* Micro Innovations PD5230LSR 3-Button USB Laser Travel Mouse w/Retractable Cord

A travel mouse is an ideal companion to use with the Acer Aspire One netbook, and at first glance this Micro Innovations mouse sounds like a good deal. It is a high DPI laser-based mouse, has 3 buttons & a wheel, and a retractable cable. It feels pretty good in the palm, and after using it for hours didn’t made my wrist hurt. Unfortunately, I can’t qualify it exactly as a travel mouse. This mouse is not very long, but it’s very tall! It is taller than my regular mice in my office! And when you pack gadgets in your laptop bag, you mostly care about their thickness, not so much about their length. Given these realities, this mouse is just too thick to fit nicely in a laptop bag and this takes away a lot of its value.

* Made-Always-On camera cases

This is a great little cheap addition for yourself and for sharing with your family. The package includes three cases for digital cameras. The more serious-looking black and blue, and a pink one that feels softer to the touch than the rest two. These cases feature a thin metal bracelet at the bottom that has a tripod head-sized screw on it. You screw this on your digital camera’s tripod hole to hold it steady, and then you wrap the case around the camera to secure it via the provided Velcro. What I like about this case is the fact that you never have to fully remove the case from the camera, you just unwrap it, shoot your picture, wrap it back. This is much more convenient than having a traditional case where you remove the camera from within, place the case in your bag, shoot, take the case back from your bag, put the camera back. Now, you are probably thinking that not having the tripod hole available is not a good idea when using a tripod. That’s true, but these cases only fit the “thin” consumer cameras (e.g. Kodak’s V- and M-series), the kind of cameras usually people just point and shoot. The Canon A-series, Kodak’s Z-series don’t fit, for example. So this product is useful and well-thought, for its intended audience.

Here are my two problems though.

1. I am what the author and video professional Stu “ProLost” Maschwitz refers to as a “DV Rebel” on his book of the same name. DV Rebels are basically amateur videography artists, that take cinematography more seriously than normal camcorder owners. DV Rebels try to make the best with what they’ve got even if they only use dirt cheap hardware. In essence, is a lot like how computer geeks like to play with Linux, tweak it like there’s no tomorrow, and enjoy the challenges. The 3k fixed-lens RED Scarlet, possibly the cheapest RED of the bunch, will still cost over $3000 after you add an LCD monitor to it, the special kind of CF cards it requires, battery etc. I am sure that quality will be good, but if Canon comes up with a next-generation 1080p “geek” AVCHD camera for under $2000, similar to what I describe here (e.g. all features the HV30 has, plus gain/AV/TV full manual control, true 24p, DigicDV-4 half-inch sensor, 43mm filter size, fast lens up to 8x or 10x zoom, full 1080p at 24mbps, proper focus ring), I would go for that instead of a Scarlet. Simply because, it would be enough for my needs, and a good bump over the HV20/30 legacy. The RED will definitely change professional cinema as we know it, but I don’t think it will grab all the lower-end artist attention. I have a feeling that wedding professionals won’t care much about it either. In other words, Canon will continue to exist and sell well, but it will feel the heat and hopefully will upgrade their specs for a new market class that it’s between consumer and prosumer. That’s what I am waiting this January from Canon.

2. RED is a hardware company. And as with all hardware companies, their software sucks. RED has been under heavy criticism about their buggy software, and how they sell hardware where the firmware is barely stable. The early bird users end up losing their feathers and becoming guinea pigs, while some basic functions for professionals are missing. Their computer tools are not great either, and only few editors support their files (meaning that you might need to additionally buy the $1000 Cineform Neo4k to get your footage on your editor). Adding to the injury, if you complain about these problems, you end up getting banned from their online forum.

The only way I am getting the cheap Scarlet is if the complete package (with LCD, battery, CF card) costs up to $3000, if it has the ability to shoot 1080p in non-windowed mode (I don’t care about its 3k resolution at this point as I don’t own a super-computer to process it), and if the PC tools (compared to their Mac tools) are sane enough to let me process the raw image and export in an AVI lossless codec via DirectShow (so I can edit in Vegas). There are a lot of “if”s there, so there’s a better chance that Canon will release a hybrid consumer/prosumer “geek” (”DV Rebel”) camera that does everything I need in a more convenient fashion than RED can.

Discussion here.

* Kodak EasyShare M883 8MP 3x Optical/5x Digital Zoom HD Camera
The M883 is a low cost/range 8 MP digicam from Kodak, currently selling below $100. It has a flash, 3x optical zoom, digital image stabilization, video recording capability at VGA resolution and 30fps, a microphone, and a nice, spacious 3″ screen. The camera is physically pretty thin, and stylish.Exactly because the camera is a cheaper one, it has fewer buttons than the $200/$250 range Kodak digicams, but this actually works to its advantage. Switching between video, auto and scene mode is very organic, and the joystick carries through actions like “flash on/off”, focusing, and screen information. Through the main menu you can choose between focusing options, a choice of 4 white balance presets, SDHC formatting, image and video resolution. The main problems with the product is extreme purple fringing, a very mushy look at the upper right side of the image, and complete inability to do macro in any way that’s useful. Adding to that, it takes up to 4-5 seconds to save a JPEG image, which is a rather slow performance. Nevertheless, the “you get what you pay for” doctrine applies here, and the M883 is better than most cameras in that price class. But don’t expect miracles.

* All-in-One USB 2.0 Card Reader/Writer
This travel-size flash reader is an extremely useful tool, for the right price. It’s extremely small and it easily fit in my laptop bag, along its small USB cable. It not only supports all the major flash format card standards, but it is amazing that it can fit in there a Compact Flash reader and full SDHC support. In fact, finding specifically SDHC readers is still an exercise in patience, so this reader has it all: features, and small size.

* Transcend 16GB Class 6 SDHC Memory Card
With the above camera and reader I used a Class-6 16 GB SDHC card; it worked out of the box and without compatibility problems. When I used it with the above reader and the Acer Aspire One netbook that I also had with me, it flew. Reading/writing from and to it was really fast and without problems. A good card to trust for your AVCHD needs as well.

* Leather Case for iPhone
From the four review items in this blog post, this is the worst one. It doesn’t properly fit the iPhone. Sure, it looks good on paper, with a nice build quality, a magnetic lock, all the right cuts around the speaker, microphone, volume keys and camera, but when you actually use it with the iPhone, it proves that can’t be trusted. When opening the magnetic lock to access the phone, the iPhone doesn’t securely sit in the case, and I had two cases where the iPhone almost flew out of place to the floor. I had to use an additional silicone iPhone case to make sit properly in this case.

* Archos 105 2GB MP3/WMA/WMV Digital Multimedia Player w/1.8″ OLED

This 2 GB Archos mp3 player is one of the most promising iPod Nano competitors. It has an OLED screen, 160×128 resolution, support for WMA, MP3, WMV and JPEG. All operations are carried through via its 4-way joystick and 2 extra buttons. There is no hardware “key lock”, you can only lock the keypad by long-pressing one of the extra buttons. Audio quality was top notch, but the video support could have been better: the software is over-sharpening and over-saturates the video during playback, and so that creates some really unnatural-looking video. On the plus side, the player is really fast to load, and usability is not too bad; it’s not iPod quality, but it’s good compared to other cheap players — and it got better after I upgraded the firmware. Battery was at around 15 hours. The only real complaint I have about this device is that it only has 2 GBs of storage, because it’s large enough (compared to an iPod or even other players) to contain 4 GBs.

Rating: 7/10

* TRENDnet TEW-631BRP 802.11n Wireless N Firewall Router

Linksys and Netgear are flooding the WiFi router market the last few years, but this TrendNet model has a few aces up to its sleeve. It supports all the latest technology: IEEE 802.3/3u, IEEE 802.11b/g, IEEE 802.11n Draft, Hardware AES/TKIP, 64/128-bit WEP (Hex/Passpharse) 802.1X/ EAP: EAP-TLE,EAP-TTLE/MSCHAPv2, PEAPv0/EAP-MSCHAPv2, PEAPv1/EAP-GTC WPA: WPA/WPA2(EAP/802.1x), WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK and WPS. It comes pre-configured for VoIP and it offers excellent coverage. However, its support for IP multicast is where it shines. With multicast, if your ISP also supports it, you can receive streamed video much faster and without drops, because the source website doesn’t send the video individually to each viewer, but to ISPs, and then the ISPs send the streams to users — resulting in cheaper bandwidth usage for the video providers and better experience for the user. But for this to work, you also need a router at home that supports it, and so far there aren’t many routers (or many ISPs) that do. For me, who likes video, that’s a big feature. Other than that, the router performed as expected, there were no crashes as we usually get with our Netgear router. The user interface was tolerable too.

Rating: 8/10

* Penguin United Quad Charging Station for Nintendo Wii

If you have a big family that plays Wii games together, this is a really cool gadget. It can charge four Wiimotes at once, and also includes four rechargeable batteries for that reason. It also comes with four (strong) hand stripes, which have different colors each, so family members get to recognize which Wiimote belongs to whom. The only little problem with this gadget is that you don’t want it at the same room you are sleeping, as its charging LED is very strong at night!

Rating: 9/10

* Panasonic Digital Camera Nylon Carrying Case

This black nylon Panasonic-branded digital camera case has enough space for some of the largest non-DSRL cameras out there. It has “secret” pockets to store SD cards, and it securely fit around our Panasonic LX2 camera. One thing that could have been done better though would be to feature a bigger Velcro, so if your camera is smaller, you can still close the case securely.

Rating: 9/10

The dolly arrived within just 2-3 days via Fedex from UK. An extra $13 was paid for customs. The box was well-padded and all the parts found in tact. I am usually terrible with DIY work, but I had no problem at all putting all the parts together. There is a long stripe of steel that mounts to the tripod, and then a gliding part where you mount a second tripod head, or the camera directly. The Glidetrack is pretty light for what it is so carrying it around is not really a big problem. When assembled, it is about 1 meter long.

The lubricated plastic bearings do the job, and so moving the camera left and right in the track is very smooth and slippery. It will require you about 10 minutes to learn to push/drag the head to the rail correctly, but then it’s a free ride. I used the Canon HV20 for my tests, and I know that the dolly has been tested with it, as Alastair also owns one too. The Glidetrack also comes with some plastic legs on both sides that allow you to shoot floor-level footage.

The only kind of footage that will require extra care is if you would like to do forward/backwards rail movement instead of left/right one. It is still possible to do so if you mount the camera high-enough so the rail is not visible on the frame.

Overall, the kind of footage you get out of it can look impressive, the parts are high quality, and the tech support is fast. Every serious filmmaker should have one of these around. If I had to just complain about something that would be its price, which feels a bit steep, especially with the current UK pound exchange rate (update: the UK sterling has taken a beating, so this might be an opportunity to get the gadget).

More Glidetrack samples here. Discussion here.

Rating: 8/10

The new firmware for the PS3, released tonight, adds Flash 9 support on the web browser, which apparently, allows Vimeo to playback! Yes, Vimeo videos can now be (kinda) viewed on the TV too. Unfortunately, because of a small javascript bug on the PS3 browser, the browser doesn’t understand that there’s a flash container in the Vimeo page, and so it doesn’t load the video. However, if you instead try to view the video from another web site, like my blog, where a Vimeo video is embedded with simpler javascript, the video plays great! So if the Vimeo staff fix this little problem, we will be able to have full Vimeo support on the PS3.

Proof of Vimeo working with the new PS3 firmware:

The other thing that I am expecting Sony to fix is Flash fullscreen support. Their new version doesn’t go fullscreen for any flash video (not just Vimeo’s), while the older Flash 7 version did. I am sure this will be fixed eventually, although they might have removed it on purpose because of speed problems. Nevertheless, the PS3 browser allows you to zoom on a page, so you can fit the video in the whole screen.

Update: Hulu.com works btw in its default 360p mode. It gets slow on its 480p mode, while I get just a black screen on its HD mode. So I guess, when the Vimeo js problem is fixed, we can watch the Vimeo videos in “HD is OFF” mode for maximum compatibility.

The firewire death was of course written on the wall when all camera manufacturers switched to AVCHD, but the thing is that Apple jumped the ship too early in my opinion. I would have preferred to see this firewire removal in the next crop of Macbooks, in ~1 year from now. Just give people enough time to switch to newer cameras first.

It is my opinion that the removal of FW400 from the Macbook (and the lack of 24p support on FCE) will send a lot of videographers over to the PC camp. Alternatively, just buy the older Macbook model for $1100 (after tax and some RAM). Sure it’s not the newest model, but it will be fast enough for DV/HDV editing and multimedia. Or just buy a DELL Vostro 1310 with Sony Vegas Platinum 9, which is more feature-complete than the older Macbook (more RAM, hard drive, ports) at the same price.

Having said that, I still suggest people use real desktops for video editing and not laptops, but hey.

Update: I forgot about our audio friends. Apparently, a lot of MIDI and other recording hardware uses firewire, and so all these GarageBand enthusiasts are in the red too now. So this makes both the iMovie/FCE and GarageBand users pissed off. It almost doesn’t make sense: Apple’s decision not only kills Macbook sales, but it also kills iLife/FCE sales! Some examples of disgruntled people: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7…

I sent feedback to Apple about the lack of FW400 from the Macbook. I suggest you do the same too.

Special Interest (macro)
All of the above, plus:
* Tiffen 2x, 3x, 4x close-up kit lenses ($30)

Documentaries
All of the above, plus:
* A Canon or Raynox telephoto lens (make sure it’s specific to HD, $200)
* An HD wide angle lens (e.g. Canon WD-H43, the Raynox 7000Pro, $200)
* A white balance gray card (usage, $5)
* A shotgun microphone with windscreen support (e.g. Canon DM-50, $150)
* A lavalier microphone (e.g. the Audio-Technica ATR-35S, $40)
* Extension cord for the lavalier mic ($15)
* Tiffen Universal Dolly (to be used only on thick carpet, $50)
* A shoulder bracket (e.g. B&H sells one for $45)
* A reflector (e.g. the Westcott 5-in-1 Reflector Kit, $100)
* A focus wheel (DIY, or from Irvb, $40)
* A lens cleanser, blower, and brush ($20)
* A lens hood ($20)
* [Optional] The Tiffen HDTV-FX3 filter (low-contrast movie look, $200)

Music videos
All of the above, plus:
* A steadycam (e.g. $170 Hauge MMC, or a DIY $15 one)
* 1000W Smith Victor KT1000 continuous lights (e.g. from Adorama, $130)
* A portable CD player for lip-syncing ($70)
* A clap, to synchronize the audio with the sped-up lipsyncing in post processing ($10)
* A 35mm adapter (e.g. TwoNeilHD, or JAG35Pro, with a 5m GG, achromat & condenser)
* Bogen / Manfrotto 293 Lens Support with Quick Release ($70)
* Actual 35mm lenses (price varies)
* Lens hoods for the various 35mm lenses (price varies)
* An external monitor: the Sony DVP-FX820 (NTSC) or DVP-FX870 (PAL) ($180)
* A female-to-female RCA adapter to connect the external monitor ($8)
* A DIY monitor holder (instructions, $7)
* A second, cheaper, tripod to hold the monitor and the monitor holder ($20)
* External monitor Hoodman H900, for when shooting in sunlight ($100)

[Alternatively, you can mount the monitor and monitor holder on the main tripod itself like this, above the camera (instead of on a separate tripod), but you will need the Shrig Rig ($125) for that, instead of the suggested ‘Manfrotto lens support’.]

Short films
All of the above, plus:
* Rode Stereo Videomic ($250)
* Rode Boompole ($120)
* Rode Dead Kitten windscreen ($30)
* A second person holding the boom mic (beg someone)
* Good 3.5mm headphones, to evaluate audio during shooting ($60)
* Tiffen Steady Stick, or this trick, to be used as a small crane ($100)
* A smooth dolly (e.g. a DIY one, or the Glidetrack, $170)
* Car charging kit for external camera, mic, monitor ($70)
* A power strip for battery charging on location ($10)
* A folding director’s chair for the shots not requiring camera movement ($10)

Full featured films
You don’t use an HV20/30 in that case, silly.

In any case, you always need a good plan. Plan ahead your shots by sketching, and leaving notes on a notepad about camera movement and composition.

Panasonic doesn’t have a cinemode and all its color settings are unnaturally saturated. However, where it really fails me is when some of its models are as dumb as this one (read “the back” section). Canon has better overall controls and features, and a more natural image.

I can’t wait for a good replacement of the HV series from Canon. Apparently the expensive HF series don’t even have zebra support.