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Posts Tagged ‘Footage’

This flower bloom time-lapse took three years and 8TB of raw footage to create

09 May

You can pick your favorite symbol of springtime from any number of familiar images. In Seattle, the local favorite is a rain-soaked figure clutching a latte with a cold, dead look in their eyes. But it’s hard to beat the natural beauty and optimism of a blooming flower. That’s the imagery that dominates filmmaker Jamie Scott’s recent time-lapse titled ‘Spring,’ a follow-up to his popular video ‘Fall’ of a couple of years ago.

He gives FStoppers a fascinating look at what it takes to create a time-lapse of this scope. Not surprisingly, a lot of patience and hard drive space were involved. Watch the video, check out the behind-the-scenes and let us know what you think in the comments.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Panasonic Lumix DC-GH5 sample footage

14 Feb

With access to a pair of production-ready Lumix GH5s running near-final firmware, we headed to a local whiskey distillery to put them to the test. We shot the footage above at 23.9p, 150mbps, 10-bit 4:2:2. One camera was set to Cinelike D, while the other was shooting ‘Like 709.’ You’ll also see examples of 60p footage slowed down by 2.5x as well as the camera’s ‘Focus Transition’ mode.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Video: Breathtaking drone footage of Oregon’s landscape

09 Dec

Michael Shainblum is a skilled professional landscape photographer known for his time-lapse footage and incredible still work. In 2015, he decided to take his photography to the skies to begin working on a drone project.

All told, he shot 16 hours of footage with DJI 3 and DJI 4 drones to produce this breathtaking 4K aerial montage filmed all over the state of Oregon. Be sure to turn the lights down, the sound up and HD mode on to really enjoy this short film.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Drone footage captures the raw power of Iceland

18 Oct

Bjarke Hvorslev and Kristian Kettner shot the above film entirely with a Sony a7r ii camera mounted to a DJI Phantom 4 drone during a 6 day trip to Iceland. The film really does an amazing job depicting the raw beauty and power that Iceland has become so famous for. Turn down the lights, crank up the sound and be sure to watch this in HD.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Lytro Immerge VR footage showcased for the first time

31 Aug

Last November, Lytro unveiled Immerge, a pro-grade camera rig for producing cinematic VR content using the company’s light field technology. At the time, Lytro offered interested partners and studios the option to checkout a prototype of the rig, but little had been said since. That changed last week, with Lytro publishing a demonstration video showing footage created by its rig as seen through an Oculus Rift VR headset.

Lytro’s Immerge produces content by capturing data from all directions around the rig, using that to generate views for VR footage. The resulting footage can be presented in a few different forms: as spherical videos, 180-degree and 360-degree immersive videos, and there’s also the option for seamless capture. Unlike most VR cameras on the market, though, Immerge is being targeted at large studios and others interested in producing cinematic VR content. As demonstrated in the video below, these studios can use Immerge’s end-to-end system to blend CG elements into the footage without using a traditional green screen.

It’s not clear which companies have partnered with Lytro. However, Lytro VP of engineering Tim Milliron said in a statement to The Verge, ‘What I can say is definitely in Q1 of 2017 you should be seeing several kinds of these kinds of experiences out in the real world from other content producers that we’re working with today.’ The rig’s price hasn’t been revealed, but previous statements from the company pegs it at ‘multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars.’

Via: The Verge

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Drone footage of aurora over Iceland is just what your weekend needs

27 Aug

Maybe it’s unreasonably hot where you live, like it is here. Maybe you just smashed your phone screen on a sidewalk (and you KNEW you should have paid for that Apple Care). It’s none of our business why, but if your troubled mind needs soothing, we found just the thing for it: this video of the Northern Lights shot from a drone soaring over Iceland. 

The footage comes from OZZO Photography and a Sony a7S II with Sigma 20mm F1.4 strapped to a DJI Matrice 600 (that’s a $ 4600 pro-grade drone, for those keeping score at home). It all adds up to one sweet, nerve-calming minute and a half.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Amazing underwater 4K footage from Canon EOS-1D X Mark II

14 Jun

Backscatter Underwater Video & Photo in Monterey CA is the world’s leading supplier for underwater imaging equipment. But as well as selling underwater photography gear, the staff at Backscatter also put it to good use.

Staff member Russ Sanoian has been diving with the Canon EOS-1D X Mk II for a little while and you can check out the results of his dives in the video below. We spoke to Russ about what makes a good underwater camera, and why he thinks the EOS-1D X Mark II is a good option for stills and video shooters.

What do you do at Backscatter?

Backscatter is the largest underwater Photography store in the world. We dive, shoot and service everything we sell and all employees are underwater videographers and photographers. I am our Product Manager and responsible for sales of underwater equipment. 

What makes a good underwater camera?

Large sensors and High ISO are critical for good underwater performance as it’s typically a low light environment. Artificial lights or strobes can help with macro/close up, but for wide-angle photography. To shoot with the EOS-1D X Mark II I’m using a Nauticam 1D X Mk II housing with a Small HD Monitor.

What has impressed you about the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II underwater?

I owned and shot with the Sony a7R II before the 1D X Mk II, but the Canon shoots 4K at 60p, which is a big deal. It’s great in low light and ISO at 2500 footage is incredibly clean.

I’ve also found that Canon cameras are the best for manual white balance underwater, they will nail a custom white balance setting at any depth and have the best blues in the industry even edging out RED cameras. So far I have shot the EOS-1D X Mark II with the Canon EF 100mm F2.8L IS USM Macro IS and the Canon EF 8-15mm F4L Fisheye USM attached.

Can you share some quick tips for underwater photography?

Always shoot in manual mode, and lock focus manually. This can be extremely challenging for macro subjects but is the best way to shoot with such a narrow depth of field. The 1D X Mk II has incredible autofocus and I have been testing it but so far it’s just not accurate enough for underwater work.

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III 4K sample footage and shooting summary

04 Apr

4K Video Sample Reel

All video was shot in Sony’s XAVC 4K codec, at 4K/24p (except for the high-frame rate samples). Shutter speed was locked at 1/50 sec, aperture was manually selected on the lens and the camera was left in Auto ISO. Both manual focus and continuous autofocus were used.

Carey’s shooting impressions

The Sony Cyber-shot RX10 III is a conventional product for Sony. That might sound slightly negative at first, but really it means that the RX10 III is built well, attractively designed, packed with great technology and is capable of capturing excellent images. Unfortunately, it also means that there’s some usual Sony foibles at work; the menu system is horrid, there’s no touch screen, there’s some operational weirdness carried through from the rest of the Cyber-shot line, and some of the ergonomics could use some work.

The standout feature on the RX10 III is its lens. As you can plainly see from our samples gallery, the 24-600mm F2.4-4 lens is stellar. What’s more, while the camera is somewhat hefty for a ‘compact,’ it doesn’t feel unbalanced in your hand. When you combine that stable hand-holdability with the RX10 III’s optical stabilization, the average user will be able to get smooth telephoto video and sharp telephoto photos with ease. The XAVC 4K codec also means video will be crisp and detailed, the flat S-Log2 Gamma control (which was not used in the sample video above) and audio in / out ports indicate that the RX10 III will appeal to aspiring videographers as well.

What about downsides? Well, even if you’ve come from another Sony camera, you’ll need to spend some time figuring out where your menu options are. As mentioned in our RX1R II review, even the video and audio recording settings are spread not just across multiple pages, but also multiple sections of the menu. We also wish Sony would add things like video capture resolution and frame rate to the ‘Function’ menu in movie mode. And though it’s to be expected with such a wide zoom range, some users will be turned off by the amount of time it takes to zoom that impressive lens in and out. Unlike Sony’s a7 cameras, you cannot half-press the shutter to acquire focus in movie mode. It’s either continuous AF or manual focus. My last major gripe is that, like on other Sony cameras, the C1 and C2 buttons require a contorting of the hand to operate.

Overall, though, once you get used to some workarounds and get familiar with the camera, the RX10 III represents one of the most versatile and capable all-rounders I’ve ever used.

Rishi’s shooting impressions

Pros

The standout feature of Sony’s new RX10 III is, without a doubt, its lens. It’s got incredible reach, and with a maximum aperture of F2.4-4, remains relatively bright throughout its zoom range. Brighter max apertures help keep noise (and ISO) levels low, and afford relatively good depth-of-field control (or background blur). A look at our equivalent aperture diagram indicates the RX10 III is well ahead of its nearest competitor, the Canon G3 X (lower equivalent aperture is better for any given focal length). The RX10 III’s lens is also far brighter than Nikon’s 24-500 DL, which ranges from a max aperture of F2.8 on its wide end to F5.6 on its tele end. That said, if you really don’t have much of a need beyond 200mm equivalent, the RX10 II retains a brighter aperture for most of its zoom range, save for on the wide end where the RX10 III is slightly ahead (F2.4 vs F2.8).

The lens appears sharp edge-to-edge even wide open at 24mm equivalent, at 70mm, 200mm, and 600mm. Granted, these are JPEGs we’re looking at, which are sharpened (with a class-leading sharpening engine, no less), so we’ll have to reserve final judgement for when we’ve been able to analyze the Raws, but, suffice it to say we’re thoroughly impressed by the performance of the lens so far. Good performance wide open is important on smaller sensor formats: it means you don’t have to stop down too much and deprive the smaller sensor of more light, which also helps combat diffraction-induced softness (which starts at earlier F numbers with smaller sensor formats, as diffraction is correlated with equivalent aperture).

Sony’s recent improvements in its JPEG engine also mean very high detail retention through smart sharpening and noise reduction that very effectively reduces noise while maintaining detail at high ISOs. This 220mm shot has plenty of detail despite being shot at the tele end of the zoom, and at ISO 320, which is approximately ISO 2500 equivalent on full-frame, assuming equivalent sensor efficiency and performance. Impressive. 

Pair that lens and JPEG engine with a stacked 1″-type high dynamic range, high sensitivity CMOS sensor, and you’ve got a very impressive camera. The stacked sensor design marries a separate chip for memory and signal processing circuitry to the image sensor itself, which allows all that data to be read off the image sensor faster. The faster readout offers a number of benefits: faster autofocus, and fast frame rate video, as well as oversampled 4K video generated from 6K readout.

Cons

How about downsides? There are plenty, ergonomically. The Cyber-shot philosophy is starting to make less and less sense with such high-end offerings, and we wish Sony would instead essentially brand this as an Alpha camera, conferring upon it the advantages of the Alpha line and a consistent user-experience across all their cameras. For example, it doesn’t make sense that the ‘Focus Settings’ option can’t be assigned to the center dial back button on a Cyber-shot, yet can on an Alpha – it’s one of my favorite ways to make that button have dual function: click it to use the 4-way dial to move the AF point in any Flexible Spot mode, or click it and turn the dial to change AF area. As it is, on any Cyber-shot, you can’t assign this option, instead requiring you to leave the button assigned to ‘Focus Standard’ – lest you wish to lose control over focus point placement. That means you’ll have to waste yet another custom button for AF area mode.

Thankfully, pressing that back dial’s center button now toggles the camera into AF point selection mode (like the a6300), which means you don’t always have to first press it to the move the AF point, but this isn’t ideal: I’d also like access to whatever custom functions I’ve assigned left, right, and down to on that 4-way dial. I don’t understand why Sony doesn’t simply include an AF point selection joystick, or add a touchscreen for that matter.

It’s high time to marry state-of-the-art technology with an incredible user experience.

Particularly problematic across all Sony cameras is the menu system. As I wrote in our a7R II review: ’22 AF options are split across 11 different submenu pages under two different main menu headers,’ and things aren’t any better for the RX10 III either. The lack of organization is inexplicable, but what makes it even worse is the lack of a customizable ‘My Menu’. Furthermore, now that these cameras are both stills and video powerhouses, there need to be separate customizations for each. Currently, if I assign a button to ‘Focus Magnifier’ to get around the fact that the camera doesn’t automatically magnify focus as I turn the focus ring in any video mode, that button becomes entirely redundant in stills mode, where the camera does do so.

There are countless other examples of button customizations that are relevant to video, but entirely useless in stills – for a camera body with rather limited customizable buttons and dials, there really shouldn’t be any assigned physical controls that are only useful in one shooting mode. And as Carey mentioned, there also remain the customizations (like movie frame rate or codec) that remain unassignable to the Fn menu, requiring a menu dive, which should be avoided at all costs considering the disorienting, unorganized menu system.

Frankly, Sony would benefit from hiring a firm dedicated to UI to re-design the physical controls, menus and button/dial interface completely from scratch. It pains me to see such refined technological achievement placed into hands of photographers, only to hear ‘I wouldn’t shoot it because I’m constantly fighting the ergonomics’ or ‘it just isn’t a pleasure to use’. An ergonomic overhaul would go a large way to addressing such complaints. 

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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Augmented Reality: Aerial Footage of Distorted Alien Landscapes

16 Feb

[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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“Technology can help nature understand itself,” says AUJIK, a self-proclaimed cult that melds faux mythologies, fictitious landscapes and wildly distorted architecture with a philosophy they call “animism for the Digital Age.” The quasi-spiritualist Japanese collective gives us a look into the world of their imagination via simulated drone footage, swooping us over and through their vision of nature awakened in a new way by technological integration.

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“Since the late 2000’s, the online presence of mysterious nature/tech cult AUJIK quietly spread across video platforms featuring proposed active members and fabricated histories. These virtual appearances suggest decades-old lineage through theoretical schematics outlining their transgression emission, citing faux reports arguing the life of inanimate matter and modern forms of animism from fictional anthropologists and philosophers.”

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“For AUJIK, nature is divided into Refined and Primitive categories. This separation presents a conflict that is the root of all chaos in the world, and in order to reach a sublime state, AUJIK generates rituals to harmonize the organic and synthetic realms. Refined nature consists of evolved technology such as robotics, artificial intelligence, cybernetics, DNA manipulations, and body enhancements. The Primitive includes fauna, flora, and the Earth itself with its precious stones, minerals, and metals.”

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Natural settings, rocks, plants and even living creatures become something more than themselves, infused with a new power, growing in a way that they never actually could in our current reality, bound as it is by the laws of physics. Digital forces invade and transform everything from dark forests to dense cities, warping the architecture, creating a bizarre parallel universe.

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[ By Steph in Art & Drawing & Digital. ]

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Graava action cam automatically edits POV footage

08 Aug

A new action camera called Graava is designed to produce ready-to-share, automatically edited videos that include only the most exciting parts of your POV footage. Using data from the camera’s sensors and your input via a related mobile app, Graava picks out the most interesting parts of the raw footage and edits them into a polished final video. Read more

Articles: Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com)

 
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