08Dec Viltrox DC-50 HDMI monitor review w/ side by side Sony CLM-V55 comparison
For those of you not familiar with the monitor, the Viltrox DC-50 is a $170 clone of the Sony CLM-V55 ($349) field monitor. Very similar design with the same batteries, mounts, and sun hood as the v55.
Put these two monitors side by side and it’s hard to tell them apart. Over all I’d say the Viltrox DC-50 is a pretty good value. Image quality isn’t quite as good as the V55, but it’s reasonably close, focus peaking is a little better on the V55, but the focus peaking on the DC-50 is completely usable. The Swivel cold shoe mount on the V55 is nicer than the DC-50 with better staying power, but the mount on the DC-50 still works.
Basically the Viltrox DC-50 a slight drop in quality from the Sony CLM-V55 but at half the price. Everything is just a little bit better on the Sony field monitor, but only a little bit. For that small drop in quality you’re paying about half the price. Is the Sony CLM-V55 better then the Viltrox DC-50
? The answer to that question is yes, but is that slight jump in quality worth $179? It might be to some, but i’m guessing just as many people will be happy with the quality to price ratio the Viltrox DC-50
offers.
If you don’t mind waiting for a shipment from China the Viltrox DC-50 can be had for around $170 on ebay, if you need it right away, you can find it on Amazon for around $199. It’s well worth a look if you’re on a tight budget.
08Dec Fake Sandisk extreme cards?
I grabbed a few Sandisk Extreme 32GB cards when they went on sale over black Friday. On the right we have a standard Sandisk Extreme card from my collection, on the left we have the card ordered over black Friday. This is the first time I’ve seen a gold colored Sandisk card and it got me thinking, is this a fake?
In the past you could tell a fake card by examining the back. The top part of the card near the electrical contracts is usually slightly transparent, the letter D in Sandisk should be missing the horizontal line and the “Made in China” logo should be stamped at the bottom of the cards. Two out of the three indicators are missing from the card on the left. Instead the Sandisk Extreme 32GB card has stenciled in a small group of numbers and letters (BM1329150121G). This number letter combo is the same on all 4 of the cards I ordered.
Visiting Sandisk’s card registration page I was able to register all 4 cards without an issue. I ran a few quick tests and the cards appear to be as fast as my old Sandisk cards. If they’re fake, they’ve done a pretty good job. I haven’t been able to find anything from Sandisk about the new gold logo.
Everything tests out fine on these new Sandisk Extreme 32GB cards, so I wont be returning them and $23 a card was a pretty decent price. It’s just odd to me that they would abandon the old security measures and release a newly designed logo without changing the name to something like “Extreme ultra MAX” or “Awesome Tastic Extreme”. Anyone else end up with gold Sandisk memory cards?
07Dec Tascam DR-60d field recorder $249
Looks like Both B&H and Amazon are running a sale on the Tascam DR-60d. It’s normally priced at $349, however right now until December 9th you can pick it up on Amazon or on B&H for just $249. I’ve been using the Tascam DR-60d for almost a year now. As the owner of both a DR-60d and a Juicedlink riggy I can safely say that at $249 the DR-60d is a far better value. Multiple inputs, multiple outputs, and an all around good field recorder, make it a great all in one device to have. In general the Tascam DR-60d is also much more user friendly than the riggy’s tiny little dip switches. If I only had room to pack one, it wouldn’t be the riggy.
Check out my full review of the DR-60d here, as well as my thoughts on the Juicedlink riggy here. If you need an XLR interface for you DSLR the DR-60d is a great choice.
UPDATE: Order from B&H for just $249 and they’ll include a free copy of pluraleyes 3 which is currently the best audio syncing software on the market.
06Dec Canon 6d $1415 on Amazon
Not sure what the heck is going on with the 6d, is Canon already planning to drop it? The price has fallen yet again on Amazon, yesterday it was $1500, now you can pick it up for $1415 with free shipping. I wonder why the price is bouncing around so much. You’re thoughts?
05Dec Permanent price drop on Canon 6d?
The Canon 6d bounces around in price quite a bit, but the average price up until recently has been around $1700. After the round of black Friday and cyber Monday sales started to taper off, the Canon 6d remains at $1507 with free shipping on Amazon. Is this the new standard price for a 6d body? To me it feels like Canon is trying to slot the 6d low enough in the pricing structure to squeeze in yet another full frame or Cinema body.
There have been rumors of lower price Cinema EOS bodies being announced in 2014, but there’s been a lot of arguments about whether this new camera would be above or below the 5d mark III in the pricing structure. Is Canon cooking up a Cinema EOS body at the $2400 price level?
It would be nice to see the Super 35mm 8.3MP CMOS Sensor used in the Canon C100 adapted for a stills body. Sure 8.3MP isn’t game changing for stills, but i know many people that would be willing to take the megapixel hit to enjoy a completely usable 20,000 iso image, especially if the end result is bound for the web. It would also be nice if Canon introduced the C100’s XLR input handle, after all the adapter uses a simple plug on the side of the C100 which should be pretty easy to adapt to a DSLR style body. Sony is already doing this with their Sony XLR-K1M unit, a nice adapter that adds full audio features to many of Sony’s higher end DSLR cameras.
Canon has all the technology it needs to make a giant splash in the video market just like they did with the 5d mark II. Good sensor technology, audio capabilities, and the 50Mbps MPEG-2 4:2:2 XF codec used in their XF300 series cameras. Shove all that into a $2400 Cinema EOS body and cameras would be flying off the shelves.
So far the Canon EOS-1D C is really the only DSLR style camera in the EOS cinema lineup and the only one out of the bunch that shoots 4k in camera. But how many people are really going to spend $11,000 on a 1dc when you can pick up a used red one kit for under $7000 or a Blackmagic 4k cinema camera for under $4000. Both of the latter options shoot raw video (RED’s R3D format is arguably better than Cinema DNG) while the 1dc uses mjpeg.
Instead of trying to make a huge margin on cameras like the C300 and C500, follow the REBEL model. Give us a plastic bodied camera with great internals and a Super 35mm sensor in the $2000 range maybe a dash of 2.5k and you’ll own the market. Give the pro’s and the people with money a $6000 version made out of magnesium alloy with water sealing. You’ll make a killing in upgrade sales as people move from the 6d, 60d, and 5d mark II’s to this new camera. Sure you might loose a little bit of money from the high end markup, but guess what? All of those cameras use Canon EF glass and the more bodies you sell the more money you’ll bring in from lens sales.
The Canon 6d price drop might just be a sign of the times, but it sure would be nice if it was a shift in a new direction. I’m still all in with Canon, but it’s tempting sometimes to jump ship when I see some of the great things Sony and Panasonic have been adding to their cameras.
05Dec TP-LINK TL-MR3040 battery powered wireless router for DSLR controller
DSLR controller is a great app and over the past year or so it’s gotten a lot better. Recently, DSLR controller posted a guide to a DIY project that allows you to use DSLR controller wirelessly. Instead of using a $220 device like the iusbportcamera, the hack takes advantage of the $36 TP-Link Battery powered wireless router (above).
As with some of the other Wifi options out there, your frame rate isn’t going to be amazing (10 to 15 fps). However, for framing, macro work, and basic camera controls DSLR Controller is a far better solution than Canon’s native app for something like the Canon 6d. Unlike Canon’s native app, you can also use the TP-Link with DSLR controller in video mode which could be very handy option for video reviewers who work alone.
In the package you’ll find the wireless router, a 2000mAh battery, wall charger, and short ethernet cable. There isn’t a lot to this $36 device, but if it can provide wireless control of a Canon DSLR it could be pretty handy.
I just opened up the TP-Link Battery powered wireless router this morning, so I haven’t had a chance to try installing the hack. I’ll post some more pictures and thoughts on the DSLR Controller hack once I’ve had a chance to give it a try.
04Dec Tamrac Pro Camera bags – Road Test
So you’ve spent all this money on great lenses, a good camera, and all the other kit you need to start shooting. The next question is, how do you travel with it? In the past I’ve shown you a few of the bags I’ve used, but over the last few years I’ve been making the transition to Tamrac Pro series bags. I was working with a fellow film maker who had a couple of these bags in his collection and I fell in love. Great design, lots of pockets, water resistant, and one of the most comfortable shoulder straps I’ve seen on a camera bag.
When I first started searching for some larger camera bags, I was turned off by the price of Tamrac’s pro series. The camera bag above (Tamrac 614) for example, will set you back almost $350 new. That’s quite a bit of money for a camera bag, but the the strange thing is, the used price of this bag is around 1/4 of the price. I picked up the above bag for right around $60 used on ebay.
The design of the bag gives you zippers for every pocket, but also offers up the option to use click locks on all 4 sides of the top compartment. Those 4 latches also pull the water resistant top layer over the front zipper pockets to keep rain and moisture out. There’s also plenty of velcro along the inside of the top flap to keep things secure even when the click locks aren’t being used.
For whatever reason used Tamrac bags are really affordable. Sure you’re not getting a brand new minty fresh bag, but Tamrac’s bags are built well, even with years of ruff use they stand up to abuse. I’ve been using the above bag for almost 2 years now and it doesn’t show much more wear and tear than the day I bought it. As you can see I keep the bag pretty well packed, with little room left over.
The shoulder and hand straps on Tamrac’s pro bags are basically made out of a car seat belt making them thin, flat, and solid. The padding on the straps is made from a nice large piece of soft leather stitched over the handle and shoulder areas. Unless you take a knife to it, these straps aren’t coming apart anytime soon.
That same seat belt makes a full trip around the outside of the bag in one continuous loop. It’s double stitched into the side pockets as well as the bottom of the bag, giving the bag an extra level of support. Even though this bag sees a lot of continues use the thick canvas material on the bottom of the bag has held up very well. No rips, or areas starting to fray, just the usual bits of dust and debris gathered from loading and unloading the bag.
Although few people shoot on film any more, these pop-off pockets are great for loose hardware. Keep your loose audio and hdmi cables in one bag, and mounting hardware in the other. 3 snaps as well as velcro attach each of these bags to the top of the bag giving you plenty of support.
I currently use 2 Tamrac pro bags for two camera shoots, a smaller Tamrac bag for all of the EOS-M stuff, and a Tamrac rally bag for stills. I still have the APE cases around, but they are used mostly to transport light bulbs and batteries.
If you’re in the market for a large camera bag, take a look on ebay for one of these Tamrac bags. They’re an excellent value if the price is right.
03Dec Ultra Thin Low Profile HDMI Cable
I’ve been using Hyperthin cables for almost a year now, great cables, more flexible than a headphone cable, and if you catch them at the right time of year they’re around $14 a peace. Not a groundbreaking price but still fairly reasonable for the amount of flexibility a cable like this provides.
The only complaint I really have with the Hyperthin cables (top cable, above) is availablity. It can sometimes take 2 or 3 months to get the cables you order and sometimes orders are simply canceled. I’m not really sure if it’s a high demand issue, a manufacturing problem, or if they simply don’t keep enough inventory in stock.
I’ve been waiting for over a month and a half for my latest order of Hyperthin cables, so in the meantime I’ve decided to give another Ultra thin cable a try. At $7 a cable the NTW ultra thin 3′ cable comes in at about half the price of the Hyperthin cable and it showed up only 6 days after my order.
While thinner than most ordinary hdmi cables, the NTW ultra thin 3′ cable is still kind of chunky when compared to the Hyperthin cable. The NTW ultra thin cable has a slightly lower profile HDMI plug, but isn’t quite as flexible as the Hyperthin.
I’ve spent a few days with the NTW ultra thin cable and I still prefer the Hyperthin cables, but honestly I don’t have time to wait for Hyperthin cables to be delivered. I wont be canceling my long delayed Hyperthin order, but I’ll be using these NTW cables until they show up. In the end, it’s a little cheaper and it doesn’t feel as good as the Hyperthin cables, but it’s available and does just about as well for the price.
02Dec Lightroom 5 down to $69 on amazon!
Lightroom 5 is on sale right now for just $69 with free prime shipping on Amazon. That’s an excellent price for a very handy photo editing tool. Also check out the free tutorials for lightroom 5 here.
28Nov Gopro hero 3 Black edition $239 on Amazon
For a short time Amazon has the Hero 3 Black edition on sale for just $239, normal price is $329. It’s a lightning deal, so if you want it move like lightning. Great camera, check out my review here.
