Lytro Camera Hands On

Photo Rumors has some video of the newly announced Lytro Camera using Lightfield technology that allows you to refocus an image after you take it, or even make the image true 3D. The Lytro is an amazing new technology that has to be seen to be believed.
Lytro
From the video it sounds like the image is 1080 by 1080 for now, but has an instant shutter, and turns on quickly. Check it out at their website. it is $399 or 8GB and $499 for 16GB. Very very cool!

And the CEO says that Video is on their roadmap. That will be unbelievable. I can’t wait.

TUAW on Disabling Autoupload for iCloud Photo Steam

TUAW has an article on why you should disable AutoUpload for iPhoto and Aperature in the photostream of iCloud.

photostream-upload-cjr

This is what to uncheck in iPhoto, otherwise you will upload all your new photos from iPhoto, which is fine from you iPhone, but if you are shooting camera raw, is going to quickly fill your iCloud (which only comes with 5GB of space) and you iOS device.

I mean luckily I have 25 GB of iCloud space as I was a mobile me subscriber, and I have a lot of documents and comics on my iPad, but it only has 10GB free of the 25GB of iCloud space, so putting up full size RAW images would be disastrous. And you can still add images to your photostream by dragging and dropping, though you can’t remove images (which is plain stupid in my opinion).

Adobe’s new Deblurring Tech

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on Adobe’s amazing new Deblurring technology.

Petapixel is reporting

deblur1_mini

If this works this well, this will change photography, and hopefully eventually video as well. Check out the article to see more examples. I Can’t wait to get my hands on this, which will likely be in CS6.

New Canon EOS 1D X

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Cinema 5D is reporting

that Canon has announced it’s new flagship camera, the Canon EOS 1D X.

Well one mystery is solved,

canon1dx

It is an 18 MP camera full frame, and can shoot 12 FPS in RAW. And it has very exciting new video features:

– 1920×1080 at 24, 25 and 30fps, as well as 1280×720- at 50 and 60fps


– manual audio levels (also during recording)


– ISO range for movie shooting runs from ISO 100 to- 51,200 (surely a new low-light king)


– 2 compression options “IPB” or “ALL-I” (all intra-frames)


– The EOS-1D X still records movies using the H.264- codec but it is the compression type within this codec- that has been changed (!!!).


– ALL-I means every frame for itself!


– no more 12 minute clip length, clips can now be up to- 30 minutes. (clips over 4GB will continue in new file)


– SMPTE Timecode!!! (Nice nice) (Rec. Run, Freerun- and 2 more modes)


– live audio level meter on the rear screen during filming- and the ability to adjust the audio recording level during- filming.


– “silent control” audio level adjustment through- dedicated button.


– 29.97fps and 59.94fps non drop frame for NTSC land


– no more .THM files. –> thumbnails are now metadata- inside the actual video.


– improved (?) moiré and line skipping performance


– it looks like still 8bit (biggest booh)



Still not a real Canon Video Camera based on their DSLR technology, but an exciting DSLR that will be out in March of next year for $6800.

I think that the next announcement will a video camera based on similar technology, like the Sony F3.

Read the full press release at Canon’s site. And a video trailer is available.

Here is the feature sheet.

canoneos1dx1



DaVinci Resolve 8.1 FCPX Support

that DaVinci Resolve 8.1 now has support for FCP X and conforms and roundtrips. So you can now do a full color out of FCP X, though you audio is still going to be hard to conform without tracks.

You can even move an FCP 7 edit to FXP X using resolve, which is pretty huge. Now they need to add Premiere Pro support!

The Provideo Coalition is reporting

No More Quickster

Got an e-mail from Netflix yesterday, and it seems there is no longer going to be a quickster. They will keep DVD and Streaming under one roof, just like people want. Seems the negative feedback worked, and the CEO just totally messed up. I am quite glad, though it might be a mistake changing back after announcing.

Dear Jonah,

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password…in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

We’re constantly improving our streaming selection. We’ve recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we’ve added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.

We value you as a member, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get your movies & TV shows.

Respectfully,

The Netflix Team



Change Mail Sidebar Icon Size in Lion

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I don’t know if any of you were bothered by the fact that in Lion, the default icon size in Mail was much larger than it had been previously.
MailMediumIcons
Personally it bugged the hell out of me, as I have a huge amount of mailboxes, and I didn’t know how to change the icon size.

Now I know. Go to System Preferences:General

SystemPreferencesGeneral

And then chose Sidebar Icon size, which also controls the finder icon sidebar icon size (though not iTunes) and changes them within in Mail as well.
GeneralSidebarIconSize

The default is medium, if you change it to small, the icons in mail are back to their old size.

MailIconsSmall

Yes, so much more pleasing!

Launchpad-Control from Chaos Space

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launchpad-control

I don’t know anyone who like Launchpad, the iOS like App Launcher built into Lion, especially anyone with as many apps as I have, but if I were to use I would want something like this, which allows you to turn apps off from display (since deleting an app from Launchpad deletes the app from the computer completely).

Launchpad-Control is pay what you want and you can download it from ChaosSpace.

OnLineVideo.net on FCP X 10.0.1

OnLineVideo.Net has an article on Final Cut Pro 10.0.1 it is not so positive. I agree with it wholeheartedly.

I like what they have to say about the new feature roles:

To a degree, roles are a solution to a problem Apple created by making Final Cut Pro X trackless. For example, in Final Cut Pro 7, or Premiere Pro for that matter, you could accomplish the same thing by placing narration on one track and music on another, and enabling/disabling the track as necessary for preview or rendering.


In addition to preview, when rendering out to a QuickTime file, you can also use roles to create separate files for further editing in another program. This is shown in Figure 4. For most high-end users, however, OMF or EDL export in Final Cut Pro 7 provides the same capability, while those editing in sister programs like Soundtrack Pro or Color would simply use the direct export feature shown in Figure 2. Apple declined to include industry-standard mediums of exchange in their product, or direct access to Soundtrack Pro, and roles is a substitute. In my view, you don’t get brownie points for fixing a problem caused by your own questionable design decisions.

And in conclusion:

For me, all the glorious new features seem like solutions to problems that I don’t have, added complexity with no payoff. With Final Cut Pro 7 or Premiere Pro, there are projects, clips, and a timeline. You import your clips, organize them into folders, and drag them down into the timeline. Then you trim a bit, add some effects, maybe a transition or two, export, and you’re done.


With Final Cut Pro 10, you have Events and Projects. You have a Magnetic Timeline, Clip Connections, a Primary Storyline, Auditions, Roles, Smart Collections: all are completely new concepts that I’ve never encountered in the dozen or so editors that I’ve cut projects on in the past, and, in some cases, they’re solutions to problems caused by questionable design decisions like the trackless interface.


The result is a cluttered interface that you really can’t control and asset management with even less control. You have effects and other functions seemingly designed to prioritize being different rather than superior. Honestly, was every established editing convention, from marking clips in and out in a source window to three-wheel color correction, so tragically flawed that it wasn’t worthy of being implemented in Final Cut Pro X, if only because it was functional and familiar to all pro target users?


More importantly, within the context of my typical projects, whether a two-hour ballet or music concert, or a ten minute streaming clip or screencam, will these new concepts help me do my job faster or better? I honestly don’t think so, particularly because Final Cut Pro 7 and now Adobe Creative Suite already suit my needs so well.



Exactly, the new features do not speed up my editing, and I actually find them slowly and less efficient. And now that is seems that FCP X has lost OMF export when Automatic Duck went away, so roles is even more useless, as I need OMF much more than just exporting tracks (though I do need tracks as well)

I don’t want a new form of editing, I want new features on top of the way I already edit, and if I like them will use them, but I don’t like the new way of editing of FCP X, and I don’t think I ever will