It’s just sad. There is absolutely nothing in the market that’s actually affordable and usable. I am talking about an external monitor for your camera while shooting.

The only affordable solution that was created with camera work in mind is LCD4Video. But its resolution is embarrassingly low, has no high quality input jacks for us HD users, the battery is external, and I hear that its shoe mount is flimsy to the point of being unusable.

So what an honest hard working indie filmmaker to do? I hear that people are buying LCD kits (with their electronics dangling out like a slaughtered pig), and even car LCD kits (e.g. Ikan, Lilliput, Xenarc) that they will have to modify and build holders for. There’s a lot of DIY involved.

In other words, there is no “good” solution today for external monitors. There is no monitor that has a 960×540 (1/4th 1080p) resolution at 8″ size, has a proper flip function, enough controls, HDMI/component/composite inputs, has a built-in 6 hour battery, has an optional sun hood and a car charger, and it comes with a special tripod mount with two “strong rotateable arms” that lets you mount the camera on one side and the LCD on the other. The right price is $300 for something like that. It’s economically doable, and with profit.

Instead, people have to improvise. The latest craze among videographers and even professional indie filmmakers is to buy the Sony DVP-FX820 (DVP-FX850 for PAL countries) portable DVD player. It comes with a rotateable swivel 800×480 8″ LCD, 6 hours of battery and an RCA input jack (requires extra $6 adapter to connect your camera to it). Then, you will have to either build yourself a monitor holder, or buy this (not sure it will fit nicely with this device). It’s stupid. It works alright, although the LCD resolution via composite is not fantastic, it’s just that it’s not a device that was designed for this job. Unfortunately, I will have to buy one, as my 35mm adapter is on the way here, and I need a bigger screen for focusing (it’s impossible to use shallow focus on the HV20’s 2.7″ screen). Overall, this DVD player with the tripod mount and the adapter will cost me $320. For something that’s not ideal. Simply because there is nothing better in the market right now.

And then they talk to me about market demand. I can tell you that this DVD player sells like crazy among filmmakers right now. There is demand, there’s just no one to sit down his a$$ and create the right product for us.

And don’t let me start as to how much overpriced tripod rails/rods are. I haven’t seen anything below $600. Because I don’t have any tripod rails I will be limited to be using my 35mm adapter with a single small lens, that won’t break my HV20 apart because of the added weight of the adapter. I am not the Black&Decker type you see to built it myself.

I received Tiffen’s Film Look DV Kit a few days ago and played with it with my HV20 and our recently purchased Canon 450D XSi. The kit includes contains a 4-pocket pouch and the following filters: Black Diffusion FX ½, Black Pro-Mist ½, Warm Black Diffusion FX ¼, and Soft/FX 1. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the best HV20 videographers out there, Ben, posted this impressive air show video. HD version here.

A small video I shot with the Kodak HD digicam while JBQ had climbed up to shoot the drummer from above (no way I could climb up there myself). You can clearly hear the song playing back really fast at 125%.

Here it is, my first music video clip. This is the best I could do with the amount of footage I had in my disposal (I shot only 2/3s of a tape as we were there for less than two hours). Comment, view in HD, or download the high quality HD version of the video here. Read all about it, including which tools I used, on my detailing article at OSNews.

A big thanks to the band, and a special thanks to my JBQ for helping us all out.

The HV20/30 is one of the best pieces of personal property one can own. It just does the job so well for the little money it costs that it makes no sense to not own one. Sure it’s still tape, but it’s as close to prosumer quality than you can get today for the price.

Latest example is the excellent work of Blake Monahan for the band “House of Fire“. He shot with the HV20 the music video clip for their (very nice) song “Walking along the sun“.

Big day tomorrow! I waited 8 months for it, to find a band that I both like, and they would like me to shoot a music video clip for them. So tomorrow, I will be shooting my first music video clip. I can’t wait!

The indie band is a Bay Area native one, they are called HIJK, and they rock! Download some of their songs for free here or buy their album on iTunes. The band already has a video for their first single out of their “The Pen and letter” album, called “Paper boat” (also a free download). They filmed it themselves, and edited it very nicely together. Very creative! Tomorrow, we will be shooting a video for the song “Alibi”. My idea for the video is a more conservative “alt.rock music clip”, which will hopefully pan out ok as I don’t have a 35mm adapter yet (I expect one in a few weeks) and I have not even seen the shooting place yet. I will have to improvise immediately tomorrow after I arrive at the set.

These are the tools that I will have with me tomorrow to materialize the shoot: an audio CD that has the song “Alibi” recorded spent up 125%, a CD player, a camera bag, the Canon HV20 camera, 2 camera batteries fully charged, our new lights, our deflector, my shoulder bracket, my tripod, my steadycam, my WD-H43 wide-angle lens, my 43-to-52mm step-up ring, polarizer/ND/contrast filters, my HDTV-fx Tiffen film-look filter, lens cleanser and brush, 3-4 tapes, our white balance gray card, a Kodak digicam for tests, and a hat (as we will also be shooting outdoors).

Wish me luck! I will need it as I will be shooting “blind”.

This just in. For the sequel of “Crank“, titled “Crank: High Voltage”, the director is not using the RED cameras that he already used on his previous movie. He’s going even lower in price. He will be using a number of XH-A1s and HF10s from Canon. The HF10 is a $900 AVCHD consumer camera (a bit worse in quality than the HV20). The idea is to use these cameras in places where the big Hollywood cameras just don’t fit, or if they do, they fit after a lot of work of re-arranging the set.

To the directors: good luck removing the pulldown out of the HF10. It will piss your editors off.

I was watching “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” tonight, and there is almost no background blur in the movie. At least, not more than the HV20 can deliver without any extra 35mm adapters. The magic is all in the color (easily reproduced with Cinemode/Neutral, and color grading), lighting (that’s where your money should go), and composition (only your artistic genes can help you here). I don’t think the camera they used had much more dynamic range than the HV20 either. The lack of background blur didn’t stop the movie to be voted the 4th best movie of all times on IMDb.