Jan 20, 2012

Avid has been working very hard at providing editors with the most professional tools, and best possible support. Avid introduced Avid Media Composer 5 which was ground breaking, and then took it further with Avid Media Composer 5.5. Now Avid has introduced a new 64 bit native Media Composer with even more powerful tools, known as Avid Media Composer 6. Avid has...

Jan 16, 2012

After much deliberation on a some new glass I finally picked up the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM lens. I picked mine from B&H Photo where it has been on sale this holiday season.  Since it was the holiday season, I did not expect my lens to arrive until much later. Also considering the high volume of boxing day sales, well I was not  holding my breath....

Dec 7, 2011

BlackMagic design showcased the UltraStudio 3D back at NAB this year.  I have been excited to get my hands on of these for some time.  I waited patiently and finally, I got one and I have been testing the BlackMagic Design’s UltraStudio 3D over the past few weeks. The UltraStudio 3D is a portable thunderbolt based capture and playback device for HD-SDI,...

Nov 15, 2011

The holiday season is fast approaching.  Now is the time we all start thinking or shopping for gifts. What do get for that budding editor or videographer in the family? Well the answer might just be the ioSafe Solo Pro. I recently I took the ioSafe Solo drive through a rigorous durability test.  The ioSafe is able to withstand fire and water. It is similar to...

Oct 19, 2011

Over the past few weeks the folks over at Fast Forward Video have given me the opportunity to test out their sideKick HD. The sideKick HD allows you to capture the highest quality video, with a straight to edit workflow. The sideKick HD is capable of recording directly from the camera up to 10 bit precision, 220Mbit/s , 4:2:2 sampling using Apple ProRes 422...

Oct 17, 2011

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working with the latest release Tiffen Dfx Version 3. Tiffen has been a leading manufacturer and supplier of photographic filters and lens accessories for the consumer/professional imaging and the motion picture and broadcast television industries for over 70 years. With their latest release of Tiffen Dfx V3 is a plug-in...

Sep 20, 2011

Recently I had a great discussion with the Twitter community about picking up a new raid for myself as my older ones were now aging, and I was running out of space.  Many people suggested a Thunderbolt drive. However Macbook Pro is only a year old and does not support Thunderbolt, and Apple has yet to release a new MacPro Tower. Thus I really did not see the...

Aug 1, 2011

Avid a while back introduced two add on features for Avid Media Composer, Symphony, and News Cutter. These additions are known as ScriptSync and PhraseFind powered by Nexidia. Let’s First start with ScriptSync which is a very powerful tool. ScriptSync phonetically indexes all text and audible dialog within your project, and then automatically syncs all the...

Jun 28, 2011

If you have not read the first part of this review on Apple’s Final Cur Pro X  you can jump back and the read it here. Let’s continue deeper into Apple’s new NLE, Final Cut Pro X (FCPX) Audition is a another great feature added to FCPX. This tool feature basically allows me to preview and replace edits before I even replace it in the...

Jun 28, 2011

By now I am sure everyone has heard all the bad press, negative reviews and blogs on FCPX. I am sure you know what is missing out of FCPX, if you don’t then clearly you are extremely busy and did not even know FCPX was released, therefore kudos to you. Before I begin this review I would like to point out 2 things. First this will not be a rant by any means....

May 16, 2011

Avid recently released a faster and more powerful Media Composer with Avid Media Composer 5.5. With this latest new release I was anxious to get my hands on this latest iteration, and thanks to the good people at Avid they made that a reality. Avid has been the industry standard when it came to professional editing software for either broadcast or film. They...

Mar 21, 2011

BlackMagic Design recently acquired DaVinci Resolve, a professional color grading tool costing several thousands of dollars. They have now brought it to the Mac to be at a very competitive price of $995. BlackMagic‘s Resolve has been used on several Hollywood blockbusters which include Avatar, Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator Salvation, and the...

Mar 14, 2011

Red Giant was gracious enough to allow me to test-drive Colorista II. Building and improving on the original in every way, Colorista II is ac color grading plug-in for Final Cut Pro users. Colorista II also supports Adobe After Effects and Premier. Colorista II gives you the ability to grade with Primary, Secondary, HSL, and Master Controls using color wheels...

Mar 7, 2011

Over the past couple of weeks the good folks over at Red Giant have graciously given me the opportunity to test drive Magic Bullet Grinder.  The applications allows you to bacth convert files from DSLRs such as the Canon 5D and Canon 7D. The software allows you to convert H.264 files into Apple Pro Res or Photo-Jpeg.    Its real bonus is the ability to...

Feb 28, 2011

During the past few weeks I have been testing out EditShare’s beta of Lightworks. An NLE that has recently received a lot of attention, due to its use on the Oscar winning film  “King’s Speech” , and mainly because it’s free. However it has also been used on other films such as Pulp Fiction, The Departed, Shutter Island, and Centurion. Lightworks is...