Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 for the Videographer By Jeremiah Hall
I have never used the previous versions of Lightroom, since most of my time was taken up with Avid, After Effects and Final Cut Pro. When I needed to do something with stills, I used Photoshop. When I got the chance to try Lightroom 4, I jumped at the chance, but I was more interested in the video capabilities than I was in the photographic features and tools. Lightroom 4 will not be replacing Premiere or Photoshop, it's not designed for heavy photo or video editing. You can't cut your movie masterpiece with it. But if you're a DSLR shooter, I can see it becoming a very useful tool in your arsenal.
...Read More »
The RØDE NTG-3 External Microphone By David Hague
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.
...Read More »
Matrox Thunderbolt Adapter By Heath McKnight
Matrox recently released their Thunderbolt adapter, which can be purchased at their site, or added to your order of one of their devices, like the MXO2 boxes. This is a significant little box, because you can use a MXO2 device with a Mac that doesn't have a PCI Express card slot or ExpressCard/34 slot by connecting the adapter to your Mac and the MXO2 box. I'll also talk briefly about Matrox's new software update allowing their devices to offer broadcast monitoring with the latest update of Final Cut Pro X.
...Read More »
PluralEyes, An NLE Essential App By Heath McKnight
After spending time with Singular Software's PluralEyes, I can say without a doubt, that I wish this software was available in the early days of Final Cut Pro and other non-linear edit systems (NLE). PluralEyes will easily sync video and audio, which is very useful when you have multiple sources of footage, but only one great track of audio. It does it quickly and efficiently, saving editors hours of time trying to sync the audio with all your video sources.
...Read More »
Sony HDR-PJ760 Camcorder - Australian Exclusive By David Hague
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.
...Read More »
Apple's Richard Townhill Calls to Discuss the Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 Update By Heath McKnight
I just got off the phone with Apple's Richard Townhill, senior director of applications marketing, who took the time to update me on the latest major update to Final Cut Pro (http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/), ver. 10.0.3. Apple is delivering multicam support, broadcast monitoring via third-party PCI-e cards and boxes (in beta, along with Thunderbolt), advanced chroma keying features, XML 1.1, the ability to import layered Photoshop graphics (PSD), and media relinking.
...Read More »
Home Tech Upgrade Power2U By Ko Maruyama
Not more power through the house, but better access to it. There are so many devices that my family uses that rely on USB charging. Some of these rely on sucking up power daily. But if you already have a bunch of plugs stuck in your outlets, you might want to stop juggling those wall warts and install the NewerTech Power2U.
...Read More »
Boris Soundbite for Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro By Heath McKnight
Soundbite from Boris FX is an excellent dialogue search tool developed in conjunction with Nexidia, a company focused on speech analytics. You can search for specific words and phrases easily with Soundbite, then import into Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro, making it easy and quick to edit hours of interviews for a project. Producers, writers, one-man bands and interns can rejoice while searching through hours of interviews. Say so long to logging video!
...Read More »
iPad2 GripStand 2 Bundle By Ko Maruyama
The Newer Technology company makes a protective back and stand for your iPad 2. The Gripstand and GripBase pairing is a great way to watch your iPad content hands free, or, if you're a teacher, present items on the iPad to students without having to awkwardly holding it.
...Read More »
OWC 16GB RAM and 240GB SSD Drive Upgrade for 2011 Mac mini By Heath McKnight
Other World Computing (OWC, www.macsales.com) sells some the best and most affordable upgrades for Mac users, such as RAM, hard drives and more. I've heard stories of just how fast a solid state drive (SSD) is compared to a standard drive found in a Mac, and I wanted to see for myself. More RAM and a faster hard drive is always great for video editors to work faster and more efficiently. Plus, can my new 2011 Mac mini really accept 16GB of RAM? Read on to find out.
...Read More »
Final Cut Pro X: Setup, Plus Importing & Organizing Footage By Heath McKnight
It's been close to three months since Final Cut Pro X came out, and I wanted to write up some first impressions here regarding the setup of Final Cut Pro X, plus importing and organizing footage. I'll do another article on my first impressions of editing and exporting in the very near future. Right off the bat, I will say that this is a journey where Final Cut Pro (FCP) hasn't gone down before, and I'm actually excited about this new way of thinking when it comes to non-linear editing (NLE).
...Read More »
Field Test: Canon XA10 By Steve Turner
The XA10 has a boxy kind of look to it that speaks professional - functional rather than sleek. Landcruiser rather than Porche in its looks. Canon managed to get the test camera to us in time for two weeks camping and four wheel driving through Arkaroola and the Flinders Ranges, some 700kms north of Adelaide. I used the XA10 for everything and gave it a serious workout. The results speak for themselves.
...Read More »
The Steve Jobs Way By Miles Weston
We know we don't often talk to you about book reviews but then it is seldom we read a book that is of widespread interest to our mutual audiences. As we note we're not Apple/Jobs fanboys but OMG we respect what they've done and in fact we're "a little" envious that they: - seem to do it so well so consistently - get more coverage by "accident" than the rest of us get by working hard for it
...Read More »
AV3's Get for Final Cut Pro By Heath McKnight
AV3's Get for Final Cut Pro is a dialogue search tool that makes it easy to search for soundbites, by using specific keywords you're searching for, and the metadata that Get creates when it analyzes your footage. You won't need to sit in the edit bay for hours taking notes and transcribing interviews! Get does the work for you, making it easier and faster to focus on video editing.
...Read More »
DaVinci's Resolve from BlackMagic Design By Kevin McAuliffe
On thing that I love about Post Production, especially at the Pro-sumer and above level, is that as computers get more powerful (and cheaper for that matter), we are now starting to get access to gear and applications that only used to be reserved for specialized machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and required an obscene amount of man hours to learn not only the hardware, but the software as well. Thankfully, those days are gone.
...Read More »
G-Technology G-Drive mobile 500GB By John Virata
G-Technology has a new mobile drive targeted at users of Apple's MacBook Pro that is built around the FireWire 800 interface and a 5400rpm Hitachi hard drive. Called the G Drive mobile, the portable FireWire drive is formatted for Apple computers and is a Time Machine Ready 500GB drive. The drive features a new piano black top while the sides and bottom are brushed aluminum, in part to match Apple's line of aluminum MacBook Pro notebook computers.
...Read More »
Colorista II By Kevin McAuliffe
When it comes to a program like After Effects, competing with Color Finesse 3 (that comes with AE CS5) can be tricky, but if there is one company out there determined to do it, it's Red Giant Software and their flagship color correction application Colorista.
...Read More »
Avid's Media Composer 5 Part 3 - Matrox's MXO2 mini By Kevin McAuliffe
When AVID stated that they supported the MXO2 mini to monitor external video, I was pretty surprised, as this is a big change of direction for AVID as they normally only support their own hardware for video monitoring. I wanted to give the MXO2 mini a fair shake, as for the $449 price tag I really wanted (and hoped) it to work for the user bases sake. Let's see how it fared.
...Read More »
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 for the Videographer
I have never used the previous versions of Lightroom, since most of my time was taken up with Avid, After Effects and Final Cut Pro. When I needed to do something with stills, I used Photoshop. When I got the chance to try Lightroom 4, I jumped at the chance, but I was more interested in the video capabilities than I was in the photographic features and tools. Lightroom 4 will not be replacing Premiere or Photoshop, it's not designed for heavy photo or video editing. You can't cut your movie masterpiece with it. But if you're a DSLR shooter, I can see it becoming a very useful tool in your arsenal.
...Read More »
The RØDE NTG-3 External Microphone
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.
...Read More »
Matrox Thunderbolt Adapter
Matrox recently released their Thunderbolt adapter, which can be purchased at their site, or added to your order of one of their devices, like the MXO2 boxes. This is a significant little box, because you can use a MXO2 device with a Mac that doesn't have a PCI Express card slot or ExpressCard/34 slot by connecting the adapter to your Mac and the MXO2 box. I'll also talk briefly about Matrox's new software update allowing their devices to offer broadcast monitoring with the latest update of Final Cut Pro X.
...Read More »
PluralEyes, An NLE Essential App
After spending time with Singular Software's PluralEyes, I can say without a doubt, that I wish this software was available in the early days of Final Cut Pro and other non-linear edit systems (NLE). PluralEyes will easily sync video and audio, which is very useful when you have multiple sources of footage, but only one great track of audio. It does it quickly and efficiently, saving editors hours of time trying to sync the audio with all your video sources.
...Read More »
Sony HDR-PJ760 Camcorder - Australian Exclusive
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.
...Read More »
Apple's Richard Townhill Calls to Discuss the Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 Update
I just got off the phone with Apple's Richard Townhill, senior director of applications marketing, who took the time to update me on the latest major update to Final Cut Pro (http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/), ver. 10.0.3. Apple is delivering multicam support, broadcast monitoring via third-party PCI-e cards and boxes (in beta, along with Thunderbolt), advanced chroma keying features, XML 1.1, the ability to import layered Photoshop graphics (PSD), and media relinking.
...Read More »
Home Tech Upgrade Power2U
Not more power through the house, but better access to it. There are so many devices that my family uses that rely on USB charging. Some of these rely on sucking up power daily. But if you already have a bunch of plugs stuck in your outlets, you might want to stop juggling those wall warts and install the NewerTech Power2U.
...Read More »
Boris Soundbite for Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro
Soundbite from Boris FX is an excellent dialogue search tool developed in conjunction with Nexidia, a company focused on speech analytics. You can search for specific words and phrases easily with Soundbite, then import into Final Cut Pro or Premiere Pro, making it easy and quick to edit hours of interviews for a project. Producers, writers, one-man bands and interns can rejoice while searching through hours of interviews. Say so long to logging video!
...Read More »
iPad2 GripStand 2 Bundle
The Newer Technology company makes a protective back and stand for your iPad 2. The Gripstand and GripBase pairing is a great way to watch your iPad content hands free, or, if you're a teacher, present items on the iPad to students without having to awkwardly holding it.
...Read More »
OWC 16GB RAM and 240GB SSD Drive Upgrade for 2011 Mac mini
Other World Computing (OWC, www.macsales.com) sells some the best and most affordable upgrades for Mac users, such as RAM, hard drives and more. I've heard stories of just how fast a solid state drive (SSD) is compared to a standard drive found in a Mac, and I wanted to see for myself. More RAM and a faster hard drive is always great for video editors to work faster and more efficiently. Plus, can my new 2011 Mac mini really accept 16GB of RAM? Read on to find out.
...Read More »
Final Cut Pro X: Setup, Plus Importing & Organizing Footage
It's been close to three months since Final Cut Pro X came out, and I wanted to write up some first impressions here regarding the setup of Final Cut Pro X, plus importing and organizing footage. I'll do another article on my first impressions of editing and exporting in the very near future. Right off the bat, I will say that this is a journey where Final Cut Pro (FCP) hasn't gone down before, and I'm actually excited about this new way of thinking when it comes to non-linear editing (NLE).
...Read More »
Field Test: Canon XA10
The XA10 has a boxy kind of look to it that speaks professional - functional rather than sleek. Landcruiser rather than Porche in its looks. Canon managed to get the test camera to us in time for two weeks camping and four wheel driving through Arkaroola and the Flinders Ranges, some 700kms north of Adelaide. I used the XA10 for everything and gave it a serious workout. The results speak for themselves.
...Read More »
The Steve Jobs Way
We know we don't often talk to you about book reviews but then it is seldom we read a book that is of widespread interest to our mutual audiences. As we note we're not Apple/Jobs fanboys but OMG we respect what they've done and in fact we're "a little" envious that they: - seem to do it so well so consistently - get more coverage by "accident" than the rest of us get by working hard for it
...Read More »
AV3's Get for Final Cut Pro
AV3's Get for Final Cut Pro is a dialogue search tool that makes it easy to search for soundbites, by using specific keywords you're searching for, and the metadata that Get creates when it analyzes your footage. You won't need to sit in the edit bay for hours taking notes and transcribing interviews! Get does the work for you, making it easier and faster to focus on video editing.
...Read More »
DaVinci's Resolve from BlackMagic Design
On thing that I love about Post Production, especially at the Pro-sumer and above level, is that as computers get more powerful (and cheaper for that matter), we are now starting to get access to gear and applications that only used to be reserved for specialized machines that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and required an obscene amount of man hours to learn not only the hardware, but the software as well. Thankfully, those days are gone.
...Read More »
Quick Look: Latest Smart Phones
Here is a quick rundown of the latest and greatest smartphones on Apple, Android, Windows and Symbian^3 OS's.
...Read More »
What if Dropbox offered time tracking, versioning, & more?
Answer: You'd have something like the just-released GridIron Flow 2.0. It can save your butt, for free. Why would you not start using it immediately?
...Read More »
G-Technology G-Drive mobile 500GB
G-Technology has a new mobile drive targeted at users of Apple's MacBook Pro that is built around the FireWire 800 interface and a 5400rpm Hitachi hard drive. Called the G Drive mobile, the portable FireWire drive is formatted for Apple computers and is a Time Machine Ready 500GB drive. The drive features a new piano black top while the sides and bottom are brushed aluminum, in part to match Apple's line of aluminum MacBook Pro notebook computers.
...Read More »
Colorista II
When it comes to a program like After Effects, competing with Color Finesse 3 (that comes with AE CS5) can be tricky, but if there is one company out there determined to do it, it's Red Giant Software and their flagship color correction application Colorista.
...Read More »
Avid's Media Composer 5 Part 3 - Matrox's MXO2 mini
When AVID stated that they supported the MXO2 mini to monitor external video, I was pretty surprised, as this is a big change of direction for AVID as they normally only support their own hardware for video monitoring. I wanted to give the MXO2 mini a fair shake, as for the $449 price tag I really wanted (and hoped) it to work for the user bases sake. Let's see how it fared.
...Read More »
Vegas Pro 10 Available Now
