The National Association of Broadcasters had their 2010 convention just recently and I had wanted to throw some of these C5D videos on up here when they came out, but I’ve been too busy.  There was a part of me that wanted to just throw some video up here and go about my other business but then I turned to myself and said, don’t mug yourself, mate.  Seriously.  The Man is constantly cracking the whip, why do it to myself?  Especially with something I enjoy.  I get caught up in sort of, needless hurrying sometimes.  Slow down.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah boy! (#3)

I thought I’d kick it off with an interview with Canon.  He admits that this market caught them off guard.  Another thing he touches on that’s really interesting is that this is the first product where they’ve really made not only significant updates, but free upgrades after release. In the past I’d have never been able to expect so many upgrades to a product I already owned. Since release, the 5dMk2 has received full manual control over exposure settings in video mode, audio metering and a completely new set of frame rates. All through software updates. We’re kind of accustomed to this in this personal computer market and in some cases the consumer electronics market, like the iPod or navigation. But in the camera market it’s practically unheard of. I’d have been stuck with what I bought if Canon wasn’t responding to their user base they way they now are. Whether it’s due to the economy that they’re stepping up or not, I don’t know. How much is due to the increasing ease with which we all communicate and rally, again I don’t know. Everything now too has a computer chip in it and everything can be reprogrammed on the fly. It’s a perfect storm of good times.

This dude works for Lucasfilm and I thought he had some interesting things to say. Enough said.

This dude, Rick McCallum, is a producer with Lucasfilm. He developed the generally well regarded Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and then later the Star Wars prequels. Which may fill your heart with rage depending, but you know, he’s an industry tough guy so the fact that he’s hyped about these cameras is a good thing.  He’s had Philip Bloom to Skywalker Ranch to do the HDDSLR dog and pony show for Lucas and the like.  They’re primarily interested in seeing how these cameras hold up on the big screen, and the consensus is that they do… very well.  Rick has also met up with Phil in the Republic of Czechistan to check out the Canon 1dMk4.

Here’s Steve Weiss, from those shootouts I’ve been on about. Zacuto makes the Z-Finder and a bunch of other tools I may be interested in at some point to untether my camera from the tripod.  I’m resisting the urge to do a Z-Finder commercial.  Errrrrrrm, my own commercial.  Not the part where I’m embedding their commercial here.  I’m not resisting that urge.

Glidecam with their support arm. Which… you could already do with pre-existing support rigs.

The lens maker Zeiss is releasing a series of  compact cine lenses for the DSLR market soon.  This is what I was on about before with the PL mount and the camera hacking and slashing.  Zeiss is taking all the qualities of a cine lens, such as color reproduction and focus mechanics and making it so you can lock and load it onto an unmodified DSLR camera.  The back end of PL lenses stick too far into the DSLR camera, necessitating the removal of the mirror box inside the camera.  Now you won’t have to do that.  But you’ll be spending money on these lenses like you’re buying cars.  So I won’t be a beneficiary.

Which kinda leads me to this, and I’m not an industry expert, but while it’s nice to see everyone rushing to support this new market, let’s remember that this is an accident.  These are still photo cameras with an initially poorly implemented video mode.  The form factor is desirable for still photography, not for shooting movies.  Well, it is because they’re small and light, but they aren’t designed for movies in every other regard.  The way the sensor works isn’t intended for action.  So this whole market of accessories has cropped up to make up for these shortcomings.  And folks are definitely making the best of it but it’s an inferior design to begin with.  It seems like the ideal solution would have been to take the sensor and processors and put them inside bodies that worked with what we already had.  It’s happening a little bit with some new cameras from Canon but it’s too late if you ask me.  The 3rd party industry has sprung to action already.  Now we’ve got Zeiss cranking out a new line of cine lenses to combat a problem inherent to cameras that aren’t cine cameras.  Because they were never designed to be.  Obviously the bell is rung and I suppose it’s really cool that an industry has risen to support this emerging market.  And obviously I’m thrilled to be a minor casualty of war, so to speak.  So maybe this all much ado, but it’s weird.  This must happen a lot with other products and I’m just not aware?

And lastly, the folks who run the Vimeo community are more and more often attending these events and producing their own shorts.  Aways entertaining.