Olympus XZ-1

I have been looking for a high quality compact camera for a while.  The only modern one I own is a Lumix FT1 which is designed as a tough camera.  It's actually not bad sharing a lot of features with the TZ7 which was it's contemporary.  However, it does not have much in the way of manual controls for when things get complicated.  One of the things I wanted the camera to be able to do was be discreet enough to take into concerts.  Many venues ban Pro cameras and looking at the gear in the sin bin it included anything with interchangeable lens or a long looking lens.  This pretty much rules out DSLRs, EVILs and bridge cameras.  I also ruled out the far too serious looking Canon Gs and the Nikon P7000.  This basically left 2 prime candidates the Canon S95 and the Lumix LX5.  These are two very nice cameras with a lot of admirers.  I read the reviews and I wasted a few hours of retailers  time.  The S95 has the edge on portability and zoom range, the Lumix on ultimate quality and lens speed.   I failed to make a decision.

Then along comes the XZ1, borrowing a lot of Pen tech, it's a re-entry into this Market segment by Olympus.  Now despite spending my formative years wielding SLRs from arch rival Pentax, my first real photographic experiences were with my Dads Olympus 35RC rangefinder.  This little gem was capable of some really nice results fed with Kodachrome.  Olympus had continued to serve up decent compact cameras to my family over the years.  I myself had shunned them in the digital era because I needed to support another memory card format like I needed a hole in the head.  So there was still some residual goodwill which made this new compact a contender.  What really attracted me though was the lens -  a Zuiko branded piece of glass boasting a f1.8 aperture.  More importantly it was still an f2.5 even at maximum zoom of it's 28-112mm equivalent range.  By comparison the S95 is a 28-105mm f2-4.9 and the LX5 is a 24-90mm f2-3.3.  It seemed to me that the extra reach and speed of the Olympus would make it ideal for concerts.  I have taken a few test shots which I have posted up here

Generally speaking I have been pleased with it and it's a nice camera to use with its bright, hi-res OLED screen.  There are a couple of issues which I have taken a bit of a gamble on.  The first is the RAW format which just isn’t that well supported yet.  My number 1 wish would be for Aperture to gain support as this is my tool of choice although I do own DXO too for more tricky conversions.  No news on either of these adding support.  I don’t like the Olympus tool so at the moment I am using a beta version of Adobe Camera Raw.  The second issue is video where both the frame rate and codec yield results below its rivals.  MJPEG 720p30 is well supported, which helps on the road but I am already set-up to ingest H264 from DSLRs so I would prefer the better efficiency and higher quality of the Canon Quicktime or Lumix AVCHD.  Low light sensitivity may not be quite on a par but at anything more than full wide that pales into insignificance because of that big Zuiko.  There is no way around it, thats a killer feature which I just can’t resist.

If it really impresses it I might treat it to the EVF (which it shares with the PENs) which is fine thing, if eye-wateringly expensive.  It does make it a damn side more discreet than holding it mid-air whilst illuminating your face for 10 minutes.  "Me, Mr Steward, videoing?  What makes you think that?"

Thunderbolt

Thunderbolt - cheesy name but a really fascinating bit of tech.  As I headed down to Converge, two pieces of news had just broken.  The first was that Apple had just added Thunderbolt to it's new MacBook Pro range and the second was a rumour the Nikon D4 would get it too.  Putting the two together gave me own Thunderbolt moment.  I started to imagine what the still mythical Canon 5D MkIII could achieve with Thunderbolt.  Now I am no more an electronics engineer than I am a cinematographer.  I can build a PC from the components but that's about as far as it goes.  Given that only that MacBook Pro has been announced with Thunderbolt so far, what follows is pure speculation on my part.

There are two digital ports on the MkII - USB2 and HDMI.  USB has two purposes for the 5D.  The first is data transfer for which the maximum speed is 480Mbps.  USB rarely gets anywhere near that.  When I connect to my Mac Pro with a Sandisk 480Mbps card I get 90Mbps whereas the same card in a FireWire 800 reader gets 460Mbps.  The second use is as a bus for control instructions.  The Canon tethering software and the Okii follow focus use this method to control the camera remotely.  The second port is HDMI which is used to output to display devices.  When Canon designed this they were thinking of playback to domestic tellies.  HDMI is designed for domestic use and Canon only had room to squeeze the mini version of the plug on the body.  HDMI is great in it's domestic environment but has issues in the camera implementation.  Canon does not have the ability to give a clean, uncompressed output at 1080p while recording - the 5D is only 480p with camera indicators.  The built-in LCD also becomes inoperable when HDMI is plugged in. HDMI has a lengthy handshake protocol which interrupts things when the signal changes.  Finally, all HDMI connectors are hateful and mini is the worst.  Not the end of the world in a fixed installation but frustrating in equipment that is constantly on the move.  HDMI can shift a lot of data - HDMI1.4 tops out at around 10Gbps and can handle 4K resolution.

So where does Thunderbolt make a difference.  Well the first difference is that it can do both jobs that USB and HDMI do at once.  Like HDMI it has a 10Gbps capability but this is bidirectional.  It's close relationship to PCIe, the internal bus used in PCs and Apples, should make it possible to produce a breakout cable that supports HDMI and USB for legacy use.  It's so fast that transferring files is really going to going to be limited by the devices either end not the cable.  For tethered shooting this will make a huge difference.  No more jerky live view or long waits between shots or takes.  Apple's implementation of Thunderbolt uses the display port connector.  This is a small plug and the wire is relatively thin and flexible.  Its not as secure as a locked in cable like a BNC type SDI connector but it is a better fit than mini HDMI.

Intel has a fibre optic version of Thunderbolt which is capable of being sent long distances.  This could avoid the need to convert to SDI to get an image back to video village.

When the data comes off a sensor then a DSLR has to deal with it.  First it has to process it, then it has to store it.  With video, the Canon DIGIC4 chip has to first chuck loads of pixels away to get down to 2MP, then it has to encode into H264.  That’s not an easy task, even modern PCs struggle to encode 1080p in realtime.  Working that hard makes chips hot and there are not many places for that heat to go.  Some of that heat makes its way into the sensor which it does not enjoy.  Overheating and a rising noise floor are the things the DSLR shooter has to contend with.  The ideal situation would be to have the option to get the data off the sensor and out of the camera altogether and process and record it in a separate box.  When companies like RED and SI talk about “brains” this is what they mean.  To shift RAW data like that you need a fast bus and it seems to me that is a role Thunderbolt could play.  Whether the camera divisions that make these cameras ever want to go that far into the more esoteric end of the video market is debatable.  However, at least it would mean stills photographers wouldn’t be coughing up for high-end video features the majority of them will never use.  If the manufacturers decided to make the specs open then we could have 3rd parties like AJA or Codex provide the brain/recorders.  Even if the processing is still done in camera, then Thunderbolt offers a more flexible way of getting data out than HDMI.  Its bidirectional nature means that features like timecode, genlock and device control should be possible along with whatever video format the camera produces.  So if Canon do switch to 1080p 4:2:2 to use their MPEG2 based codec from their video line, piping that out uncompressed to an external recorder is well within Thunderbolt’s bandwidth as it has more capacity than HDSDI.  Thunderbolt based modularity seems to me like an elegant solution.  

A fully rigged RED One looks like Borg technology - cool but complicated.  With Thunderbolt, it looks like you may be just be able to plug into a hub like a USB without having to worry about the connection type.  I know in reality things don’t tend to be that easy with plug and play but we can always dream.  At the moment dreaming is all we can do till some devices appear and maybe the whole D4 thing was someone else's dream.  One of my missions at NAB is to see how much of musings are feasible, likely or commercially viable.

Cliché

In a rare outbreak of collaboration, my kids have put together a music video.  Alex did it as an A-Level Media Studies project along with a fellow student - Dean Welsh.  The song Cliché was written and performed by Tuesday Hangover.  My daughter Emma is their lead singer and lyricist.  The guitarists were Will Marshall and Alex Lewis (normally the drummer) and Matt Williams on bass.  I did the recording and mix.  Due to a fixed deadline, Alex couldn't wait for the whole band to be available but the song is very much a group effort.

Will Marshall (Front), Alex  Matt Willaims

My role in the music video consisted of loaning a tripod and a lot of fretting.  I was relieved when Alex said it was all done and handed-in and I was very pleasantly surprised with the final result.  In fact Alex has set the bar awkwardly high for his Dad's debut effort.  But that is going to have to wait till we get a good recording of another of the band's growing catalogue of songs.

Sony NXCAM FS100

So the much rumoured baby brother to F3 has finally broken cover.  It has been greeted with a mixed reaction covering a broad spectrum.  One of the first people to shoot with it was my friend Den Lennie from F-Stop Academy.  Den had a hand in the development and is a fan.  Some reviewers have not been so kind but then most of the comment flooding the web is speculation based on the spec with only a few people getting hands-on the pre-production samples.  

The most obvious competitor is Panasonic’s AF100.  Both cameras are significantly more expensive than a DSLR but deliver some functionality DSLRs lack particularly better audio handling, longer shooting times and uncompressed output.  However, these are video only cameras so they are not hybrid devices.  The sheer volume of DSLRs sold due to their dual purpose will always give them a sizable price advantage.  Prices are not confirmed but it looks like the Sony may go on sale at $6000 which would make it more expensive than the AF100.  Given that it lack some features like built-in ND and SDI connections that make it seem a poor deal.  However, what it does have is the sensor out of the F3 a significantly more expensive camera, where as the AF100 technology is more closely related to that in their DSLRs.  That sensor has been much praised in the F3 especially for its sensitivity and lack of noise.  It is also a larger S35 size, making it perfect for use with Cinema lenses.  It may well be worth the difference on its own.  The E mount lenses have added features (AF & IS) but I haven’t seen any lenses that interest me yet in that format - micro 4/3 is better supported to date.

Ergonomically and styling is very different and perhaps most like RED’s new Epic.  The Epic has been almost universally praised for its form factor and modularity so it is a slight mystery to me why the Sony has taken so much stick.  It has a handheld configuration but will probably need help from third parties to rig for all occasions.  However, I think that probably applies with most of the alternatives.  The number of mounting points that the camera offers should certainly ensure the likes of Zacuto and Redrock should not be short of options.  The external output is via HDMI and is 4:2:2 uncompressed with timecode.  Its only 8bit but I am not sure how much that will effect the issue.  I have never met a pro who had a kind word for HDMI connectors.  However, the HDMI option does tend to mean that peripherals like monitors and recorders are cheaper.  My two main concerns are perhaps the lack of NDs.  I have never had a camera that had them but then I have never had a camera with a native ISO of somewhere in the 400-800 range either.  Even in the UK, external ND is probably going to be a necessity.  I also think not having the choice of 24 & 25fps on the cameras is deeply irritating.  I am afraid the justification of it allowing them to protect higher margins outside the US makes it even worse.  With so much footage being piped round the globe via the web, regionality is an anachronism.

As an amateur enthusiast with a dual hobby with the still and moving image then the FS100 would be a massive luxury.  It also worries me that video development on DSLRs might stagnate in favour of this class of camera.  If I needed to cover events where I wanted to keep that big sensor look with a longer shooting time or I wanted to start using cinema lenses then I think the Sony would be my choice.  I haven’t seen anything yet from the AF100 which I feels moves the game on from DSLRS whereas I have seen some F3 footage that impressed.  All hypothetical for now though as it may be several months before we see footage from production FS100s and there are rumours doing the rounds about an AF200 response.  A response from Canon is also well overdue (in my opinion, possibly not theirs).  Will there be any last minute surprises for NAB?

Converge 2011 - Part 2 - Workshop Day

My name is Andrew Howe and I am a workshopaholic.  OK, so its out there, I can relax now.  When they ask me difficult questions in the surveys for NAB like “What is your role in the media industry?”, the most accurate answer is probably Workshop Chair Grip.  It’s a toss-up between that and Credit Card DoP.

First up was Adam Duckworth.  I felt a bit sorry for Adam as a projector failure meant he had to do his presentation without slides but he still managed to make it engaging.  Adam’s career is mainly in photography but he transition more to multimedia in recent years so he was in a good position to explain both the differences and similarities between photographic and film lighting.  I think I am right in attributing one of my favorite quotes of the day to Adam “Once light has left the lamp, it has no idea how expensive the light that made it is.”

Ed Moore also did a presentation on lighting.  My first exposure to Ed was on a recent course I did through FXPHD.  It was great to meet him and some of the lights which I had seen him use to great effect in that course.  Ed expanded on some of the topics covered by Adam and introduced some additional lighting types and grip.  Some of these were great budget tips for trying to build up a low cost but flexible lighting kit.

Ed Moore explains a lighting set-up

There was quite a strong Post element to the day.  We had two presentations on Final Cut: one on multi-camera from Steve Sander and another on DSLR workflow from Byron Wijayawardena of Apple.  I have never had to shoot or edit multi-camera so I had not really come across it before.  It quite an interesting way of working.  I have edited footage where there were multiple takes from different angles and I found it a real challenge.  If you can get more coverage of the same performance it makes the editors life much easier.   Byrons’s attempt to go through the whole FCP workflow including Color was probably a bit ambitious.  Despite being from Apple he did throw in a lot of third party options which meant it was a very comprehensive and real-world view despite the time challenges.  Byron used footage shot for a music video and this was shared for a presentation by James Tonkin on Davinci Resolve.  This was deliberate to allow for a comparison.  I had seen Resolve demos before but this was the first by a customer.  Not just a customer, but one who had only been using it a few weeks.  Now, one look at the FCP timeline that was imported showed that James was no novice but it was still impressive how quick James was able to work given the different methodology and UI.  The speed and control you have in Resolve is astounding.  Even a relative newb like me has spent more hours than I care to recollect staring anxiously at render bars when grading.  Its an inevitability when shooting DSLR with flat profiles that you will be grading.  If my deadlines were commercial rather than just sheer impatience, then I would definitely be investing in Resolve. 

Richard Jobson, the driving force behind Converge, did a Directing session with 2 actors.  He had a new script which the actors had barely seen which is making use of the lift set currently taking up Richard’s garage where it was built for the zzz need a lawyer short.  The situation and the language in the script were very Pinteresque.  Richard explained what he wanted from the actors particularly around the pacing.  For the first couple of read throughs it didn't quite work.  The script editor in me (a mode I have only recently discovered I have) was mentally starting to kick in.  However, on the next read-through Richard got them to the pace he wanted and suddenly the language found its rhythm and the performance was transformed.  Watching this process was quite a revelation as I have never really seen this direction/performance interaction before.  I look forward to seeing the film when its complete.

The final presentation was from Sloan U’Ren (Director) and Simon Dennis (Cinematographer) about the feature they are working on called “Dimensions”.  Sloan and her husband Ant Neely are the originators of the project. Both have successful careers in the industry and are fulfilling an ambition to make their own film.  DSLRs were one enabling technologies which made the project feasible for their budget whilst delivering the look they wanted.  Dimensions is a period, character driven movie with a twist.  Simon showed us some ungraded footage (using 5D) which looked simply sumptuous. Simon told us that he still lit the scenes as he would for film. He wasn’t looking for super-shallow depth of field.  He is more interested in the results than the technology.  The film is currently in post and its one to look out for later in the year.

Converge has plans to increase access to training workshops and their recently revamped blog has become one of the best sources of information on the web with a host of respected guest bloggers contributing.