Posted by Jason on June 9th, 2009
As Apple throws all caution to the wind by skipping two full versions between iterations 7 and 10, I can’t help but wonder what QuickTime X — and Snow Leopard — means for the future of Final Cut Studio.
For now the only information I can find is the bit about ColorSync that was mentioned in the WWDC Keynote on Monday, and the small section under Snow Leopard’s New Technologies heading. ColorSync is Apple’s system for maintaining consistency across imaging devices like displays, printers, scanners, and digital cameras so that the color viewed on screen is the same as the color printed out.
Maybe this means an end to those tricky gamma-shift issues that occurred when exporting to specific formats in Compressor.
Snow Leopard is due out in September, so it would be great to hear something about Final Cut Studio around then, but I won’t get my hopes up. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it’s April before we hear any mention of Final Cut Studio 3. But holy cow, that would have to be some upgrade, right? It will have been three years since the last major release, and I expect the Final Cut team have been keeping themselves busy since 2007 — especially with all those new Snow Leopard goodies like Grand Central Dispatch to play with.
Posted by Jason on May 29th, 2009
I haven’t been this excited about a LEGO set since I was 10 or so, when all I could wrap my head around was acquiring an Aquazone submarine.
According to LEGO’s website the sets aren’t out yet, but the Chicago Architecture Foundation has been selling the Sears Tower, Empire State Building and Space Needle sets at $22.00 a piece.
I’ve also read that there’s a John Hancock Tower model out (or coming out), and a whole line of Frank Llyod Wright buildings, though LEGO doesn’t have any official information on any of it. Lame.
Apparently you can buy some of the sets here though.
Posted by Jason on May 27th, 2009
I’m not really a fan of swapping z’s for s’s — or crappy web design — but golly if these guys didn’t nail their product demo video. So awesome.
I tried building a track-based dolly system on my own a little over a year ago. It didn’t look nearly this good and, more importantly, only the dolly itself is currently usable. The track, not so much.
They’re asking between $500-$600 for the set and, considering my GlideCam jib cost about $500, I think it’s a bargain for something so versatile.
If I had $500 to spend on gear, I’d seriously consider giving it to these guys.
Posted by Jason on April 27th, 2009
On Friday I picked up a Flip Mino HD for my upcoming trip to London. Meagan is speaking at FOWD and we thought it would be fun to have a little camera just for video.
Yesterday our friend Bill Couch pointed out that, although no official word has been given, Best Buy is currently selling a Flip Ultra HD camera. Still 720p at 30fps, but with a removable battery, longer charge life, and twice the capacity. For a full $30 less. I was pissed.
Today we went down to Best Buy for what was (surprisingly) a relatively painless swap. However, they did charge us an addition $3 to cover the rest of the 15% restocking fee. I also found it odd that there’s still no mention of the camera anywhere in the store, on their website, or on the Flip website. More than that, I found it scummy that the Flip Mino HD was marked down from $229 to $209 — especially since the newer model can do more and costs just $199.
Scummy.
A Few Notes
The screen is larger than the Mino’s and appears to be much sharper. The recording indicator light now doubles as the charge indicator and can be turned off. However, doing so also disables the light as a charge indicator. Which is lame. Unlike the Mino, you can’t plug this camera directly into a USB port on a MacBook Pro without it hanging off your desk. It’s just too thick (I’m told this isn’t an issue with the new unibody MacBook Pro) .
I think I’ll be picking up a USB extension cable since I don’t imagine it’s good for either device to be using the port for support. Otherwise, I expect this is going to be a very fun little camera to play with.
Posted by Jason on April 4th, 2009
This is fantastic. Every 8 by 6 image represents one minute of runtime and is meant to show how color and tone change throughout a film. I love it.
More here.