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Breaking news, hot off the press. I have been in discussion with Den from the F-Stop Academy and I will be joining them to help produce new training materials and interesting workshops. Set up by Philip Bloom and Dennis Lennie, the aim of the F-Stop academy is to make it easier for people from all walks of life to get the level of training that they need to take their video skills to the next level. I will be working with Den and Phil to introduce new materials and courses to compliment the exceptional skills already on offer. I’m really excited by this as I hope it will make it easier for you to learn some of the things that it has taken me 20+ years to learn.

I’m in Iceland this week running workshops and a masterclass on 3D video production. Today went really well and we had a great day with some really interesting discussion on the future of 3D. The workshop was attended by over 30 people (despite some really nasty weather) including representatives of the state broadcaster, local production companies, enthusiasts and video “artists”. Tomorrow we have a masterclass session where we will shoot a short 3D film then edit and encode it for web distribution. Hopefully I will be doing lots more of these kinds of events via F-Stop.

Crispening is one of the adjustments you can make in many of Sony’s video cameras that adjusts the way the image is sharpened via the detail correction circuit. On an EX1 or EX3 it is in the Picture Profiles section. If use wisely Crispening can be used to help deal with camera noise by making it less visible, thus giving a cleaner image. Crispening works across the entire luma (brightness) range. It’s really difficult to explain how the level adjustment works, it is a threshold adjustment for the detail circuit, but I’ll have a go anyway.

First off lets consider how the detail circuit works. The camera uses delay circuits to compare how the brightness (luma) levels of adjacent pixels are changing, both from left to right and line by line. If the circuit sees a rapid change from light to dark or dark to light (or light to lighter, dark to darker etc) the circuit regards this as an edge and detail correction is applied by brightening or darkening the transition, exaggerating the edge. This is seen in extreme cases as a black or white halo around edges.

On the EX cameras crispening works by adjusting the threshold at which the light to dark transition between pixels triggers the application of detail correction. So when you set a negative number, say -99 even the slightest luma difference between pixels will have detail correction applied. Set it to +99 and it takes a much greater luma change to trigger the detail circuit.

What you need to understand is that if you set crispening such that the threshold before detail is applied is 100mV (for example) then between 0v (black) and 99mV little to no detail correction will be applied, keeping blacks clean by not applying detail correction to any noise with an amplitude less than 100mV. But if there are subtle textures in the image, going say from 500mV to 599mV (mid tones) then no detail correction will be applied here either, so the image will appear a little softer, only larger luma changes of more than 100mV will have detail correction applied. These small luma changes can be anywhere within the full luma range and it is not confined just to the darker parts of the image.

Raising the crispening level setting to a positive number raises the threshold at which detail is applied to the image, so a high number prevents detail correction from being added to small luma changes. A negative number means that detail correction will be applied to smaller luma changes, this increases the appearance of noise but also makes textures appear sharper.

One thing to consider is that the noise the camera produces is not only in the blacks. If the noise amplitude (level) is for example 5mV, then if you have a subject at 500mV (mid tones) it will still have random 5mV noise added to it. It just tends to be that noise is most visible in the blacks as 5mV of noise on a 5mV (very dark) signal is modulating (varying) the signal by 100% so it’s quite obvious, however 5mV on top of 500mV is only 1% so less obvious, but still there and still visible.

You should remember that the cleaner you can make the recorded image the less stress there is on the codec. This in turn means less mosquito noise and macro blocking giving an image that looks cleaner still and grades better. I struggle to see the difference between crispening at 0 and at +20 in most normally exposed shots, but if I look closely I do see less noise in shadow and low contrast areas. Low contrast areas tend to have little detail anyway, so being able to clean these up a little helps in post production.

Sony have a PDF about it here:
http://www.sony.co.uk/res/attachment…6605183226.pdf

I have finally found a camera bag that fits my needs (and my PMW-350K)! The Kata TCCT is a clever bag that converts from an airline regulation sized carry-on bag to a full size grab and go camera bag.

Kata TCCT in expanded working mode (I had not put in the stiffener for the pic)

For a couple of years I have been using a conventional carry on case to take my broken down cameras on flights. This is OK, except that once at my destination and with the camera assembled I don’t have a bag for the camera and I have an empty case taking up valuable baggage space. I really could have done with the TCCT in Norway when the rental car company messed up and we only had a tiny car. For a full review of this excellent bag please CLICK HERE.

As you walked around the BVE show in London last week you could not help but notice that just about every stand had some kind of reference to 3D production. The impression given was that 3D is here, it is going to be huge and everyone needs to be able to shoot in 3D. But is this really the case? Certainly there has been a big increase in the number of 3D movies produced in the last 18 months and Avatar is now the largest grossing movie ever made, much of the profits coming from 3D screenings. Sky TV in the UK are starting a 3D TV channel later in the year and Discovery, ESPN and others have announced their intentions to launch stereoscopic channels. To add to all this the TV manufacturers are also bringing large ranges of 3D TV’s to market.

But before you all rush out and spend large sums of money on expensive 3D camera rigs you need to look more closely at what’s going on and consider who will actually want to watch 3D. Now I am a fan of 3D, don’t get me wrong and I do believe that 3D is here to stay, but as I see it, until display technology finds a way to eliminate the need to wear special glasses 3D is going to be reserved for special events, movies and spectaculars. Lets face it who’s going to want to have to put on a pair of glasses after a hard days work, just to watch the news or a soap. This is supported by Sky’s recent 3D seminar where they stated that they are only looking at showing 4 hours of new 3D programming every week and the only things they are looking for are movies, major sporting events, special events and one off, mega specials – “planet earth” type big budget docs. The rest of the week will be repeats and re-runs. So, in the UK it’s likely that there will be a couple of OB trucks kitted out for 3D for sports and other events filing a couple of hours a week leaving just two hours which will be split between docs, specials and movies.

Now Sky 3D won’t be the only outlet for 3D in the UK. There will be some corporate productions with budgets big enough for 3D and there will be a market for a few on-demand specialist channels and 3D BluRay’s and DVD’s but the really big market will be the 3D games market. Even so for most production companies, 3D could be an expensive mistake. Investing in expensive 3D rigs, pairs of cameras, 3D production monitors and edit systems won’t be cheap. In addition there is a whole new set of skills to be learnt, shooting 3D is very different to 2D. Perhaps (sadly) the real future of 3D TV lies not with true 3D capture and filming but with clever boxes like the JVC IF-2D3D1 2D to 3D converter which can take existing 2D material and convert it in to pretty convincing 3D for the price of a single pro camcorder. It may even be that one day all home TV’s will contain a similar converter and you will be able to watch whatever you want in Pseudo 3D at the press of a button.

So back to the original question, how big is the 3D market? Well I think it’s actually pretty small, probably best left to a few specialist production companies or 3D consultants and  facilities companies. Certainly lots of 3D TV’s will get sold to affluent techno geeks and home cinema enthusiasts, but lets face it, HD was a hard sell and you don’t need glasses for that.

Convergent Design has just released a Beta version of firmware that will allow the NanoFlash to overcrank (for Slo-Mo) and record up to 8 channels of audio. There is a whole host of other new features as well such as loop recording, 80Mb/s data rate, 1440×1080 recording etc. See the CD website for full details.

I have uploaded a further selection of clips from the PMW-350 shot in Norway to YouTube. It’s also on Exposure Room if you want better quality.

Just a quick note to say thanks to all those that dropped by to say hello. It’s really good to meet you all and put faces to names and thank you for your support. The only problem was that I couldn’t get away from the stand to have a good mooch around the show. A few things I did note was that just about every booth had some form of 3D connection. While I’m a big 3D fan and love producing 3D films, I just don’t think it will reach the kind of scale that the show would lead you to believe.

Lots of interesting stuff going on over at the F-Stop Academy and there will be some interesting and exciting announcements coming soon that I hope will help make it easier for everyone to get training at whatever level they require from real industry experts, not just “trainers”. Stay tuned for more!!

Kata have some nice new bags coming soon using lighter, hi-tech fabrics and materials, I really like there stuff and picked up a new regulation carry-on size camera bag for my PMW-350. I’ll write a review as soon as I get time.

I had an interesting discussion with a BBC engineer about file based workflows and metadata. Clearly the BBC believe that metadata is going to be one of the key things to get right with any file based system as eventually the aim is to have the entire BBC video library stored digitally. Without good metadata it will be hard to sort through the tens of thousands of hours of material. Fortunately Sony already provide easy access to it’s metadata via clip browser for EX and PDZ1 for XDCAM-HD. What I found interesting was that his main focus was on XDCAM EX… hmmm… not currently BBC approved.

Talking of which, I was told of a workshop on post production and grading run by a BBC colourist that was using EX footage of a new Kids TV show to demonstrate what can be done. The question was raised about the use of EX for BBC HD broadcast, the answer given was that if you talk to Andy Quested then dispensations can still be gained. It was also stated that a NanoFlash on an EX was accepted by the BBC, but I guess that’s not really any surprise.

While I’m on the subject.. The PMW-350 had loads of interest at the show with a huge percentage of those considering it looking at pairing it up with a NanoFlash. Adaptimax are working on a range of brackets for various cameras and the NanoFlash, when I hear more I’ll pass it on.

So what was the question I got asked most at the show? Well it was “whether to buy a PDW-700 or a PMW-350 with a NanoFlash”. It’s a toughie and I don’t really have a simple answer as it depends on your clients and workflow. I’m going to write about this in a future blog. Anyway, got to go and do some real work on a corporate video that I need to finish before I fly off to Iceland next week for my 3D master classes.

At the recent BVE show in London, NextoDI were showing a demo of what will be available in the next firmware release, due around NAB time. The most significant feature is the ability to archive your material directly from the NVS2500 to BluRay!

You will be able to plug the NVS2500 into a USB BluRay burner and burn your files from the NextoDI straight on to BD-R discs!

So, no need for a computer or BluRay software, just the NextoDI and a BD burner. This makes the NVS2500 a truly pivotal device. You take your rushes in the feild, back them up on to the 2500, then plug in a BD writer and produce your archive discs. Remember that BD-R should have a shelf life of around 25 years. It doesn’t tie up a computer and there’s no reason why you couldn’t do this on location, the recommended LG drive even runs off 12v so you could do it in a car or running off another 12v battery.

As well as writing to BluRay the new firmware will also have the ability to recover some types of corrupt clips. To be honest, if you use SxS this should not be a problem, but it’s a useful tool to have. It will also reject bad sectors when writing to a hard drive thus reducing the risk of errors in the first place.

I know the NVS2500 is not the cheapest piece of kit on the planet, but it really, really, really is worth every penny. If you took mine away from me now it would be like cutting off an arm. It is one piece of the whole file based jigsaw that has really made my life so much simpler, faster, less stressful.

10/10 product, fantastic, excellent….

Click Here to read my full review.

Well I have been sitting on the side lines watching the vDSLR develop and evolve. They certainly have a place, but are not without issues such as form factor, moire, overheating to name a few. The fact remains though, that for not a lot of dosh you can get a camera that will give a shallow DoF, can be used where you perhaps shouldn’t be using a video camera and with care can produce beautiful video. I was all ready to buy a Canon 7D when along comes the 550D (rebel T2i). Half  the price yet with all the video modes and frame rates you could ever want. So I looked around for a body only (I have a bunch of EFS lenses) and found that Amazon.com have it on pre-order for $799…. Bargain! So checked on Amazon.co.uk and… hang on… is that right???? Its £899! If thats the case I’m going to wait till I go to NAB in April and pick one up then.

Sky are holding a behind closed doors seminar about their 3D roadmap for some of their suppliers during the day on Monday followed by a public evening session (sold out :0( ) at Bafta. At the moment there is a lot of confusion. Sky aim to launch a 3D TV channel in the UK later this year. At the moment no-one seems to really know what Sky want on terms of programming. Certainly a lot of the channels output is likely to be 3D movies, but there will also be a lot of special event programmes such as major sporting events. What is less clear is how many new comissions there will be for other programmes such as documentaries. Hopefully this will be made clearer on Monday. Also it would be good to know Sky’s minimum specs for cameras, workflow and delivery.

Then Tuesday to Thursday is the BVE video trade show in London. I’ll be there on all 3 days, I’m doing a seminar on file based systems for Sony. Please drop by the Sony stand and say hello! Also don’t miss the 3D demo hall where some of my stereoscopic footage from Norway, Iceland and my storm chasing adventures will be screened.

UPDATE: Sky have said that they are looking to commission around 4 hours of 3D programming per week, that really isn’t much and there will be a lot of repeats. What they want to concentrate on is major events, one off specials and spectacular “planet earth” style docs.