Moments Gallery
Today we visited a new gallery downtown. I took some video, which I will have to re-record, as the location is pretty deserving of it.
An interesting story…
The owner used to own 18 Rogers locations. He sold them all, then went off to travel India for a year, collecting art. Now he’s slowing moving the art over here to a restaurant that he’s opening up. I expect there will be a more complete article coming in the future.
My Photos in Pummelvision
Last night I set up Pummelvision to scour my Facebook and Flickr photos to create these two video presentations. I set it up to go through my videos “very fast” which is 8 photos every second which matched the default soundtrack nicely. Pretty neat, eh? Apparently they’re taking the site down on January 24th, so if you want to make your own collection, you better act quickly.
Star Wars Crowdsourced
I could go on and on about why I love this, but I’ll have to share those feeling for another time. In the meantime, grab a bear or tea, sit down with some friends, and enjoy the hundreds of fan submitted clips that have been painstakingly put together into this Star Wars Uncut: Director’s Cut. I will have to start scouring the internet for more projects like this.
WebGL with Danger Mouse in Your Chrome Browser
Ok, this WebGL stuff has officially blown my mind (have I used that phrase yet?). It runs so smoothly, i cannot believe it mon. Cannot believe!
If you haven’t checked it out, and you have the Chrome browser, please take a moment to checkout the ROME: 3 Dreams of Black music video featuring Danger Mouse. I’d post a link to a Youtube video, but although visually impressive, a video doesn’t do it justice. The original is interactive… and a video screencapture on Youtube is not.
Check it out already! And when you’re done, Miranda has some concept art and other behind the scene info for you.
After you’ve seen that, there’s a whole library of WebGL examples to play with. This library on ChromeExperiements.com has a few dozen online WebGL experiments (thx to Kjrsten Holt).
3 Days Till Lift-Off
In about 4 days I will be in Vancouver attending another Siggraph. I have not been since… 2006? This will be my 4th Siggraph and the first time it has been held in Vancouver. Luckily I have a light laptop this time around. Damn am I excited.
Below is a video that I recorded from Siggraph 2004 in Los Angeles. I finally put it online.
Tickets acquired and RSVPed for parties.
This calendar should give you an idea of all the parties I plan on attending. That’s right, I have my priorities in order. 
After Siggraph, I’ll be attempting to get things organized in Vancouver before heading off to Burning Man.
Seems I was smart to purchase my ticket far in advance, because they are currently sold out.
Chipmunks in High Park
I just completed Week 1 in downtown Toronto. All these years of loving this city, yet this is the first time I’ve actually lived here. No more 4 hour drives to party on the weekend. Instead, just a 15 minute ride on the “vomit comet”. My place is small… “tiny” actually, but it’s starting to grow on me. I’ve never lived in such a small space before, which is proposing challenges to me. So far, so good. I can now truly appreciate Apartment Therapy. I also now have my workstation built. It feels good to again be using Linux. I suppose it must sound crazy for a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer to say that he’s happy to be using Linux. Just consider it an educated decision.
I live in Parkdale, a few blocks from Liberty Village. They say it’s the creative hub of Canada (at least, “one of”). Last week I ran into a mixer right in the middle of Liberty Village. I met a few people in marketing, animation and information technology. Areas I’m familiar with, so there was much to talk about. I feel like I’m following the right path and I find it funny how everything fell into place.
Included in the benefits, I’m now minutes away from High Park. A few weeks back I brought my camera out and took some footage, and here’s one of the highlights. One squirrel chasing around another squirrel, with a cameo appearance by a bird. These little guys feel a little bigger when running around in slow motion, but their personality really shines through.
Unfortunately, I decided against doing my own voice-over. Next time, I promise.
“Forget about guns
and forget ammunition,
’cause I’m killing them all
on my own little mission.”
– Lily Allen
PILLOW FIGHT!! Toronto 2011
On Saturday, April 2nd @ 8 PM
Yonge-Dundas Square
Newmindspace hosted their first nighttime pillow fight in downtown Toronto. The event was kicked off by a group playing out some tribal rhythms, which continued through all the pillow bashing.
Thanks to Braine for the transportation & Primo for all the sound and camera assistance.
Filmed on a Canon 60D and edited with Super Loiloscope.
Taking Video w/ Digital SLR Cameras
I am upgrading my DSLR for video.
A pleasant situation occurred that put me in possession of a Nikon D300. I LOVE this camera, but it’s making me a bit of a snob when it comes to image quality. Please keep in mind that I am NOT a professional photographer, but I can recognise washed out colors and artifacting when I see it. This camera has neither.
So that brings me to the point of this little post. I currently have a JVC Everio HD camcorder and a Sony MiniDV. I love my Sony because it is feature rich (i.e. time lapse video & night vision) and has been very reliable till recently. Since I’m working with tape, it sometimes gives me some digital artifacts. Also, due to the mechanical moving parts, it’s not as light as my JVC and the battery life is about 1/5th that of modern camcorders.
I’m seriously thinking about purchasing a DSLR that takes digital video. Some key things that I am focusing on is the quality of video taken in low lighting conditions, weight, price and the severity of rolling shutter.
Big questions I’m asking myself is do I want to consolidate? Can I find a single camera that would replace my Nikon D300 camera, my JVC and Sony camcorders? Something that takes pictures as good as my D300 (“good enough”), yet can record video and be relatively light weight.
The D5000 has video capabilities and seems very comparable to the D300, though is about half the price ($700). This article compares the ISO quality of the Nikon cameras. From what I can see, the D5000 is approaching “good enough”.
This article compares the the latest offerings from Canon, including video examples of the rolling shutter. They recommend the Canon 7d ($1500 USD) for those on a budget. Gizmodo also has a good articles showing the 7d’s capabilities.
Comparision
The Canon 7d and the Nikon D300 are both around 2 lbs. The D5000 is about 1.25 pounds.
This forum thread seems to be doing a great job of doing a comparison breakdown of the Canon 7d vs the Nikon D300.
A perfect example of rolling shutter. Notice the vertical lines bending as the camera moves side to side?
What about video on the cameras vs the camcorders? Do the camcorders also suffer from rolling shutter? Most do not. Most camcorders use CCD sensors (Charge-Coupled Devices), while digital cameras, including the famous Red cam, use CMOS sensors. According to Wikipedia, “CCDs use what is referred to as global shutters which take a single snapshot representing a point of time and do not suffer from these motion artifacts.” Therefore, camcorders using CCDs don’t suffer from this bendy rolling shutter effect.
Conclusion
I’m going to hang onto my D300 and look into purchasing a better camcorder that will be a good substitute for my JVC and Sony. This article discusses how I can record video from my D300 using an attached PC.
*Update*
I decided to purchase a Canon 60D for video and have sold my D300. I have manual lenses for my Canon for video and everything is looking great. The manual focus is helping train my imperfect eyes as well as building respect for nice “glass”. The rolling shutter effect has not caused me any issues with my 3D tracking using Syntheyes, so far. A review of my Canon D60 is overdue.
Daily Digest – 2009-01-26
- Video Jug – Life Explained On Film: Lots of great educational videos here, from explanations on meditation to how to share a bed. – #
