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Once you've placed something on your lens like the new LCW Digi Pro Variable ND filter, which can start at 77mm and end in 82mm, you can no longer use the standard hood on your lens. Most likely you'll be using ND filters because you're outdoors on a bright day trying to cut down light. That same light could also cause lens flares and low contrast imaging.

To shade off that ND glass, an expensive and more cumbersome option of course is to have a Matte Box system on rails, or you can slap on a simple folding rubber lens hood. They can fold back when it's not needed or if it's in view of very wide angle lenses. Unlike the plastic lens hoods, these foldable rubber type hoods take up minimal space in a bag when packing. I had to grab myself one for the new LCW. Many are found for under $5 bucks (click here).

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find-price-button Rubber Lens Hoods - via Amazon

Some of the larger versions are more expensive on Amazon, but here's a seller that has the large 82mm version (needed for the LCW) for about $5.00 dollars (click here)
Folding Rubber Lens HoodFolding Rubber Lens Hood
find-price-button Folding Rubber Lens Hoods - via eBay

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Not sure what presents to give out this year? Struggling for that perfect gift? Not going to make shipping in time? Nothing beats convenience like an Amazon gift card that can be sent instantly via email - around the world if needed. With best prices on millions of products, movies, music - there's something for everyone at Amazon. For anyone that owns a camera, $20 dollars could buy anything from SDHC media, Compact flash cards, extra batteries, filters, and more. This is how i'll be sending many holiday wishes to friends and family a far.

If you're running out of time, the process is simple. Choose a card, add dollar amount, add an email address and message. The recipient will instantly recieve a Gift Card code to use on anything and everything Amazon has to offer. Check out the different card designs on Amazon (click here).

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Shop Amazon Electronic Gift Cards - via Email

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CineGrain-HardDrive

Big ups to CineGrain for sending out some fun and creative software. I'm trying to find time to install this massive collection of stuff that comes in it's own hard drive. I think this thing is over 100GB of film grain goodness, and this isn't their most extensive package.


Behind The Scenes // CineGrain


Various Film Grain and Artifact scans over RED footage.

About CineGrain:
REAL Film Scans you can add Any Major Film Stock to Your Footage. Works With Editing, Visual Effects, And Coloring Systems. Hundreds Of Film Clips Organized Into 8 Categories For Use Over Any Digital Content. Resolutions up to 4K. Flash Frames, Light Leaks, Lens Flares, Roll Outs, Dirt & Scratches, Head & Tail Leader, Bad Registration, Hand-Crank, Full Gate With Keycode, And Many More Film Artifacts. Colored And Transferred Specifically For Composite Mode “Overlay”. The Highest Quality Film Look and Grain Solution Available. More information at https://CineGrain.com

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I've always said that since Adobe Lightroom hit version 3, one of the things it does best is Noise Reduction. Don't fear shooting photos in high ISOs if you really need to, you might be able to save it. One thing Lightroom 3 does well is to edit even compressed JPEG files in a somewhat non-destructive way. Just as an example, here's a test from a really bad video sample shot at F/5.6 ISO 6400 from the 5D Mark II. First placed the video file into Sony Vegas at the proper framerate, then exported to an image sequence of TIFF Files. Once I had all the TIFF files, I imported them into Lightroom 3 and ran the amazing Noise filter.

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Once I ran the Noise Filter and color corrected just a bit, I then exported from Lightroom as JPEG files and threw them back into Sony Vegas (same framerate). Don't mind the flickering in the video, this was shot at the worst possible conditions under poor lighting and the TV on. Lightroom is so simple to use because after developing one image, you can apply the same settings across all the images at one time - we're talking thousands of images being batched process. Great for photos, and definitely not the ideal way to de-noise video files, but for you photographers you can see how well Lightroom 3 works.

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Before and After Applying Noise Filter in Photos (might be too much) - Click to view larger

Right now it's on sale for 50% off only a few days over at B&H (click here) and via Amazon (click here).

Adobe Lightroom
find-price-button Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3

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Electronic Eyepiece Level

Some camera have a built in electronic leveling feature like the Canon 7D. This is helpful trying to get your camera's horizon straight, especially when it's too dark to view the little bubble on your tripod. Also helpful to know when your Steadicam is flying straight. Here's a clever little 3 axis electronic leveling device that replaces your cameras viewfinder, or you can remove it to place on to the hot shoe. The little green lights let you know if you're off axis. It is quite pricey for something you can probably find an analog hot shoe level for $1.00, but if having a level on board your camera without adding bulk (or ugliness), here's an option. Appears to be available for Sony, Nikon, Canon, and more. Found below (click here).

Electronic Eyepiece Level Viewfinder
find-price-button Electronic Level DSLR ViewFinder Eyepiece

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First look at a very new product (unreleased) (Patented Pending) that I showcased a few days back. Leo said it looked like a Canon 60D on steroids. Camera mounted is the Canon 7D. This is a prototype version and as far as I know, a very original product idea. I can't really talk about specs outside of the 5.6" HDMI LCD that swivels. I'm not sure how much it will change in the production model. There's built in speakers for playback, an HDMI pass through, and powered by LP-E6. There's an LP-E6 shaped battery case adapter that looks like it uses AAA batteries. So far it's very convenient to just mount an LCD monitor to your camera like a battery grip, and have such a large monitor available. It sort of feels familiar like using a GH2, T3i, or 60D.

There's a few more 'unreleased' products i'll be talking about soon too. For more updates remember to follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/cheesycam

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For 24 hours only, B&H has Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 available at a 50% discount. If you're the daring type that shoots still photos with high ISO, Lightroom 3 has an amazing feature to clean up grain and noise. Too bad we don't have something this good with video editing software. Ends today.

Lightroom 3
find-price-button Lightroom 3 - 24 Hours Only 50% Discount

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For the average person Tape is Tape. Then there are the professionals that use several rolls of tape daily in big production environments and have certain requirements. They can tell the cheap stuff from the good stuff. Great tape should tear easy, hold strong, be heat resistant, and come off clean - no residue. In the last week, Vimeo member IndustryTape has been uploading a collection of videos showing off some new tape.

 

From the profile:

Industry Tape is a revolutionary new tape that, unlike most tapes, is not based on a sticky rubber adhesive. It's as strong as duct tape, but leaves ZERO residue, even at extreme temperatures. It's made to easily rip, and tear at a perfect 90 degree angle every time. It's re-portionable, can easily unstick from adhesive-to-adhesive contact, weather resistant, puncture resistant and has no foreseeable shelf life. Visit industrytape.com for more information.

The demo uses in the video look pretty good, and pricing is pretty standard to even Generic Gaffer Tape stuff. What's your choice of Tape?

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If you're not up to speed, I seem to collect random camera related things, especially Lens Replica Mugs. They are fairly cheap and trust me, they make 'EXCELLENT last minute gifts' if you have them laying around. It's just something nobody wants to throw away. For those who share the same hobby, here's a look at the latest Canon 70-200mm F/2.8 IS version. I have the original 70-200mm F/4 IS mug which wasn't exactly like the real lens, but this version looks pretty close and it's offered with stainless steel insert for hot beverages. The one that looks 98% exact would be that Canon 24-105mm.

One tough item to find lately is the Canon 300mm/400mm F/2.8 Lens Replica High Power LED Keyring Flashlight. Originally offered by Canon a few months ago and now sold out everywhere. The only person in the country who's carrying it now is this one eBay seller (click here)

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find-price-button Canon Lens Replica KeyChain LED FlashLight

For Canon Replica Lens Coffee Mugs, the good ones are the 24-70mm F/2.8, Canon 100mm F/2.8 IS USM Macro, 24-105mm F/4 IS, 70-200m F/4, and 70-200mm F/2.8 IS. Check out all the other articles about other lenses in the collection here: http://cheesycam.com/?s=lens+mug+replica