Unbeleafable 3D

Unbeleafable 3D

Ha for me this video is kind of The Ultimate Ultimate - 3D, skateboards, and it was shot with the Phantom Z-65, a twin lens 4k camera system that I've been dying to get my hands on since seeing it at NAB earlier this year. 

WWW.UNBELEAFABLE3D.COM

When I was a kid, the Girl team's videos were always the most interesting and experimental and I'm glad to see they're still commited to doing different things like this 3D video. Spike Jonze actually did a bunch of their videos back in the early 90's, long before his feature film career. 

You can watch it Anaglyph, which sucks, or if you have a 3DTV and a MiniDisplay to HDMI cable, you can watch in glorious full stereo. This is how you do it >>>

Leica D-LUX5

Leica D-LUX5

I sold my Canon 5D Mark 2 package recently so as to not be tempted to shoot video with it. But I miss shooting stills bad so have been trying to find a small camera to tide me over until the the "next big thing" comes out, whatever that may be. Personally, I'm hoping for a full frame (though APS-C is more likely) Canon or Nikon EVIL camera, a Mirrorless SLR - basically a small housing containing the sensor block, electronic viewfinder, and interface - something more or less like the Sony Alpha NEX-7 but maybe even smaller. I realize that's a tall order but not outside the realm of possibility. 

I've been playing around with the Leica D-LUX 5, basically a point and shoot with the inclusion of advanced manual control and RAW image capture which is what turned me on to it. 

It's a great size which is probably the best thing it has going for it. I must confess, that little red Leica logo looks pretty sharp but is it worth $800? The Panasonic LX5 is the EXACT same camera sans the Leica logo and is less than half the price. Supposedly the lens coatings are better in the Leica D-LUX 5 but that's neither here not there. Unfortunately, the D-LUX 5's camera's sensor is a miniscule 1/1.63".

In this era of affordable large sensor capture where shallow depth of field is omnipresent, there is nothing sexy or emotionally exciting about images from a sensor this small. Photographed objects have no roundness and there is no optical separation indicating depth within the scene. This is my number one grief with point and shoot cameras. My other big grief is also sensor related - imagers this small are very prone to noise and have a hard time resolving much of anything in low light, even with a relatively fast lens, f/2, like on the D-LUX 5. 

The RAW capture is a great feature and in my opinion, should be an option on more stills cameras at this price point. It's nice to have a little flexibility to work with the image after the fact but unfortunately the image isn't robust enough to really push it around as much as you might like. The noise floor becomes apparent quickly even at low ISO's so you still need to be very careful with your exposures and get as much light in there as you can before clipping. 

Because it's so small and inconspicuous, the photographer is able to get work and keep a low profile. Here are a few images I got down at Zuccotti Park of the Occupy Wall Streeters. I like some of these but I wish there was more optical separation and it's just not possible with an imager this small. 

The long and short of it is - this is a nice camera but anyone spoiled by higher quality images will find it a little dissappointing. I'm holding out for something nice and small with at least a APC-C imager though. 

This thing actually looks kind of cool.. Fujifilm X100

Sony PVM-1741 17" OLED Monitors - Follow Up

Sony PVM-1741 17" OLED Monitors - Follow Up

The flicker issue on the PVM series is just that - a real issue - one that should inform your purchase decision. Please note that 48i flickering from 24p material is found on all the monitors in the PVM OLED series, 7.4", 17", and 24.5" and the only way to remove this flickering is to introduce pulldown and display the source material within a 60 interlace video signal. Some cameras such as the Sony F3 can do this. Others, namely the Alexa, cannot. The BVM E Series monitors do not suffer from this display issue and in my opinion are the best thing going right now but the price tag, 17 grand for the 17" and $26,000 for the 24.5", might be a tad high for some. Enter the newly announced BVM F series monitors - $11,500 for the 17" and $14,000 for the 24.5". These monitors are intended to replace the previous generation PVM L Series Trimaster LCD's. I've been using the 23" PVM L for awhile now and I've been very happy with it. Here's the difference between the BVM E and BVM F Series Trimaster OLED monitors -

BVM E:

Highest quality BVM OLED Panel

2K Input (2048x1080)

User LUT

ASC-CDL

S-Log Gamma

Gamut Error Display

etc

BVM F:

Same Chassis as BVM E

High Quality BVM OLED Panel but not the same quality as BVM E

Same 12bit Engine and Non Linear Cubic Conversion Color Management as BVM E 

Basically the F doesn't have the Cine features of the E and the panel isn't the highest quality which if I were to guess, most likely means uniformity. The most uniform panels will go into the E's and those that don't make the cut for E will become F's. 

If you're trying to use the PVM's with the Alexa and the flicker is driving you nuts, Abel Cine has a solution. The new Decimator MD-DUCC, the Multi Definition Down Up Cross Converer, a swiss army knife for video that can take just about any single link video signal and convert it into whatever you need. Abel has found the MD-DUCC to be a good solution in removing the 48i filcker from 24p material on PVM monitors if your camera can't introduce pulldown on its own.