YouTuber Builds Own Video Deck
Not wanting to pay $200 for an editing controller, this YouTuber spent a weekend designing and building his own. And he taught us a lot about project time management:
Technology
GoPro Launches Hero 9 With Front Facing Screen
GoPro’s latest Hero9 action camera has much more 5K video for shooting those iconicaction sports videos in mind, thanks to a new front facing camera and the ability to use it as a webcam. But there’s also a new ultra wide lens mod that means one thing … interchangable lenses are finally coming to the Hero line.
NAB SHOW CANCELLED DUE TO CORONA FEARS
by James DeRuvo
Well, they tried really hard to assure the professional public NAB would still be on next month, but once Adobe cancelled their presentations and there was an uproar over a no handshake policy, the handwriting was on the wall. NAB2020 has been officially cancelled.
South By Southwest Cancelled Due to Corona Outbreak
by James DeRuvo
Indiewire is reporting that the annual pop culture film, music and computer festival South By Southwest (SXSW) has been cancelled due to the Covid19/Corona virus outbreak. Could NAB be far behind?
SXSW follows other conferences including Google IO, Adobe Summit, CP+,and Mobile World Congress, all of which cancelled their annual gatherings over fears of attendees becoming exposed during travel. Adobe has said, however, that their annual Summit will be an online virtual experience this year.
There is even talk that the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will also be cancelled. The Games have only been cancelled one other time in its history, and that was in 1940, due to World War II. Ironically, those Games were also set to take place on Tokyo.
The announcement fresh off the heels of companies like Netflix, Starz, Lionsgate, Apple, Amazon and Warner Media all pulling out of SXSW in recent days. With the festival scheduled to begin March 13, organizers really had little choice but to call it quits for 2020.
As for NAB, the trade show association put out a statement signaling that the show will go on, but that it would be monitoring the overall situation as the conference approaches.
While the NAB stands firm in its commitment to hold the convention as planned, the health and safety of attendees and participants are NAB’s top priority. To that end, NAB is dedicated to providing rapid responses and assistance in support of the global NAB Show community’s participation plans.
NAB also pointed out that some manufacturers and attendees may have little choice but cancel due to US travel restrictions.
Video hardware company AJA has already pulled out, citing Corona virus fears, and if Adobe scuttled the physical summit they hold every year in Las Vegas in favor of a safer online event, you have to wonder if they may not make the trip as well.
I have a hunch more will follow suit as the time to travel to NAB draws near.
Filmmaker Uses AI to Upscale First Short Film into 4k 60p Marvel
By James DeRuvo
L’Arrivée d’un train en gare de La Ciotat” (The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station) was the first short film shown at a movie theater back in 1895. And it looked so realistic to its unsuspecting audience, that legend has it people fled the theater fearing they were about to get hit. Nowadays though, the low resolution black and white film looks comically tame on YouTube. Then someone decided to apply the neural networks of artificial intelligence to it, to see if they could recapture of of that realism in 4K. And the results are remarkable.
Manfrotto Launches Tough Line of SD and CF Media Cards
by James DeRuvo
When you hear the name Manfrotto, you instantly think of professional grade tripods and fluid heads that have set the standard for photography and videography over the last 50 years. But now you can add media cards to that, as the company is going head to head with Sony with a tough line of SD and CF media cards.
DJI Resurrects Phantom 4 Pro Line
New parts supply chain guarantees return to production
by James DeRuvo
When DJI announced last year that the DJI Phantom 4 Pro Vs. 2 line would be discontinued, it wasn’t because the popular UAV wasn’t selling still selling. In spite of the popularity of the Mavic and Mavic 2 lines, the Phantom 4 sales more than held its own. But the problem truly lie in the supply chain. The company had run out of parts they needed to build the Phantom, and as such, the Phantom 4 Pro was fated to fly off into the sunset. But now, the drone is back, and with a fresh supply of parts, it’s business as usual for DJI.
Use the batteries for your cordless drill to power your camera
Well, after a few days downtime dealing with “convention crud” from CES, I’m back in the saddle and am ready to share this fun gadget from KesslerCrane, which will enable you to use the batteries from any DeWalt Cordless tool to power your camera, lights, or even charge your mobile devices. It’s called the Mag Max 3A and it could be your next best friend on, or off, the set.
CES Day 3 – Insta360 Has a GoPro Killer, while Nikon Finally Launches a Long Overdue D780.
Day 3 of CES still finds plenty of cameras to see, including a modular action camera from Insta360 that could actually challenge GoPro’s dominance in the ACam space. If they can get their software locked down. Then, Nikon finally shows off the long overdue successor to their D750 full frame camera, the D780. But is it just a Z6 with a mirror in the way? And there’s a $250 LED Lighting kit that may be all you need if you’re a beginning filmmaker.
CES Day Two – Panasonic, Canon, and Razer goes Modular
Day Two of CES2020 is here and I was wondering just what one company would have in store … RAZER. Known for their out of the box designs, this computer hardware company has come up with a modular PC that users can build easily in a matter of minutes. Meanwhile, Panasonic has showed off a trio of ultra compact 4K camcorders, and Canon’s 1DX Mk. III may prove that the DSLR isn’t dead. YET.
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