As a visualist I have an incessant appetite for gear. The inaugural Plug N Play Brisbane on Tuesday reminded me that it doesn’t have to be this way, however. While I rocked up with bags and boxes of computers, cables, cameras, controllers and hardware, others arrived with a single laptop, and of course were able to put equally compelling material on the screen. Or, to be perfectly honest - more-compelling material, as I struggled to remember which icons were required to get 3L’s automation chains working.

Debilitating addictions aside; everyone present was interested in my source for cheap security cameras, BNC converters, HDMI cables and other necessary items, so I’m guessing that the rest of the community may also enjoy: DealExtreme (disclosure: Affiliate links used, if you buy stuff I get a cut).

DealExtreme has a huge range of, basically, ephemera: iPod batteries, LED torches, cable converters, chargers… The type of things you’d get for $20 in a local shop, or you could find on eBay for $2 plus $15 shipping. DealExtreme matches those deceptively cheap eBay prices, and then proceeds to not charge shipping, which puts everything into the category entitled “Ridiculously Cheap Stuff”.

The range is large and varied. This coupled with a not particularly intuitive search and categorization of the site has resulted in me wasting many hours paging through, but along the way I’ve bookmarked plenty of things which may be useful to the average VJ:

After my last slow motion tests with my Sony HVR-V1P, CDMo reader FANF gave me some quick tips on how to run a resolution test.

Now here is a little protocol for definition testing: Get his first: http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/misc/ISO_12233-reschart.pdf
Print it 350 dpi min, 600 recommended.

Place it in a well lit spot, in the sun for example, fixed to the wall. Use a spirit level. Place your camera with the optical axis perpendicular to the plane of the testchart (measure hight, use spirit level).
You should not see the white triangles on the underscanned image. No white triangle pointing into the image, the black triangles should ideally be pointing to the perfect edge of the screen.

To test the resolution/definition on the full breadth of the lens, do a test at wide angle, mid, and full tele, placing camera/testchart at the right distance for the scale to be right.
It would be equally important to test each focal at iris values 1.6, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11 to have a good idea of how definition rises and falls when you stop down.
To do this, use the “aperture prioriy” or “Av” program mode on your camera for correct exposure.

The definition of your camera, horizontal & vertical being distinct, is read by following the lines along the higher numbers ; the number where you cannot distinguish them from one another is your definition, in n x 100 lines. (Make sure you zoom into digitalised footage to measure the image, and not your screen !)

Now I have to admit that I didn’t quite go through with all of the different angles and apertures, and I’m not entirely certain that the resolution chart was printed to the correct size, but it doesn’t matter, as the difference between different shooting modes is obvious, even without meticulous shooting and calibration.

The images created by this process are reasonably large (1920×1080 to be precise), so I’m going to offer some small crops to discuss, and then offer up the full size images for download and examination at the end of the piece, if the mood takes you.

First up, a couple of 1:1 crops taken from the uncompressed HDMI output of the camera. This is with no HDV compression, so apart from JPG compression for the web these are the pixels as seen by the sensor. Obviously the lighting is a little low, but you can see that the resolution goes down to around 800 lines before it starts getting difficult to distinguish. All of the numbers and markings are easy to distinguish, and there aren’t any hugely obvious compression artifacts.

Cineform last week announced a concept video recorder which may (ok, lets be honest, WILL) prove to be incredibly useful to the VJ market.

The Cineform Direct to Disk recorder looks mightily impressive - with HDMI input and passthrough, audio input, and an incredibly small for factor (think Mac Mini but 1/3 the height), it can record to either Quicktime MOV or AVI with full raster 720 or 1080 HD resolution, at YUV 4:2:2 10 bit (this is huge!), at all your normal video framerates - from varicam 23.976 up to 59.94 progressive and anything in between. The Cineform Recorder writes data to either dual CFCards or laptop harddrive - with a speculated 3 hour record time with the hard drive.

Use a DVI to HDMI converter and record your set straight out of your computers DVI-D port, and with the HDMI passthrough, you can drop it in line to the projector, you wont even need a splitter/ or DA.

While the product is not available yet, Cineform speculates on a whole family of Direct to Disk recorders - some more Pro than others (think timecode, HD-SDI options, etc). Even if they only make one product, its sure to be a hit - even at the speculated sub $2000 price point.

Check out CineForm Recorder for full specs and info.

Via HD4NDs.

200 frames per second: that’s the “smooth slow motion capture” speed of Sony’s rather affordable HVR-V1P HDV camera. It really makes slow-motion capture accessible to the rest of us. Jaymis has been testing this mode on his new camera. Here are some early results (all the more impressive if you watch through to the full-motion versions at the end):

Sony Smooth Slow Motion test from Jaymis and Vimeo.

Of course, I’m ready to go even slower, and see what happens if you edit the footage in Final Cut Studio 2 using the new slow motion options. Starting with 200 frames should help.

More on the HVR-V1P soon; consider this a teaser.

Previously: First Impressions: Sony HVR-V1P HDV Camera

After asking CDMo readers for advice and promising various parties that I’d never buy another Sony product, I walked into my local VideoPro with a definite plan of attack: Compare and contrast the Canon XH-A1 and Panasonic HVX-200, and then buy one of them.

What followed is still a little hazy in my mind, but it seems there was a sales guy who actually knew his stuff, listened to my requirements and was able to suggest an alternative which was not only better suited to my needs, but also considerably cheaper. That this alternative was a Sony - a brand I’d sworn never to purchase again - just adds to the confusion. I’m still trying to figure out what happened.

The XH-A1 and HVX-200 are both great cameras, they look good, feel good, and by most accounts shoot exceptional video, generally on par with each other’s performance. Why, then, did I walk out of there with an HVR-V1P?:

• Physically smaller and lighter
• 200FPS “Smooth Slow Record” slow motion mode
• Uncompressed HDMI output
• Good quality Sony shotgun mic included
• External battery bay (as opposed to the XH-A1’s internal one) which is compatible with Sony’s NP-F range, including the batteries I still have from my 10 year old DCR-TRV9.
• AU$1500-3000 cheaper than the Canon and Panasonic offerings

I haven’t had the time to really get to know this camera, but initial impressions are very positive.

With the advent of consumer-level HD camcorders, Blu-Ray and HD DVD players, and HD-format disc burning, HD content creation is becoming ubiquitous. However, for realtime visualists looking to mix HD sources live, there hasn’t been a real HD mixing solution. Want to mix that HD footage on your PC with that awesome high-res project in VJ software like Modul8? No can do, buddy!

At least, that had been the case. With two Blackmagic Design Intensity cards and Blackmagic’s On Air software, you can mix two streams of HD as a simple AB mixer. With one Intensity in your machine, you can use a second laptop or source to feed your main VJ / live visual app of choice with true, uncompressed HD input.

We tested live, HD mixing for color performance, quality, and ease-of-use with some powerful, DIY visual software for live visuals. With the ability to mix in live HD inputs, live HD cameras, live computer inputs at full HD resolution, and more, the potential for live visuals is clear.

HD4Indies’ Mike points out the Canon HV20 “Compact HDV Camcorder”. It’s has an HD (1920×1080p) CMOS sensor, records HDV to DV tapes, and sports an HDMI out for uncompressed capture.

Mike likes the look of it for a “learner camera”, to me this looks like an ideal unit for tethered shooting of visuals, studio shoots and time lapse requiring frame rates faster than an SLR can deliver. I’m starting to spec out a tour rig at the moment, this looks ideal for throwing in a backpack - I’ll let the film crews lug around the big heavy cameras.