[Casey Petersen]

Oh yeah…it’s the latest Windows XP (SP4 I think).

[Casey Petersen]

Yeah, the times when we’ve had good lighting, it looks much better. We don’t always have time to do 3 point lighting for interviews…sometimes they are more run-and-gun style, where the whole thing takes 15 minutes from the time the subject agrees to do the interview, to the time the interview is finished and we’re thanking them…those situations are a bit trickier, and I think is more the focus of my question, than the ones where we have an hour to set up.

Another issue we have when we’re at roughly 1.8 is that the depth of field / focal length is so narrow that their eyes are in focus, but not their nose, or their ears…and if they sway back and forth (or forward and back), that screws up everything. It’s also hard to see the whole focal range on the little built-in screen…even with a magnifier…that even at 1.8 or 2.8, there is little forgiveness.

Does the amount of light make a difference in the amount of depth of field…bright sunny room vs. dark basement room…where 1.8 and same distance between subject and camera will give you 8 inches of focal range vs. 1 inch, depending on lighting (and ISO)?

Thanks!

[Casey Petersen]

Are there any good tutorials out there for sharpening in post? I know barely enough to be dangerous, but I know I could get significantly better results if I actually knew what I was doing.

Casey

[Casey Petersen]

Thanks Daniel,

That was a typo about DVD…it should have said Blu-ray 🙂

I am one of the many people who jumped ship after Apple came out with FCP X…so I am trying to learn the ins and outs of the Adobe Premiere Suite.

I see under the properties (which I didn’t see before), where it says Blu-ray Transcode Status, it was set to Automatic. I ran a short test where I encoded using H264 instead of MPEG2, and the status said Don’t Transcode. My 2 minute HD video clip took 4 minutes to transcode and build when using MPEG2, and took less than 30 seconds to build when using H264, so that obviously was the issue.

In this particular situation, I was building a DVD and Blu-ray of the same video project, I encoded a separate MPEG2 for the DVD and the Blu-ray.

I ended up making the DVD first and the Blu-ray second, and found that I pretty much had to start over from scratch when building the Blu-ray, creating new chapter points as well as recreating a few chapter menus (this was a concert DVD, if that helps).

It had been mentioned on another post I made quite a while ago, about building the Blu-ray first and then transcoding that directly to DVD. I was wondering how well that works, and if that is a good way to accomplish a DVD and Blu-ray project efficiently, and with good quality as well.

Thanks!
Casey

[Casey Petersen]

No glasses…I have perfect vision.

[Casey Petersen]

I’m also thinking of getting an LCD Viewfinder loupe, but am wondering if anyone has any experience with any of the cheaper ones than the Zacuto…such as the Carry Speed or Neewer ones they have on Amazon? The Zacuto is $375, Neewer is $52 and Carry Speed is $33. As someone on a very tight budget, are these cheaper ones at least decent? I also have the 60D.

Thanks!
Casey

[Casey Petersen]

Ha! I got a kick out of the term “soldier” 🙂 It’s better than what I’ve been calling myself for doing this!

This was 6 months ago, and I recently heard someone say you should shoot EVERYTHING with a flat profile, so I did, but I think there were only two shoots involved…this being the biggest, and the one remaining project that has yet to be edited.

Thanks…I would appreciate it if you could send me your filter. I will email you after I post this. Thanks for the link too!

I don’t think it would be so bad for my short edit, which is about 12 minutes, but I will be giving a customer the rough footage as well, and for that, I’ve been going through it with kind of a general filter so it doesn’t look so bad, but when I do my final edit, I will have to go through every shot individually.

Casey

[Casey Petersen]

Thanks!!!

[Casey Petersen]

I understand there’s always risk. You take a chance getting up in the morning, crossing the street or sticking your face in the fan.

If I do achieve this power, I promise to use it only for good and never for evil. 🙂

Thanks!
Casey

[Casey Petersen]

That’s kind of what I’m wondering about…is there the ability to “lock” the buttons on it? I’m concerned with the H1 with all the switches on it…it would be nice if there were something a bit more foolproof…which is kind of why I’m asking this question in the first place. Even with my wireless lav, the power could get switched off, so there’s always a risk.

Also, in addition to putting on a groom, this could also be used to tape a lav mic to a podium, for instance. I’m also thinking of other situations besides weddings as well, but for this application, I’m really just looking for a one-trick pony…I’m not looking for a built in mic, or other extra features…just a lav mic and a box, hit record and that’s it.

Budget is also a consideration…our Sony wirelesses are $600 each, whereas a setup with a Zoom H1 would be a fraction of that.

I’m considering all options and appreciate all feedback!!