26Jul Unlimited Cloud storage! Thanks Yousendit.
I’ve used yousendit to transfer large files for a long time. It’s handy and the desktop app does a great job of managing my uploads. I’ve also been considering some of the cloud storage options out there for awhile. I sometimes need to share large project files or need access to my arsenal of stills and video footage. I had planned on signing up for either Amazon or Dropbox but I haven’t been very happy with the idea of limited storage space.
I was leaning towards Dropbox’s Pro 50 $9.99 a month plan (50GB of storage space), when I got an e-mail from yousendit. For 2 days they are offering $49 for a year worth of unlimited storage. That’s ruffly $4.16 a month. I signed up the second I read the e-mail and currently have about 50GB of footage I shot over the last week uploading .
I know storage has gotten cheap, but unlimited for $4.16 a month seems like a pretty good bargain. As far as I know this offer is good for the next 2 days, so if you need it, you should probably sign up fast. I don’t get any kind of kick back on you signing up for yousendit’s unlimited plan, just thought you’d like to know that it’s out there and I have no idea if an offer this good will come along again anytime soon.
I’ve always been pretty happy with their file sending service and I’m very excited about using there cloud storage service. Amazon does offer 5GB of free storage if you don’t need unlimited storage space and their 50GB plan is slightly cheaper then Dropbox, but there is something so tempting about the word unlimited.
26Jul Pinch in the middle lens caps.
The Canon 50mm f1.2
For about $3 you can buy this center pinch lens cap. It doesn’t look quite as nice as the Canon branded lens cap but it’s a lot easier to handle. I’ve changed out all of my Canon lens caps for these center pinch lens caps. If your willing to wait for shipping from China, you can get pinch in the middle lens caps with a fake Canon logo across the center for . I haven’t tried them but I would guess they work just as good as the lens caps I picked up on amazon.
This might not be a problem for everyone, and I know a few photographers that don’t even use lens caps. They consider there Lens filters good enough. For me, I found it well worth the $40 to replace every lens cap in my collection with a center pinch style lens cap.
24Jul Polaroid fader ND filter quick video test.
I’m still meandering around the California’s country side for another week and had a little free time yesterday to drive up to Mt Tamalpais State Park just north of San Francisco. At 2400 feet I though the peak would be high enough to keep the Bay Area fog from bothering me. It worked for a little while but eventually the fog drifted up high enough to start interfere with filming. I didn’t end up getting to film all of the test I wanted to because the fog kept misting up the lens filter.
The filter in use is the Cheap Polaroid Variable ND filter I’ve had for awhile. Sitting at the post office right now is my Light Craft Fader ND II filter that I ordered a few weeks back and as soon as I get home i’ll try and run through some back to back tests using both of these filters side by side. If you watch carefully when I’m adjusting the filter you can see a little bit of vignetting in the corners. This isn’t a big problem with normal focal lengths, but it does start to become very noticeable on wide angle lenses like the Tokina 11-16mm f2.8. I’ve been told that the Light craft Fader ND II models don’t have this problem or that it is a lot less noticeable. I’m interested to see if this is actually the case.
If you’re on the fence about spending more on a higher end Variable ND filter or going with something cheaper like the Polaroid Variable ND filter. I can say that I’ve been happy with my the Polaroid filter and that any Variable ND filter is better then nothing. If you don’t have $100 plus to spend on a higher end Variable ND filter, you’ll probably still be pretty happy something lower price. Do you really need to drive a Mercedes Benz or can you be comfortable in your Hyundai Accent? I’ll let you know how the Light Craft Fader ND II turns out once I get a chance to mess around with it. Unless something changes I wont be home until the first.
23Jul Light Craft Helmsman Canon USB controller
I was an early adopter of the Okii USB follow focus controller and although I don’t use it as a follow focus very much, it works great as an all in one camera controller. It looks like Light Craft is getting into the game with a very similar looking USB follow focus controller called the Helmsman.
The buttons and style of the Helmsman look very similar to the design used on the Okii USB follow focus. The major difference seems to be the fact that the Helmsman splits into 2 peaces. The main controller which has 5 buttons and the Sub-controller which adds 4 more buttons. Together this gives you pretty much the same number of buttons and controls as the Okii USB Follow focus. The removal of the Sub-controller means that you can take away a few buttons that you don’t use on a regular basis.
Over all, I don’t see anything that really separates the Helmsman from Okii’s offering other then price. The pre order price for the Helmsman is $466. You can pick up the Okii USB follow focus with this discount code for $350. $116 is a lot to pay for the privilege of taking off 4 buttons. Even though I’ve had some negative things to say about the Okii USB follow focus, I haven’t sold it. In fact I almost always carry it with me and attach it to most of the rigs I film with. The none follow focus features are very handy. Sure it takes a little memorization to know what button combinations do what, but once you’ve got it memorized, you don’t really need to touch the camera at all. On top of that, if you use it with something like the Canon t2i that’s missing a lot of buttons, it ends up being easier to adjust the settings on the Okii then it is to adjust them on the t2i.
If your interested in finding out more about the Helmsman, swing over to the light craft site and check it out. As for me I think I’ll stick with my Okii. If you need an actual follow focus, there are .
21Jul Cheap counter weight for the 3 legged DSLR RIG
I had some extra time this afternoon so I stopped by a local hardware store to see if I could find a counter weight solution for the 3 legged DSLR rig. The guy at the store pointed me to the hardware section, where I dug around for the biggest, heaviest washers I could find. I ended up with these 2 inch by 1/4 inch thick washers for 24 cents a peace.
Using the in store scale I measured out 6 1/2 pounds of washers. This ended up being 22 washers and a total length of ruffly 5 1/2 inches. Through the center I added a 6 inch 1/4 20 bolt with smaller washers and a 1/4 20 nut to hold everything together. There is some good news and some bad news about using this as a counter weight.
The good news is that 22 washers seems to be the perfect number for the equipment I have loaded on to this rig. The padding on the handles ended up being reasonable comfortable and the over all balance of the rig means I only need 1 hand to properly steady this on my shoulder. The bad news is that with that much weight resting on the back of the rig, you have to be very careful about how you pick it up. If you grab the rig by the front handles to try and pick it up, they tend to re-position themselves under the heavier weight.
The only way to keep your rig from flexing or readjusting is to be very careful and pick it up as close to the counter weight as possible. If you remember to do that, there shouldn’t be much trouble using this with a small counter weight like this. The total cost for washers nuts and bolts was $6.85 at the hardware store. If you don’t live near a hardware store they do sell large washers like this on amazon in 100 count packs but since you can only buy a 100 at a time, the cost is closer to $15. This actually saves you about 9 cents a peace compared to what I paid but you end up with 78 extra washers laying around the house.
After finding a useful counter weight for this setup I’m feeling pretty positive about this rig. It was an impulse buy that I don’t regret.
20Jul SUMPOD 3D PRINTER on Indie GOGO.
I can safely say that my 3d printer is probably one of the most useful things I have around the house. An Idea can turn into a handy little peace of plastic in as little as an hour. The makerbot I use is on the higher price side of things at around $1300, but a lot of people are working on lower cost 3d printers that make the price to play a little more friendly. One of the more interesting options I’ve come across lately is the Sumpod 3d printer.
This Sumpod is made out of thick MDF board, has liner roller bearings and doubles as a CNC cutting machine. The nice thing is that if you get in on the ground floor of this little guy, you can pick one up for about $500.
For a limited time, you can swing over to the Sumpod Indie GO GO page and get in on the action. Just remember, that you only have 4 more days to get on the list. After that the creators of the Sumpod say the price will go up.
20Jul DSLR Filmmaker Tool kit app for the iphone.
Now that the iphone is on both Verizon and AT&T networks, it’s a very common thing to have laying around. The DSLR Filmmaker tool kit turns the iphone into a handy little shot logger, depth of field calculator, and digital slate.
It could be something handy to have around if you’re trying to find an easy way to log your shots and export them to a spread sheet. I often need to log shots when I’m shooting dual system sound so I plan to mess around with this app a little more and see how it works out.
Once I have a chance to try it out in the field I’ll post a follow up on how it turned out. You can find out more about the DSLR tool kit at www.dslrtoolkit.com.
19Jul 3 legged DSLR movie Rig loaded up.
I have 2 weeks of Hotel life left ahead of me. I’ve spent the last few nights messing around with that 3 legged adjustable camera rig I brought with me. I’ve finally found a configuration that I feel comfortable with for shoulder work. The configuration above has the Sony CLM v55 monitor mounted on the left hand grip, a wireless Sennheiser pack on the cameras hot shoe, and an adjustable friction arm attached underneath the rig.
The friction arm is supporting the Okii USB follow focus in a position that is comfortable enough to use it for focusing and start/stop recording options. From this position I can operate most of the controls using my thumb. Even though I don’t consider the Okii USB follow focus to be great for smooth focus pulls, it works perfectly as an all in one camera controller. Just about anything you can do from the camera you can do from the OKii follow focus.
I’m currently trying to find an easy way to mount a counter weight on the back of this little rig. In this configuration my back and arms started to get worn out after about 2 hours of filming. With out a counter weight, this setup is very front heavy. I’m sure there is some way to take advantage of the 1/4 20 female threads on the end of the shoulder posts. I just need to spend a little more time hunting down a solution.
It would be nice if some of the holes built into this rig were smaller. That would make it much easier to adapt 1/4 20 hardware to a lot of the unused space on the support legs. I’m going to keep digging around for a counter weight solution. If any of you have already solved this problem, let me know.
On a side note: This rig has shown up on amazon for $249, I would head over to ebay and pick it up for $80. I’m not sure why the amazon price is so much higher, but ebay is probably the cheapest way to get a hold of this setup.
18Jul Great low price Field recorder test.
Scott over at theFrugalFilmaker.com has a great write up on sub $100 hand held field recorders. 6 tests in total, with audio samples to help you decide what low price field recorder is right for you. I personal use the Zoom h1 and Tascam DR-05, but there are a lot of new options showing up in this price range and it’s always good to see what other brands have to offer. If you’re interested, swing over to the frugal film maker and check out the Sub $100 digital recorder roundup.
17Jul Zoom H2n Announced.
Thanks to Yiannis for pointing this out to me.
Looks like Zoom is releasing an updated version of the H2 portable field recorder. The new model called the Zoom H2n has a few interesting updates, including a screen very similar to its bigger brother (Zoom H4n
The original Zoom h2 wasn’t a device I would recommend for camera mounting. The form factor was kind of strange and the mic pattern usually meant you would pick up the camera operator as well as the subjects you are trying to record. It might however, be a good choice for filming bands and music related events. You might be able to set this up in the middle of an acoustic set and get pretty good coverage.
I think the best use for the Zoom h2n could actually be round table style interviews. Place one of these in the middle of a conference table, turn on 4 track mode and you’ll end up with a lot of options for mixing audio and getting levels for each person setup in post. The surround mic pattern would save you from needing to place a mic in front of each of the people sitting at the table.
It looks like the price is expected to be around $200 with a release date closer to the end of the year. If the pickup pattern looks like something useful and you don’t want to wait for the new version, you can pick up the original Zoom h2 for around $130 used on amazon
