots and a 30.4mm ~ 300mm zoom lens. And unlike many smaller camcorders these days, there is a proper extendable viewfinder as well as

the 3.5” LCD screen. Low light capability is extraordinary, shooting down to 0.1 lux at a shutter speed of ? second. The majority of controls on the XA10 are to be found via the touch screen LCD; physical controls are minimal and restricted to infra-red on off, battery info, a tele/wide rocker and stop/start as well as on/off and video/still images switches. The only output ports are USB and A/V/headphone. As with the others, the Canon XA10 was fitted to a Hague seat headrest mount in a Holden Monaro. Because of the small size of the XA10 clearance was no problem and there was no tendency to tilt with the camera very stable.. Similarly the backpack test was passed with flying colours and there is no question that if you want a camcorder to throw into a backpack, the XA10 is the go .

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Canon XA10 How it feels The XA10 is by far the smallest and lightest of the three camcorders we have tested bouncing in at 775g (body only) The battery and the combo/ external audio system when added still keep it below the 1 Kg mark. Despite the small size though, one

Not so good … To some, the small size of the XA10 could be its biggest Achilles heel. I showed it to a number of ‘pro’ shooters w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m

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and many were disbelieving that such a small camcorder could pack such a large punch; a few simply said they couldn’t treat such a camcorder seriously – and nor would their clients. However they could not dispute the picture quality under any circumstance!

Verdict I loved the XA10 12 months ago and I am still in love with it. It suits my purposes as a “run’n’gun” unit to a tee, although I can see how it may not be for all. The small size can be seen as

a drawback in some circumstances, but in terms of making the XA10 ultraportable it’s a winner. UÊ-V ÀiÊ É£ä UÊ-ÌÀiiÌÊ*À Vi\Ê À ÊfÓÓÈxÊ>««À Ý

Sony HXR-NX5 How it feels The NX5 compared to our other two units under test is no lightweight coming in at 2.2Kg and is correspondingly physically larger as well. The range of controls available will keep the most dial fiddling shooter happy; the left hand side of the body of the NX5 is a veritable Airbus A380 cockpit of dials, switches and buttons. There are four levels of ND filter, three Assign buttons, a separate bank for Zebra, AE Shift and Visual Index controls, another for Gain, White Balance and Shutter Speed and yet a third for Menu, Mode, Profile and Status. Add to this volume controls, presets and iris and focus switches and you have a crowded panel indeed. Maybe after a while you would know by feel where and what everything is, but I wouldn’t be game to ever being able to make that claim I don’t think. The lens is a Sony G lens nailed to a 3 chip EXMOR CMOS using Sony’s ClearVid technology giving approximately 1,037,000 pixels.

Under the LCD are another bunch of controls for playback of recorded video. Full technical specifications of the NX5 can be found here. Fitted to the Hague mount on the Monaro headset, the NX5 was a tight fit, and when attached, the seat could not be tilted forward to allow passengers to get into or alight from the back seat. As with the Panasonic, there was little vibration to tend with and what did occur we could easily remove from the footage with the proDAD Mercalli Easy Stabiliser software. The backpack test as we used for the Panasonic AG-HMC41E was an abject failure, simply as the NX5 is simply too big. This of course does not negate the NX5 as a run’n’gun camera, just that the portability is not in the same vein as the Panny. Here a Pelican case or similar would be a better home I feel. Low light capability was not quite as good as the Panasonic technically rated at 1.5 lux at auto gain and 1/25 sec shutter speed as minimum specifications. In practice, it was quite good and suitable for the intended

use of the NX5 – ENG – more than adequate. If you need more, there is a separate shoe to add a light. A separate microphone mount is to the right of this and similar to the Panasonic, we had to use an add on mount to accept the Rode mic.

Not so good … There is little downside to the NX5. Perhaps the very attributes of the beast are against it; it is a VERY comprehensive camera with a bucketload of features and this makes it very easy to understand why it is one of Sony’s finest. The physical size is an issue in terms of run’n’gun – I’d hate to spend 8 hours at Bathurst for the 1000 scrambling up hill and down dale, but this is not to say others won’t. The main problem is simply that when travelling from spot to spot there is no easy way to stow the camera so that you are hands free.

Verdict Specification wise the NX5 cannot be faulted. Physical size and weight are an issue for me but this is purely personal and others who are used to heavier cameras will probably not be too fussed – and indeed, the NX5 may be even lighter than what they are used to! For someone upgrading to this from a “lesser” camera may be awed by the potential and learning curve, but the end results are well and truly worth it. We love the three rings on the lens and the GPS is a bonus. UÊ-V ÀiÊnÉ£ä UÊ-ÌÀiiÌÊ*À Vi\Ê À Êf{n Ê>««À ÝÊ w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m

SO11502/AUS

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Always dreamt of making movies? Then our new digital Super 35mm is for you.

Sony’s NEX-FS100 ... a dream come true. Introducing the world’s first really affordable digital Super 35mm interchangeable-lens camcorder. Delivering the control over focus that you need and employing Sony’s Exmor Super 35 CMOS sensor for outstanding exposure latitude and sensitivity, the feature-packed NEX-FS100 lets your creative vision shine through.

The new Super 35mm NEX-FS100 camcorder. SO11502/AUS

w w w. auscamonline.com sony.com.au/professional/nexfs100

“SONY” and “make.believe” are trademarks of Sony Corporation.

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Edius 6

software

If you are looking for a new upmarket video editing package, Edius is worth a look finds David Hague.

Where the action is: The main workflow area of Edius

E

DIUS (pronounced ‘Ed-i-yus’ I have since found out, not ‘EED-i-yus’ for EDItors Ultimate Solution) has been around a while, but in Australia doesn’t seem to have the recognition or following that Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere, Apple Final Cut or AVID systems do. And that is a damned shame because after playing with it for a weekend, I like it a lot. New features in EDIUS 6 10-bit editing support 2K/4K resolution support Free-shape mask filter 16 camera multicam editing Proxy mode workflow Canon XF format and EOS movie format support Exporting in AVCHD format to a media card

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As many will know, I have been a long time Vegas user, and even had a hand in writing and editing some of the 3rd party manuals for Vegas, but it has to be said that the workflow for Vegas is not quite the norm whereas EDIUS stays with the tried and true dual editing windows and multiple bins approach. At first, the layout of EDIUS can be intimidating as there are lots of icons that may not be immediately recognizable. It certainly was for me and made all the more difficult as I had no manual. Grass Valley, the owners of EDIUS have however created an online ‘Grass Valley University’ and here there are 36 short videos that run through different areas of EDIUS in a logical and easy to follow way. Running through the whole lot of videos means allowing a couple of hours and the only area not really touched is that of compositing.

If your editing needs are traditional, but you need more power than the socalled ‘lite’ packages give, EDIUS is a comprehensive suite that runs sprightly in 2GB of RAM and will expand its work area to use double monitors as I have in my case. There is also a single monitor version that uses a single preview window if you have a lower than average resolution, and this switches between modes automatically as required. In fact the whole interface is customisable with docked and free floating windows being available. Unlike other packages where tracks in the timeline become a distinct type depending upon what media is dropped into them, EDIUS is quite particular about this with you having to add video to a video track, audio to an audio track and so on. It can also be a bit messy

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Work natively with many different video formats, such as Sony’s XDCAM, Panasonic’s P2, Ikegami’s GF, and now Canon’s XF format and EOS movie format

Windows 7, Windows XP, and Windows Vista support

Fast, flexible user interface, including unlimited video, audio, title, and graphics tracks

Real-time editing and conversion of different resolutions, as high as 4K/2K resolution to as low as 24x24

Real-time editing and conversion of different frame rates, such as 60p/50p, 60i/50i, and 24p

Proxy mode workflow by switching timeline between proxy/hi-res mode

Exporting in AVCHD format to a media card

Nested timeline sequences

GPU-accelerated 3D transitions

Real-time effects, keyers, transitions, and titles

Multicamera editing of up to 16 different sources simultaneously

Direct to Blu-ray Disc and DVD timeline export

Export in AVCHD format to a media card when adding video that has associated data in that you cannot simply select the video and drop it into the timeline; you must first turn off the associated and linked audio track in the timeline. For some this may cause restrictions when grouping tracks due to a section being a composited effect for example and you like to keep these together.

Trimming I did like the implementation of being able to trim clips in the bin (and you can add any number of folders underneath the Root Bin Folder so that associated clips and media can be collected in a single location according to subject say) as well as in preview and the timeline. Clips can also be ordered and sorted in bins allowing rudimentary story boards to be created. When trimming, it is easy to set in and out points using the keyboard, mouse or something like a Contour Shuttle – in my opinion a MUST have device – but beware that some keystrokes as short cuts are not 100% intuitive. For example I would think ‘I’ and ‘O’ for In and Out would be logical, but EDIUS uses ‘M’ and ‘N’ whereas other systems may use these as shuttling

keys along with ‘J’, ‘K’ and ‘L’. Another feature I liked the way it has been setup is how to make a clip a specific length and then drop it to the timeline. In this area, EDIUS is also particular about the use of Ripple editing and when to turn it on or off as it is with grouping of clips, even video with its own audio track. The tutorials only cover titling in a very basic way, but I am sure on a deeper look, there is far more below the surface than was apparent; for example scrolling titles were not covered, simply still ones.

Transitions Similarly, transitions were shown only basically and these work the same way that they do in just about any editing package I have ever used; simply drop the transition over two subsequent clips in the timeline. There is a gotcha though in that if the first clip ends at the, well end as it has NOT been trimmed, and the next starts at the beginning (does that make sense?) then a bit more work has to be done to make the transition work as EDIUS by default extends the length of the first and the start of the second

clips. If there has been no editing, there is no more left to extend (of the first) or at the start (of the second). As mentioned, compositing and effects were not covered in the tutorials I went through at all so I cannot at this stage judge how EDIUS stacks up. Very well, I would imagine, as the rest of the package is solid, well thought out and the few niggles I have are mainly in the ‘getting to know you better’ area. Some tasks and functions I am used to doing on the fly I didn’t seem to be able to do in EDIUS, but this may in the longer term be a good thing as it forces you into a more regimented way of doing things as this leads to order and Order is Good of course. An example of this is almost EDIUS prefers that all media for a project reside in a single folder on the hard drive (which you set up in Preferences).

software

Key professional features in EDIUS 6

Availability Price

AUD$850 (AUD$449 cross upgrade from Vegas, Adobe Premiere, FCP (not X) and AVID.

Contact

Grass Valley grassvalley.com

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formats on the timeline. This means for example you can have footage in AVCHD, XDCAM and from your iPhone all on the same timeline and preview in real time without rendering.

Will I change from Vegas to EDIUS? This is of course good for backup purposes among other things and means you won’t have media files willynilly scattered over your system drive or data drives. Sure in some systems (Vegas does it I know), when you save a project you can tell it to save all media used inside the project, but this then means you have duplications of files and while HDD space these days is inexpensive, this is not particularly efficient. Another major attribute of EDIUS is the ability mix and match different

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There are probably as many arguments as to what is the better or best NLE as there are between Mac and Windows fanboys. In the end, NLE’s all do the same thing with varying degrees of capability; they allow you to manipulate media to have an end product you can distribute. Let’s call this, The Movie. HOW it does it and what tools are available and the workflow behind that are what I believe sets NLEs apart and which one someone will graduate to as they either ‘just get it’, or that way of working appeals. I am happy with Vegas, but I am also prepared to cut a few long projects in EDIUS before I make a, if any, decision to switch. On the surface I like EDIUS very much as it reminds me of my original analogue system back in the late 80s and early 90s.But I also like the compositing functionality in Vegas,

which I use a lot, so that factor has to be also weighed up. If you are looking at graduating from a basic Windows NLE to something more, shall we say, grown up, and have Premiere, FCP, Vegas and AVID on your list to check out (no I know that FCP won’t run under Windows but some people DO change platforms you know), certainly add EDIUS to that list. There is a free download available at the website which is fully functional and lasts for 30 days. Oh and a final word, the ProDAD plugins that I tend to crow about are also available for EDIUS and that is a major bonus. On2DVD also have a DVD based tutorial system I am told is very good. And if you look at the website (grassvalley.com), there any number of tutorials and plugins available. There are a bunch of 3rd party tutorials that have been released over the past year, even a couple of sets (colour grading and keying) by Melbournebased cinematographer Matt Scott. -iiÊ ÃÊ6 i Ê«>}iÊv ÀÊ Ài\ vimeo.com/30078836 (Keying) vimeo.com/27292117 (Grading)

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Grey marketing. Good or bad?

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o reiterate, a “grey” item is one that has been bought overseas (usually online) and imported into this country. For example, a Hong Kong retailer may advertise a dSLR camera from Nikon or Canon say, with a particular lens and have a price far below even the best Australian price you can get by shopping around. It’s very tempting to buy then from overseas, and anecdotally, more and more people are. In fact, it has become so popular that Australian vendors and retailers are now accused of “price gouging” and “ripping people off” such can be these price differences (The last statistics I saw said that it contributes to around 7% of all retail purchases which while not huge in percentage terms, is still a substantial dollar amount). Twenty years ago, it was the software industry accused of the same sort of practices citing the large differences between US pricing and Australian pricing for Microsoft products in particular, At that time I was importing and distributing software in Australia and try as you might, you could not explain to people why this was so – and there were valid reasons. You were just not believed. Today is the same; oh I don’t doubt there are some retailers and vendors who do take advantage, and these people should be exposed if indeed they are “ripping off”, but my investigations of this over the past few weeks also show that in many cases, the “price gouging” tag is simply not warranted. I have had discussions with vendors and retailers alike as to the current State of the Nation and discovered that all is not that it seems on the surface; there are many deeper factors of which potential product purchasers are not aware as well as hidden problems that may only arise after a grey market purchase has been made.

Cost of Goods Sold Although trained in a specific accounting discipline, my experience in this area is more aligned to my time as a Tandy Computer Centre Manager (and yes I have heard all the Trash 80 jokes). In the Tandy system, as a manager you were paid according to bottom line Net Profit and this was calculated based on a reasonably simple formula of( (Sales – Cost of Goods Sold (COGS))-Overheads) on a monthly basis. It doesn’t take an accountant to work out then (and this is a standard way of calculating profit by the way) that the higher the overheads the lower the profit potential and as a consequence, some prices have to be increased to “boost’ that number back up. For example, Shop A may sell Widget w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m

X for $5 and Shop B which has a much higher rental may be forced to sell it for $6 to compensate for the higher rent but make the same net profit. In this area there are many, many factors that can cause differences in pricing – wages, insurances, freight, rates, costs of advertising, telephone charges, electricity, exchange rates (and buffers to protect against drops) to name just a few. In Australia, individual shops that have parity pricing (usually in chains such as Dick Smith and at a guess Harvey Norman and JB HiFi) have to fight this discrepancy in their COGS all the time. Rent in Chadstone or Parramatta is possibly much higher than say Warriewood or Innaloo. A single major difference in a single cost can make a massive difference meaning that you have to sell many, many more Widget Xs to make it up. A good example in Tandy, and was always a bone of contention, was the annual conference held in Sydney, The cost of airfares and accommodation of your attendance came out of your bottom line for that month – hence your net profit was way down as back then, in the late 80s, to fly return from Perth and have two nights in a hotel cost a small fortune! Store Managers who lived in Sydney didn’t have that cost to bear so in Perth, to catch up, we had to sell many more computers and accessories to make up for that cost. Likewise freight to stores varies from place to place; if the warehousing is in Sydney but the store is elsewhere, of course this will affect freight costs and therefore what you need to charge for the item to recoup this cost and still make the same profit. One more point here. We don’t know what our Australian vendors pay for their product in order to on sell it to retailers. From my experience, they will not get the same margin as say their counterpart in New York who services the US. You have to remember that in the totality of Australia, we only ? the population of Tokyo, which in itself is only 10% of Japan, so on the simple basis that volume buys increase discounts – and each country will work on its own Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet – prices MUST be higher here. Yes you say, but I don’t see how this can affect so substantially to the prices we see here compared to overseas ones. Well you see it works both ways. If you DON’T have the costs, you can sell substantially lower, turn over more products accordingly and still make the SAME profit. Investigations have shown that overseas grey marketers have nowhere near the costs of doing business in Australia and hence can take advantage of this. So it’s not only the GST (that was brought

feature

Just recently, the ugly subject of “grey marketing” has reared its ugly head again. Auscam Editor David Hague explores this issue.

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up a while back – to a bit of controversy it has to be said) – but wages, rent, superannuation, insurances and so on are all less, and in some cases, non-existent. And of course these then cascade; the more stock you sell, the more you buy and the bigger discounts the vendor will give you. So having explained the basic price discrimination, let’s look at other areas of this situation.

feature

The warranty/repair factor

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Being in the position I am, I get a lot of queries from people Ài\ÊÌ ÃÊÃÕL iVÌÊ >ÌÌiÀÊ> `ÊÌ iÊÕÃÕ> Ê iÊ Ã漆 ÞÊÃ Õ `Ê Ê "/Ê by XYZ camcorder from “name of overseas vendor here””? And I quote back at them one very pertinent example. A younger member of our Auscam Online forums wanted to buy a reasonably expensive Sony camcorder and found a very good overseas price. I counselled him against it as Sony at the time did not warranty overseas purchases in Australia. The camcorder arrived, failed within the week and the young guy was stuck with it. The overseas supplier didn’t want to know, Sony’s hands were tied as it was an overseas model not certified for use in Australia (The ‘C’ tick) and so he blew about $4000 in one fell swoop. Another I know of had the unit arrive with no English manuals or Australian power supply in the box. Technically I understand it would be an offence to use this camera on the mains power in Australia. Another, and I have documented evidence right here from an Australian retailer, arrived with counterfeit batteries, others have bought dSLRs with a specific lens and the lens turns out to be a cheap and nasty plastic thing, not the expected quality one – that was never actually promised, but was certainly hinted at. In fact there are enough stories that I for one wouldn’t take the risk of losing $1000 or more on a potential purchase of this type. And of course any purchase from an overseas vendor means that your statutory consumer rights under Australian law (ACL) are automatically waived. This can be a very big factor in its own right. Perhaps a $200 digital still camera might be a different story, but this brings me to another angle. Apart from those already cited, I wouldn’t and won’t buy from overseas for one specific reason. The Australian vendors of these products and the retailers of same are MY customers. Why would I alienate them by supporting those that cause their businesses to suffer? There are retailers and stores closing all over the country – Dick Smith, WOW, Tandy has gone and there are rumours of other shut downs as business in the consumer tech area drops off. I accept that bad management has its share of the blame, but so does a lack of sales. But you know what, it’s MY friends and neighbours that then lose their jobs, it’s my favourite sport – motor racing – and others that loses its sponsors, schools don’t get support, P &Cs have no prizes for raffles,

local shops lose customers and so it goes on. And these retailers and vendors support you by giving your kids jobs, buying products and services from the companies you work for – and so the chain goes on. It’s not altruistic or Australian jingoism. It is simply economics and common sense. And as one vendor put it to me, “this makes all products more than just a series of copper wires, rubber moulds and plastic buttons”. And another says, “As a local operator, we walk a fine line between investing in local jobs, infrastructure, consumer marketing and support, logistics, taxes and the general community or simply moving product at the cheapest price with the least possible cost. We choose to do the former and build real value for the consumer, our partners and the Australian economy”. How true.

The value add And then what price do you put on the value that the Australian representation of these companies supplies? Not just in the form of warranty, but support, after sales service, advice, spare parts, helping out your camera or camcorder club and the myriad of other things we don’t see in the media. There is another economic angle too and this can only be explained by that ugly word ‘fraud’ as bluntly, that is what it is. We have been sent documentary evidence of false invoicing to avoid paying duty. That is, the overseas company will email a true invoice to the buyer for credit card payment, but the invoice sent with the goods, often under a different company name, is detailed as being under AUD$1000 to avoid paying duty when it passes through customs at the airport or post office. And of course this affects the economy with revenues not being raised that should be. Higher taxes anyone? At time of writing, I haven’t had an answer back what the penalty might be if someone gets caught doing this, but I am guessing a very dim view would be taken. They don’t muck around when you don’t declare something when passing through the airport and you should. So, deep breath, price gouging should be discouraged and exposed by all means. But don’t nail all vendors and retailers with the tag without knowing the full story. Like you, they are people trying to run a business, make a quid, support their families and local communities, sporting centres, schools and other businesses and services. There is more to the story than “let’s pick a big price ticket and do ‘em”. I hope I have helped in explaining that and showing it? Vendors and retailers that contributed content to this article and provided information and more include Canon, Sony, Maxwells Harvey Norman, Corsair Solutions, Shriro (Casio) and Nikon. Many thanks for their assistance. Please support them as they not only provide a service, but also jobs and more to the Australian economy. w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m


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IFISH with Tackleworld

A

nyone who has wet a line in Australia has heard of Rex Hunt. When Rex hung up his rod and reel seven years ago, he introduced us to Paul Worsteling who received an enthusiastic audience response. Worsteling was a natural, had on-camera flair and seemingly boundless energy along with an infectious laugh, and so IFISH with Tackleworld was born. Running on Channels Ten and ONE, with repeats on Foxtel, production company Dreampool shoots 30 half hour shows a year plus ten one hour shows, on location in Australia and around the world, including Denmark, Holland, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, Vanuatu, Fiji and the UK.

The Team Whilst on a shoot the team is kept small with a producer, cameraman, sound recordist and of course, host Worsteling. Producer/Director Bob Grieve says long periods of travel on shoots are not easy, and everyone must ‘get on’. The role of every person is clearly defined he says, and the crew work extremely well together. At the end of each day a system is in place to cater for the more mundane tasks of disc logging, maintenance and cleaning of equipment, charging batteries plus of course discussing the next day’s shoot. In total there are twelve members in the complete team, with in addition to those mentioned, extra talent, editors, graphic artists, a web designer and sound mixer. In recent shows, extra talent has included Worsteling’s wife Cristy, son Jet Reef and both his parents. Long time TV fishing personality Kai Busch (“Bushy”) also makes regular appearances as do individual Tackleworld store owners. . Dreampool Productions is based in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne in Victoria

tackle, safety vests and clothing, through to large ticket items including the water craft and motors they use and even the boat trailer and towing vehicle. It’s a testament to the producers and Worsteling himself that all sponsors are long term, attesting to the popularity of IFISH with Tackleworld as a quality lifestyle program in its own right as well as Worsteling’s own popularity as a host. In fact, the show was nominated for a Logie this year.

Equipment IFISH by Tackleworld is shot and post produced in full high definition using Sony PDW-F800 cameras using the MPEG HD422 24 bit codec and eight channel uncompressed sound. A wide choice of recording is utilised such as sampling >ÌÊ{\Ó\ÓÊ> `Ê{\Ó\äÊ>ÌÊL Ì Êx ° { Ê> `Êxä Ê `iÃÊÜ Ì ÊvÀ> iÊ rates of 29.97, 25 and 23.98. Playback is via SD MPEG IMX and DVCAM utilising 30, 40 and 50 Megabits/second and DVCAM at 25 Mbps. Grieve says the commitment to this quality is not compromised under any circumstances. Underwater footage is shot using HD GoPro Cameras. Post production is created using AVID Media Composer 6 HD and audio is edited using ProTools. Everything is done in house with no work subcontracted out. IFISH with Tackleworld can be seen at 5pm on week nights on One and 5pm on Sundays. The website for further info is ifish.com.au

feature

Serious fishos can see iFish on Channel 10 /1HD seven days a week. David Hague recommends it.

Sponsorship These days production companies are often forced to provide a complete package to a TV station; long gone are the days when stations ‘bought’ programs on a regular basis. As such, sponsors are needed and Grieve says IFISH with Tackleworld runs on what he calls “in-program” sponsorship. This amounts to a semi-product placement situation – Worsteling and his guests use the brands which are the sponsors throughout the show, but whereas true product placement leaves the viewer to “spot the product”, Worsteling actually spruiks up the items in the normal course of the program. This covers such items as fishing gear,

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Star cross’d fishers: Paul Worsteling is the host and often features his wife Cristy on the show

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Azden WLX-Pro

hardware

Audio is equally as important as imagery but sadly is sometimes the forgotten cousin. David Hague thinks it’s particularly paramount in interviews.

Photo: Ralf Brauner

I

t’s amazing how much bad audio there is on video these days, especially in interviews. Too much emphasis is placed on using on-camera mics as against actually aiming for tippy top audio. To reiterate, viewers will put up with the occasional skippy frame, shaky image or even the odd out of focus, but lousy, stuttery or out of sync audio will never be tolerated and people will turn off. So to fix audio problems, the first thing to do is make sure you are using the right mic for the job, and for interviews, this generally means using a radio transmitter receiver and lapel (also called lavaliere) mic. Hobbyist videographers and even some top enthusiasts have the misconception that these are horrendously expensive, but this is not necessarily so. Chez Auscam has just taken possession of an Azden WLX-Pro radio mic setup and this retails for less than $250. And for this price you get a nifty little unit indeed. Firstly, you get a decent range of up to 76 metres (depending on conditions of course) using FM radio frequencies. And if you are using a couple of these for two interviewees, you have a pair of frequencies to choose from. A shoe mount is built in to attach the receiver to a camera/camcorder but it also possible to attach it to a wall mount. Why would you do that? Because the WLX-Pro can also double as sender receiver for a PA system for public speaking or in a classroom environment. The sending unit has a belt clip and the cable is around 1 metre long which is adequate for most jobs. An extender can of course be got if required for just a few dollars from Dick Smith, Jaycar and so on.

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Power is supplied by a standard 9v battery in each of the units and the receiver also has provision for an earphone (supplied) or of course you can use your own set of cans (headphones). An adaptor plug is also supplied. The antenna on the receiver extends to around 15 centimetres. Both units have a single switch for

Off/Freq 1/ Freq 2. In use, audio was very good and quite suitable for live interviews and the like. It would also be more than adequate for shooting say a monologue on stage with a camera on wide to take in the whole stage (think Stephen Fry or Billy Connolly). Battery life is said to be 10 hours continuous.

Auscam Rating Performance

8

We Liked

Documentation

7

Ease of use, value for money, audio quality

Features

8

Disliked

Setup

9

No volume control for headphones or level for mic

Value for money

10

Help Functions

n/a

Price

$249.00

Contact

GDB International gdbint.com.au 21


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Panasonic HC-X900M

hardware

Frank McLeod puts a new toy through its paces in an idyllic shooting location.

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ecently I spent two days on Norfolk Island as a guest of Panasonic getting an introduction to their new line of consumer video and point & shoot still cameras. The stand out camera for me was the Panasonic HC-X900M 3-chip video camera so I struck my hand up early for a review model when it was released in April 2012. The nice folks at Panasonic sent it to me along with an optional 3D lens attachment which both added to the pleasure and increased the angle of my learning curve in regard to this newer technology.

The camera The HC-X900M (hence the ‘900’) is a really nice camera in the sub $2000 market that shoots in ‘full HD’ at 1920x1080 in both the interlaced (‘I’) and progressive (‘p’) modes. It is on the larger side of compact (but only just) and fits snugly in an adult hand. The ‘M’ means it has 32GB of built-in memory but can also record to an SD card. It has (Thank you Panasonic.) both a large LCD viewer and an electronic view finder which extends from the back of the camera about 20mm but does not tilt. Once the camera is initially turned on by a power button under the cover of the LCD, closing or opening either the LCD or EVF will turn the camera off and on. A small lens hood is supplied, behind which the automatic lens cover responds to the on and off state. A multi-function manual ring control is just behind the filter ring with a ‘Camera Function ‘button just rear of that on the left hand side immediately in front of the LCD hinge. This is a cute little feature that will switch the camera from automatic mode to manual and display the white balance, aperture ,shutter 22

speed +/- focus (depending on other settings) options controllable on the LCD touch screen or using the multifunction ring control mentioned above. To revert back to the automatic function, pressing the iA (Intelligent auto)/Manual just above the closed LCD will bring you back to full auto. Under the closed LCD are easily accessible ports for mini-HDMI, AV multi (for both component and AV output) and USB. Along with the battery release clip, there is also the Power button already mentioned as well as a 1080/50p selection switch which is non-functioning when the optional 3D lens is fitted. (See further down for more on this accessory.) The right hand side of the camera is where the sockets for external mic and headphones hide under cover, just in front of the forward hand strap attachment. It also has a covered slot to accept the supplied bracket which holds a shoe for external microphone, light, etc. I really don’t like this idea, as my

biggish hand inside the hand strap jams against the bracket. Given that it makes it possible for me to attach a Rode Video Mic as the external microphone, it stops my hand from wrapping around the top of the camera. Seeing this, I expected that Panasonic would have an accessory mic available, tying me to that brand, (a marketing ploy I understand but despise) however I appear to be wrong. And in some ways, that makes it even worse. I suppose I could move the mounting foot of the VideoMic and alter the balance even more so, but really I think this is a clumsy bit of design. Even making the bracket a bit taller so rising above the top surface of the camera would have improved its functionality immeasurably IMHO. Below the hatch covering this underwhelming feature’s mounting position is a slide switch which releases it from the camera body. The top of the camera houses the 5.1 microphone, the zoom rocker switch (side to side, sadly) and the release button for still photos while the bottom

Auscam Rating Ease of use

8

We Liked

Features

9.5

The option to shoot in both ‘i’ and ‘p’ modes, the amazing optical image stabiliser, the internal memory, the large LCD viewer, the image quality, both 2D & 3D, and the iA function

Image Reproduction

9

Disliked

Audio recording

7

The shoe bracket design, the lack of a LANC-type controller socket, the side to side zoom control

Documentation

9

Value for money

8.5

Price

HC-X900M camcorder; $1799 VW-CLT2 3D Lens; $399

Contact

Panasonic Australia panasonic.com.au w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m


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only boasts the tripod mounting sockets and the SSD card hatch. The Record/ Pause button lives in splendid isolation at the back of the whole assembly. One thing that disappointed me was the lack of a socket to receive a remote zoom/record controller for when using the tripod. Anytime you touch a camera to alter the zoom you almost always cause camera shake and maybe even noise picked up by the on-board mike. There are multiple ways to control the manual functions of this camera. You can use the ring or the touch screen for most functions, including focussing and zoom. There is a Focus Assist available when using Manual Focus which is a bit like the Peak function of some other cameras where a blue colour highlights objects until they are clearly in focus while a blue border around the frame indicates you’re pretty close to the mark. This iA function is also pretty smick. It will change the current preset – in regards to white balance, aperture and shutter speed – depending on what you point the camera at and the prevailing conditions. Pretty cool, I think if you are a ‘fully automatic’ videographer. Immediately behind the iA/Manual button is the on/off switch for the Optical Image Stabiliser (OIS) and this is REALLY something to write home about. As I mentioned in a web post soon after returning from Norfolk, this is the best image stabiliser I have ever seen. Apparently this is due to attention not only to up, down, left and right movements, but also in and out motion. w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m

In both the demo by the company and in my own hands, at the full 12x optical zoom, the output looks like you were cheating and using a tripod.

The Panasonic VWCLT2 3D lens. With the lens hood removed, this accessory lens slides and locks into mating slots covering the lens opening. On its top is a largish lift up hatch which covers the horizontal and vertical alignment controls with which, it is demanded, you calibrate prior to first shooting in 3D. The LCD viewer will actually show you a pretty low end and eye-straining 3D picture in this mode, but I don’t recommend you view it for long. However, you have the option to turn off this 3D effect and revert to plain 2D display even while shooting 3D. The fact that you can get your standard BluRay player and non-3D TV to play 3d anaglyph BluRays that you can view using the red/cyan glasses was something I hadn’t realised until I reviewed this camera. That takes away a good deal of my resistance to 3D technology for the hobbyist videographer. Your editing options are somewhat limited to this time with 3D. If you go for the serious NLE suites, and have the funds, yes you can do it much as normal. As an example Adobe Premiere Pro requires GoPro Cineform Neo3D which would add close to $1000 to the price of doing 3D business that way. However, Sony Vegas 10d

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and later can edit 3D off the bat right through to a BluRay disk image. That aside, it is a somewhat steep learning curve to edit and output 3D in viewable forms. Certainly Panasonic provides some software which will allow (very) limiting editing options before output to a 3D file is possible. Getting it from there to a playable 3D BluRay is another question which may well be answered by additional third party software. There is a new vocabulary to be learned in 3D video as well – anaglyph, side by side, right to left, left to right, etc. to describe the various ways of achieving 3D output. As a cut-to-thechase comment, to output to YouTube, you need to upload the file as a hi-def side by side file which is then converted into a 3D anaglyphic file where red/cyan glasses are required for viewing.

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Performance The Panasonic HC-X900M is a great camera with an RRP of $1899. It is full of sophisticated and user friendly features and takes beautifully clear and colourful pictures. There is a depth to this camera that is usually only found in prosumer cameras and for the keen hobbyist, it will take a while to get the full benefit from its offerings. For early adopters, the accessory 3D lens provides excellent 3D separation, made more obvious by having a ‘reference’ object in the foreground.

Summary I love this camera with only a few minor issues stopping it from getting a 10/10 score. However, while I am a lot more positive about 3D than before I started, the additional lens is definitely a luxury and not an essential part of the kit that makes this an excellent camera.

At extreme close range, the image effectively reverts to 2D and that is jarringly obvious when watching it with 3D glasses.

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Adobe Touch Apps Adobe is barnstorming both the app and the tablet markets with tools you’d never expect to find in either, as Drew Turney learns.

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ou can lead a horse to water, as the saying goes... In the same way, you can give a photographer, video editor or creative pro a tablet, but will he or she do more than fire up Angry Birds? Adobe is betting so, giving design and A/V pros an environment completely centered around touch and Cloud services. Some of the apps in the new collection (not really a suite, which refers more correctly to the desktop product family Creative Suite) are digital versions of stuff we all do on paper now, so they have an uphill battle to overcome 2,000 years of human communication’s killer app. They’re all well made and show promise, but what will convince us to adopt them? While Adobe’s Creative Cloud is now in general release, the first problem that affects the Adobe Touch Apps is the sharing environments, which are different for every component. A better approach would be to collect them all together under a single Creative Suitestyle banner so they can use the same sharing tools. In some components you can only upload the result to your Creative Cloud account, in others you can send an image or file by email, download it to your device or any

number of combinations of each. It makes no sense because if you use any of the Touch Apps you’ll probably use at least two of them. A ‘sharing centre’ with multiple options similar to the iOS Game Centre would be a welcome future addition. The common movements, tools and elements in the Adobe Touch Apps are often very different from those of the Creative Suite, so there’ll be a steep learning curve, but one of Adobe’s strengths has always been standardization, so once you know them you’ll be comfortable across the whole family. And finally, in reading or considering any criticisms of these products, keep in mind that they cost a measly ten bucks (US) each from the relevant app store of your device. When you’re talking about products that (in the case of PS Touch) can do about 50 percent of what the comparable desktop product can do (for over AUD$1,000), there’s almost no justifiable cause for complaint.

Adobe Collage Think of this one as Paper 2.0. It’s a sketching application that lets you draw out ideas by simply arranging graphics on a canvas. A nice touch of the whole

Auscam Rating

24

Performance

8

We Liked

Documentation

n/a

Makes good use of the tablet medium, well thought out. Incredible price

Features

8

Disliked

Setup

9

No consistent file sharing philosophy

Value for money

10

Help Functions

6

Price

US$9.99 each

Contact

Adobe adobe.com

product family is to be able to click a button to conduct an image search on Google, Flickr, your own Creative Cloud account files (including native Photoshop or Illustrator files) or the gallery on your device to bring it into your work. This is the most sharing-friendly of the lot as you can email, upload or share via Skype or Bluetooth.

Adobe Debut Debut is the one you fire up when presenting to clients and/or stakeholders. Connect to your Creative Cloud account and download any file of any file type to your device for a swipable, zoomable version right in front of you, and there’s no pixilation or resolution problems because the app downloads the full high fidelity file. As you discuss the changes necessary, you can use the pen tool to scrawl your notes and manipulate the size of the pen, change colour or erase.

Adobe Ideas Ideas isn’t dissimilar enough from Collage to warrant its own existence. It’s another sketch pad application, more focused on drawing rather than doodling. Where Collage has a text tool similar to the one in Photoshop or Illustrator, here you simply choose a pen, change the size, colour and opacity and start drawing. Like Collage, it has layers you can swap or move and you can bring in a picture from the onboard camera or search for one online. One point of difference that’s cool (but won’t set the world on fire) is that it draws in vector format, so no matter how far you zoom in you don’t lose resolution and can draw in ever-fine detail.

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Reach out: Photoshop Touch is the flagship of the Adobe Touch Apps.

But Photoshop is similar to its big brother, albeit with more simplistic workflows better suited to a tablet form factor.

Adobe Kuler Among the most useful of the Touch Apps is this colour theme picker. If you’re designing a website, a print background or even looking for ideas for composing a photograph at a pinch – Kuler can give you a host of them in a few clicks. Find a colour you like in a picture online or from your device gallery and Kuler automatically extracts a series of colours to form a theme. Refine them further by selecting presents like Moody, Dark, Deep, etc and then customise them even more by adjusting the colour sliders an increment at a time. Or you can just swipe the colour wheel and the whole colour set will move with you, the other shades in the theme adjusting on the fly as you swipe. When you have a theme you like you can save, upload and share it or choose from Kuler themes already saved online. On reflection there’s a kind of small market for it as most creative pros will have set colours from a client, but it’s a good idea well executed.

Adobe Proto The clear winner in the ‘wow’ factor stakes. Open a canvas and sketch out your website – draw a box for an image, a long block of boxes for a menu, a triangle for a video icon, scrawl for text or a number of other preset objects the system recognizes. Then watch magically as Proto redraws the elements of your website as you draw, neatly lined up and positioned where you put them. Then simply adjust them by selecting and dragging to resize or move. If you don’t fancy starting from scratch, you can select and manipulate a selection of designs that have been done for you. But even that’s not the real kicker. As you do all this, Proto is building the HTML code in the background on the fly. w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m

The drawing aspect is cool – if a little fiddly – and isn’t as effective as huge sheets of paper for simple brainstorming. But creating the page source with all the div tags, image tags and tables coded and ready is a true revelation. But here again the sharing options let Proto down by only letting you upload the final product to your Creative Cloud account. Sending the HTML by email straight from your device would make this product near-perfect.

pro

Other components of the collection are new tools to generate colour themes, sketch and doodle ideas, present concepts and even generate HTML for your website design while you draw it.

Adobe Photoshop Touch This is the one most users will play with early on, and with good reason – though not as fully featured and without the depth of control of Photoshop’s desktop version it’s a great idea. It makes good use of the pressure sensitivity of a tablet, the one area where it makes the most sense to cut out a mouse. It will actually feel most comfortable to Wacom users initially for that reason. Some of the traditional controls like curves and layers are there, and to really impress your audience, show them the 3D layers representation. Like the sketching apps, there are some tools that are new and some sound good, but after a frustrating 10 fruitless minutes searching for the scribble selection tool (which lets you quickly isolate or deep etch an outline) I gave up. It won’t be quite as second nature if you’re a desktop Photoshop user but there are plenty of cute tricks. Just one is starting your camera and bringing it into Photoshop Touch directly to position your snap before you take the photo and commit the image to a layer. The Adobe Touch Apps are all available from the Android store and Adobe Photoshop Touch is available from the Apple App Store.

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Lenovo Edge E430

hardware

Can today’s generation laptops cut it for serious video editing. David Hague tries one out to see.

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ith manufacturers reporting that laptop sales are ahead of desktop sales then it stands to reason that a certain amount of video editing is probably attempted on laptops. Due to this it seemed like a fine idea to give it a try and see how good the current crop of laptops is suited for this purpose. The last time we looked at this was quite some years back with a story from the US creator of music videos who put together a clip for Sheryl Crowe if we recall, using an Acer Ferrari laptop and what at the time was Sony Vegas version 3. What made this unique was that the whole thing was edited and assembled on an aircraft travelling from LA to New York and upon landing the clip had been completed. We couldn’t get hold of the latest version of an Acer Ferrari but we did get a brand-new Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E430. The specifications of this beastie are reasonably impressive. For starters it has a 2.5 GHz Intel 5 processor, 4GBof RAM and a 320 GB hard drive. The screen is 14 inch and driven by an Intel hi-def graphics card. Maximum resolution is 1366 x 768 which is not super high of course, but adequate. The test software is once again Sony Vegas but this time as version 11. Installation was very rapid once the software had been downloaded from the Sony website. On my own desktop (Dual core 2.0GHz) which is a bit of a hybrid thing cobbled together over the years, Vegas can take a little time to load due to some of the modules it has to load, especially video plug-in factory and VST plug-ins – of course this depends on the number of plug-ins you have installed and I have a few. First time around, more than a minute

elapsed as these were loaded into RAM; subsequent loads (assuming there have been no reboots of the system) can drop this to around 25 seconds. By comparison, the Edge E430 did the initial load on 25 seconds and a subsequent load in fewer than 15 using exactly the same install setup under Windows 7 Premium. I consider speed is not the be all and end all however. Ergonomics is a very big issue in the overall picture and purchasing decision, and the Edge has a wonderful keyboard. To me though, this is offset by the track pad “mouse buttons” system. The trackpad which doubles as a button system – ie: it is clickable left and right – is fine, but the secondary buttons between the space bar and the track pad just don’t have a feel I like. And while I am sure there must be lovers of the “joystick” style mouse plonked in the middle of the keyboard, I am sadly not one of them. I still consider the best system of an integrated pointing device was on a Zenith laptop many, many years ago that was a rotating flange over circular spindle affair. The flange could “roll” front to back and move left and right

laterally along the spindle. The case is a rubberised plastic that has good grip and there are nicely rounded edges. The screen/lid has no latch. There is an HDMI port too, but as is usual – and drives me nuts – no cable is included. The power supply is a 6 cell unit, and I was getting on average 5 hours before a charge was needed. Enough for a Perth – Sydney flight say. At $599, the price is pretty keen too and a far cry from the original price of Acer Ferrari at the time! Overall, it’s a pretty nice laptop that will do the job at a reasonable budget price. As a field based machine installed with Sony Vegas Movie Studio (which despite its cheesy moniker is quite grunty in its own right), it would do an admirable job. For mine though, I still think a full on editing machine needs to be a fully kitted desktop with twin monitors, lots of RAM, big hard disks, a mouse, Contour Shuttle Pro, decent sound system and a Blu-ray burner. Of course though, you’ll pay the corresponding price – about $3K at last check. Visit lenovo.com/au for more.

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Casio Exilim EX-ZR200

hardware

In the overall scheme of things, Casio seems to be a poor cousin in the digital compact camera stakes. That is sad, thinks David Hague.

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have been a fan of Casio compacts since I was introduced to them many years back, and discovered the Casio (Shriro) representative at a press conference came from the same Lancashire area my family does. Even more coincidental, was the shared love of Prog Rock music such as Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd and more obscure acts like Budgie and Wishbone Ash. Had that meeting never happened, I would not be able to talk about a very good camera indeed for both still and video. The ZR200 is a 16 megapixel beastie with a CMOS sensor of ?.3” (or in new currency, 6.17 x 4.55mm). The processor is Casio’s own Exilim Engine 5.0. Maximum resolution is a tidy 4608 x 3456. For the boffins there are 8 levels of ISO from 200 to 3200 plus an Auto level, 6 white balance presets and the lens has an optical focal length of equivalent to 24mm ~ 300mm. Autofocus options include contrast detect, multi-area, tracking, single and Live View (which is NOT the same as “LiveView”. Oh and there is a manual focus too. Normal focus range is from 50cm down to the macro level at 1cm. Nice. There sadly is no viewfinder, but a

very sharp LCD with 460,800 pixels. Thankfully it is not touchscreen. In bright sunlight outside it was perfectly viewable. One of the best I have seen frankly. Other interesting specs include maximum shutter speed of 1/2000th and minimum of 8th seconds, and min/ max aperture of F3.0/5.9. Now the good stuff, video. Unlike many compacts, the EX –ZR200 shoots full specification H.264 at 1020 * 1080 plus a bunch of lesser resolutions for Facebook/YouTube transfer and the like. Storage can be to internal memory (not recommended as it is only 52MB) or

Auscam Rating Performance

9

We Liked

Documentation

9

Image quality, no touchscreen, LCD in sunlight, excellent manual, value for money, GPS

Features

8

Disliked

Steup

9

Position of on/off button, size of printing on controls, mono mic only, no supplied HDMI cable

Value for money

9

Price

$249

Contact

Shriro Australia shriro.com.au

w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m

SD card. Output is full HDMI but moan, bitch, no HDMI cable is included. Other manufacturers are starting to throw these in the box so as compact now do decent video, they all should. It’s not as if they cost a bomb (contrary to popular belief!) One feature that is now starting to grow on me is the inclusion of decent GPS and the EX200 has a corker of a system. Now the serious part; the ergonomics. Overall the ergonomics are generally good, although I continually have to search for the On/Off button which is in the centre of the body on the top. To the right of this is a rocker (horizontal orientation) for zoom surrounding the shutter release and to the extreme right, the mode select wheel. On the rear are the rest of the controls for selection, Set, Playback, Menu and Video Record (a separate button from shutter release). They are all easily within reach, and the only complaint I would have is that the printing of a button’s name (or its image) is very small, especially on the top mounted select wheel. Wait I forgot something. Picture/video quality, of course. Superb. Who could ask for more!

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Nikon D800 from a video user’s perspective Can a video person used to “traditional” camcorders but shied away from the current dSLR fad for video be a Luddite? Sort of? Some think so.

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thers think that I could possibly be converted and with that in mind (possibly!) the nice Mr Nikon arranged for me to fly to Japan and see the factory where the new D4 and D800s are being assembled. Coincidentally, being in Sendai this is also the area clobbered by the tsunami last year and Nikon were obviously very proud to have got their factory up and running again and sort of show it off. And it was until several months later that I finally got my hands on a real unit and managed to get a play for a few weeks. Nikon has purposely aimed this model squarely at the video market; indeed in the marketing blurb they state “36.3 megapixels and the powerful EXSPEED 3 image processing engine offer imaging potential that rivals some of the best studio cameras”. Big and strong claims indeed… To this end, a dirty big box arrived with everything you could imagine to test a camera to these claims. Nikon D800 body, extra lenses, microphone, light and even an Atomos Ninja kit with external monitor! Righto, so the D800 shoots full 1080P in both FX and DX based formats at 30 frames/second using H.264/MPEG4. And out of the box it’ll shoot up to a second short of 30 minutes. And of course the 35mm equivalent sensor area allows that much vaunted shallow depth of field effect so loved by movie makers. Ergonomically (I chose using a Nikkor 24mm to 70 lens for the majority of the review) is mostly well thought out – bearing in mind that I believe ergonomics are quite subjective; one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor and all that. Controls, and there are lots of them either accessed by thumbwheel or buttons, in most cases, generally fall

Auscam Rating Performance

9

We Liked

Documentation

9

Image quality, time lapse, external HDMI

Features

8

Disliked

Setup

9

Lack of hinged LCD

Value for money

8

Help Functions

6

Price

$3,499

Contact

Nikon Australia nikon.com.au

easily to the hand, both left and right.

have been shaped the way they are

One thing missing in my mind is that the LCD (which supports Liveview while shooting HDV) is fixed in place with no hinging capacity which I find very useful when shooting low angle for instance. You can add an external monitor and view in real time via an HDMI connection. This also gets a tick but hopefully the next generation will have the aforementioned hinging capability.. There is an inbuilt stereo mic – which oddly Nikon describes a built-in “external” mic? – and also an external port for a mic you might mount on the top mounted shoe. Although Nikon sent me their mic, I also tried a RØDE VideoMic 2 and RØDE NTG3 shottie which I reckon gave better results. And this is where, and again I stress this is for me, the use of a dSLR for video falls apart. Okay, not fully as like all tools, there is a time and place and use for everything. I can see that shooting some types of video can be an excellent use of the D800, especially when that shallow depth of field look is needed. Also of advantage is the ability to change lenses for different circumstances. But I can NOT see a D800 – or any other dSLR – replacing a dedicated camcorder any time soon. As a colleague once said, video cameras

since Day One for a good reason. My tests of ergonomics, which is not just control placement by the way, include shooting motor sport which is my thing and again obviously subjective and as a much tougher test, shooting stunt aircraft. Doing the former, the shape and balance simply don’t suit the discipline and in the latter, I defy anyone to heft a decent dSLR and keep track of an aircraft doing its thing for any period of time. The point I am mainly making is not that a dSLR is no good for video. In the right hands and for the right job, excellent results are to be had – and in this circumstance the D800 is an awesome beast. But so much of the hype around suggests that a dSLR is a full replacement for a dedicated camcorder, with much noise about the depth of field advantage as well as access to replacement lenses. So before purchasing, I strongly suggest you look at your needs and if possible, do a try before buy thing to make sure. I am not denying the D800 is not a good, if not great camera, but your needs may be better suited to something like a “hybrid” Sony NEX100 for example or a dedicated camcorder. David Hague

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Western Digital Sentinel DX4000

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f there was ever a statement used in computer and software manuals that has to be treated with extreme reservation it has to be “… this may take a few minutes.” At time of writing, I am setting up a Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 NAS/ Backup system and it is going through the process of initialisation. It has to do this in order to eventually get to the point it will give you an IP address you need to enter into a web

browser so that you can finalise the setup process. This is where the “few minutes” statement comes from. Those “few minutes” are now up to 15 or so and the percentage shown on the 2 line LCD screen is 5.26%! Once you can get to the setup screen the process is quite straightforward and done in two parts. The first is to personalise the server with the correct time zone, name, and password and so on and the second is

to install the Connector software onto each computer that will have access to it. Up tp 25 separate PCs can be supported by the WD DX4000. Macs are a slightly different case in that a Mac cannot be used to configure the server and a different suite of software is downloaded from the server (once it has been setup by a Windows machine) to allow connection. In both cases however, there is a simple Dashboard interface letting you configure the backup/restore procedure for each computer on the network. At $1490 the Sentinel is populated with 4TB of storage which is adequate for most small business. Serious video storing types might like to up this to 6TB I’d suggest. The interface is straightforward to use and should pose no difficulty to anyone who has a bit of computer knowledge. Oh and by the way, it is now 30 minutes and we are up to 16.36% so be prepared to spend some serious waiting time.

hardware

The least liked words in computer jargon are “back-up”. We all know we should do it. Here’s a good solution find David Hague.

Auscam Rating Performance

8

We Liked

Documentation

8

Nice easy interface

Features

8

Disliked

Setup

9

Not the fastest beastie around (in setup)

Value for money

7

Price

From $1,490

Contact

Western Digital westerndigital.com

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Airshows

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With less than a year to the Southern hemisphere’s largest airshow, we asked resident aviation freak and uber camera operator Ben Longden for a few tips.

This side up: Roulette 12 inverted at the bottom of a barrel roll at the Point Cook Air Pageant.

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t seems air shows and I go in common –I’ve been photographing and filming them for the sheer pleasure of it since 1982. The one big thing I have learnt – the hard way – is to travel light, have plenty of water on hand and a few litres of sunscreen nearby. This may sound a strange way to start a story on ‘how to’, but air shows are in the main, held on hot days, with no shade, and you are in the middle of up to 70,000 other aviation enthusiasts, nowhere near amenities, usually only metres from a heat refelecting runway. With such crowd numbers, the prime spot, assuming you didn’t go Gold Class is simple. It’s centre stage, right on the runway fence. This means you are going to be in the one spot for

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several hours; hence the need for sun smart gear, –travel light and water to hand.

On the Spot You feel the need to stay in the one spot, lest someone else steal your prime position. I did one Avalon Airshow from the fence, and stood in the one sport for the entire airshow. Needless to say I took the aforementioned goodies and just survived. I even managed to ‘hold on’ for the duration. If you don’t care about the runway shots, with the aircraft on takeoff, landing gear cycling, then you can set yourself up further back from the fence crowds and relax in a bit of space.

The advantage of this is that you will be able to spread out a bit, and take a folding chair with you and perhaps an umbrella (depending on the venue safety rules and winds) and you can also feel the freedom to visit the local food stalls and toilets. When it comes to equipment, you will need spare tapes or memory cards and batteries – enough to keep the camera switched on for six hours, as well as a cleaning kit, such as a lens brush, and a decent set of sticks (tripod).

Tripod, Mate! I know most folks groan when we at Auscam say you need to use a tripod, but having filmed and practiced with and without a tripod, I assure you that

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Learning the flying stuff for non flying people. All aircraft fly in and out of an airport according to a set pattern called The Circuit. This is standard world wide, and is used primarily as an invisible roadway in the sky to avoid aircraft colliding with each other, as the sky is often congested. Simply described, it is a rectangle, with one of the long sides comprising the runway. If you are lucky to be allowed to film airside (that’s the technical name for being on the side of the fence where the planes outnumber people) then be safe. Buy yourself a fluoro vest so all pilots and crew can see you. you will have better, more watchable vision if you use a tripod, and use it correctly. If your camera has a flip out screen, this is the one occasion I believe you really need it. The reason is simple… and to prove it, try this. Mount the camera on a tripod, and have your eye to the viewfinder, then do a SMOOTH and steady pan from left to right through 180 degrees. Now try it again without tripping over your feet, and the tripod legs… The only real way is to use the flip screen and work with your face away from the camera, watching the screen. If you have a pan handle on the tripod, remount it so it will not foul the tripod when you aim the camera almost overhead, especially if you are using a LANC or similar camera controller.

Head to the Aero Club Now for the tricky part, pack up the gear and head to the local airport, and pop into the flying school, and have a chat with the Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) and tell him that you are practicing filming aircraft and getting ready for Avalon. That way, you won’t get any nocturnal visits from the Ninjas, and you will make quite a few new friends at the aero club who will actually appreciate you being there, and may ask you to share your work with them – especially the

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Make sure you are situationally aware, and know where all the aircraft around you are, and what they are doing. Being airside is cool, but it is a bit more dangerous than behind the fence. A really useful tip, is never go near the prop on a parked aircraft, and treat every aircraft engine as live, and about to start. If you see the red anti-collision beacon rotating on a parked aircraft, back off; as the pilot is about to does an engine start which is really good advice to get the shots of startup, and the smoke cough with big radials. Spend some time with the guys and gals at the Aero Club (Shepparton or Echuca are HIGHLY recommended!) and they will go out of their way to help you.

aerobatic pilots. Additionally you will get an idea of the Circuit the aircraft fly around the airport you are at, what plane is what, and where the aircraft will be in the sky depending on the winds prevailing. Importantly you’ll also learn where they operate ‘airside’, and how to be safe when working near aircraft. Practice, and practice again The next thing is to begin practicing with extreme telephoto (hence the need for a rock stable camera platform. Say it out loud; TRIPOD and make a promise that if you don’t use one, you will soon) To give you an idea, extend your arm, with fingers out, and fold up your thumb and little finger; leaving three fingers outstretched. This is the field of view you will need to practice with your camera. So, at the airport, work at the fence, and ensure you can frame the aircraft, and then KEEP it in frame all the time, in the same PART of the frame, especially on the takeoff roll, and as it goes past you. It is not as easy as it looks. It takes a LOT of practice. And, dare I say it again, this works best using a tripod. A typical airshow routine takes 10 to 11 minutes for each ‘act’, and will feature the aircraft taking off well before their routine starts, usually in between another aircraft’s show. You will need to keep your wits about you and do some careful editing afterwards if you wish to retain continuity.

Getting ready Setting up the camera is a good idea as well. Leaving the camera on auto everything will guarantee you almost unusable vision. The most important things to do are; U Set the colour balance to daylight. UÊSwitch off autofocus. U Set the focus to infinity, and check the exposure to manual if you can

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Four simple things, but why? Well, the answer is easy. With the colour balance, it will want to correct the light temperature so that the end result will become a neutral grey. In other words, what will happen is your deep blue sky, will be misread and converted to an 18 percent grey Sky – not exactly the deep blue that you had in reality. With the autofocus, most AF systems will hunt for focus when they are pointed at the sky. The fact there is a plane buzzing in the viewfinder won’t register for a few seconds, and then it will shift from close focus to infinity and lock. This means that you will lose valuable vision, and the moment it can’t retain focus lock, off it will go, and hunt from close focus to infinity giving you lots of unusable vision and precious little usable stuff. To correct for this, manually set the focus at infinity. After all, the plane

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is not exactly close to you which in photographic terms is infinity. And the exposure? Well, if any video camera is worth its salt, it will have an exposure guide in the viewfinder or flip screen called ZEBRA. These zebra stripes and lines indicate the correct exposure on an object in the frame, and will remove the possibility of over, or more likely under exposure in the shot frames, especially when there is sunlight reflected off the airframe. Additionally, judging exposure when the flip screen is in full sun is an acquired art. For air shows, the flip screen is used only for framing.

Framing

Standing room only: The crowds at Avalon. You can see the sheer number of people vying for prime position.

When filming the flying aircraft, you will quickly discover it is extremely difficult to maintain a tight framing on the plane. You will also discover that shooting wide is easier. The trick is to be able to compromise, so you get the aircraft movements, yet have it wide enough to be easily kept in frame, but not so wide the plane becomes a dirt speck on the lounge room television screen. This is where practice is the key, and by starting now, less than 12 months to Avalon, you should be just about ready to capture some of the world’s most amazing aircraft performing almost unnatural aerobatic routines.

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Creativity unplugged

© Kyle Lambert

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Do a quick magazine layout on the train? Illustrate a client logo in the restroom? Drew Turney finds out whether a world of designers using tablets is on the way...

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f you’ve been in the digital graphic design or art field since the desktop publishing revolution of the 1980s you’ve probably spent your career shackled to a desktop (or laptop) system on a table, the notion of designing or working anywhere else quite alien. We’ve all seen the tablet take over the consumer world, but is there a chance it might infiltrate the design

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community to the extent where it can be used to produce professional work? We’ve all seen the slickly-produced promotional videos of doctors, miners and salespeople smiling as they work on mobile devices, and some people think our market’s next. Just one is Adobe, which last year released its Touch Apps suite of tools for sketching, concepting, colour theme generation and more, including Photoshop Touch which covers the basics of the desktop version. “We consider these to be companion apps [to the desktop Creative Suite applications],” says Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. But while chief technology officer Kevin Lynch says designers working on tablets on bread and butter projects is still in the future, it’s coming closer and it’s something Adobe is betting big on. “In times of change you need to be a little bit predictive,” he says. “Not many creatives are using touch right now, they’re using a mouse and keyboard or

a Wacom tablet with a pen – particularly for illustration in particular. So there’s little of that direct relation on a screen, but not so much yet. But we’re shooting a bit ahead of where people are now.” The question is whether designers will arrive in the position developers as Adobe hopes. As consumers, we’ve certainly been as hungry for tablets as the rest of society. In fact, many creative pros might have been even more receptive to tablets because the most successful model is from a hardware maker many of us have been devoted to since the desktop publishing era. “I tend to buy anything that’s shiny and new and the iPad is no different,” says designer Ashley Morris. “I lined up day one to grab one. At first I was at odds with its purpose and how it differed from my iPhone, but over time it’s proved its worth.” Morris’s love of his tablet is definitely moving him down the road towards it being his prime creative tool, which

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© Mike Miller seems to prime him for being the kind of designer Adobe envisages. “It’s slowly replacing my notebook and journal. Notes, creative outbursts and thumbnails often get jotted down on the screen rather than on paper. As a presentation tool it also shines.” Creative director Dari Israelstam isn’t a tablet owner, but he can see the appeal in the informal nature that’s already won Morris over. “I could see a touch-enabled tablet being a fantastic tool for collaborative design workshops and for when we work on projects in teams,” he says. “In time, tablets could become the digital replacement of postit notes, which are ubiquitous in our creative process.” Israelstam also understands the importance of connection to the medium the computer system has w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m

interrupted to some extent, one tablets have the potential to reestablish. “It’s the uninterrupted pathway from thought to touch to screen – in retouching in particular. Using something more accurate than a finger for illustration on a touch tablet opens a whole world of opportunities.” Of course, being able to work anywhere doesn’t mean we actually want to work anywhere. While Morris agrees about the upsides, it’s less about mobility per se. “Accessibility is a big draw for touch screen devices, but I respond much more effectively in an office environment. Not necessarily because it’s in front of a desktop system, but because that environment means ‘work’ so my brain knows to act accordingly.” If designing on tablet catches on,

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there’ll certainly be a ready market. Adobe’s Kevin Lynch reported last October that 16 percent of the company’s customers have tablets (certain to be more by now), and of those, he says 92 percent responded to a survey that ‘they want to do an extended creative activity on a tablet’. “There’s a lot of interest pent up here,” is how he describes it. It’s also very true that today’s tablets are powered where PCs were five years ago, and with the explosive growth in R&D as well as purchasing in the tablet market, your mobile device might simply be a better choice for professional productivity one day soon. But here’s the real kicker – the flow of influence between desktops and tablets is a two-way street. The Adobe Touch apps are quite different from the programs you’re used to in Creative Suite – even Photoshop Touch behaves differently and has different uses than the desktop version – so if designers take to touch-driven creative apps on tablets, they might in turn change the way we look at creative software for your computer – especially since desktop hardware is evolving too. “We’re starting to see large monitors that are touch enabled so that creative power is also going to come from the desktop,” says Adobe’s Narayen. “We fully intend to bring that back in the next version of creative suite to touch-enable our desktop applications.”

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Bits and pieces

hardware

Interesting odds and sods that have crossed David Hague’s desk recently

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STM Velo Bag The problem with camera bags today though – well contemporary ones anyway – is that many haven’t kept up with the change in trends in photography and videography. Nowadays we not only have camera bodies and lenses etc but also camcorders, tablets, notebooks and laptops, mobile phones and music players and so on. So it delighted me to find a new type of bag from Bondi based STM bags that whilst designed primarily as a laptop bag, it also doubled very nicely as a very handy camera bag. There are lots of compartments and zippered pockets and lots of nice little touches such as solid density foam, water resistance, quick release buckles, heavy duty stitching and the ability to hook over a larger wheeled travel suitcase.

I accept it is not the panacea for all users, but if your regular travelling kit is more than simply a dSLR and some lenses, then I reckon these are worth a look.

Kaiser Baas Wireless Headphones If you’re like me, ear buds as ‘headphones’ just don’t make the grade. Firstly, they are uncomfortable, second they tend to fall out and third, the sound is just not that good compared to ‘real’ headphones. Also damned annoying, especially on a plane, is that the connecting cords get tangled (especially around the seatbelt), and no matter how carefully you coil them back up, next time around you’ll spend three hours untangling them again before they can be used. I have just found a set of Bluetooth headphones from Kaiser Baas that fit a multitude of my own needs and sound good to boot. They are simply charged by a single USB cable, have a microphone that can be screwed in or removed as needed and as well as acting as good sounding headphones for a music player, tablet or whatever, also double as a Skype headset with the ability to switch between music (which automatically goes on pause) to make or receive Skype calls or indeed, even calls from a smartphone. For ease of carrying, they have a neat foldable design. Additionally, they have built in noise cancelling pads and can also pair with a Sony PS3 Playstation. Controls include volume, next/previous track and call answer/mute. The Kaiser Baas Bluetooth headphones are $69.95 and more

information can be obtained from kaiserbaas.com.au

RØDE SM5 I am in the process of evaluating three different mid-level pro cameras for a special feature on what constitutes a good “run’n’gun” unit for ENG and other interested types. In the process, I have across an interesting problem. It appears there is no set standard for microphone diameters so in the case of the Panasonic AG-HMC41E (the others are a Canon XA10 and Sony NFX5) for example, when the NTG-3 is placed in the external mic holder it rattles around – not enough to simply slide through, but enough to be a worry. A quick call to Scott Emerton from RØDE and an email reply informed me of the existence of the RØDE SM5 shock mount. As you can see, instead of clamping the mic, the SM5 itself is clamped and the mic slides between and is suspended by rubber pads ensuring there is no unwanted rumble or vibration. If you want to add the SM5 to a boom pole, there are also 1/4” and 3/8” threads at the base of the mount. RRP: $49.95 approx Seee. rodemic.com

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Tutorial: Creating “Sherlock Holmes” text

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am a great fan of the TV show “Sherlock” written by Stephen Moffat, who coincidentally is also the writer of Dr Who. It has used some interesting techniques in filming and editing, and the one that caught my eye in the first episode was the method whereby text that Sherlock SMS’d (texted) to a bunch of journos at a police press conference was displayed to the viewing audience. In effect, the text appears on screen and then using track motion, is moved to various positions in 3D space. It’s a very effective way of letting the viewer know what is happening “off screen” so to speak, without detracting from the overall imagery on scene. In a genuine 3D package such as Cinema 4D, Lightwave, Maya etc, this is a piece of cake to setup up with a transparent background (alpha channel) and composite over the scene of your movie. But I wondered if a stand-alone NLE could also do it easily and quickly. My NLE of choice is Sony Vegas and as version 11 has just been released, and I simply haven’t had the time to have a play of late, I thought I’d give it a crack and see. The text on an alpha (transparent background) was easy to set up on its own track using the default titles and text tool. I set it to Arial Black at 48 point. To show the 3D space, the track motion tool was clicked and 3D Source Alpha checked. Now comes the tricky part, moving the text to the required location; this is where a knowledge of keyframes is vital. For the uninitiated, a keyframe is a snapshot of an object’s “state” at a particular time. This “state” can be any attribute of an object such as its position

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in 3D space (what we are interested in), size, colour and so on. For text it could include font, colour, size, bevel type – there are literally thousands of options in Vegas and plug-ins such as those from ProDAD add many, many more. The beauty of a keyframe is that after you have it describing the attributes of an object at that time, all the frames between the previous and the next keyframe are calculated by Vegas. So by setting the start position and end position keyframes for our Sherlock text, Vegas will generate – called interpolate – all the other frames. In this case, the effect is going to last 5 seconds, so Vegas will generate 4 * 25 frames second = 100 frames for us all by itself. Clever huh! The way I did it was to play around with the settings of position in X, Y and Z space to get the ending position I wanted (accepting that my starting position was to be the default 0, 0, 0) and then copy that keyframe and paste it to the position of 5 seconds. Once that was set, I could go back to position zero and simply zero all the parameters.

Vegas then generated all the frames between 0 seconds (the starting point where the text is fully face on) and 4 seconds. Previewing the animation shows a nice smooth transition from the text being face on and vertical to being at an angle and titled. All I need to do now is simply place the required background on a new video track and render. Done. Of course, this is a very simple explanation and there is lots of room for scope and experimentation to do some really cool things. For example, a transition could be added to the text to make it vanish after a pre-determined time to make it disappear by dripping off the screen, exploding, fading away, catching fire and burning – you get the idea. This is the power of keyframes, and to really get to know your NLE well, they are something you really should spend some time with. Oh and if you have never watched Sherlock, you don’t know what you are missing!

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In the new Sherlock Holmes TV series, a technique was used to show the viewer mobile phone text messages. David Hague shows a way of doing it.

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Review: Sony NEX-FS700/K

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Sony expands NXCAM line with h new full-HD super slow motion with a super 35mm camcorder that delivers elivers high quality, flexible and creative shooting, finds David Hague.

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ony is pushing the creative boundaries with the new NEXFS700/K Full-HD Super Slow Motion camcorder, the latest in Sony’s line-up of NXCAM interchangeable E-Mount camcorders. The new Super 35mm model is designed for highspeed shooting, capable of capturing footage at up to a staggering 960 frames per second. The camera also features a range of capabilities such as 3G HD-SDI output and built-in ND filters. Additionally, it also offers several creative options, shooting styles, and enhanced ergonomics – all Sony tells us based on customer feedback -to deliver a production tool that they say can fit seamlessly into a variety of shooting applications. The NEX-FS700/K with its super slow motion mode is ideal for music videos, film and TV drama on a budget, commercials and documentaries as well as sports and variety of events shooting.” The camera delivers full HD quality at 120 and 240 frames per second in a 16 or 8 second burst mode respectively. The NEX-FS700/K’s high sensitivity and low noise shooting capability makes super slow motion shooting more convenient without additional bulky and expensive equipment. Its 480 fps and 960 fps at reduced resolution are available for faster frame rate recording. The NEX-FS700/K camcorder uses a new 4K ExmorTM Super 35 CMOS sensor (total 11.6 million pixels). This high-speed readout chip is optimised for motion picture shooting, giving high sensitivity, low noise and minimal aliasing. The NXCAM’s E-Mount flexibility is designed to accept virtually all SLR and dSLR 35mm lenses without optical

degradation, with the use of simple, inexpensive adapters. NEX-FS series owners can make use of their existing lenses and add more lenses without being forced on a brand or mount. Users can also capture high-quality still images with the NEX-FS700/K. The camera includes “face detection” and auto focus to help ensure that a subject is always kept in focus. NEX-FS700/K camera operators can take advantage of the camera’s builtin ND filters, with a newly designed ND filter wheel that rotates across the sensor like a turret. The wheel includes positions for Clear, 1/4 (2 Stop), 1/16 (4 Stop), and 1/64 (6 Stop). The NEX-FS700/K’s 3G HD-SDI and HDMI connectors can output full HD 50p and 60p, in addition to standard HD 50i, 60i, 24p, 25p or 30p frame rates with embedded time code and audio. 3G HD-SDI can output native 23.98, 25, 29.97 progressive signals; users can elect to output PsF over the 3G HD-SDI. Thanks to flexibility of the digital ports, virtually any external recorder can be paired. Compatible media includes MS and SD memory cards, and Sony’s HXR-FMU128 flash memory unit that attaches to the camera. The NEX-FS700/K features include a robust detachable top handle, secured

by a pair of screws (a cold shoe, plus two sets of 1/4 and 3/8 inch holes) to allow secure mounting for heavy accessories. The handle is attached with a rosette mount. A key element of the handle is an “active grip” that features four buttons for commonly used functions – expanded focus, auto iris, still capture and recording Start/Stop -- so users can easily operate the camcorder while holding the camera. Function buttons are also enlarged to make operation easy even while wearing gloves. The camcorder’s design also includes anchor points for compatibility with thirdparty accessories Sony say has a more durable design than previous models. Sony is planning a future firmware upgrade that will enable the NEXFS700/K to output a 4K bitstream data over 3G HD-SDI when used with an optional Sony 4K recorder. The NEX-FS700/K became available in June of this year in two versions – NEX-FS700 is body only, NEX-FS700K is supplied including an E-Mount 18-200mm lens. Suggested pricing (ex GST) is expected to be less than $11,000 (Australia), $14,500 (New Zealand). For more info Contact Sony Professional via Sony Australia on 1300 720 071 or visit pro.sony.com.au

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Review: ProDAD Mercalli Easy Stabiliser

software

There is nothing quite as bad as jittery, shaky video. Can we fix it? Yes we can finds David Hague.

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uite a few years back now I remember playing with a brilliant piece of software called Commotion put out by a company called Puffin. They have long since gone absorbed by someone – it may have been BorisFX I cannot remember. Later I was introduced to the ubiquitous Adobe After Effects and Boris Red, both applications with a huge breadth of capability, probably far and beyond what a mere mortal can ever fathom. The connecting point of these programs was that they all do, or did, image stabilisation; I remember the tutorials well where you had to pick a stationary object in the video footage as a reference point and then the software would rejig all the pixels around on the selected clip to make it stable. It was a slow process too, as Way back Then, personal computers had nowhere near the power or memory they have now. In many cases I recall setting a process to start and letting it run all night. Yes, it was onerous and time consuming but it worked. The drawback was that these applications cost well over $1000 so for the hobbyist or even

enthusiast, they were mostly out of the question. As digital still cameras and smartphones came into the picture (pardon the pun) for video, these sorts of tools became even more necessary. Have a look on YouTube and see how many really bad videos there are with jerky movements and the “rolling shutter effect” – skewing, wobbling and shake caused by the shutter mechanism on digital still cameras when a fast pan or zoom is initiated.

Well the problem has been solved. And at a rather good price. US$14.95 to be exact. Yes that is fourteen dollars and ninety five cents. OK, so it doesn’t have all the fancy bells and whistles of the stand alone version 2 or the plug in version for your favourite NLE, but as a quick and dirty fix for some jittery video, it is truly astonishing. For those who regularly use mobile phones, point and shoot digital still cameras, or the popular GoPro type of cameras to shoot video I say go and buy it. There are no special tricks to learn; simply fire up the app, point it at a video clip and let it do its magic while you have a cup o’ tea. At $14.95 you cannot go wrong and the results will amaze you. Oh, and I suppose the name would be useful. Mercalli Easy Stabilisation and you can get it via prodad.com And while you are there, have a look at some of their other apps/plugins. We’ll have more ProDAD reviews both on the website and the next edition of the magazine. w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m


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Interview: Anita Jacoby

subtlety, or to try and gain something that would most likely never have been yours). Ms Jacoby tells me that they have always tried to select titles that provoke interest and says that often, when people see a word they don’t know in their TV guide, they are piqued enough to go and find its meaning. She said that “Enough Rope” caused some initial angst as it was feared invited guests might baulk on appearing on a show

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ustralia has a number of successful TV and film production companies but possibly none have had the strike rate and popularity of Zapruder’s Other Films. What? And a funny name too? The name firstly; Zapruder was a real live person who has a unique place in history in that the famous footage of President John F Kennedy getting shot was filmed by him. So now we know ‘who’, the ‘what’ is the production company run by Anita Jacoby and Andrew Denton, responsible for such TV shows as Enough Rope, The Gruen Transfer and currently airing on ABC1 on Wednesday nights, Randling. Other shows they have created that may surprise you include David Tench Tonight, Joy of Sets, AFP, Country Town Rescue and Elders. I had the great fortune to have an interview with Anita Jacoby and was greatly interested to find out how Zapruder ticks and its philosophies. I learned Zapruder has only produced original ideas; it has never bought a format from overseas, instead choosing to work from the ground up “lovingly building a show” as Ms Jacoby describes the process. As you can imagine, this w w w. a u s c a m o n l i n e . c o m

can be a lengthy process, with The Gruen Transfer, hosted by comedian Wil Anderson for example, taking over two years before a single frame was put to air. Indeed, the original concept of making a documentary was changed during the development process to end up being the weekly panel show we are all now familiar with. Even now though, during the actual airing process, tweaks are made to segments inside the show – How Do You See and The Pitch in Gruen for example. Likewise, choosing the regular “talent”, Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson took months of testing people. Ms Jacoby says they usually know if an idea will fly, but admit that before its actually before an audience, you can’t be too confident! I was intrigued about the titles to the shows. Whilst such phrases and terms as Randling and Gruen are real words, it is fair to say that until Zapruder brought them to our attention, the majority would never have heard them, let alone know what they mean! (Gruen was the inventor of the modern shopping “mall” and to randle something is to try and influence a turn of events in your favour, usually not very

that on the surface was potentially asking them to “hang themselves”. As history shows though, this was never the case – except for the odd conman! The core team of Zapruder is six full time production people, with others being contracted as needed on a showby-show basis. Currently Zapruder is in the process of merging with another company, Cordell-Jigsaw, with the main aim being to gain access to overseas markets with Cordell-Jigsaw having the resources to take the formats and shows to foreign climes. Whilst many shows have already been sold overseas, with the merger this can now be expanded and can only bode well for Australian TV production and by definition of course, then local talent as well. Anita Jacoby concluded by saying as well as always looking out for new people – not necessarily known oncamera personalities – they are also always looking for new opportunities in the form of creative and innovation. “Our door is always open,” she says.

feature

Zapruder’s other films has made quite a splash on Australian TV. David Hague gains a few insights into their process and philosophy.

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Review: Tamron 18~200mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III VC E-Mount Lens

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ver the last weekend and on past ANZAC Day I have had the pleasure of playing with a couple of Sony’s finest – the NEX7 and even better, the NEX FS100. Now the FS100 has already been put through its paces at Auscam, and in fact reviewer Chris Oaten summed it up with “I’m gonna be right up front with a pat on the back for Sony in what I feel is a wellaccomplished objective.” The NEX 7 I have not seen before, but apart from one and a half little niggles, I am in love with this little beastie; it takes fantastic shots. And the niggle and a bit? The viewfinder as it brings up my left eye dominant issue is the big one. The half is as it has an auto LCD to viewfinder switch when you look through the viewfinder, if you wear glasses, sometimes it does ‘sense’ you unless you press hard against the rubber cup and this tends to smear your specs.

These things aside, the main reason I have these two cameras is as they are both NEX based, they of course can accept an interchangeable lens using the Sony E mount system. Now it so happens that lens maker Tamron has licenced this system from Sony and Brendan Lee from distributors Maxwells gave me a buzz to see if I’d like to review one – their new 18~200mm F/3.5-6.3 Di III VC. That’d be a yes then. In real terms, the 200mm on this lens and camera configuration is equivalent to 300mm on a 35mm camera and so is a serious animal for sports stuff – right up my alley. It also boasts ‘Vibration Compensation’ and internal focussing. It weighs a bit less and is about 1cm shorter (460g/96.7cm) than the equivalent Sony but add the petalled lens hood and it is much of a muchness. On the NEX 7 the balance felt fine to me but perhaps – oddly – a little front heavy

on the FS100 at full zoom. As expected, at minimal zoom, the image is pin sharp but even at maximum zoom the centre of the image is far better than average although there is minimal drop off as you get to the edges. Chromatic aberration is well controlled but there is a bit of flare when shooting into the sun; the lens hood does a fine job here however. At $849, this is a very good quality lens. It feels solid due to a metal mount (the rest is plastics) and golly, you get a choice of black or silver! On the FS100 it is a worthy competitor for Sony’s own offering, even costing a tad less, but on the NEX 7, it makes a killer combination in my opinion. The only drawback is that it doesn’t come with a case. For more info maxwells.com.au Verdict: 9/10 David Hague

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Training materials

$BNFSB $POlEFODF Get the inside look with Douglas Spotted Eagle and Kevin Hicks as they guide you through every angle of camcorder use, regardless of the camera you own or your level of experience. All basic camera features and functions are discussed and explained in this DVD. Learn how to control light through shutter speed or aperture, and see the difference. Go in-depth on topics such as codecs and filebased workflows. Watch practical demonstrations of the 180, camera movement, frame rate and coverage. Get advanced info on 35MM adapters and tips on achieving the elusive “film look” in your video projects. From beginners to seasoned pros, there’s something for everyone to improve on their camera knowledge and operation.

RRP: $59.00 Light ‘Em Up Light is the most important part of visual communication. Without it there can be no picture and all that you capture when you film an image is the light reflecting off of the objects in your scene. So Make sure you are doing it right with the Light ‘Em Up DVD. With over an hour of instruction, this contemporary guide to video lighting is an absolute must have for anyone who wants to take their productions to the next level visually. This DVD starts with an overview of

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lighting and its importance to all visual projects. Basic kits and accessories are detailed in groups and as individual pieces of equipment. Standard One, Two, and Three Light concepts are explained and explored in depth. Light ‘Em Up excels in conveying artistic, dramatic, and thematic applications that can be attained with minimal gear. Demonstrating real-world lighting techniques and applications, this DVD is for anyone who wants to learn to light like a pro using common lighting sources, equipment, and accessories.

RRP: $59.00 Making Money .BLJOH 7JEFP Making Money Making Video is the first-ever DVD that outlines how to be successful in the Video Production Industry. Kevin Hicks and Brian Balog guide you through the entire process of Making Money Making Video. Over an hour in length, this DVD covers every step of the process including: Getting Established, Negotiating, Saving Money in Pre-Production, Production, and Post-Production, and lots of Expert Tips. Watch Making Money Making Video and Increase Your Profits in all stages of your video production business.

How to Create $PNQFMMJOH 7JEFP Messages Learn to master the tools and techniques you need to make powerful video messages! It’s not just about turning on a camera. “How to Create Compelling Video Messages” covers how to identify your objectives, plan your production, reinforce your brand, and how to make your message clear. From preproduction planning to production equipment and settings and all the way through to editing and delivring your message. “How to Create Compelling Video Messages” is a step-by-step guide to telling your story on video.

insider

Here at Auscam we have a range of training material to help make you a better movie maker. Whether you are a rank beginner or dedicated expert, there will be a title here to interest you.

RRP: $59.00

Payment We accept payment by cheque, credit card or PayPal. Simply phone your order on 08 94675922 or order securely at auscamonline.com.au (click on ‘Store’). You don’t need a PayPal account to use it as PayPal accepts credit cards. All products + $5 shipping Postal orders need to be sent to 4 Cox Place ECHUCA VIC 3564

RRP: $49.00 43


AUSCAM A4 48pp 217790cr

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43

it’s a wrap

What’s wrong with this picture Steve Turner wonders what the kids today are thinking.

I

first noticed something was wrong at the Foo Fighter’s concert. As is the modern way the crowd was awash with outstretched arms, phones shooting video in a (fairly futile) effort to capture the band going full steam. It still took a moment to realize what wasn’t right. The vast majority, and I do mean vast, we’re holding their “cameras” vertically instead of horizontally. How can this be? Do they not have wide screen tellys at home? In that crowd possibly a thousand people would have gone home and played the video on their computer. Did they wonder why there was a thin vertical picture and black on either side? Even if they simply upload to YouTube the end result is the same. This isn’t brain surgery! You can have the camera vertical for photos but not for filming. It just defeats the purpose.

Ugly Ducklings On the subject of noticing change have you looked at the new generation of pro cameras? Almost without exception they are seriously ugly. The box Brownie is back in high definition! The new Canon C300, the Sony FS100, and the Red are all simple black ugly boxes. Call me shallow but I like my camera to look a bit nicer than a box on sticks. It possibly started with Red. A simple functional box that you glue your lenses onto. Works but not appealing. Reminds me of the old Volvo thing – “Boxy but good”. The first serious film camera I bought was the Canon Xl1. Very funky in its styling as well as being a breakthrough camera. I went to the XL2 and now the XL1H. Nice piece of kit in function and style. The Sony EX cameras have a similar style and even the broadcast XDcams look the business. dSLRs have a certain stylistic appeal too and even the large format ones look good. They balance of body and lens make for a professional look that appeals to the eye as well as the functional capability appeals to the creator in you. So what went wrong? Did the manufacturers all decide at the same time that their 44

designers had to go to save money? Did someone think that professional film makers are above liking good design? I have been shallow enough to shy away from a camera just because I didn’t like the look of it (when the specs were all similar of course). You can bet the next iMac or iPod will not be a simple black box. There’s a reason for that. Apple know that style matters no matter how good the product is at doing its job. Get those designers back people!

Woohoo! Woo HOO moments are fairly rare in the review world. Sometimes a camera or a piece of software will be too much fun for words and you do get to feel like a kid in a toyshop. Adobe’s Premiere Pro CS6 gave me that feeling. More possibly in relief than anything. CS4 disappointed and CS5 didn’t seem to stretch out at all. CS6 however looks the business and I’m very happy playing with it. From the new look interface to its new functions I really think its fully sorted and a dream to use. Look for my full test drive in an upcoming Auscam.

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AUSCAM A4 48pp 217790cr

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AUSCAM A4 48pp 217790cr

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