Topaz Clarity Plug-in Released

Topaz Clarity is the latest addition to the Topaz plug-in suite. If you are a fan of Lightroom and Camera Raw’s ‘Clarity’ slider, then Topaz Clarity just might be your favorite new plug-in.
I’ve been tinkering with Topaz Clarity for a week or so now and my initial impressions are that it’s like the Lightroom Clarity slider on steroids. While Lightroom lets you push one slider, Topaz Clarity lets you fine tune mico, mid-tone and overall contrast with separate sliders. Additionally, you can use a very smart masking brush with edge awareness to fine tune your clarity and saturation selections.

Topaz Clarity Screenshot (Note the edge aware mask view in the top-right corner.)

Topaz Clarity is fast and effective at adding an additional

Shooting Raw on the Canon 5D Mark III

EOSHD writes up their experience shooting 2.5K CinemaScope anamorphic raw on the Canon 5D Mark III.

They write, "Am I over the moon about the image quality of raw on the 5D Mark III?

"Well before we were shooting 8bit, with all that banding and lack of flexibility in post. Now we have 14bit colour and can debayer the raw to 4:4:4 EXR using the full power and sophistication of an ILM workstation. That’s a bit of a step up from DIGIC 5. Effectively the image processor of the camera has been moved out of the DSLR and into the realm of Resolve, Intel and NVidia. That is a big thing. No more DIGIC debayer or mushy H.264 encoder.

"Dynamic range and overall quality is pretty much identical to the 22MP raw stills on the 5D Mark III so you can imagine what a step up this is for any league of video camera, let alone one costing $3000. That Canon sensor is doing a very good job indeed and I am amazed."

Read the full post here.

Guide and Setup for sony F55

A very useful guide of my friends  Magnanimous Media from Chicago for sony F55 @MagnanimousChi

Nikon D7100 Sample Photos

by Eric Reagan on May 12, 2013

in Nikon

I’ve got a review coming for the Nikon D7100 soon, but I wanted to go ahead and pass along some sample images from the camera that I recently shot (in addition to my Nikon D7100 sample video footage).  Check them out below.
This first round of images covering the ISO range were processed as RAW files in Lightroom and exported as JPEG. I did no additional edits.

WD My Passport Ultra Compact USB 3.0 Hard Drive Unveiled

The Western Digital My Passport Ultra is a new USB 3.0 hard drive that is available in 500GB, 1TB and 2TB sizes, as well as a variety of colors.
The My Passport Ultra comes formatted as a Windows drive and includes WD SmartWare Pro backup software with Dropbox integration, hardware encryption and password protection. The drive also comes with a fabric carry bag to keep if from getting nicked up in your gear bag.
I’ve had the chance to use one of the drives for the past few days and I think it’s a

Canon 5D mark III RAW vs. Blackmagic Cinema Camera RAW

Brinno TLC200 Pro The world's 1st HDR Time Lapse video camera

Brinno TLC200 Pro built with high performance HDR (High Dynamic Range) image sensor, so you can take beautiful time lapse video even against strong light! Shockingly simple awesome HDR Time Lapse videos at the push of a button!

With Brinno Instant Video technology, once your video is shot, it's actually a Time Lapse video  and not a

mocha AE and mocha Pro v3.2 Public Beta Announcement

Today Imagineer Systems released a public beta version of mocha Pro and mocha AE v3.2. This new point release includes significant features and fixes for all users.

• Global character & keyboard support: Unicode-enabled, supporting project, footage, layer names and file paths in any language.
• Fixes licensing deactivation issues related to OS X Mountain Lion
• Fixes tracking export issues with interlaced projects for AE and FCP.
• Fixes in stabilized and inverted tracking export
• 3D Camera exporter now exports nulls with names and accuracy identifiers to both AE and FBX/Nuke.
• Many more improvements in all areas of the software.

This release will work with existing mocha Pro v3.x and mocha AE 3.x licenses.
Customers running mocha AE CS6 from Adobe would need to purchase upgrade or request trial to run beta.
The 3D importer for After Effects plug-in does not need a license, but the new naming functionality will only work with the pre-release mocha Pro/AE v3.2 and mocha 3d importer 1.1.
Disclaimer: This is pre-release beta software for testing purposes and may not be suitable for use in a production environment.
To participate in the public beta program, you must log-in to the company’s user forums.
http://www.imagineersystems.com/

Adobe Creative Cloud and the Death of Boxed Software

by Eric Reagan on May 9, 2013

in Adobe

What a week it has been.
Many pro and amateur photographers, along with many other creative pros and enthusiasts, woke up Monday morning looking forward to what might come out of the Adobe MAX conference as the latest Adobe products were set to be unveiled.
Adobe teased us for several weeks leading up to Adobe MAX, including an impressive showing of new video products at NAB 2013. Many of us were nearly on pins and needles with anticipation based on what we had seen thus far.
I mean, this stuff just keeps better and better.

And Then… The Hammer Dropped.

VariZoom Stealthy stabilizer, 3-point shooter compact multi functional dslr & video support, DIY.

Matrox Graphics’ Maevex 5100 Series Video Over IP

Matrox Graphics’ Maevex 5100 Series video over IP solution enables the extension of full HD quality video over standard IP networks for digital signage, collaborative video walls, manufacturing, and automation, process control, and many other applications.

 

Maevex encoders and decoders capture, stream, and decode video from a variety of sources, and even allow for software-based decoding on non-Maevex devices.

 

Maevex units come bundled with PowerStream software, allowing for remote management of Maevex devices and enabling a variety of user-defined stream-management features. These include adjustable low bit-rate encoding for minimal and cost-effective bandwidth consumption.

MoVI Camera Stabilizer from FreeFly Cinema Looking Good To Revolutionize Camera Stabilization

Last week we checked out the Supraflux Video Camera Stabilizer, a small stabilizer that has been lighting up kick-starter, already making over double their goal with almost a month left. Today we’ve got the other side of the spectrum with the MoVi from my very good friends Tabb and Hugh at Firefly Systems. I’ve used these guy for several years now as go-to help for aerial RC choppers and other fun toys… but in the past week they’ve dropped a much more hi-tech entry that’s already built a lot of worthy buzz as the next big thing in camera stabilization. I got the early tip, but was swamped so Tabb & co went way down stream (j/k Vincent to work w my dear friend Vincent and take the MōVI for a test drive. Vince gave it his seal of approval, especially praising its short learning curve + ability to quickly make both simple and complex shots. My favorite part is the separation of the camera carrying from the camera pointing function. Don’t know what I mean? Check out their video… one guy handles the camera, the other guy steers the tilt / pan (ie what the camera sees). Genius! The video below will give you a solid idea of just how smooth the MōVI is, and might make you look at handhelds with a new respect.

Using a 3 axis gyroscope to stabilize the camera, the MōVI system is portable and lightweight (3.5 pounds), making Scorsese-like shots a breeze. You can also manipulate the camera motion remotely by a second operator via joystick. Unfortunately the only real negative so far might be a deal-breaker; it’s currently priced at $15,000. Rumors have a $7,500 option coming soon, which is a little more manageable. The good news is, with technology like this breaking, you can bet a more consumer friendly option is on its way. Even more below for more of the MōVI in action.