29Mar Aputure Courage video contest
Aputure is hosting a video contest if you guys are interested. They are asking for a 1 minute creative video with the theme “Courage”. Videos need to be uploaded to youtube and tagged with 2014aputurevideo. Aputure professional team will select the top 10 finalists from all submissions. This is a voting competition so tell your friends to watch and vote for your video. They are going to be awarding the top 5 winners with the above prizes. Keep in mind that Aputure has rights to use the winners’ videos.
Free gear is always nice. If you’d like to find out more here’s the official announcement.
28Mar Azden FMX vs Beachtek DXA vs Juicedlink RM333 vs Tascam DR-60d test and comparison video
As promised, here’s a comparison between the Azden FMX-DSLR, Beachtek DXA-SLR, Juicedlink RM333 Riggy, and the Tascam DR-60d. If you’d like to skip the closeup look at the 3 audio adapters and go right to the audio tests, they start at 5:30 in the video.
No matter which XLR audio adapter you choose, they will all improve the audio recorded by your DSLR Camera. If you just want the best preamp with the most gain the Juicedlink RM333 Riggy is the clear winner. If you are after ease of use and the most features the Tascam DR-60d has a clear advantage. If you are just looking for an XLR audio adapter that’s easy to use, the Azden FMX-DSLR and Beachtek DXA-SLR should fit the bill.
As I said in the video, there isn’t really a right or wrong answer here. There are situations in one unit might come in handy more than another, but it all depends on what you need. However, out of the whole group the Tascam DR-60d offers up the most value. At it’s current price of $199 with a free copy of pluraleyes you really do get your money’s worth.
28Mar Tascam DR-60d powered by a USB battery pack
This question actually came from Ray Ortega on Twitter. He wanted to know if you could run the Tascam DR-60d on an external USB power pack. I hadn’t really thought about it, so I decided to give it a try. When you hook up the USB power pack to the DR-60d and power it on, it’ll ask you if you want to power via usb or transfer data. Once you select the power option the unit runs as it normally would on batteries. That includes full support for phantom power.
On a side note, once you start powering the unit via the usb port you don’t want to unplug it. If you do, it will power down and it could mess up your recording.
This 5200mAh Powergen USB battery pack I tested is equivalent to roughly 4x AA batteries so it’s probably not going to get you through a whole day of shooting. If you want extremely long battery life, you might want to consider something with a much larger capacity like the PowerGen 12000mAh External Battery Pack. Something with that much juice will likely be more than enough to run the Tascam DR-60d all day without an issue.
You might also consider just buying the Tascam BP-6AA battery adapter box if you have a lot of rechargeable batteries laying around. It allows you to use 6 batteries instead of 4, giving you about the same amount of boost as the 5200mAh Powergen USB battery pack I tested.
Now I just need to find a nice 1 foot right angle usb cable to going along with this sort of setup. I have a couple on order for testing. I’ll keep you posted.
27Mar 3 cold shoe mounting adapter
This 3 cold shoe adapter seems a little over priced at $20, but it does feel nice and solid. I grabbed a few of these awhile back and they’ve been working out ok, but I’ve noticed you can now pick up a thinner looking version for $9.99 with free shipping on amazon. I’ve got one on order to see how it stacks up against the $20 version. I’ll let you know next week if the $10 version is complete junk or not.
If you need to mount a lot of stuff in a very small space these 3 cold shoe adapters are handy to have around. Mine are mostly used for wireless audio packs because you can cluster 2 or 3 receivers in a space the size of a fist. They also do a pretty good job at the end of a friction arm. Or you could always use them for their original intended purpose, a flash bracket.
Has anyone given the $9.99 version a try? I would guess the $20 version would be a little better if you plan to mount flash heads. The thicker design would probably better support 3 large flash heads and the 12 batteries in side. I’ll keep you posted on how it turns out.
27Mar Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 lens – First Impressions
I just got my hands on the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 lens and shot this quick hands on video. The Design feels pretty solid and I think there might actually be more metal on the Olympus than the Tamron 24-70mm f2.8. Build quality is top notch.
I know there was a pretty strong divide between a number of you when it comes to the Olympus versus the Panasonic 12-35mm f2.8 lens. There was a big enough conflict that I talked a friend into lending me his Panasonic GH3 and 12-35mm f2.8 for a week to test and compare to the two lenses. I’ll be squeezing this in before I leave for NAB so I can’t promise the most in depth review but I definitely welcome any test ideas.
As a long time Canon owner, I’d never really set a full frame lens next to it’s micro 4/3 equivalent. A number of you mentioned that the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 lens was a bit on the heavy side of things and a little chunky. While it does feel nice and solid, it looks like a starving supermodel next to the Tamron 24-70mm f2.8 lens I normally use. If the Olympus 12-40mm f2.8 represents a rather heavy micro 4/3 lens, that’s pretty impressive. I’ve very interested to see how the Olympus and Panasonic stack up.
26Mar New 1280×800 DIY field monitor project?
I was doing a little ebay scouting this morning and came across these very interesting 1280×800 project monitor kits. For under $100 you get a 5.6 inch 1280×800 display, driver board, and controls. Basically, you find a box to put it in and a 12 volt power source and you have yourself a sub $100 field monitor. I don’t have time right now to try and hack this together, so i’m putting the idea out there for you guys. Anyone feeling brave? If no one gives it a try by the end of April maybe I’ll give the project a try. It could be interesting.
26Mar IOGEAR Smartlink USB to USB adapter
The IOGEAR Smartlink USB to USB adapter set me back $14, and it’s a pretty simple tool for transferring files back and forth between a Mac and PC. Transfer speeds are limited to USB 2.0 restrictions which isn’t horrible and there isn’t any max file size problems like fat32 formatted drives which makes it pretty handy. Before you say it, yes, I know you could use a crossover cable or possibly wifi to transfer files if you’re a little tech savvy. If you can do that, you won’t be needing this cable.
I am among the handful of people I know that does all of his work on a PC. I often show up to a Macbook pro party and people need a project file, clips, or other major assets. I find that there is a varying degree of computer skills among most of the people I work with and a cable like this simply makes things easier. When you hand someone a USB dongle and say “plug this in” they can usually figure it out. I find the simpler the method is, the less hassle it creates. For $14 it’s been worth it to me.
As I write this, it appears the price has jumped up to $20 on Amazon, there are also some under $10 that aren’t Mac compatible. I wouldn’t pay $50 for this little device, but for under $20 I would say it’s pretty handy to have around.
25Mar MustHD 5.6 inch 1280×800 field monitor Quick look video
Had a chance to do a little more testing this afternoon. Here’s a quick video look at the MustHD 5.6 inch monitor. Build quality is plastic with lots of vent ports, but that’s not unreasonable for a monitor under $300 with this much screen resolution. I’m still very impressed by the image quality. This thing looks pretty nice on the Canon c100.
A few of you were also asking about the SDI (BNC connectors) on the back of the unit. It appears these only accept and output composite video, which makes sense for a monitor in this price range. If I have a BNC to RCA connector laying around or the parts to make one, I’ll try and give this a test for confirmation.
In the few hours I’ve had to play around with it, I’d say the screen and battery interface are the MustHD’s biggest assets. The battery adapter system is very well thought out and the screen really impresses me for a monitor in this price range. I’ll post some more thoughts once I’ve had a few days to shoot with it.
25Mar MustHD 5.6 inch 1280×800 HDMI field monitor – First impressions
I just received the MustHD 5.6 inch 1280×800 HDMI field monitor in the mail. A number of you were asking about the MustHD after my earlier review of the Aputure VS-3 field monitor so here it is.
Out of the box the MustHD field monitor is surprisingly light weight. The controls are numerous and fairly easy to use, though I some how set the monitor to black and white the first time I tried to use it and it took me a few tries to figure out what I’d done. Turns out the F1 is preset to black and white by default so if that key is glowing, black and white mode is on.
The screen hood included with the MustHD field monitor is a spring loaded flip out design similar to the Sony CLM V55 and Viltrox monitors I’ve covered in the past. MustHD has gone a little bit further by covering the inside of the hood with felt. This makes the inside of the hood a nice matte black and prevents any reflections.
At first glance I thought the MustHD field monitor was a little on the thick side. Setting it next to the Smallhd DP6 however, it seems to be about the same thickness without the hood and about 3/4 of an inch thicker with the hood.
Even though the MustHD field monitor is made out of plastic, you have 4 brass 1/4 20 female mounts, one on each side of the monitor. There are plenty of mounting options and the metal design means they should last through repeated use.
Really the only size difference between the DP6 and the MustHD is the extra inch that the MustHD uses for controls. Again I’m really surprised at how light the MustHD field monitor is. Even with the extra inch in height it’s much much lighter than the Smallhd DP6.
For the price, the MustHD field monitor has a lot of features. You have the normal things like focus peaking and false color, but you also get SDI inputs and outputs as well as locking ports on both the HDMI input and output. There are also multiple power options as well as multiple battery plates to choose from out of the box.
The included battery plates support Sony NP-F900 series batteries as well as Panasonic D28S and Canon LP-E6 batteries. With that sort of selection you should have at least one of these type of batteries in your collection to keep the MustHD field monitor powered.
If you take a closer look at the battery plates, each one has a couple of nubs coming out of the tops and sides. These are quick release buttons for the battery plate as well as the actual batteries. So if you need to change out battery types fast, press the button in and slide out the battery plate. If you plan to mount the battery plate permanently, the little bag of included screws can be used to attach a battery plate more securely to the back of the monitor.
Without making any adjustments to the MustHD 5.6 inch 1280×800 HDMI field monitor right out of the box the monitor seems to be setup very close to what you see on the back of the 5d mark III. Take a look at the full res images here and you’ll see that the MustHD’s 1280×800 screen resolution is tack sharp. Even without the focus aids turned on you can tell what’s in focus and actually read the text on the back of this canned air bottle without any problem. The screen on this monitor impressive for the price.
I’ll post some more once I’ve had a chance to really play around with the monitor and dig into the menu system. I’m very impressed so far with the screen on the MustHD for it’s price range. It provides a very nice looking image out of the box for the price.
24Mar DFN Mail bag Episode 2 – DSLR FILM NOOB
Questions:
What are your thoughts on the Panasonic GH4?
I’m upgrading from a 550d which camera would you choose?
Do you think the EOS-M needs an external pre-amp or is the internal pre-amp decent?
Be sure to leave your questions in the comment section or on twitter.
