My father Jonathan Marks has made a short montage of what the technical differences are with an interview with Christina Fox.

Vincent Rozenberg a Dutch video fanatic also explains very well on what the main differences are between the video camera’s. I can’t explain it better than he does, so I decided to reblog his
post.

Here is what he tells on his website:

Panasonic’s AG-AF100/101; HDSLR killer or not?
By Vincent Rozenberg

It all started with the Canon 5D, no, with the Nikon D90, DSLR photo camera’s with film function in HD. in August ’08 Nikon introduced the D90. An APS-C format camera capable of shooting HD video in 720p resolution 24 frames. The start of a revolution in indie film land. One month later Canon launched the 5D Mark II, full frame HD 1080p with reasonable bit rate but irritating 30 frames (which they fortunately corrected later in a firmware upgrade). And from there the landslide started, the rest (Pana’s G1/2, Canon 7D etcetera), not to mention the whole rig industry around it, is well-known history.

But this December it’s going to change again. Panasonic brings out the AG-AF100/101 (€5000), a Micro four third sensor camera with all the features we can expect from a proper camcorder.

So no fumbling with external audio or ND filters. No record time limitations. No bad viewfinder anymore or lack of features like peaking. According to Panasonic it’s all coming to an end, because they come out with the first professional ‘depth of field’ camcorder for the budget minded. No line skipping or aliasing issues they stated, because this chip is ‘custom’ made for the purpose of being a video chip, instead of a photo chip used for video.

What can we expect from the sensor? 4/3 inch, less than 35 mm what the Canon 5D Mark II represents. I made this comparison picture to show the differences in size:

Smaller chip, less shallow depth of field?
The 4/3 chip is a lot smaller than the full frame chip, but not that much smaller than APS-C, the sensor Canon has put in the 7D. The bigger the chip, the more you can play with depth of field. I think I can work with the 4/3 system, since I’m used to the look of the 7D. But does this mean we have to settle for less shallow depth of field? Well yes, if we use the same lenses we use for the DSLR’s, but see this pic below, a sample of what the NOKTOR HyperPrime 50 mm 0.95 (!!) can give. This lens is specially designed for Micro 4/3 cams out there. Pretty smooth, if you ask me. for a mere $799:

But what are the REAL benefits?
Though, if we/the industry goes for these new 4/3 video cams (Sony has put one out already, the Sony NEX-VG10E for around € 2000, which is aimed towards the more demanding amateur, considering the specs) we should look further to the other specs and benefits above the HDSLR’s:

Proper monitoring; Though, we still have to experience, the screen probably has higher resolution than the native screens one can find on the photo cams, and options like peaking are present as well.
Pro audio: XLR inputs, balanced, with options like ‘line in’ and ‘phantom powered mic’ present. And don’t forget a stereo return, vital in a pro environment, the inputs are pretty much useless without.
ND filters in cam: No more screw on Vari ND’s needed, matte boxes with 4×4 ND’s neither. ‘On the fly’ filter wheel with 3 stages of filtering, as we are used to have on the pro shoulder cams.
Less rigging: Sometimes we look like guerilla warriors going out on an urban hunt when we go out shooting with our fully assembled HDSLR rigs. Although I think you can use some, this cam can do with much less.

No transcoding: The camera records in AVCHD, a codec natively supported by the biggest non linear edit suites, Final Cut Pro and Premiere included.
HDSDI, time code, HDMI: Again, what we used to have on our ‘normal’ camera’s. You can even send the HDSDI out to a deck and bypass the native codec.
No 12 minute recording limit: For me it that was not a very big issue, but now you’re not limited to it.

So what’s the catch?
Beside the smaller frame, the codec. The camera records 1080/60i, 50i, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) and 720/60p, 50p, 30p, 25p and 24p (native) in AVCHD @ 24 Mb per sec. There’s a lot of discussion about this codec and the bit rate going on in the blogosphere. Though some claim that it can compete with Sony’s XDCAM EX @ 35 mb per sec, both won’t leave that much of headroom for real proper color correction. On the other hand, with the HDSD/ HDMI output you can choose to bypass the codec. The recently announced Ninja from Atomos (€795) could be a perfect companion, recording ProRess @ 220 megabit per sec.

So, roundup: I think it’s a winner, or a killer, IN THE END. Not right now. The HDSLR + rigs are simply not completely written-off yet. And the market, where this product is aiming at, the independent low-budget film maker, can do easily three years minimum with their investment. But newcomers, or new investors, do choose for this cam or the ones that will follow. So within two or three years we all use them, or their successors (maybe even with bigger chips..). How once (just 1.5 years ago) the 35mm adapters made way for the HDSLR’s, these photo cams could be easily forgotten as well. Nothing lasts forever in both the real as technology world…

Panasonic AF-100 Hi-RES Extended RE-Cut evaluation by CREWS.TV from Yves Simard on Vimeo.

Crews.tv had the opportunity to try the camera out. some info: they used Zeiss primes and recorded via HDSDI out to an AG-HPG20 P2 Memory Card Recorder @ 100 mb per sec AVC intra. No color correction.

I know some people are crazy about doing their whole site in WordPress. And add all these ‘social media sharing’ features to there website.
But I believe my website should be a place in which you can find Who I am, What I do, What I’m proud of and how we can get in touch.
Sharing both my inspiration sources and blogposts are just extra’s which I integrated, just because I’ve would have been doing that anyhow
on my old blogger platform.

There are some interesting pages on my site. Like the ‘ Proud of ‘ page and the ‘ Inspiration ‘ page.
I haven’t code this in WordPress bbecause i’d wanted to use new features in HTML 5, JQuery 1.4, Ajax and CSS 3.0. And using all of these code in combination with WordPress would have been
just a bit to hard.

I just stuck with cold hard coding in HTML 5!

I was helpless to code my ” proud of” page untill I found this tutorial site on coding languages called Tutorialzine .

This website provides very high quality code solutions which are explained very clearly. There is a demo so you can check out the functionality
and you can just follow his steps in which he explains what he has done.

I understand code, but I never learned to write it myself. By downloading parts of his tutorials and adapting it to what I need for my website I managed to create
my own pages.

I adapted the code of this application to fit my own 'proud of' page

A lot of kudos for Martin Angelov though, I hope he keeps up this great work! And you should definitely check him out if you’re interested
on adding some cool features onto your site.

The  people who’ve been looking behind the scenes may have noticed some ‘slight’ changes on the site. I have been updating the site and also integrated this WordPress blog in it. I still need to work on some pages and need to produce two more video’s for the ‘ chris & work’ pages. Really curious on your first thoughts.

And this is a test with Falo and marian.

So what’s gravity? Here’s an explanation from Alan who works at Gravity.

“Several years ago, people used to ask why social networks are different – especially when email, IM, and address books provided the tools needed to connect you with the people you knew. Today, we all understand the value a networked social experience can unlock. In the future, I hope we’ll all see the value a networked interest-centric experience will unlock as well. We hope Gravity will become the place you visit to talk about the things you care about, a place where what you know and what you’re interested in is more important than who you know.”

So I’ve been using gravity for two days now. It’s a new innovative way of social networking. Ans So far, I’m loving it. I might have some reply’s left, so if you’d like to join, please tell me why I should invite you in the comments section of this post.

I have had some wild dreams about Interactive Documentary’s made by different digital storytellers  like me over the world. Emerging technology’s are popping up while I’m writing this, and I strongly believe that through culture differences people tend to use these tools in a different way.

However, we are not aware of that due to the way we are sucked into our own culture. Only by actually talking to people, living in another culture, experiencing it or seeing this technology being used, you can look sideways and actually see what brilliant use of technology is happening in the world.

You sometimes can’t believe what brilliant ideas in other cultures can help your way of communicating or doing business in your own culture. I always think that sharing these ideas can be very useful in letting other people know what is actually going on in the world. And it would allow to basically make a map of the world in which technology’s are popping up and what is happening with them.

I want to set up a group of people, a community, digital storytellers, a reporter group if you like, with which we can make a video documentary. (one to start with )

I’d like to have brainstorms with you so we can come up with questions we can ask promising people active in our culture, and comparing these people with each other in this video montage. (Don’t worry, we will use social media to make this video I know some tricks )

I thought that it might be hard to keep standards such as video formats, but don’t let you get down by that. I’m far more interested in the content. We will find ways to show the information. And maybe have a worldwide documentary release one day.

We also have a language problem. However this barrier can be solved by tools like babelgum or google translate. The words and grammar isn’t as important as the message we’d like to share. I do think it would be handy if we all understand English. But even if you don’t, you might have translated this message…

I’ve had a similar project started with Erick Alejandro living in Guetemala which I see as a great friend thanks to Internet. This project hasn’t continued due to lack of experience in managing the project. A loss for it had a great potential! I’d like to step up and manage this Global community of storytellers concerning the use of proper social media.

Please feel free to share this message with others, maybe your brother/sister/son/daughter/friend can be one of these young personalities and make this documentary a success. I don’t have insights in every culture, and I’m eager to learn how this works.

Please let me know if you’d like to participate in any way. I’m thinking about building a WordPress site where we can have online discussions concerning this project.

Think about it, it would be the first documentary made by different people who’ve never even met…

Let’s make something beautiful!

Since Vevo “isn’t available” in The Netherlands, and you can’t easily get information about what it is. I thought I would share some stuff which they have posted on their website. I just used a proxy to get on the website so no ‘big magic’ however I think this platform is worth sharing .





So what the hell is it? ” On their website

VEVO is a new music video network on the web. VEVO videos can be found at VEVO.com and at the VEVO Channel on YouTube as well as in thousands of VEVO/YouTube artist channels. VEVO videos are available via Search at YouTube as well.


example of one of these pages: http://www.youtube.com/user/KevinRudolfVEVO and
http://www.youtube.com/user/vevo


This is what I found on the About page: 


VEVO is the leading innovative online premium music and entertainment service for consumers, advertisers and content owners that blends the very best in musical content with cutting-edge video technology and a thriving user community powered by YouTube. The content is made available on YouTube through a VEVO-branded channel, on VEVO.com, the service’s marquee destination site, and through a VEVO-branded embedded player. The service also serves as a syndication platform for additional internet destination sites, expanding the reach of the VEVO brand across the worldwide Web.


VEVO was created in partnership by Universal Music Group (UMG), Sony Music Entertainment (SME) and the Abu Dhabi Media Company. It is operated independently by a dedicated management team with offices in Los Angeles and New York. VEVO features the most extensive catalog of premium music content found anywhere on the web thanks to deals with such leading music companies as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music, Hollywood Records, Walt Disney Records, CBS Interactive Music Group, Big Machine Records, Concord Music Group, Lyric Street Records, ABKCO, Caroline Distribution, Fontana Distribution, INgrooves, IODA, RED and The Orchard, among many others.


Here are some questions found on the F.A.Q. page:

Where do videos play at VEVO?

Videos play in the VEVO Player. Instead of navigating to a VEVO Player directly, you get there by selecting a specific video or playlist that you want to see. Once you hit Play or Play All at VEVO, you are taken to the VEVO Player where you can enjoy your favorite video.

What is the VEVO Player?

The VEVO Player at VEVO.com is a high-quality, state-of-the-art Video Player that includes exclusive, one-of-a-kind synchronized lyric playback with many of its videos. Enjoy getting to know the VEVO brand and singing along or rapping with your favorite artists!


All this seems pretty cool , the website certainly looks clean.  I wonder when there will be a dutch version. #probablynever


Cheers,