It is unusual when marketing hype matches reality; more so when “full HD” is the primary selling point. After spending ten days evaluating Panasonic’s recently released HDC-TM700, I’ve had a change of heart — due in part to one new and one improved selling point. The 3MOS 1/4-inch cam is a half step faster than [...]
The release of Adobe’s Production Premium CS5 bundle brings a refined interface, dozens of under-the-hood improvements and several “wow” features to the integrated application suite. This series of reviews will evaluate what is new, improved, and useful in CS5 Photoshop, Premiere, After Effects, and onLocation CS5 Mac with video professionals in mind. Also in the [...]
I wish the adage “the best camera is the one you have with you” also applied to tripods. Unfortunately, tripods are often essential, and seldom convenient. They are too big, long and heavy to fit in a camera bag or backpack. The market has yet to respond with a small, stable and easily transportable [...]
A recent Apple’s trademark application for “iFrame” has materialized at the US Patent & Trademark Office. The codec first appeared with the release of the company’s consumer video editing package, iMovie ‘09. It supports a pixel grid size of 960 x 540 at 30 frames per second in the 16:9 aspect ratio. It also captures [...]
All Wi-Fi models of Apple’s anticipated iPad tablet will go on sale on April 3, 2010, the company announced today. iPads that can connect to Wi-Fi as well as 3G cellular networks will go on sale in late April with models targeted at the Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and U.K. markets available [...]
Several internet sites sell royalty free video footage in high and standard definition formats in a variety of categories. Artbeats, for example, sells excellent quality individual clips or in collections in various categories, but at a premium price. An upcoming review here will evaluate HD and SD footage provided by a company in various categories for [...]
Internet access is becoming essential in today’s world, particularly if you travel with your laptop. Accessing email, web pages, or uploading images or video to sharing sites depends on an available wi-fi hotspot or network. Some networks may exist nearby, but their signals may too weak to be identified and accessed by your built in [...]
If you regularly print CD/DVDs on a tray-based inkjet printer, you know the whole process is a little wonky – – which literally means crooked, off-center and askew. At best, these printers require patience and a couple of resets to print a disc. But as the only low cost print game in town, they were [...]
The Pocket View RAID unit is a solidly built triple interface two drive RAID enclosure from an ostensibly new kid on the block, iStoragePro. The unit ships with enclosure, and two hot swappable 2.5-inch drive carriers populated with 7200 rpm SATA Seagate drives. The unit has two bus powered FW800 ports and single connections [...]
Some jobs require both handheld and locked down shots in environments that are inconsistent with full-sized sticks. Others dictate that you travel lightly, shoot handheld, and quickly grab some steady shots as well. In these situations, a small tripod may not be sturdy enough to be trusted with an expensive camcorder. A large tripod would [...]