Replacing a Busted GoPro Lens with a Zoom Macro Lens (RageCam 2.8-12mm)

FH-145 and FHR-145 pan and tilt heads

The FH-145 and FHR-145 pan and tilt heads will be shown alongside the recently released FHR-35, and will demonstrate Vinten Radamec’s latest technological advancements by incorporating the company’s new Intelligent Control Engineering (ICE) platform. This forward-thinking technology enables operators to achieve unprecedented control and accuracy in an innovative and highly compact form.

The FH-145 and FHR-145 next generation series of heads are built on the successful performance of Vinten Radamec’s FH-100 and FH-120 models. The addition of the company’s ICE technology will provide users with a simpler set-up and installation, as well as an improved pan and tilt resolution of over one million counts per 360 degrees, to give broadcasters the ultimate smooth image in both virtual and real worlds. The enhanced aesthetics include a new innovative tilt locking mechanism, improved drag and quieter changeover mechanism.

to read more go to PVC

NAB 2012 CineZip

Duracell DPP-600HD Powerpack 600

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The Duracell Powerpack 600 provides heavy duty household power anywhere. It operates demanding applications such as power tools, powers DC products that you enjoy during outdoor recreation, and provides emergency power during an outage at home. The Powerpack 600 is quiet, dependable and an easy-to-use alternative to a generator, with added features such as jumper cables. The integrated AM/FM radio and digital alarm clock provide access to music, talk radio and news. Whether it’s a job site or a camp site, the Duracell Powerpack 600 is the ideal portable power solution.

Video: Filmmaker Rob Spence’s Implanted Bionic Camera Eyeball Is Up and Running

Rob Spence, a self-proclaimed “Eyeborg,” had his eye, which was damaged in a shotgun accident, replaced with a camera about two years ago. It’s not too much of a stretch for Spence, who otherwise works as a filmmaker–and now he’s been sponsored by video game maker Square Enix, which commissioned Spence to create a video about prostheses to promote their new game, Deux Ex: Human Revolution.

On his blog, which is endearingly named Eyeborg, Spence has posted a new twelve-minute video. He travels around the world, talking to those endowed with the cutting edge of cyborg-dom. Matter of fact, it’s not too different from our recent feature, State of the Bionic Art, except Spence investigates the specific real-life counterparts to the crazy-futuristic prostheses and cyborg parts featured in the new Deux Ex game. It’s a pretty cool video, game plugs notwithstanding–any video that features a man saying “I am now filming your bionic hand…with my bionic eye” has a way of getting in our good graces. Check out the video below, though a warning that there are a few images that might not be kind to those with weak stomachs.

Source: [Eyeborg]

BMW Uses a Commercial to Burn Their Logo into Your Eye

How does a person remember ads? BMW will tell you. BMW flashed an audience with a blinding light that included a cutout of their logo. When the audience was told to close their eyes, they still saw the letters: BMW.

The video explains that the effect it’s akin to staring at the sun for too long, when you close your eyes, you can still sorta see a spot there (or go blind). BMW used that to their advantage, flashing a bright screen during their commercial that included a cutout of the letters BMW, so when the audience was instructed to close their eyes, they saw BMW projected against their eyelids.

It’s creative advertising (and they say it was harmless) and the focus group seemed mightily impressed with the effect. It tied into the commercial quite nicely too, check out how it was done in the video above (though the flash effect doesn’t work over YouTube). [Wired]

These Lens Bracelets will Show Your Love for Photography

Show your love for photography with these Lens Bracelets. As classy camera accessories, they will show your affinity for this craft without compromising your stylish outfits.

Available in two versions (24-70mm and 50mm), these Lens Bracelets can be purchased separately for $10 each or together for only $15. Made out of soft silicone, it’s not actually crafted out of real camera lenses, but it’ll show your devotion just as well. By the way, one size fits all.

Get them @ PHOTOJOJO

Scientists develop flexible sensor to allow simple zoom

Scientists have successfully constructed a digital camera that can be flexed to focus an image, allowing its use with simple single-element lenses. Researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois created a 16 x 16 pixel array on an elastomeric backing that can be distorted to correctly focus the image from a simple lens. In a paper to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), they combine this with a single-element, tunable lens to provide a camera with very simple optics capable of zooming. The technology could eventually provide ‘studio quality’ images from cellphone cameras, one of the lead researchers says.

At present, lens construction and design is greatly complicated by the need to project a flat image surface onto the usually flat surface of a sensor – simple, single-element lenses project non-flat image surfaces (so-called Petzval surfaces). With this latest work, the scientists have successfully shown the ability to adjust their sensor surface to match the curvature of the image surface being projected by an equally adjustable, fluid-filled lens.

In its paper, the team, led by Professor Yonggang Huang of Northwestern University, Illinois and Professor John Rogers, of University of Illinois, say: ‘This type of technology could be useful for night-vision surveillance, endoscopic imaging, and other areas that require compact cameras with simple zoom optics and wideangle fields of view.’

Rogers expanded on this when approached by dpreview.com: ‘Night vision and endoscopy are probably just the most promising initial applications, due to their requirements and cost structures.  A successful development of the technology could, however, allow it to be used in any type of camera.  We have in mind, for example, the use of this technology to achieve ‘studio quality’ imaging in small, cellphone cameras.’

Although not without challenges, he is confident the technology could be applied to commercial devices: ‘We feel that the fabrication techniques are scalable, because they build on conventional silicon detector designs.  A substantial amount of engineering effort is needed, however, to take the devices that we have now (few hundred pixels) and scale them into something more commercially relevant (few million pixels).’

He says any such devices are ‘a few years out,’ but there already is a company (MC10) looking to licence and commercialize the technology.

Source: DPreview

Video Coat is alive

The Video Coat is a color TV set built into a lab coat. It is a 160×120 pixel color LED display, built on flex boards.

This television set displays regular NTSC video.

Source and Maker: David Forbes

 

Kessler SmartLapse Tutorial

Kessler SmartLapse software is now available in the Oracle controller. This upgrade allows users to record a non-linear and dynamic camera move into the controller and playback that move over a long period of time.

You can playback a ElektraDrive motor equipped Cineslider, Pocket Dolly, Shuttle Pod or Revolution move from 30 minutes to nearly 30 days.

This makes creating amazing timelapses with calculated movements very easy.

You can get the firmware upgrade for free here: bit.ly/​fEPR0j

Source: Tom Guilmette

Kinefinity KineRAW S35 2K cine camera

This is the Kinefinity’s 2K digital cinema camera featuring a Super35 CMOS sensor, which the manufacturer hopes to bring to market for around US$8000. It offers what the manufacturer calls Dual RAW as it can record in 12 bit to either DNG, for CinemaDNG based workflows, or GoPro-Cineform RAW on removable SSD drives. The lens mount can be PL, Oct19, Nikon or Canon EOS (although possibly not with any electronic control of the lens). Support for 3D LUT look files is also promised.

Audio is handled with a pair of XLR inputs at 24-bit depth. For monitoring there is a pair of SDI ports and a single HDMI port. The camera setup and controls are accessed through a side panel with simple push buttons. A lot will depend on the sensor and the manufacturer was understandably secretive about who actually makes it, but said that its base sensitivity is 400ASA. I also was told that the final production body will be smaller.

It is designed and made by a small Beijing-based company and they already have a working prototype. Trials are apparently underway and I am hoping to see actual footage soon. Before then I can’t speak of the quality and it is still essentially vapourware.

The company itself comes from a background of making cameras for astronomy so they are not novices at camera engineering. They told me that they hope to ship a product in about six months, but whether they can actually do this is anyone’s guess.

Source DSLR News Shooter

CineSkates Camera Sliders

Ever since those iPod Nano watches raised almost a million dollars on Kickstarter, it’s been clear that crowdfunding campaigns like helping an indie filmmaker make his first feature film pale in comparison to efforts where backers are simply pre-buying a cool gizmo. Analarmingly small percentage of the population is buying or renting movies, and it follows that it’s harder to persuade folks to back a project if the only reward is a DVD — thus my effort to also send the unique frames of Man-child to backers, so they’ll receive a more personalized reward for helping make it a reality. Okay, back to the gizmos, as this one’s very cool: CineSkates are a set of custom-designed rollerblade wheels paired with a Joby Gorillapod Focus tripod that allow for some very cool low-angle shots with an HDSLR. Check out the Kickstarter campaign, which reached its funding goal in a single day and still has over a month to go:

Check out the Kickstarter campaign if you want a pair — they’re $150 on their own or $275 with the required Joby hardware. As you can see in the widget below, they’ve already crossed the 500% funded mark — amazing. I think I might just have to get a set, given this could be useful on a basketball film. Of course, if you’re thinking of dropping hundreds of dollars on a camera accessory, please think about dropping a few dollars on a feature film!

Source: NO FILMSCHOOL & KICKSTARTER

Analyzing what you see in a film frame

Eye-tracking study provides data on where viewers look when watching a film

This new study by David Bordwell provides fascinating data on where viewers look when watching a film. Researchers used infrared pupil tracking to correlate attention to what was happening in the film, and their findings will surely be of interest to DoPs, Directors, and Editors alike…

“…analysis of how the staging in this scene tightly controls viewer attention was spot-on and can be confirmed by eyetracking. At any one moment in the scene there is a principal action signified either by dialogue or motion. By minimising background distractions and staging the scene in a clear sequential manner using basic principles of visual attention, P. T. Anderson has created a scene which commands viewer attention as precisely as a rapidly edited sequence of close-up shots.

The benefit of using a single long shot is the illusion of volition. Viewers think they are free to look where they want but, due to the subtle influence of the director and actors, where they want to look is also where the director wants them to look. A single static long shot also creates a sense of space, clear relationship between the characters, and a calm, slow pace which is critical for the rest of the film. The same scene edited into close-ups would have left the viewer with a completely different interpretation of the scene.”

I highly recommend that you take the time to read the full analysis with supporting video and screencaps. It’s a fascinating bit of research that greatly informs cinematography and editing techniques.

There’s also another incredibly in-depth read, a PhD thesis by Tim J. Smith entitled An Attentional Theory of Continuity Editing that is like editing 101 manna from heaven. There’s a blog post on the thesis here, and here’s the link to the 300+ page PDF. It is a long, and awesome read. Seriously, if you are an editor or want to be one, read this.

“This is an excerpt from There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007). 11 adult viewers were shown the video and their eye movements recorded using an Eyelink 1000 (SR Research) infra-red camera-based eyetracker. Each dot represents the center of one viewer’s gaze. The size of each dot represents the length of time they have held fixation.”

Source: ProVideoCoalition

How to use the anamorphic clamp

Source of the Vamp Clamp: Vid-Atlantic

‘World’s First’ Permanent Anti-fog Coating Developed

Researchers develop the first permanent anti-fog coating
Laval University

Quebec, March 16, 2011 – Researchers supervised by Prof. Gaétan Laroche, Laval University, have developed the first permanent anti-fog coating. Prof. Laroche and colleagues report in the online edition of the journal Applied Materials and Interfaces the details of this innovation could help to eliminate once and for all the mist on eyeglasses, windshields, visors, camera lenses and any transparent surface of glass or plastic.

The mist is formed on a surface when the water vapor in the air condenses into droplets. “Despite appearances, the fog that forms on the goggles is not a continuous film. Rather, the tiny water droplets that drip onto the surface and reduce the transmission of light, “says Gaétan Laroche, a professor at the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Laval University. A good anti-fog coating to prevent the formation of these droplets. ”

Researchers have used polyvinyl alcohol, a hydrophilic compound that allows water to spread evenly. The challenge was to firmly attach the compound to a surface of glass or plastic. To accomplish this, researchers have filed four successive layers of molecules, which form strong and stable with the neighboring layers, adding the compound fog on that basis. The result is a transparent multilayer coating does not alter the optical properties of the surface on which it is deposited. The chemical bonds that unite the different layers provide hardness and durability of the whole.

“The fog existing treatments do not possess these properties and resist as they do not wash, repeat the application of the product regularly, said Dr. Laroche. Our coating, it is permanent. ”

Two patents already protecting this invention whose potential applications are numerous: the windshield of vehicles, protective visors used in the workplace or in sports, camera lenses, binoculars, optical instruments used in chemistry and medicine and eye sight correction. Negotiations are also underway with a major company in the field of eyewear that wishes to obtain a license for this technology.

Furthermore Gaétan Laroche, coauthors of the article published in Applied Materials and Interfaces are Pascale Chevallier, Stephane Turgeon, Christian Sarra-Bournet and Raphael Turcotte.

[ACS via Laval]