Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In News

Magic Lantern released 66 Mbps hack for the Canon 5D!

I thought Magic Lantern was history, but now they have released a new hack for the Canon 5D Mark II. With the new beta version of this hack you are able to shoot up to 70 Mbps H.264. I haven’t tried the new Magic Lantern version, but perhaps you need new CF cards because of the higher bitrate. I think 60 MB/s or 233x cards should be perfect. You can choose between many bitrates, the 7 Mbps has a very low quality, perfect for shooting video with it is 66 Mbps at 24p. Here is a text from the Magic Lantern Wiki: +8 30p 7 Mbps Very low quality -9 24p 32 Mbps -10 24p 41 Mbps -11 24p 51 Mbps -12 24p 59 Mbps -13 24p 62 Mbps -14 24p 66 Mbps Best, sustainable in 24p mode? -15 24p 68 Mbps 2 buffer bars -16 24p 76 Mbps Only a few seconds 24p seems to have less issues than 30p Locked-off shots seem less likely to trigger buffer overflows; amount of motion? Auto-exposure changes seems to lead to immediate overflows: shoot manual exposure mode -14 seems to be the best that can be sustained with the card with all…

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In News

Birger EOS EF to M43 adapter with aperture control!

I recently asked on twitter if I should buy some new EOS lenses for my Canon 7D, because of the new Panasonic AG AF 101 / 100. Panasonic has a M43 (Micro Four Thirds) mount and you can’t mount any EOS lens on it, only if you have an adapter. But most of the adapter have no aperture control. The price range is between $15 and $80 and they are perfect for old lenses with manual aperture. The company Birger announced a new Canon EOS to Micro Four Thirds adapter, that allows aperture control! Wow, a good news for all of us. They will release more news about this adapter in a couple of weeks. The price shoud be round about $ 700. Not really cheap, but if you have many lenses, it’s a good deal! If you are planning to buy the new Panasonic AG AF 101 / 100, you are now able to use all your Canon lenses with this adapter. Thanks to Lars Klatte for the info! More info: Birger Website 43rumors.com DVXuser

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Personal Blog

You decide: Which situations do you want to see in my Panasonic AG AF 101/100 short film?

I will get the Panasonic AG AF 101/100 camcorder for three days next month. Panasonic will give it to me as loan unit and I hope to shoot some great footage with it. I have some Zeiss CP.2’s for the shoot. Here you can see some footage of the new Panasonic AG AF 101/100: My question to you: Which situations do you want to see in my short film? Low light, moving objects, sport…So many situations, but don’t know if I can film all that stuff in three days! Please help me and vote which things you want to see! If you want something which isn’t listed on the poll you can write a comment! Thanks! 😉 [poll id=”3″]

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In News

Sony announced new super 35mm NXCAM Camcorder

Photo credit: Philip Bloom Wow, this is a news. Sony has introduced the new 35mm NXCAM memory camcorder with the following key features: Super 35 mm CMOS Sensor E-Mount interchangeable lens system AVCHD Full-HD recording It costs round about 6,000 $ and will be available next summer! More to come soon, I’ll keep you updated! Update #1: New video Update #2: Frame rates and recording format The recording format for this new HD camcorder will be AVCHD, a widely supported format by many non liner editing software vendors and the same format as HXR-NX5 “NXCAM” camcorder. There is also a plan to implement 1080p (60p / 30p / 24p*2 or 50p / 25p) recording modes. (MPEG4-AVC/H.264 compression will be used for these modes.)

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Tutorials

How to fix rolling shutter in Apple’s iMovie 11

My friend Nino Leitner has found a very impressive solution how to fix the rolling shutter issue. The new version of the consumer editing software iMovie 11 is the key to solve the well known problem, which has nearly every CMOS digital camera. Apple introduced iMovie 11 at the “Back to the Mac” event a few weeks ago. It has many improvements, and is a good editing software, if you are an amateur. The only downside is, it does not work within Final Cut Pro and the bit rate of your original Pro Res 422 file is lost, if you import it into iMovie 11. But, it works really well and shows what is possible with iMovie 11. It would be great to see this and more features in Final Cut Pro! A short test by my friend Nino: Here is a great tutorial by Philip Bloom:

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Personal Blog

Winner of the Vimeo Award: Last minutes with ODEN

I have already watched this short film a few months ago and I was very impressed. Eliot Rausch won the Vimeo Award for best video for this breathtaking documentary. This is such a sad moment for everybody with love in his heart, but it’s part of our life. I lost my dog the same way a few years ago and my lovely young cat this year. An animal like a cat or a dog is not an animal, it’s a family member and it’s hard to let them go. I’m crying right now! May Oden rest in peace and his memory be eternal. Directed/Edited: Eliot Rausch Director of Photography: Luke Korver, Matt B. Taylor Song: Big Red Machine / Justin Vernon + Aaron Dessner

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Personal Blog

Panasonic AG AF 100 low light footage 3200 ISO

My friend Philip has got a loan unit of the upcoming Panasonic AG AF 100 camcorder (that’s not fair, I want one too!!). He tested the cam in a low light situation at 3.200 ISO with a Voigtlander 50 mm 1.1 lens. It looks damn good, very impressive. In case you don’t know, this is only a compressed MP4 video! I look forward to watching more test videos of this great camcorder. Should I buy one? Yes, I think so! You can find more info about the test footage on Philip’s blog! If you haven’t read my latest microblog entry about the Panasonic AG AF 100, you can read it here.

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Workshops

The great HDSLR Workshop in Hamburg

Only in German: If you want to get more information about my english speaking HDSLR workshops, just go ahead to this site! You also can read some feedback of my workshops right here. Ich veranstalte am Samstag, den 27.11.2010 einen HDSLR-Workshop in der wunderschönen Stadt Hamburg. Nach einigen Firmen-Workshops und der HDSLR Masterclass musste ich die Termine jedes mal ein wenig verschieben, da ich in Europa unterwegs war und keine Zeit gefunden hatte für die Organisation. Jetzt habe ich endlich die notwendige Zeit mich darum zu kümmern und ich freue mich schon auf meinen Workshop in der Hansestadt Hamburg. Ich habe bereits einen sehr schönen Schulungsraum in einer Canon Vertragswerkstatt in Hamburg, muss aber noch Einzelheiten klären und werde sobald es dann auch fix ist die Adressdaten mit euch teilen. Bei meinen Workshops wird es neben theoretischen Wissen auch einen sehr praxisbezogenen Part geben. Wir haben die Möglichkeit jede Menge Ausrüstung zu testen. Dank unserer Sponsoren (Carl Zeiss, Denz, Kessler Crane, Genus, Letus…) habe ich jede Menge Equipment dabei, das auch direkt getestet werden kann. Das Hands-on ist für viele Teilnehmer immer eine ganz tolle Sache, da man meist nicht die Möglichkeit hat Ausrüstung zu testen und dann zu entscheiden,…

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Personal Blog

Marshall 5″ V-LCD50 HDMI vs. Small HD DP6

My friend Jared made a great comparison video about the Marshall 5″ V-LCD50 HDMI and the new SmallHD DP6 monitor. Both monitors are made for the new HDSLR’s. I want to buy one soon, but don’t know which one. Perhaps the video helps you for your decision. I like the Marshall panels and their ergonomics (knobs on the front…). I also had issues with the SmallHD DP1 in the past (bad panel, buttons on the back…). The first reviews of the new SmallHD DP6 are great, perhaps I should test both of them before I buy one. The marshall one costs $ 600. Good price for a good product! The DP6 costs $ 899 with HDMI, but you also can buy it with HDSDI for $ 1,299. You can read Jared’s short review on Cinema5d!

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Sebastian Wiegärtner, BVK
In Personal Blog

Panasonic AG AF 100 footage with Carl Zeiss Ultra Primes

More and more videos of the new Panasonic AG AF 100 are appearing on the web. Today I found an interesting video of the new Panny, shot with Carl Zeiss Ultra Primes. I had a first look on the new Panny at Photokina, but my first impression wasn’t so good. I love the magnesium body of my DSLR, the Panasonic AG AF 100 Camcorder is a plastic bomber. But I have to say, the images out of it are amazing. Now should we buy an HDSLR or the new Panasonic camcorder? Good question and we should try to find an answer, for which work we are using the camera. I think no one of both will die in the future, the market will only be divided. The form factor of the HDSLR are still the best argument, but the inputs and outputs (XLR, HDSDI) of the Panasonic AG AF 100 are quite important for professional use. Here are some notes from crews.tv on Vimeo: The camera is capable of 35mm lenses, so we used a PL adapter and Zeiss Ultra Primes , choosing from our set as we saw fit on the day. We chose to record on the on-board…

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