High definition video recording is a standard feature on digital cameras these days. If you’ve never really understood the terms 1080p, 1080i, and 720p, here’s a short and sweet explanation that’ll bring you up to speed. Benjamin Higginbotham of Technology Evangelist describes the differences between varieties and why you can consider 720p “better” than 1080i.
GoPro has unveiled the HD Hero2, the followup to the highly popular HD Hero from 2009 that has been adopted by daredevils around the world. The new camera is similar in design but offers major upgrades: more angles of view (90°, 127°, and 170°), 11-megapixel still photos (up from 5MP) at 10fps, a helpful LCD display instead of a single character code system, a mini-HDMI port, and a faster sensor that allows for faster frame rates (e.g. 960p at 48fps, up from 30).
The Hero2 is available in three different kits (outdoor, motorsports, and surf) for $300, and the price of the old Hero has been reduced to $200.
Earlier today we shared an interesting video comparing 1080p video shot with the iPhone 4S with footage from a Canon 5D Mark II. Here’s another short video demonstrating the quality of the new f/2.4 lens and Sony-made sensor, created by photographer and filmmaker Benjamin Dowie. He says,
Got an iPhone 4S yesterday and got up this morning to go for a surf. No surf, so thought I’d shoot some stuff to see what the new camera is like on the 4S. Got home, looked at the footage, and couldn’t believe it came out of a phone. Was so excited so thought I’d quickly cut a vid to share the goodness.
It’s actually amazing. The automatic stabilisation seems to work wonders, and gets rid of most the jello. Depth of field is flipping awesome. Colours are really good straight out the camera, but I did give this footage a slight grade. [#]
For a comparison of the cameras found on the latest smartphones, check out this smartphone camera showdown published by Engadget today.
(via Mashable)
Forget sending cameras up to the edges of space on a weather balloon: rockets are much, much cooler (and faster). A man named Derek Deville created a homemade rocket in an effort to win The Carmack Prize, which offers $10K to anyone who can launch a rocket to above 100K feet, take a GPS reading, and then recover the vehicle. Although he failed to take a GPS reading, Deville’s rocket managed to reach 121,000ft (~23 miles) in 84 seconds.
What’s awesome is that he also attached two HD cameras to the rocket to document what the journey looks like. The side view captured by a FlipHD starts at 2:49, while footage from a GoPro pointed straight down starts at 5:15.
Chuck Patterson was SUP surfing with friends one day when two sharks joined them and circled around for 15 minutes. Rather than have the encounter deter them from surfing there again like it would for mortals, he returned to the same place the next day at the same time with a Go Pro HD HERO camera at the end of 10 foot pole.
Within 5 minutes a Great White shark approached him, and this time he was able to capture the encounter on film. The footage is pretty creepy, and reminded me of a Godzilla movie I saw when I was younger, where a scuba-diver runs into a freaky looking Godzilla-tadpole thing underwater. No ocean swimming for me.
A good majority of news and documentary photographers tend to shy away from capturing video footage on DSLRs, owing to the cameras limited HD clip length. However, here’s a really fantastic example of a documentary-style story shot with a 1D Mark IV, directed by photographer Austin Walsh in Kansas City.
Interestingly, Walsh and his creative team normally do advertising work, but the resulting piece has the feel of a New York Times One in 8 Million project. Walsh, who created the piece for a PhotoShelter lecture on passion projects, also produced every component of the video from scratch, including its own soundtrack. Read more…
This music video may not have the suave nature of the single-take Old Spice commercials, but then again, neither do the unlucky men who fall victim to their runaway love interest. Plus, musician Tim Halperin had this video made for his song, “She Runs,” with a budget of a mere $500. The video was shot with a Canon 5D Mark II.
Jonathan Combs, who directed the film alongside Joe Childress, said:
We took 3 days to build and 1 day to shoot. Most of the wood for the rolling stages was donated/lent as well as the set items. Most of the money went towards casters so that the stages would roll properly when we started putting set decoration and actors on top of them. We had an average of 10 people on the build days and a total of about 40 people (including actors) on the actual shoot day. This still didn’t seem like enough. Everyone pulled double duty. We had actors holding set pieces, running to do their scene, then running to hold more set pieces. Brooke Peoples (our leading lady) had 3 wardrobe changes and 4 scenes. She also had to make most of these changes within seconds so she could be in her back to back scenes. Tim had 2 wardrobe changes and three scenes. The biggest move was the ending shot. By that time we’re 40 yards away from where we started so the red curtain, stage, piano, and audience all had to be moved in behind the dolly. It was mass chaos outside of the frame.
You can read more from Jonathan Combs on Planet 5D and watch the behind-the-scenes video below:
Canon announced today that five upcoming models of the Canon PIXMA printers will feature a “full HD movie print” feature that allows users to print individual frames from their HD movies. The big catch is that the HD movie files have to be .MOV file format created by certain Canon cameras only. The company has yet to release sample prints using the feature.
Other notable features on some of these models include their Wi-Fi capabilities, allowing the printers to access both the Internet and local networks. Also with the Wi-Fi models, Android OS, iPhone, iPad and iPod users can usethe Canon Easy-PhotoPrint app to print camera photos directly from their phones. The wireless models start at $80.
Most of the new printers will also include access to exclusive content on Canon’s CREATIVE PARK, which is a nifty creative site with project ideas, templates, and cards, as well as cool 3D paper craft projects.
It’s almost a given for new Canon DSLRs to have an HD video recording mode, but older Canons can also capture HD video with the open source software EOS Camera Movie Record. The program allows you to shoot HD 720p video with any Canon EOS camera that has LiveView capabilities. The software runs off of your computer and captures HD video from the LiveView of a tethered camera.
Photographer Peter Arboine has an article up at DIY Photography about how he uses the software to shoot video with a Canon 40D.
Obviously, the fact that your camera has to remain tethered limits use of this video feature largely to studio use, but it’s a neat workaround for Canon owners. Unfortunately, despite the fact that the Canon program has been in the works for over a year, there’s still no Nikon equivalent.
A few guys in Los Angeles recently convinced their friend to let them borrow his new iPhone 4 (that he waited 4.5 in line for), and got onto a rooftop with the help of another friend. Using some large helium balloons, they attached the iPhone and started recording 720p video of downtown LA as it rose up to 1000 feet into the air on the end of a kite string. They also made a fun behind-the-scenes video of their project.
This setup is definitely cheaper than an RC plane or helicopter, and somewhat safer and more stable than a kite.
