Just in time. These body caps and rear lens caps are going to help me break my gear down into pieces for easy packing. I lost a few from a recent shoot and had to leave my lenses on the camera bodies. This time I gathered more than enough, but for about a dollar each to protect your lenses, i'm not complaining. I ordered these a few weeks ago from here. Now i'm just waiting on the spare front lens caps.
Tripods, long Light Stands, or even Cranes / Jibs that break down into 4 ft. sections, there's always a need for a good travel bag. One good tip comes in talking about inexpensive Nylon Speaker Stand bags. Professional Speaker Stands are like massive light stands, and you'll often find these stands being used for DIY Cranes / Jibs since they support a good amount of weight. Some of these speaker stand travel bags come padded and at about 40" in length for under $25 bucks. Good deal for a solid travel bag to carry odd length gear. In fact, if you take the time to create sections it should fit most of the Glidecam stabilizers as well. I'm stoked to buy more...
Heavy Duty Speaker Stand Padded Nylon Bags
Yeah I know this is all old news about that "Season Finale of House being shot on the Canon 5D Mark II", but I just had to re-watch the episode again after listening to DP Gale Tattersall's live video interview today on Planet5D. Obviously the Pros of the camera outweighed the Cons enough that they decided they could shoot this particular Finale with just the Canon 5D Mark II and only Canon Lenses.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II Digital Camera
Yup, no Zeiss Cinema or fancy PL modified lenses, just plain ol' Canon EF mounts. The images came out better than anyone could have expected when they first announced it would be all shot on the 5D Mark II. If you didn't catch it, you should. If you've already seen it, you should definitely re-watch it to admire the quality they were able to capture and process in post. You can preview the beginning parts and watch the entire Episode by clicking the jump below.
Pretty sweet little hot shoe adapters allow you to add extra accessory mounts to your DSLR rigs without tools. There's another version of this adapter that has a nice female insert if you're trying to mount in onto a male stud. (Excuse that last sentence if it sounded a bit mature).
The knob below allows you to tighten or loosen and relocate as you please without carrying a spare driver tool. There's slighty cheaper 'cold shoe' mounts available, but price is about average on this one and a cool addition to your DSLR Cages or Accessory Brackets.
New teaser highlighting the build quality on the recently announced HXR-NX70E. Sony's higher end ENG cameras are well built beasts, and this smaller version claiming to be the 'First Rain and Dust Proof Camera' definitely looks like a solid performer. An video ad so 'sexy' it's almost NSFW.
Earlier today I talked to someone at Canon's customer support about what conditions would a camera be considered as a refurb. First off, Canon will not repair a defective item and resell it. Cameras with issues are sent to the recycling plant. 'Refurbished' sold cameras most likely come from overstock, has been returned from a retailer, or may have had a damaged box (nobody wants to buy a camera with a bent box).
Technically not allowed to sell the same item as 'new' twice, they have to stamp it with the refurbished scarlet letter. Before any item is sold though, it goes through a complete 'new product standards' inspection to ensure it meets the same requirements as equipment sold as 'new' and packaged with all the standard items (software, manuals, cables, straps).
I decided to order a refurbished 5D Mark II when there was a pretty nice sale going on and while new retail versions are selling for about $2500+, I was able to grab this guy for $1799 (pre tax). Here's a little insight on what to expect from Canon's Refurbished store. The BOX is not the same OEM as you'd get from buying one as New.
Everything is well packed, and comes with brand new manuals, software CD's, straps, and cables.
It's sold as refurbished, but still comes with Canon's 90 Day Warranty.
Inspecting the camera's body, it looks BRAND NEW and untouched. Menu was set to all default settings, no shutter actuations, and firmware had already been upgraded. I've had my other 5D Mark II since it first hit the internet (2 years ago), and have had no issues ever. Although this one is technically a refurbished item, it's Brand New as far as i'm concerned. With the discount on Refurbished items combined with periodic sales from Canon, I was able to grab this for several hundreds of dollars cheaper than even a used 1 year old Body found on eBay.
Glad I was able to grab the deal, these popular cameras and lenses sold out in a matter of hours once they announced a nice percentage off promo code. You can also check out their other items including printers and other Canon supplies here: https://shop.usa.canon.com/webapp/wcs/stores
I've lost a few myself. Once that little guy is gone, you've rendered your tripod quick release plate pretty much useless. You can order these replacement screws through some of the big retailers for over $10 dollars, or you can check out eBay for some cheaper prices. Problem is you've got to wait weeks for that over seas shipping, so might be something small to keep handy. Call it Preventative Maintenance..
1/4 x 20 Replacement Screw for Quick Release Plates
[Update] This one would work out as well, but doesn't look like the standard 'slotted' screw head, where a quarter comes in handy. https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/302185-REG/Wimberley_SW_100_Extra_Screw_1_4_20.html
If you aren't familiar with SDXC, it's going to quickly replace SDHC in higher end cameras (maybe even small consumer cams). It will definitely be a competing media with big ENG cameras that hopefully even Sony will adopt (Give up the Memory stick already...) It's all based on the SD format, but with a new exFAT file system that doesn't suffer from the same 4GB limitation as FAT32 (in SDHC cards). The "XC" is also being coined as "Extended Capacity" or otherwise known as (FAT64). Companies like Panasonic, Kingston, Transcend, and Lexar have released new SDXC cards in the last few months. Lexar wasn't the first one out the gate with SDXC cards, but they will be one of the first to release a whopping 128GB SDXC card this month (or next).
I'll be honest. When I hear the name Lexar, the words 'pricey' and 'expensive' come to mind, but also 'robust' and 'professional'. Doesn't seem like 'pricey' and 'expensive' will be associated with Lexar's new SDXC media cards. In fact sorting by price over at B&H, they stand as one of the lowest prices against the current competitors. Maybe I can finally own something 'Lexar'?
So what does this mean for DSLR shooters? Well the Canon T2i, 60D, T3i, and other recent cameras that use SDHC will be compatible with SDXC cards. Some might work right off the bat, and some might just require a slight firmware upgrade. This doesn't mean that you'd be able to take advantage of the full potential with SDXC write speeds (not yet available). Will you still have a time limit per video clip? Most likely, YES. You will still have a time limit. The limit is placed in these cameras to prevent them from overheating. So what's the benefit? Current camera designs are always held back by Video Codecs and Storage Media. Affordable SDXC cards should speed up camera designs that could now be designed around the speeds and limitations of the media. With the new SDXC media hopefully we'll start seeing cameras that can shoot higher bitrates (RAW), longer video clips, and of course a new media with more capable storage for cheaper prices. [Thanks Julio]
If you're an iPhone Video shooter, this Lensse Camera Stabilizer for phones is pretty fluid. (BTW that's not an iPhone. That's the Samsung Galaxy) I'm thinking it should be able to support my GoPro HD once i've added enough counterweights. The drilled brass socket for the Gimbal is smooth, but as other stabilizers like this the angle of rotation is limited. I'll need to really test the weight once my GoPro LCD Bacpac
House Season Finale - Shot on Canon 5D Mark II
