13May ART USB Dual Pre 2 Channel Preamp arrived
The Art USB dual channel Preamp showed up this afternoon. Before I even had a chance to test it out, I took it apart to see how hard it would be to add a mount to this little guy. After removing the knobs, rubber side pads, and a few screws you can see that there is about a 1/4 inch of space between the top circuit board and the metal housing. This should be plenty of room to squeeze a couple of low profile bolts in and adapt this thing to a nice and simple 1/4 20 mount.
The top input side should be the best bet for drilling and mounting since it has over an inch of space before the first bits of soldered leads show up on the circuit board. I’ll dig deeper into this tomorrow and try to take a lot of pictures as I build a proper mount for this little guy. The easiest way looks like simply drilling and taping the aluminum case and permanently mounting a cheap cold shoe to the top of this little guy.
I’ll keep you posted.
13May First Makerbot print, Juicedlink DS214 adapter plate.
I stayed up tell midnight last night ironing out a few problems with the makerbot. Once I got the wires rerouted and a test cube printed, I decided to print out my first peace of handy film gear. I was complaining yesterday about the Juicedlink 1/4 20 mount being located on the top of the unit. So I decided to designed a 1/4 20 right angle adapter to solve the problem.
The right angle adapter puts the 1/4 20 in a much easier to reach location and allows you to point the controls towards the operator. It also makes the short 1/8 inch stereo cable included with the unit useful by bring the Juicedlinks output closer to the cameras audio input.
The first prototype came out really well, but the brass 1/4 20 fitting is a little funky, so I’m redesigning it to uses a 1/4 20 square nut insert instead. Once I get that sorted out I’ll make a couple in black and see how they look.
I’m not sure if there is a mass market for something like this, but if any of you are interested in the black version just let me know. How does $10 with free shipping?
12May JuicedLink DS214
Made it home and found the Juicedlink DS214 cleverly hidden under my doormat, good job UPS. $144 gets you a small AGC disabling audio mixer with pre camera headphone monitoring output. I haven’t been home long enough to test it out, but my first impressions are mixed. The 1/4 20 mount is in a position that’s only really useful if you own one of Juiced links camera brackets or a camera square. The included 1/8″ stereo cable is so short that it wont reach the short distance from the top of the camera to the audio input on the side panel.
Mounting on top of the camera means your Juicedlink DS214 will be upside down. Even on this DZONE2 extension bracket with the DS214 on the audio input side of the camera, the included audio cable still isn’t long enough. This really needs to have a 1/4 20 hole on the bottom and a cable that is about 10 inches longer. I should have a video review coming soon.
11May Adobe CS5.5 released.
Sure the video is a little cheesy but the new features in CS5.5 look pretty nice. The Warp stabilizer and audio features are the things I’m most interested in trying out. But I’m still not sure If I want to pay the upgrade fee, or hold out for CS6. Every adobe release seems to be the “ultimate” in features, but most of the time I don’t find myself actually needing many of those new upgrades.
I’ve even considered downgrading to Premiere Elements. It seems like most of the time I just need to slice up some clips, do some basic editing, and add some text. I only end up using After Effects 3 or 4 times a month. I wish there was a way that I could rent After Effects for a small fee, like $5 a day, then return it when I’m done. That way I don’t have to spend $400 or $500 on an upgrade every year.
If you’re a student, $400 gets you Premiere Pro, after effects, Audition, Photoshop, and Encore. This is defiantly worth it, but if you’re paying full price, you might want to consider what you really need, versus what you want. Sometimes you can get away with cheap tools if you only need to use them on the weekends.
10May All in one Audio device, the Art USB Dual pre-amp.
I was looking for a battery powered pre-amp with a little bit more gain then my Fiio E5 has to offer. I wanted to use it in conjunction with microphones that don’t have a strong output like the Rode NTG-3. I was also looking for something with phantom power that was battery powered and compact.
I was originally looking at a Nady DMP-2 Microphone pre-amp. I had planned on taking it apart and converting the output to 1/8 inch stereo. Then feeding that into a camera. I would have continued on this course of action if I hadn’t found the ART USB 2 Channel pre-amp for $72.
The ART USB 2 Channel pre-amp has everything I’ve been looking for, phantom power, microphone pre-amp with 48db of gain, battery power, headphone monitoring, and combo XLR 1/4 inputs. If that wasn’t enough, it also allows you to use it as a usb audio interface for your computer. I’m not normally surprised by a product in this price range, but HOLY CRAP! As soon as I found this I ordered it.
The only thing missing from this all in one device is 1/4 20 threads. I will find a way to add them as soon as it shows up. ART has made a few handy tube preamps and other random audio equipment, but this is probably one of the handiest looking devices I’ve seen on the market this year. Prepare yourself for the post that will be coming when this shows up at the end of the week. I hope I’m not disappointed because this looks very cool.
09May How to install a Flat picture style on your Canon DSLR
I’ve been living life out of a hotel for the past two and half weeks. The small amount of time I’ve spent at home was used to working on my new Makerbot, and now i’m in yet another motel in Montana.
Needless to say this video was shot in 3 different motel rooms with my ever changing facial hair. All I have with me is my Canon 7d, my Canon 35mm f1.4 and my Zoom h4n.
I’ve received quit a few questions on how to install a custom picture style on a Canon DSLR. As apposed to writing an answer to each of you, I thought it might be easier to post a guide. In case you missed it, here is a post on the most popular picture styles out there.
First find the disk that’s included with your camera, and install the EOS utility software on your computer. Once you’ve done that just download the picture style you like and follow the directions in the video.
xWhiteoutProductions pointed out that you should “make sure that the camera isn’t set on film mode, otherwise you can’t click register user defined style” and also that you should “check your camera to make sure the picture style has been installed properly”. You should see the picture style label in your camera picture style menu once the custom picture style has been installed.
Hope this helps those of you still trying to figure out how to get this custom picture style on to your Canon DSLR.
08May Last Makerbot post for awhile.
Two Days of work and the Makerbot is almost done. I’ve still got the electronics portion of the build left to wire up, but all of the hardware and major building is finished. I’m leaving for Montana tomorrow morning so hopefully I’ll have this little project up and running next week.
07May Makerbot build update.
I dropped a few of the projects I had on my plate so I could dive into the Makerbot build. I couldn’t resist it. No major mistakes yet, so far I’ve managed to put together the X, Y, Z, and build platform. It’s a pretty slow process, but I haven’t run into anything overly complicated yet. The included directions are definitely missing a few steps and I ended up having to take a few things apart and put them back together again.
I feel good about the over all quality but it would be really nice if each part of the project was placed in a baggy, as apposed to one bag with 10 different types of nuts and bolts. I’ve had to spend a lot of time checking bags to find the items I need. If all goes well I should have most of it put together buy the end of tonight.
I’ve pushed back my server work tell tomorrow. These are all of the old parts from the original server, maybe I’ll slap them into a new case and use it for the Makerbot once it’s finished.
07May Makerbot has arrived!
Just made it home last night from my trip to Colorado and I’ve been slowly working my way through all the boxes that came in the mail while I was gone. The server is formating in the background so I finally had a chance to dig through the package containing my new Makerbot thing-o-matic. I’m not sure if I’ll have time to start the build process until I get back from Montana next week, but it’s here waiting for me when I get home. I’ll be sure to take lots of pictures as this project comes together.
If you’re interested in getting into 3d printing but don’t want to spend the money on a Makerbot, you could always get a for about half the price. The design isn’t as refined as the Makerbot but the 3d models will come out about the same.
06May Low price editing computer.
People always ask if there are any cheap options for upgrading their editing computer. DSLR footage does take a beefy machine to edit, but can you get away with lower end parts and still have a pleasant editing experience? Honestly, I went from a computer that couldn’t handle DSLR footage to a computer that handles it beautifully. I never actually tried anything in between. I also haven’t used an AMD based computer in years. So I though maybe I would try an AMD configuration on my server upgrade and test out CS5 on a lower priced setup at the same time.
Here is the parts list:
- AMD Phenom II X4 840 3.2GHz Quad-Core Processor – $110
- ASUS M4A78LT-M Micro ATX AMD Motherboard – $60
- G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM -$45
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB hard drive – $35
- Radeon 512mb Graphics card (used) – $25
The Grand total on this mixed up mess of parts is $275. I also through in a Rosewill wireless N network card for $20 extra. I’m working under the impression that you already have a computer case laying around the house with a usable power supply and a copy of windows. If not add another $140 for a case and a copy of windows 7.
I will be working on this project most of the weekend and should have some results posted in the next few days. I think, if all goes well, my server will also be a usable editing computer. These aren’t the most amazing computer parts you can get but it will be interesting to see if this configuration can handle the load of CS5 editing.
You could also by all this in the form of the HP Pavilion p6720f
