Skiing and snowboarding with the GoPro HD

A STILL FROM THE GOPRO FOOTAGE (FOLLOWING TOMMIE, MY SON)

I'm in Austria: skiing for the first time in 15 years and Tommie, my 10 year old son is snowboarding for the first time in his life. Naturally the GoPro had to come along and capture us descending the slopes beyond the speed of light ;-)
I shot some great footage the first time out, circling around my son while he was sliding down the hills, low angle stuff just above my skies and high speed stuff just blasting down the hill by myself. But when I came back to the hotel that evening, I discovered I had made beginners mistake #1: not checking your gear before taking off for a shoot. And so I learned there was no SD card in the camera... (and I also understood at this time why there was no light blinking when recording...)
Yesterday was better but my MacBook Pro 1st generation will not play back these MP4 files without stuttering. Transcoding to ProRes does not help. I'll just have to wait until I'm back on my Mac Pro in Amsterdam.

SMILE! YOU'RE ON HD CAMERA... (OUR HOTEL)

 Tomorrow I will try and attach the GoPro to my helmet because going handheld is far from ideal when you're racing down a hill and need to keep your eyes open in all directions...
I can still ski after all these years and it's so much fun to see my son has a talent for the snowboard. Too bad I screwed up my (already bad) knee trying to see how fast my friends and I could go downhill yesterday. (normal pace: about 15 minutes. suicide speed: just under 5 minutes) I banged it around so bad I now have a swollen, pulsating knee and am taking a day's rest. My son went rolling in the snow naked after we went in  the jacuzzi last evening and he is in bed next to me with high temperature. Both of us should be good to go tomorrow. Got some more sliding & shooting to do... (hope to show you the result soon!)

Mailbox: Canon FD 20mm 2.8

CANON FD 20MM F2.8

I really needed a wide angle lens to cover the wide end of my Canon FD lens collection.An obvious choice was the Canon FD 20mm 2.8 because it is generally considered a very good lens and it's fairly fast. But I had my mind set on the Tokina RMC 17mm f3.5.  (more on that one soon!)
Little did I know that I was going to run into my former brother in law who -as it turned out after many years- is really big on prime lenses and has been building an impressive collection over the last 3 to 4 years. I visited him in his home and was delighted to see that the whole house seemed to 'breathe lenses'. The computerscreen showed the familar eBay-page with a big lens on it, there were lenses standing in every corner and cupboard and the livingroom table was turned into a little showcase of special interest lenses. It goes beyond the scope of this entry to delve into the various exquisite pieces of glass he showed me, but you can imagine there were some real rare beauties to be admired.

LIKE MOST LENSES FROM THE CANON FD SERIES: A VERY SOLID LENS

 The talk turned to Canon FD lenses and my brother in law disappeared into a closet and returned with 2 copies of the Canon FD 20mm 2.8. One of them looked like new and the other used, but very good. He had bought the 'like new' one for a very good price and said I could have the other for a good price. How could I resist? So... welcome to the family, Canon FD 20mm f2.8.
First thing I noticed with a big, wideangle piece of glass like this: you need a lens hood to resist flare and low contrast images. I can't wait to go into town to do some testing with this lens and compare it to my other prime 20mm: the Carl Zeiss Jena Flektogon 20mm f4!

FD 20MM INCLUDING THE FD TO MICRO 43 ADAPTER FOR USE ON GH2

Candid Camera (or how I learned to love my Canon FD200mm)

Mailbox: Canon FD 200mm F4

CANON FD 200MM F4: GREAT DOCUMENTARY VIDEO LENS

I found this addition to my -still expanding- Canon FD collection for €45,- and I was very curious to see how this lens would function on my Panasonic GH2 because of the crop sensor- this is a 400mm - serious tele-lensing! I was afraid that it would have a very limited use as a video lens because of the long focal distance. Every little jitter would be visible and I'd have to use a tripod 100% of the time!
But this lens really surpised me in a positive way and it has proven to be an absolute joy! First of all, it is very light, much lighter than it's more light-sensitive brothers and sisters... So that's a definite plus because you don't have to carry a rock around. It is a relatively inobtrusive lens and for street-shoots this is wonderful because no one notices you filming them! You are 50-100 feet away! And focusing is so creamy smooth that there is no jitter whatsoever. (although you have to use a tripod, of course)

Everyone's drooling over fast lenses but who needs a fast lens outside? This lens is sharp, has good color rendition, nice bokeh and a really nice feel about it. I shot a lot of iceskating with it the last few days and this lens shines! Never thought a telelens could be so much fun. For the money it's a no-brainer. A great video-lens for documentary shots where you like to observe people -or animals- in their natural habitat, unaware of camera's pointing at them. Highly recommended!

LOOKS HEAVY BUT IS VERY LIGHT AND PORTABLE

NICE WIDE GRIP FOR EASY FOCUSING

Major Final Cut Pro X update

Good news for FCP editors: multicam-editing and broadcast monitoring has come to Final Cut Pro X. It's a major step towards making FCP X a viable alternative to AVID, Adobe Premiere and Sony Vegas.

MULTICAM EDITING: BACK FROM THE DEAD

Motion 5 has also been updated:

• Improved speed and responsiveness of text editing
• Ability to automatically add animation keyframes when recording is disabled
• Keyboard shortcut for re-positioning animation curves or paths
• Ability to adjust the pan and scale of an image in a drop zone
• Enhanced look of the Keyframe editor for easier keyframe viewing and editing

BROADCAST MONITORING: MAJOR NEWS FOR PRO EDITORS AND POSTPRODUCTION FACILITIES