Many cinematographers use warm and cool cards, like the DSCLabs White N’ Warm cards, to create a look in camera. By white balancing your camera on a card with warm (red) color the camera will produce a cooler (blue) balance. The opposite is also true; a cool (blue) card will give a warm (red) white balance. If you white balance off the same card in different lighting environments, then you can consistently achieve the same warm or cool look. What many people don’t know is that this same method can also be achieved in camera through white balance offsets. This option is available in many pro cameras and is simple to set. Depending on the camera, an offset can be applied to the preset, A or B white balance settings. The offset works simply by adjusting the white balance to be cooler or warmer. Just like using the same warm/cool card, the offset will be applied to any white balance that you run. The advantage to using the offset over using the cards is that you can white balance off any white surface and still get the look you are after (of course a nice white card is still advised, if available). Here are a couple examples of how this is set in different cameras.

…continue reading Using White Balance Offsets to Create a Look

Panasonic is now shipping their single card P2 reader, the AJ-PCD2. This is a must have for anyone who is a P2 camera owner. The device itself is small and very light weight. On the front, you’ll find the single card slot, and on the back there are two USB 2.0 ports. Why two? Well, one is for transferring data and the other is for power. The standard USB port has a limited power output, but with two ports there is enough power for the device to work without a battery or power supply. After downloading the drivers from the Panasonic website, I tested the PCD2 on my MacBook Pro. The device works as advertised without any hitches – gone are the days of the buggy Duel Adapter solution. Unfortunately, USB 2.0 is not as speedy as the ExpressCard interface, but I was able to download a full 32 GB card in about 15 minutes. Transfer speeds may vary depending on the drive you are copying to. I was using an external RAID 0 drive connected with FireWire 800. I also tested the PCD2 on a PC laptop running Windows XP, with very similar results and no headaches at all.

Panasonic also released a new AVC-Intra encoder plugin for Apple’s Compressor. This plugin allows Compressor to export video files encoded in the AVC-Intra codec. AVC-Intra is a high quality compression, and with Final Cut Pro 7, it is supported natively. So with this new export option, AVC-Intra can be used as a high quality deliverable at a relatively low data rate. The Compressor utility allows for files to be created in QuickTime format or in original P2 format. In P2 format, the video can be transferred back to a P2 card using a devices like the PCD2, PCD20 or PCD35, and metadata can be entered. While a P2 card is far from a common deliverable, productions and news networks that have adopted P2 will greatly appreciate the new option. Download the new plugin here. Note: Final Cut Studio 3 is required.

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Today Panasonic has announced their latest camera, the HPX370. This is an updated version of the HPX300 with some major improvements to the sensor block. The body and functionality of the HPX370 builds on that of the HPX300 (view my video here), with a new 3MOS U.L.T. imager that has reduced noise, higher sensitivity, and reduced skew. With these improvements and AVC-Intra 100 recording on board, this camera will prove to be a real winner. I had a chance to play with the camera and shoot some tests, see my video above, and was very impressed with the image quality and low noise. The HPX370 will be available this month at a list price of $11,700.

Panasonic just released new firmware for the HPX300. This is a big update with some nice feature improvements. First is the FBC function that Panasonic announced a couple months ago. FBC stands for Flash Band Correction, which reduces the appearance of flash bands that occur on CMOS chips. That’s the banding you see when a flash (from a still camera or lightning) is captured on video.  This function works in 1080/60i and 720/60p, and from my tests it seems to do the  job – see my video example below. Also they have reduced the video noise in 1080 24p, 25p, and 30p modes. The effect seemed noticeable right away. There are also several other updates including better support for E-Series P2 cards. If you have the HPX300 then download it HERE. And you can read all about the new firmware HERE.

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Note: Some banding is not corrected for because of the red eye correction on my flash, which varies flash output. FBC seems to do better when given a large exposure difference.

The Panasonic HPX300 can use different lenses via its interchangeable lens mount. It is a 1/3″ chip in a B12 mount, for which there are only a handful of lenses made by Canon and Fujinon. For an additional lens choice, JVC/Fujinon makes the ACM-17. It’s an adapter to mount a 2/3″ B4 mount lens onto a B12 mount camera (like the HPX300).

This allows you to use the myriad of professional glass available in the popular B4 mount. Note that the adapter is essentially a simple mechanical one. So, the camera will just be looking at a center cut out of the lens, which makes the result more telephoto than the same lens on a 2/3″ sensor camera. For comparison, a Canon 11×4.7 (4.7mm-52mm) will look like a 14-154 when mounted on the HPX300.

OK, this is where many people get confused. The lens is still a 4.7-52. A 4.7-52 on a 1/3″ sensor is what 14-154 looks like on a 2/3″ sensor. Make better sense now?

To get the same wide angle field of view as a 4.7mm on a 2/3″ sensor (about a 90 degree horizontal FOV), you need a 1.7mm on a 1/3″ sensor.

So here’s a fun one. When the HPX300 rolled in and I saw the 1/3″ B12 lens mount, I was reminded of the JVC HZ-CA13. It’s an optical relay system similar to the old Angenieux CA55 rig. The JVC unit is a true aerial imaging optical system that takes Super16 PL mount lenses and projects their imaging down to a 1/3″ sensor. You get the field of view advantages but no change in depth of field, so it’s not like the popular lens systems with the spinning groundglasses out there. Another advantage of the device is the light loss – more specifically the lack thereof.

…continue reading Super16 Lens Adapter for the HPX300