Category: Digital Video

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New Nikon D7000. Now we’re talking!

Yesterday Nikon answered my wishes for a replacement to my Nikon D5000 (and D300 before that) travel camera. My wish was for a small rugged body that offers DSLR video at 1080p, stereo mic input and continuous autofocus while shooting video ain't bad either. I looked at the D3100 was tempted, but once my buddy Jeff Revell pointed out that it lacked bracketed shooting (which makes HDR much much easer), and that was pretty much a deal breaker. It also lacks a mic input. However, the D7000 has everything I want. It's actually more of a replacement to the D90 than the D5000. Although the D5000 was newer, the D90 had a more rugged water resistant body. The D7000 brings Nikons latest technologies to bear.

 

It offers:

  • a 16.2MP DX-format CMOS chip
  • HD Video up to 1080p 24fps (20 minute clip limit – up from 5 minutes)
  • Full-time Auto Focus while shooting video <- if this works well it will be HUGE!
  • a respectable 6fps continuous shooting mode
  • ISO range from 100 to 6400 (expandable to 25, 600 in HI2 mode)
  • Twin SD (SDHC, SDXC) card slots – great for copying, shooting video to one stills to the other or RAW to one and JPGs to the other.
  • Optional MD11 external battery grip 
  • Built-in HDMI out and stereo mic in
  • GPS support (external module required as before)
  • Full specs here.

 

Yep, this is the one I've been waiting for since last year. 

The Nikon D7000 lists for $1,195 and you can place your pre-order here.

 

Continue reading “New Nikon D7000. Now we’re talking!”

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Getting Started with DSLR Video for Photographers – Part Two

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2VXeqwlZF8

 

Adobe's Worldwide Evangelist for Video and Audio, Jason Levine is back once again to give us his second installment on Getting Started With DSLR Video for Photographers.

Download a FREE fully functional 30 day Trial of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 and work right along side Jason.

Continue reading “Getting Started with DSLR Video for Photographers – Part Two”

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Photoshop World – Vegas 2010 Wrap Up

For me this was probably not only my busiest Photoshop World, but probably my best. There was a good vibe going on all week long! I not only got a chance to see some old friends, but I also got a chance to teach some new classes and do some presentations that I hadn't tried before. 

 

Honored to be a part of the Adobe Keynote Address

shot by Cari Gushiken

The last time I was on stage for the Photoshop World Keynote was actually the very 1st Photoshop World Keynote 1999 in Orlando FL. Back then I was the keynote speaker and oddly enough back then the big news was Adobe InDesign 1.0. Wow! A lot has changed in 10 years! This year I took the stage along side Johnny L to show a quick 5 minute demo on taking your photos and DLSR video from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.2 into Adobe Premiere Pro CS5. It was great to hear so many photographers that were thinking about getting into DSLR video come up to me afterwards and say "I think I can do that". 

If you missed the keynote, you can watch the replay here.

 

Celebrating Photoshop's 20th Anniversary In the Adobe Booth

 

Adobe took a totally different approach to the tradeshow floor this time. Normally our booth is the typical theater with demo stations and continuos demos of our latest wears. This time we paid tribute to the 20th Anniversary of Photoshop by setting up Macs running every version of Photoshop all the way back to version 1.0. These Macs were running the version of the Mac OS and Photoshop of their era. Users could walk up and play with the earlier versions of Photoshop to remember just how far Photoshop has come in 20 years. I started with Photoshop 2.0 and yes I can remember a time before Layers, editable type, multiple undos and installing Photoshop from floppies. 

We also had "Spotlight" sessions throughout the day where Adobe Evangelists and partners showed Photoshop tips and techniques.

 

More Classes and Partner Presentations

photo by Brad Moore

photo by Brad Moore

that thing we call Midnight Madness 🙂 photo by Brad Moore

I had 4 classes on the conference track instead of my usual 2. Not only did I get to do my 2 InDesign classes, but I also got to do one on Lightroom as well as a Social Media Class dealing with Facebook. Thanks goes out to all that attended my classes and the many kudos you gave me.

I also did a couple of lighting demos for Bogen and Westcott. Sarah K on the left lit with the Elinchrom BX-RI 500 against a Lastolite Hi-Lite background and Tala lit with the Westcott Spiderlite TD5s. Both shots taken with my Nikon D700 and 28-70mm f/2.8 lens.

 

Wacom also asked me to give a demo in their booth of the Intuos 4. 

 

The Westcott Booth Was Over the Top!

Westcott added something very cool at this show. They had their usual corporate booth with various lighting setups and equipment on hand. However, they also added a second area near the rear of the show floor with Live Shooting Bays. They had 4 bays setup so photographers could walk up and shoot the various themes and models they had for each day. I was completely blown away by how well this worked and it was the buzz of the show floor. It was one thing to have this very creative setup, but I was stunned when it changed each day. A lot went into this for sure. The real beauty of this setup was that it allowed Westcott to REALLY SHOW OFF their Spiderlite TD5 Lights. These continuous lights don't need triggers and therefore not only is it what you see is what you get, but its perfect for allow multiple photographers to shoot at the same time. Bravo to the Westcott team for pulling this off and allowing everyone the opportunity to get some creative shots!

See more of my shots here:

If you also did some shooting in this Gallery the guys at Westcott are offering you a shot to be featured in their next catalog. Check out the details here.

I told the Westcott guys, "you know that you can't ever come to Photoshop World again without doing this right?" they smiled 🙂

 

Lessons learned (again)

Don't rely on one camera battery. I figured one fully charged battery would last me the week. Normally it would have, but the Westcott Shootout took it's toll on my battery and at the end of the week I was only able to get off two shots during my Lightroom Class (tethered shoot) before it died. I have several batteries, they're small and don't weigh much. I could have easily fit two more in my bag without even noticing the added weight. Next and once again I was reminded how important it is to have comfortable shoes. I normally wear or bring sneakers, but this time I was tight on space and left them. Lastly, I brought my Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 lens and while it's a great lens, I was really wishing I had brought my 70-200mm f/2.8 instead. It's not that much bigger and it would have been so much better for the shoots I did. 

 

I look forward to seeing you all in Orlando for Photoshop World East 2011!

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Nikon Breaks Out with a D3100 and it’s So Close To What I Want!

In case you missed it, Nikon introduced their New D3100 DSLR body just this past Thursday. This camera was rumored for quite a while and the rumored specs were pretty accurate. So it wasn't a shocker to see it, but there was one feature that I was hoping to see that didn't seem to make the cut. My current travel camera is a Nikon D5000 and I like the size and weight of the D5000 for travel, plus the ability to shoot video. The one thing that would have made me upgrade (or downgrade) to the D3100 in a heartbeat would have been audio in. Sigh…. While the D3100 steps up to 14.2 MP, adds 1080p video (Yay! and about freaking time), continuous auto focus in Live View (we'll have to see if it really works or not) and 12,800 ISO (equivalent), the audio for video recording is still limited to the built in Mono mic. 

 

I want good audio too

Most video cameras have crappy built-in mics. However, most video cameras also let you plug in a better mic via a stereo audio input. To make matters worse is that the built-in audio on Nikon DSLRs is only 11hz. A bad mic with bad compression, equals really really bad audio. Giving this camera 1080p, auto focusing video is AWESOME, but the limitation for many is definitely going to be the audio. Now if you plan to shoot video with your great lenses in all of the D3100's 1080p glory and then add your own sound track or music later, then this won't be a big deal, but if you need the source audio from the event you're recording, then you're going to either have to record the audio on a different device and merge them later in post or have sub par audio to go with your great video.

I would upgrade to a D300s at this point, but I'll continue to wait and see what comes next since the D300s was last year's model. It DOES have audio in, but it's only 720p video and if I'm going to spend the bucks, I'd rather wait since I don't think Nikon is done for 2010 just yet 🙂

 

What to do?

If I didn't already have the D5000, and was looking for a small Nikon DSLR with some pretty cool features, then I wouldn't hesitate to get this one. The price won't break the bank and it has a few features that even the higher end models don't have yet. I may still sell my D5000 (since my D5000 doesn't have audio in either)  to get this if I get a good price on the D5000. For now, personally I'm in wait and see mode.

You can get the D3100 here for a great price of $699.95 with a 18-55mm VR lens

 

Also be sure to check out the NEW Nikon Coolpix S1100PJ Camera with a Built-in Projector!

 

 

You can get the New Coolpix S1100PJ here for $349.95.

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Photographers, Do You Care About Video?

There's lots of buzz out there about DSLR video. The benefits of lens selection and a more film like feel to HD video shot with these cameras can't be denied. However, from what I can see the people that are most interested in this new power are typically people that were already doing video. In other words they are videographers who see this as a way of getting better video. Now don't get me wrong, I know that there are some photographers out there that are certainly excited about the possibilities of adding video to their digital story telling. However, I'm just not seeing a landslide (yet) of "traditional" photographers getting into it. I have some theories on why this is and I think it has more to do with the post processing than anything else. Photographers already know how to capture a good image. It's probably not a stretch to say with practice they could capture a good video too. With that said, is there time for both? If you're shooting  a wedding for example, chances are you're going to concentrate on one of the other. You don't have time to capture both great stills AND great video as the bride is walking down the isle. So this means having someone else that can be on hand to capture the video. Let's call that person the "videographer." 🙂

Moving off that situation for a moment, let's say that it's something that's not as time critical as a wedding where you don't have the ability to do it over. Let's say that you are capturing portraits of the couple before the big day and you also have time to capture some video clips of them interacting with each other. Great! Now you've got both good video and good stills. What next?

 

What do you want or need in a video editing tool?

Here's where I think a large part of the problem lies. Many of the photographers I know, don't like to do image retouching and spend a lot of time on the computer working with photos. They'd rather be out shooting. So now we bring video into the mix and most of the "traditional" video editing tools are just as complex if not more so than Photoshop. Sure there are some easier programs out there like iMovie, Adobe Premiere Elements and the basic editing in Aperture, but in many cases even those apps can be daunting to a person who has never edited video before (and probably doesn't want to). So let's step back for a moment and ask the question, "if someone were to build the perfect video editing tool for a PHOTOGRAPHER, what would it have in it?" I have some ideas, but I want to make sure that I didn't miss anything, so please chime in if I did:

  • Of course it should be as easy to use as possible!
  • It should support the vast majority of video file formats coming out of DSLR cameras today, NATIVELY – No transcoding
  • We need transitions (duh!)
  • We need the ability to incorporate stills
  • We need the OPTION to zoom/pan those stills with human controls ala Ken Burns
  • We need to easily add music
  • We need to be able to EASILY add titles anywhere we want for as long as we want them to be
  • We need the ability to easily output various formats for sharing
  • I'm assuming we need to easily be able to burn a DVD/Blu-ray for people that want it on a disc
  • We need to lose the video vocabulary: I should never see things like CODECs, H.264, 16:9, 4:3, Rendering, etc. in the app. Change the terminology to be simple and plain english. ie. Export for YouTube, Save for HDTV, etc. Remember, these aren't video editors and this App isn't for video editors. They already have lots of Apps.

 

Those are the ideas off the top of my head for what I would see in a dedicated simple video editing App for photographers. Now let's say this App existed and was reasonably priced. As a photographer would you do video? Do you care or do you feel that video work should be done by people that do video? Or tell me why you're just not interested in doing video if I've missed your reasons.

 

This will make the shooting part easier

It's called the Zacuto Z-Finder Jr. It goes over the back of your LCD so that you can really have a much better idea of when something is in focus or not. You can get the Zacuto Z-Finder Jr. here from B&H.

Or go with the PRO model if you really want a great one (thanks Bruce):

The Zacuto Z-Finder Pro goes for $375.25 at B&H here.

 

P.S. My buddy Jason Levine has recorded some videos on DSLR Video Editing. Check them out here.

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The Photoshop CS5 Summit and a New Video on Video

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm-smVLREnY

 

My buddies over at NAPP are headed to the Big Apple (NYC) next Friday, June 25th for The Photoshop CS5 Summit. Sadly I will not be there because I'll be in Nice, France presenting at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Somehow I'll suffer though it 😉 Nonetheless, you should check out the Photoshop Guys at this FREE event! Find out all the details here.

 

My Top 5 Favorite Features of the NEW Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium

Although I'm the Adobe Worldwide Creative Suite Design Evangelist and my main passion is for Photography, that doesn't mean that I don't have other interests. Actually my second passion is for digital video. I'm thrilled with all the new capabilities in the New Production Premium Suite and I thought I'd share with you my Top 5 Favorites. Check them out here:

 

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-DXBmxgstU

 

Do you want MORE Videos on CS5? Of course you do. Check out the NEW Adobe Evangelist TV channel on YouTube. There's lot's of CS5 goodness there including more videos on Digital Video and some HTML 5 goodness. Also if you want to download any of my CS videos and take them with you, head over to my Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast.

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Rode VideoMic Review

There is no doubt that DSLR video is taking the world by storm. Canon 5D MkII video cameras were used exclusively to tape an episode of House. As great as the video is on these DSLR cameras and other handheld HD cameras, the built-in mics are often very lacking. My current video DSLR is a Nikon D5000 and while the video is AWESOME, the audio is very weak. Not only from a built-in mic standpoint, but also from an 11khz audio standpoint too. Unfortunately, there's no solution for the D5000 as it lacks an audio-in port. I have my finger on the trigger to upgrade to a Nikon D300s for video, but I'm holding off because Nikon is rumored to be releasing new models "soon". I also have a Canon HF10 HD camera that I use too. Although the mic on this camera is much better than the one on the D5000, very few built-in mics are considered to be "great". Therefore, I'm always looking for better ways to record audio. 

Continue reading “Rode VideoMic Review”

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I had high hopes for the HoverCam X500

You might have noticed that I don't spend a lot of time here talking about products that I don't like or that you shouldn't buy. Although I review technology and gadgets, the purpose of this blog has always been to concentrate on the things I actually use, not the things I don't use or have no interest in. I'm going to break tradition here a bit and talk about a product that I just got that I may not actually use going forward. It's called the HoverCam X500. The reason I'm going to cover it here is because many of you have asked me about solutions for doing presentations of mobile devices like the iPad, iPhone, Droid, etc. Since very few mobile devices actually have video out that you can show the user interface of the device with, I wanted to share with you my experience with this device and what you should look out for.

 

What is it?

The HoverCam X500 is a USB2 Document Camera. It's designed to allow you to scan both documents and objects into your computer. Think of it as a downward facing webcam on a stand that comes with (well actually you download it) software to allow you to capture what the camera sees as either still images or video. 

 

What's good about it?

Continue reading “I had high hopes for the HoverCam X500”