Here’s a link to check it out in action as well as more detail.
http://www.gripnerd.com/1-step-Laddercam/

Who knew Dwight could be so good on camera!?

Then it’s off to Amazon after a visit to Butler Creek the manufacture of the rifle scope covers I like.  They sell two that interested me, the one like I had before with a trick red trigger, the Butler Creek Flip-Open Scope Cover No. 5 and another called the Butler Creek Blizzard No. 3 Scope Cover with a clear port.  I bought both.  I’m using the one with the clear port when I shoot in inclement weather with the L608 and the other is for my L758.

↓ The Blizzard.  You can line up the sight before opening the cap.  Good during rain, snow or sandy conditions.  Might be a good idea to have one also over the eyepiece.

↓ The classic.  So awesome to have it back on my meter.

If you have a different meter, you’ll want to visit the Butler Creek website to find a scope cover that works for you.

2011-07-17 So far, so good.  The first cut is done, now time to evaluate.  I’m using Premiere as mostly a straight cuts system so, as can be expected, it’s working just fine. No crashing, it’s fairly easy to get around and, uh, yes, I chose to do it on Premiere.  While I’m still tempted on using FCP7, I’m reminded of something I heard on a recent podcast by the RC’s Mike Seymour about why he switched from Aperture to Lightroom.  He commented on the continuity of software made by a software company (Adobe) versus a hardware manufacturer (Apple).  I love Apple and their products but long term consistency and stability are winning out.

Magic Bullet Suite 11 is also working out very well.  Loving how fast things render.  I’ve used almost everything in the suite except for Denoiser – it’s been doing unexpected things so I’m going to research that tonight.  Cosmo, the plugin that softens faces, is fantastic.  Not trying to make anyone look younger, just need to take the edge off of some wrinkles.  Works great, easy and the results aren’t distracting.  Colorista II is as good as ever.  Looks has been well redesigned.  The only, only, thing I feel it’s missing in Looks is that when you make an oval vignette, there isn’t any way of rotating the oval.  It’s a little thing that makes a huge difference on vignettes.

Should be done tonight.  More later…

UPDATE: It seems that with Cosmo, when you leave the “Show Skin Overlay” on, it renders it into the video.  Opps.  Still a great plugin though.

UPDATE 2: So my narrative demo reel is done.  (click here to view)  Next, update my commercial and music video reels.  The whole thing was done with Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection.  In all, I used Premiere, After Effects and Photoshop.  The verdict?  Well, in oh so many ways I much prefer FCS – better the devil I know, perhaps.  If Adobe continues, as they’ve said they would, to support and improve these video applications, then yes, I’ll likely stay here using Adobe products.  I’m not an editor, I don’t need do to this everyday and so for what I do need, it’s more than enough.  It’s fast, worked with all the wacky formats I needed to drop into the sequence and most of what I need above and beyond the Adobe suite I can find in Magic Bullet’s Suite 11.  Speaking of MBS11, I love it, period.  My only gripe and I’ve already voice this to Red Giant (the folks who sell Magic Bullet) is that I can’t rotate the vignette.  I’m not the only person to complain about this so I hope our voices will be heard and the minor improvement will be done soon.  Other than that, for the level of color grading I do this combo is perfect.  I will miss many of the plugin I have in FCS but it not as if I can’t still use it and will likely when the need arises.

I was in a rush so it could have been better but good enough for my purposes.  Still you can tell what a good job it’s done where one photo overlaps another.  Mostly very clean.  Useful when having crew members review a location they couldn’t visit.  Very handy little free tool.  Kudos to Microsoft.  Now if you can do something about your Office suite…

Like Justin Timberlake, Band Pro seems to have brought the sexy back.  They showed off the Horseman TS Pro (below on the new Sony F3).  It’s a shift/tilt system.  I LOVED shift and tilt when it was all the rage in the first decade of the new millennium and I hope to make it fun again if I can just get a show that needs it.  The unit below can be mounted on PL, Micro Four Thirds, Canon and Nikon and can accept a range of still photography lenses from various makers.  Great for tabletop and architectural photographic needs where correcting for perspective skewing is a must as well as for just plan cool shots of stuff that’s out of focus.  As a concept not really new, just awesome.

The ARRI Alexa with the Codex onboard data recorder.  Compact and not too much of a rat’s nest of cables.  Exciting workflow potential I’ve been spending too much time researching the past two months.  Hopefully I can put that research to good use soon.  Anybody wanna shoot?  Generally, I have to agree with the overwhelming chorus of voices out there singing the praises for the Alexa image.  But… (did you see it coming) I have to say that I’m still in agreement with RED that 4K is the way to go.  While I will not shy away from using this camera, I welcome the day when I can also shoot 4K with it.

Mole Richardson showing off more LED product.  I really like how bullet-proof this housing is.  It definitely can take the abuse rental units get.  DMX controllable, dimmable with no temperature shift, and 3200°K  & 5600°K.  Very nice design.  I’ll take two.

Sony’s 4K camera the F65.  It’s kinda ridiculously awesome and I look forward to hearing how very big shows will be using it. Shall we take a walk down Nerd Main Street?  Let’s…  8K sensor, 8768×2324 single CMOS, PL mount, Super35 3-perf size churning 16-bit RAW output at 16:8:8 all with a very wide dynamic range and huge color gamut which based on specs is bigger than film.  And if you read my last post, you see it came up again… the camera will support IIF ACES.  Nice.   The form factor is similar to previous designs, beefy but manageable in small doses.  I image this will be the big Studio feature and television darling more than an indie fav.

GoPro cameras have seen quite a solid two years.  Hell, I used one to document my wife’s delivery of our son.  This little trick is impressive just on looks alone.  Would love to see how it handles in the field.  The footage they showed looks great (as show footage always does).  While I don’t see it a viable option on a big screen feature (unless it’s a drone on the hunt), for commercials, television, and music videos its maneuverability and compact size would make for some very cool images.

UPDATE: 2011 Jan 12: I was sent a survey by Gamma and Density about using 3cP and it gave me a chance to tool around the new version of the software.  Thoughts so far are that it just keeps getting better.  Backed up and verified Red MX, P2, and Canon 5D footage flawlessly and love having the ability to checksum in either MD5 or SHA1 with Red footage.  Love the grading reports the software generates, producing dallies is easy and the optional ability to add slate information at the head of each dailies clip is well thought out.  On the survey I add a about a half dozen idea for improvement but overall I think it does a great job.  Look forward to using it on a regular basis for a feature film I’m shooting in March.

↑ Footage from a video I shot of my wife making her famous and award winning Truffle Bacon Popcorn.  Mmmm… bacon!

http://reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=33772

Made in the USA, thank you very much!