I’ve been a fan of the work of London based motion studio Man Vs. Machine for a while. They always seem to create colorful and slightly other worldly work. Assembled is a selection of my favorite work, especially the new 4 Idents.
Also, they have an incredible name.
In 2005, I remember switching over to the Panasonic HVX200 camera and feeling like it was the coolest thing ever. It was really the first “affordable” camera that shot HD and was able to shoot slow motion, digitally, up to 60 fps in 1280 x 720p. This was when we were still squashing output to 720 x 480, 4:3, there wasn’t a Vimeo (really), internet video was slowly starting to ramp up and no HD options online. So, that’s the backstory.
Here’s where I’m going with this, the P2 cards that we used to store data on for the HVX were almost 1/3 the price of the camera, $1,200.00 for 8GB in 2007, thanks to a friend sending me a receipt. We’re now using 16GB SD cards in our 1080p DSLRs for something like $18.00.
Yesterday, RED dropped something that made me think, a 512GB SSD card that runs “Turbo”, which means low compression when shooting larger resolutions, such as 5K at 120fps. Red also states that it has faster offload times. This card price tag weighs in at $3,900.00 and it quite literally the size of an iPhone. My first thought was, this is incredibly expensive! Then I went back and looked at what we were paying in 2005/2006 for P2 cards. Relatively speaking, this isn’t that crazy for being on the “bleeding edge”. I’m not sure what they’re running inside the cards, but it’s definitely not an off the shelf SSD configuration inside there with the data rates the camera is capable of getting, sustained.
Of course cameras like the C300 and 5D Mark III shoot CF cards that are under 100 bucks a pop for 32GB, however they’re shooting 1080p. Which for a lot of stuff is enough and looks great, but they still don’t get high frame rates above 30fps at 1080p.
Just thought this was an interesting subject and something to think about regarding the future. What do you think? Are we going to be shooting on 2TB SSD cards in a couple years? Are those cards going to be getting fed an 8K resolution and are we going to be paying $4,000.00 again for those?
Also, I just checked on the Sony solid state cards, and they’re doing 1TB for $5,700.00. So I’m guessing it’s safe to say we’ll be using higher capacity, flash media in the near future. Always interested on hearing other people’s experiences and ideas about this sort of stuff.
The 2012 Land Rover Defender XTech. In the United States, we can’t get our hands on these and that’s a tragedy. In my opinion it’s one of the best designed off-roader / SUVs ever and now there’s an XTech version which is much more rugged and has a new engine. I’m not sure if I like the original or the XTech version more, but it definitely brought me around to posting about the Defender.
The thing that I truly admire about the design of this car, it’s simple and done right. There’s no weird pattern in the seats, the instrument panels are symmetrical and the exterior colorways are that of a machine. Sure there are a lot of technological enhancements and the glaring safety features missing. No airbags keep it from coming stateside. However, it has a timeless appeal to it. Of course, it’s diesel and weighs A LOT and with what we’re all paying for gas right now it’s not really an option. However, I’d ride my bike to the studio during the week and take this out on the weekends to offset my carbon footprint.
To realise the seamless 360° shots TMS developed and conceived their own unique camera system which enables to produce with a resolution of 17,720 x 1080 pixels. 7 projectors with 13.056 x 1080 pixels resolution.
The world that video projection has opened up, in terms of experiencing an environment, is truly incredible. Projects like this amaze and confuse me. On the technical end, there are so many puzzle pieces that have to fit just right, but then on implementation it’s simple and beautiful. We’re getting closer to full immersion of environments, whatever they may be, the future of this type of work is going to be incredible. I’d really love to experience something like this.
Some incredible imagery from Joe G and others for Globe’s Electric Blue Heaven. Summer vibes, let it wash over you and enjoy the show.
Should we do an ISO50 meet up at this pool, for say a week?
I’ve been a fan of Ash Bolland‘s work at Umeric for a while now, but I only realized tonight that these scattered pieces I had kept coming back to over the years were all his. There’s something about the live action mixed with 3D that’s other worldy and strange that I absolutely love. Some of these organic models make no sense, but they’re beautifully designed and rendered and also amazing to watch interact with the environment. The four above sort of detail his latest work first, middle work second and third and oldest work last. Really love the sound design in the fourth piece.
Head over to his site to check out the rest of his work or Umeric’s Vimeo, it’ll be worth the half hour.
Last week I flew out to Las Vegas alongside the Fiction crew for NAB. The show covers everything from post-production and computer hardware to lenses, cameras and lighting. It’s hard to summarize everything that I saw because I was constantly in overload, so I decided to pick the one product that stuck out, the Blackmagic Digital Cinema Camera.
The Digital Cinema Camera is a Raw ( Cinema DNG 12-Bit ), 2.5K ( 2432 x 1366 ) camera for 3,000.00 USD. There’s a laundry list of features that the camera offers but mainly…it’s very, very cheap and it’s output at 2.5K is RAW. They implemented a Canon EF mount, so everyone transitioning from Canon can do so, easily. Also, it’s all touchscreen and uses off the shelf SSDs as media. The sensor is Micro 4/3 so it’s smaller than a Super35mm ( 7D / Red Epic ) and much smaller than the 5D which is close to 65mm ( In film terms, not still ), but they’re claiming 13 stops of dynamic range on it. The camera only shoots up to 30fps, so it’s not a camera that just beats all the others, but it definitely puts an option out there that a lot of people have been interested in.
From my perspective, it’s not about what the camera looks like, it’s what it delivers when it’s in the timeline. I think this fills a gap that’s been around for the past few years where the Canon DSLRs work for a lot of stuff that’s non-commercial or internet only…this offers professional level images at a bargain price. I think what I’m excited to see is the creativity and quality that’s about to change. I feel like a lot of motion designers and directors starting out use Canon DSLRs for low budget and experimental work and while it looks great now, imagine if these guys and girls are shooting 2.5K RAW and able to really work footage in terms of color, overlays, etc. The camera ships in late July, and they’re also including Davinci Resolve with it. I’m having a hard time not clicking “Add to Cart”.
Here’s a video detailing the camera completely from DSLR Newshooter. I wanted to get in and shoot a little interview but the booth and the 3 or 4 cameras they had out were swarmed every day I was there.
As of right now, I’m heavily invested in a RED Epic and I’m hoping to get together a techincal post on the camera and answer any questions on it in the next month. However, if I didn’t have it, I’d be all over the Digital Cinema Camera.
If you’ve got some time, hop over to their specs page and check it out.
Also, I hope to never hear the phrase “game-changer” again.
An incredible short documentary on Ian Ruhter and his work with wet plate photography in a camera that is literally a truck. What I love about this, besides the astounding photographs, is the dedication and investment that he’s poured into this project. The piece above explains a lot about how much of himself he’s put into this, at a cost of “$500 a photograph”. Check out the Facebook page, as he’s touring around the country shooting and wants people to get involved and photographed.
This is photography.
Equally as impressive as the project itself is the video below of captured motion.