onOne announces Perfect Photo Suite 7

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onOne software has announced it’s new Perfect Photo Suite 7. A revamp of their already awesome photoshop and lightroom plug-ins, with new versions of Perfect B&W, Perfect Protrait 2, Perfect Layers 3, Perfect Effects 4 and Perfect Resize 7.5 Pro and older version of Perfect Mask 5 and Focal Point 2. This is an awesome company too. They gave all their 64 bit upgrades free for their users, so that has created some serious loyalty at least with me. It ships in Late October.

You can read all about it at their web site.

Vincent Laforet on the BlackMagic Designs Cinema Camera

Vincent Laforet has a must read on his initial impressions of using the new Blackmagic Designs Cinema Camera. And it seems very impressive, other than the very small sensor size, the non-removable battery and not being able to format an SSD with the camera. Still sounds pretty darn good.

I would like to give this camera a try especially since I have so many Canon EF lenses already.

CanonRumors has links to more coverage of Canon EOS C100

CanonRumors has post to much of the coverage across the web of the new Canon EOS C100.

And there own coverage of the newly announced botton end of it’s Cinema EOS cameras.

It is an exciting camera, but I still think overpriced compared to the DSLR’s it is improving on. If this camera was under $3000 it would be really impressive, but at $8000 it is a bit too expensive.

Cinema5D on BlackMagic Designs Camera in the RAW

Cinema5D has an article on shooting RAW with the BlackMagic Designs Camera.  Worth checking out. I love this quote.

These images are by far sharp, detailed, rich in skin tone and excellent to grade. They blow away any DSLR at the moment and produce quality on par to a baby Alexa. I am simply astounded. Now my grading skills and film-making need to increase to match the potential of the camera.

At this price I would love to check one of these cameras out. I do think it has design issues (like the non-removable battery). But still a very exciting new camera.

Sorenson Media on the coming H.265 Standard

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Sorenson Media has an interesting article on the upcoming video compression standard H.265. It is supposed to double the efficiency of H.264, though with likely a higher processor hit. And that means half the size for the same quality, which is huge especially for bandwidth caps and the like. Of course it might also mean new Apple TV’s and ROKU’s to take advantage, as well as new iPhone’s and iPad’s too. The processor hit I am sure is enormous.

Still can’t wait to see that new quality.

Kodak selling it’s film division!

Can you believe it? Now it is really over. The age of film is officially dead. Sure you can still get some film for a while, but it has been years since any film cameras have been made, and now Kodak in it’s bankruptcy is selling it’s film division. So everything is officially done digitally now!

In some ways it is so sad, but in other ways it is exciting. Since you can get pretty high end cameras for not that much (but of course lenses are still expensive for good glass). And low budget filmmaking is so much easier.

Still there was something about film. I made my first films in college on Super 8. And later on 16mm (though cutting on a movieola was not too fun). There is certainly something cool about it.

And it is amazing how much digital can resemble shooting with film, though with a DIT instead of a camera assistant loading mags. And with RAW you still need to process the footage, though with a computer and not a lab.

And now everything is stored digitally. Lets hope there aren’t some enormous electromagnetic pulses because everything will be gone! Of course it isn’t like film doesn’t deteriorate, but still.

Just strange and amazing that the once mighty Kodak has been brought so low.

iChat theater has issues, but is still a wonderful solution that Adobe and AVID need to implement

I know, I know iChat theater is old technology and has been out since Final Cut Pro 7 was was released, but it is still awesome tech. If you have a web camera or iSight you can share what you are viewing in Final Cut Pro 7 using iChat (or messages in Mountain Lion) and you can hear the person on either end and see Timecode as well. It has it’s issues (audio often drops out and you have to restart the computer to get it back, and often it is hard to get the chat to actually start), but overall it works very well and allows for remote monitoring of an edit.

Sure you can share your screen with Skype, but that shared the whole screen, timeline and all, and the video is small. iChat theater allows you to share just what is playing back from Final Cut Pro. It is awesome for editors who like to work at home, and producers who like to do the same. And it works very well overall.

The problem is that Final Cut Pro 7 is EOL and will never be updated again, and is really showing it’s age. Sure many companies have such an investment that they are still using it before the go with AVID (though I prefer Premiere Pro, if only it were more stable). And neither Premier Pro or Media Composer have anything like it.

iChat theater and Final Cut Pro 7 is an elegant solution to a problem that is very relevant today (editors working remotely), and a new solution needs to be implemented in AVID and Premiere Pro.

I wonder if it could be done via a plug in like BlackMagic or AJA, as if it was going out via video to Messages or Skype or a proprietary messaging program? The thing is it is such a great piece of software that the competitors need it (even if FCP X doesn’t have it anymore either).

Working from home means companies need less edit bays, editors get more sanity from not driving, and it is better for the environment not having to drive, so someone please come up with a solution and fast!